charismatic megafauna since 1985

Barcelona, for real this time

I walked, mostly. After getting up at 9 (late for me on this trip) and making myself breakfast (eggs and an orange), I took a partially-guided stroll down La Rambla; Barcelona’s main street. Rick Steves had some stuff in his guidebook, so I looked at those things but mostly just strolled down the mile-long strip. I noticed some stuff that I might go back to see tomorrow: the Maritime Museum, Centre d’Art Santa Monica (looks like contemporary art) and a couple places that sell Cuban cigars.

After that, I took a “free” (you don’t pay anything, but you’re pretty much expected to tip the guide since that’s all they get paid) walking tour around the Gothic Quarter. I hadn’t done this before, but I’d heard good things about them so I decided to try it out. I had a great time, and went to places that I wouldn’t have been otherwise (Jewish quarter, some small plazas) and got a bunch of interesting history in the process. I know they have them in Madrid and I assume they have them in Paris so I’ll be sure to check them out again.

For the rest of my second day, I walked around the other side of town along with the waterfront. I tried to go to the train station to figure out my train to Madrid (I’m pretty sure I need to make a reservation), but it was taking too long so I decided I’d just do it on Sunday morning when I get to the train station.

The waterfront was nice, but you couldn’t actually see the sea from the part’s where I was. It just looked like a marina, which I suppose it was. My plan was to stop and read my book for a while, but I decided I didn’t want to do it there, so I kept walking.

I ended up at a park, Perc de la Ciutadella. With lots of benches and a nice, sunny day it was a perfect place to just chill out for a while and read a bit more of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. It’s taken me a while (this whole trip, really) to allow myself to do that.

This is a bit of an aside, but it’s something I’ve been struggling with the entire trip, and still am, I guess. Even when I want to just sit down and read my book on a park bench for a while, I feel like I shouldn’t. I could do that at home; why am I doing it when I’m thousands of miles away? Not to mention, how would I explain it to all the people at home? There are so many sights to see in all these places, and I’m spending so little time in all of them; why am I just sitting on a park bench enjoying a book (an English book!) and the sunshine? I still feel guilty about it, but I’m coming to terms with the fact that I really shouldn’t care about what you all think about how I’m spending my time here. It’s my trip, and I can do whatever I want.

Even so, that guilty feeling was still in the back of my head and I left after finishing the chapter I was in the middle of. I walked up to the Arc de Triomf, of which I know nothing, but it’s kind of a nice archway. I walked back to La Rambla, stopping at another park bench to check my e-mail and the news, and to just watch the big crowds go by. It was about 1700 at this point, when everyone was getting out of work and the sidewalks were filling up. It’s hard, harder than I’d thought it would be, to reply to e-mail, people watch, and make sure my bag didn’t get stolen, than I thought. But it all worked out.

I’m went on a pub crawl, another first for me. I heard Barcelona has great nightlife, and I was feeling up to it when I left. However:

1. I forgot that I don’t like drunk strangers.
2. I didn’t realize that you can smoke inside bars here, and I hate cigarette smoke.

I made it to the third bar before I checked out and walked home. I feel like I got my 10Euro worth for the crawl, so at least that’s a plus.

My third day I slept in again (the eye shade I picked up in Venice has been really helping me sleep better in the hostels), made myself breakfast, and went off to the Joan Miró Museum. I didn’t know anything about Miró other than the similar name to Miro, but I figured I should check it out. The art is interesting, and still seems very modern even though a lot of it was made in the early part of the 20th century. My favorite piece, for reasons that I don’t understand, is a 3D tapestry called (I think) Fundacion that was created by Miró for the museum.

The other nice thing about the Miró museum is that it’s located in the middle of a giant park: the Montjuïc. I started walking through it around 1030, and there were very few people there which made the walk even nicer, especially after the big crowd at the pub crawl the night before. It’s higher than the rest of the city which meant I also had great views across Barcelona as I was walking.

On my way back, I stopped at a supermarket to pick up some frozen/refrigerated pizzas and by the Boqueria for a green pepper. I’d been craving pizza and decided that I’d make some simple pizza myself for lunch and dinner. They were both delicious, and at about 2.50 Euro for each, including the pepper, not a bad deal. Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches are definitely less expensive, and I’ve been having a lot of them, but variety is always nice. I’m not usually big on food, and I haven’t been eating out a lot because I don’t really care about sampling the local food, but I was definitely craving pizza today.

My afternoon stop was the Picasso Museum. There was a lot of stuff from his early years that I hadn’t seen before which was fun. There was also some really interesting ceramic plates; I didn’t know that Picasso had experimented with that medium either. He also drew some portraits of his friend and secretary Sabartés on pictures from pin-up magazines; he had his friend kissing or praying to or just being around the models, as if Sabartés was just another part of the picture.

I just wandered around for the rest of the day, although I did stop at the train station to make my reservation for the trip to Madrid. I’m pretty burnt out on traveling at this point and can only do so much in one day. I’ve got 2.5 days in Madrid. Sunday will be the Prado, since it’s free, and Monday will be El Escorial and El Valle de los Caidos (where Franco is buried). I’m not sure what I’ll do on Tuesday, but it’ll have to be a bit of a short day since I need to catch my night train to Paris around 1800.