Blustery Barcelona

I tried to set my alarm and wake up early, as per my plan to see more European mornings, but I kind of failed. I didn’t stir myself out of bed until around half past 9, showered, and set outside, only to return to my room to pick up my raincoat. When I arrived last night, the weather was warm and beautiful, the stars were out, the weather was perfect. It’s difficult to imagine the complete transformation that the weather went through over the course of the night. But it wasn’t raining (yet) and although a bit cool, the day seemed fit for walking around the city and doing a bit of sightseeing. Nothing too strenuous though, I’ve sort of had it with sightseeing. Luckily Barcelona isn’t really well known for its must see tourist destinations, as Rome is. What I had planned on doing today was to tour casually around the city’s famous Gaudi buildings and then walk down towards the beach (despite the weather) to get a sense of the place.

I decided to spend the whole day on foot. I hadn’t prepared anything for breakfast so my first goal was to find something to eat. I had spent kind of a lot of money in France and so my plan for Spain is to eat cheaply and focus my energy and attention on the weather and atmosphere and shy away from expensive sight seeing stuff and touristy areas. So I hit the first little convenience store I found and bought what I thought might be a semi-suitable breakfast of artesenas con queso and some deliciously pulpy orange juice. The artesenas were like little breadsticks cut in half and baked with oil and cheese, and then packaged. Not the most well rounded breakfast but it was pretty tasty...

A grassy lawn partition along De Gracia

I prepared my route before I left, using my handy hostel map. I decided my morning would be spent walking around the city looking for some of the more famous Gaudi buildings. Antoni Gaudi is a famous Catalan architect, active in the late 19th century, and is famous for his wacky modernist style which typifies a lot of the architecture in Barcelona, for which he is mostly responsible. Walking around the city, and especially the Gracia neighborhood where my hostel is, you can’t help but realize you are deep in Catalan country, far from the Spanish authority of Madrid. Most terraces of most buildings hang the Catalanya flag, draped down from their railings. The Catalan flag has alternating yellow and red stripes lengthwise, with a blue triangle on one side with a star in the middle of the triangle. And some flags just have the red and yellow stripes. But it is clear that this city belongs to Catalanya (Barcelona is technically the capital of this semi-autonomous region in the northeast corner of Spain). The Catalan language is everywhere, including signs (which is frustrating for my Spanish language skills). But anyway, back to Gaudi, Gaudi is one of Barcelona’s great influences, a Catalan through and through, and the city glorifies him through much of its unique architecture.

I first came upon La Padrera, a huge building by Gaudi design. The walls of the sides of the building are a bit bulbous, like as if they were the side of rock formation, and the windows and terraces are drawn within this bulbous rock wall. I stopped in to the shop on the first floor which was free to enter to take a look at some of the guidebooks that display much of Gaudi’s work. I wanted to enter the building but admission cost 16 euros 50, no thanks. Gaudi, from what I could tell, was a master of the whimsical. He uses natural themes in his work and from what I could see, peering through the window from the gift shop into the inner courtyard of the building, his buildings are a maze of Dr. Suess-like walls and corridors. The outside of La Padrera was rock themed, I guess. I don’t know, I’m no expert. But it looked cool.

Gaudi's La Padrera

I did a poor job capturing the true essence of the building, but rocky, no?

I walked a little further down De Gracia, the main street running north to south from the Gracia neighborhood in the northern part of the city, and came upon Casa Battlo, another Gaudi building whose theme, to me, was bones. Rib cage terraces and balconies, and bone-like structures framing the building, it was weird. But the line for entrance circled the building, the inside must have been cool. I looked at the entrance cost for this one, 20 euros 35. Why? That would make this one building I’ve never heard of the single most expensive tourist thing that I would have done. So I skipped this one too.

The bony Casa Battlo

A photo of some photos of Gaudi's work

I continued following the street south to Catalanya square, a pretty little square with a large fountain where I watched a small child get smothered by pigeons while his parents laughed and continued to throw seed into the mix (the child was fine but a bit disoriented in the hive of pigeons he was lost in - it’s a little bit awful that his parents were amused at the expense of their infant child but actually it was pretty funny to watch...), and started walking Barcelona’s famous shopping street, La Rambla. La Rambla is probably Barcelona’s central touristy area, crowded with people, but it is a really nice stretch of street with park benches and ice cream trucks and cafes and all that. And La Rambla runs through the heart of the city’s old, Gothic town which was also quite fun to walk around. But first I found my third Gaudi building tucked away in a side street off La Rambla, Palau Guell, another wacky building with wacky admission prices. 

He's not smothered yet, but he will be!

I was Gaudied out so I walked around the Gotic, the old town, awhile. I checked out this food market where vendors sold fresh fruit and vegetables, Catalanya chocolate, fresh seafood, fresh meat, everything. It was packed but very cool. That made me kind of hungry so I walked along another side street and found this butchery where I bought a fresh panini filled with some excellent meat, cured beef? Is that a thing? The baguette was sliced in half and lined with oil and the only other ingredient was this really fresh meat. A very simple, and cheap, and excellent lunch. And I bought a Naranjo Schweppes at a small shop to wash it down. Yum....

Catalan flags, they were everywhere

The market that I wandered into off La Rambla

The little Spanish butcher shop where I bought my lunch

This is where the weather went south, figuratively speaking. The wind picked up and it started to rain a bit. In spite of this, I walked down to the beach to take a look. The beach was beautiful even in the crappy weather, I can only imagine how nice it would be in the sun (Oh how I hope it is sunny tomorrow...). The beach stretches to the horizon in either direction and is full of fine sand, in contrast to Nice’s pebble beaches. The only people to brave the weather today were the surfers. The wind was blowing in from the sea and so the waves were pummeling the shore, excellent surf for those who know better (not me). But even the surfers were being cautious. Eventually the rain picked up and I forced myself to turn back into the city. 

Even the surfers were turning back

I walked back to the hostel. I wanted to go check out Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s most famous work of architecture, a cathedral, still being built actually, but the rain drove me back to the hostel. It is a good chance for me to do a bit of practical computer work. I did find a barber shop nearby though and I finally worked up the nerve to stop in for a haircut. The girl who cut my hair was from Leeds, England, an escapee to the warmer, sunnier weather of Barcelona, so she spoke English, naturally. I didn’t want to cut it too short, I’m trying to grow out the top, bring back the curls and whatnot, and although she cut my hair for at least 30 minutes, my hair doesn’t look too different. I think it grew back already. Oh well, sometimes it’s better to be conservative when it comes to haircuts.

I think I’m going to pop back out into the rain to go explore this neighborhood a little more tonight, maybe go for tapas and sangria. The Gracia neighborhood of Barcelona is the heart of Catalanya, and is a pretty happening and hip neighborhood, at least so the locals say. I trust them. Sounds like a cool scene.