Spring Break- Barcelona

Friday
We left on Friday for our spring break to Barcelona. It was very bittersweet heading to the city I had always wanted to visit for spring break because I was also saying goodbye to Elizabeth as we boarded our train for Rome. It was a difficult four-hour train ride to the Rome airport. Since we were flying with Ryan(Sham)Air we were at their mercy as far as the city we flew out of and the size of our luggage (one backpack-sized bag per-person unless you want to pay thirty euros to check it). We flew from Rome (Ciampino) to Barcelona (Girona). The flight was very cheap but the additional transportation to the outlying airports makes it not worth it, in my opinion. Its just so complicated and time-consuming this way. So after taking our train to Rome, we boarded a bus to get to the Ciampino airport. After boarding our plane we got kicked off because something must have been wrong with the plane. We re-boarded and arrived in Girona much delayed. From here we had to take a much longer bus ride to get to Barcelona. We had to take a subway from the bus station to Las Ramblas, the main street in Barcelona. Our place, Kabul Backpackers Hostel, was located in Plaza Real, which was right off Las Ramblas. The balcony of our 24 person mixed dorm overlooked this beautiful Plaza with palm trees and a fountain in the center.

After checking in, we put our bags in a storage room and waited for our room to be prepared. We headed out on Las Ramblas to see the city and find something to eat. KFC and McDonaolds were right off the main street and of course were severely overpriced. Vinny, Frank, and I decided we should look elsewhere. We walked down a side street and ran into a very authentic looking Spanish eatery called Pollo Rico ("rich chicken"). The name fit very well; there were rows upon rows of chickens roasting on multiple rotisseries. We sat down on barstools in the kitchen and looked over the English menu. A standard dish seemed to be a quarter piece of chicken with fries. It was only four euros, was a good-sized portion, and tasted great. We were coming back to this place a few more times this week (for me it would be 7 more times).

We went back to Kabul to get settled in and found one of the bunk-beds in our room was covered in balloons. We thought this was strange, but it was even funnier when we found out there was actually a man sleeping under all of those balloons. The man sleeping turned out to be quite a character as you would guess. He was one of the few people over the age of 26 at the hostel, an African-American man who went by "Jesus." He was a very sketchy individual and I will not go into further detail about him other than to say he was a very friendly and helpful resource in Barcelona.

That night the hostel staff took us out to a club called Hyde's. When I say the hostel was going out I mean every night of the week Kabul took us to a club for free except for Saturdays at Razzmatazz (which was totally worth it anyway). We met downstairs with everyone who was going out in the hostel at 1:45 am (and I thought Florence started late). Most nights we did not get back until 4 or 5 in the morning. I wasn't too impressed with the club, but was relieved when Elizabeth called me telling me she had made it back to New York. We eventually left and the taxi dropped us off on a street off Las Ramblas. This was the first time I truly experienced Barcelona at night and my eyes were opened to a whole new world. On the walk back to our hostel, we were offered everything under the sun (or moon). We were approached by people on the streets selling samosas (a food with potatoes and other vegetables, native of southern Asia) and cheap beer. It was not difficult for one to find a dealer selling weed or a prostitute selling herself either. I can see how this city is so dangerous for drunk college students coming back at late night, especially since it is known as one of the easiest places to get pick-pocketed.


Saturday
In between everything I did on our first full day, I napped to catch up on sleep lost during the travel. I'm pretty sure I woke up just before 10am to catch breakfast, despite hardly getting any sleep. Throughout the week I was pretty good at getting myself out of bed and downstairs to the hostel's free breakfast; I think I only missed one breakfast. The food was alright; my blue-chip breakfast consisted of ham and cheese on a warm roll with a muffin and an apple. I drank hot chocolate most mornings because they only had warm water. Almost everyday after breakfast I would jump back into bed to catch up on sleep.

Saturday was a pretty nice day, sunny and warm, so we walked around on the beach for a bit. For lunch I went back to Pollo Rico and tried a dish I had never had before. While in Europe I want to experience as much as I can and that includes trying new foods, even if they are not generally accepted in America. I ordered the rabbit with fries. I wasn't sure what to expect but could definitely tell when my plate arrived. On my plate were a bunch of fries with the fried back half of a rabbit. It was good, but the meat was very dark and a little too fatty.

