No he recibido robado en España
Yes, last Wednesday to Saturday saw me traipsing, rambling and gambolling around good ‘ol Barcelona.
It all began when I was looking at a map of France and realised “Oh my goodness, I’m that close to Spain. Cool, I’m totally going to Spain!”
So off I went indeed. I took a 5 hour train trip from Nimes to Barcelona at 5am last Wednesday morning.
Two days before hand however I thought I was going to have to cancel going altogether because I could not for the life of me find a Hostel with spare room. After slaving over and trawling through Hostel booking websites I finally found a free bed for 4 nights at the Catalonia Hostel. I had no idea where it was or what it was like but I was relieved to have found it!
It turned out the Hostel was in an ideal and very nice location just a 15 min walk from La Rambla which is the main tourist street. It happened to be situated in the most glamorous part of Barcelona as well. So I was surrounded by Valentino, Chanel and Gucci. It was a great hostel as well with very nice staff and a communal kitchen and sitting area. And free breakfast! Always a good thing.
In the Hostel I met some interesting people:
-A very left wing, but at the same time really timid Italian boy. I think he felt it was his duty to inform anybody who would listen about the mafia control of the Italian government.
-Two French female primary school teachers who were on schools holidays and partying a little too hard for my liking. I spent one day sightseeing with them. One was a total control freak so I opted out of a second day.
-A Senegalese, Parisian born guy who had spent 3 years in England and now studies in Barcelona. His accent when speaking English was to die for.
The first three days were passed very nicely. The only mistake I made, I think, was insisting to myself that the places I was going weren’t really that far away and it wasn’t worth taking the Metro to get there. However spending 20-30 minutes walking each way takes up a decent amount of time and I didn’t end up seeing everything that I wanted. This included the Picasso Museum and the Sagrada Familia which is a massively huge Cathedral on a hill that everyone insisted I had to see…well I saw it from a distance at least, it’s pretty hard to miss actually.
I did, however, do some very enjoyable things. Often they were things that I would just stumble upon whilst I was walking as well. Like the Aquarium!! I didn’t know Barcelona had an Aquarium! Señor Gaudi was everywhere you just couldn’t escape him! All his sights tended to be a little overrun with tourists. His architectural work is really amazing but the buildings in the city weren’t much to my liking. Maybe I need to refine my taste.
Unfortunately mon séjour was cut short prematurely because I had one night less in the Hostel than I thought. I found out at 10:30 Saturday morning that I was due to check out that day and I thought I was checking out Sunday. The next best train was at 11:30 so I quickly threw my stuff in my pack, (I mean…folded everything carefully and meticulously, Mum) checked out and got the Metro to the station.
I managed to escape Barcelona without having ANYTHING stolen *applause*. Seriously, pickpockets are terrible there. The day I arrived I spoke t two Australian girls in my hostel. One had her wallet stolen within 3 hours of being in the city. Their friend was staying in another Hostel but when he was outside the train station he had his entire bag stolen. Passport, laptop, iPod and all. Eek. I consider myself very lucky.
OK enough of that. Photo time!
Aww…Australia is everywhere.
I loved this statue. I always tried to figure out what she was waiting for so solemnly.
The guys with the huge sacks on their backs were incredible and so funny. Basically, they sell counterfeit designer handbags in the street. It’s illegal what they’re doing and every now and then the Police come past to try and catch them. They all work as a group so if one sees the police near by they whistle, bundle up their lot and run, run for the hills! Very funny to watch.
That instrument that he’s playing is exactly the same as a didgeridoo.
On the way up to Park Guèll. It’s a steep climb so they’ve got escalators for the overweight American tourists.
Park Guèll
The Sagrada Familia is that huge thing you can see on the very top of the hill. Oh yeah, I tried to put myself in some of the photos, but it’s difficult when visiting places by yourself and I was too paranoid about my camera being stolen to ask anyone to take them for me.
And the last but definitely not least. The best Graffiti I’ve seen to date.
“Why call it ‘Tourist Season’ if we can’t shoot them”
Brilliant.