After a nap, I was ready to embark on my first run in Spain. I went in the direction of Montjuic Park, where the Olympic facilities are located. (Barcelona hosted the 1992 Summer Olympic Games) Once I realized I had no idea how to start the climb to the top, I settled for a nice run to the port. I ran along the sea, as close to the port as I could before getting yelled at by a dock security guard. After that I turned around and ran back. Kabul also offered free dinner every night at 8:30 so we took advantage of that even though the food wasn't usually good and the portions weren't big enough. The club we went to that night was called Razzmatazz and it was f***in nuts! We payed a 15 euro cover but it was so worth it. This place was huge and the line was way out the door. Luckily we got right in since we went with our hostel. It was comparable to Space (in Florence). It may not have been as cool or as much fun (nothing is) but it was way bigger. The place was made up of 5 different rooms, with outside areas too. My friends and I went wild and danced all night.

Sunday
What better way to start off a Sunday than with Pollo Rico? Thats right we went back again for some more amazing cuisine. I felt like ordering something with eggs so I tried the Spanish omelette. It was pretty simple, eggs and potatoes. But of course it filled the whole plate and was very good. We had not walked around the city much yet so we set out to explore the large city of Barcelona. We saw a lot of nice churches and pretty Spanish buildings. That evening Vinny, Mike, and I found a really authentic pastry shop called Granjala Pallaresa. It was unlike anything I have seen before. It was a sit-down place where most customers were served desserts with warm cups of melted chocolate. We got a table and without being handed menus, were asked to order. Ok so we knew we needed to order the ciocolatta at least. Then we all got churros because they looked really good on display in the front window. We dipped our churros in the chocolate and even used spoons to eat the chocolate since it was so thick. That night the club Kabul brought us to was called Roxy, and it was by far the worst club we went to that week. When we walked in we were tricked into buying two drink cards for ten euro. The drinks were the worst things I have ever tasted too. I used my second drink card to buy a beer. They were playing tradition Spanish music for most of the night, until we left because anything else would have been better than staying.


Monday
What better way to start of the first day of the week than Pollo Rico? Another quarter chicken and fries later, we were off to our first real day of Barcelona tourism. First we took the subway to La Sagrada Familia, a church designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. The construction of this church has been going on for decades and is still not projected to be finished until years from now. It is extremely detailed and very strange to say the least. You could tell by observing the different materials and surfaces that it had been assembled over a long period of time.

Next we took the subway on our way to a huge park, Parc Güell, which was also inspired by Gaudi. Even after taking the subway we had to walk up a pretty steep hill to get to the entrance of the park. It was well worth the walk, especially since the view from the top was amazing. We walked through the groves of cacti and proceed down the hill to another section of the park. There we found some more wacky architecture. Gaudi had to be on some serious drugs to come up with this stuff. It was amazing and very trippy to see what he created so long ago.

We walked back to the subway and took it back to our hostel. That evening my roommate Jay and I decided we wanted to run to the top of Montjuic Park to take everything in. We ran up the steep incline of the mountain until we reached a castle. The best view of Barcelona I saw was from atop Montjuic Castle.

I was very impressed that Jay was able to stay with me throughout the run (even though I went easy on him and gave him some breaks on the way). We sprinted the final stretch of the run and he definitely has wheels that I don't have. That night we went to Opium with Kabul. I would say this was the coolest club besides Razzmatazz because we were able to exit out of the back and walk onto the beach, and even go up to the tide on the shore. It was a regular party on the beach.

 Tuesday
Speaking of a beach, that is the same place we headed the next day since it was probably the nicest of the days we were in Barcelona. We took our skirt-sized Kabul towels and bought some beverages on the way. The wind made it a bit chilly for beach weather and the water was pretty cool, so we just relaxed on the beach and told off annoying merchants walking back and forth trying to sell us sunglasses when we were already wearing some. Most of us got some good color, and Tyler (the Irishman) got pretty burnt. For lunch we went to a spectacular Japanese wok buffet. It was only twelve euro for a variety of great food. There was even raw meat that you could bring to the chefs to cook for you. They had everything from seafood to meat to fresh fruit to desserts like chocolate moose and ice cream. We ate so much I don't know if they'll ever allow us or any other Americans in ever again. The club of the night was called Apolo, which used to be some type of opera hall. It was not that much fun and was probably the earliest I left a club in Barcelona that week, getting back around 3:30. I was hungry, but it was so early that Frank and I could not even find a simosa vendor. We finally saw one walking around Plaza Real from our balcony. We yelled down at him to wait until I could come down and purchase some food from him. That made the night a lot better.

Wednesday
Four of us signed up for a special deal with "GoCars" Wednesday morning. For less than ten euro we got to drive these funny things around for 90 minutes. This was much cheaper than the usual price because of the promotion with Kabul. I got into one with Drew's friend, Greg, who was visiting. We ended up having a defective GPS tour in our car and ended up getting lost/ unable to get back to the station for about two hours. We only got charged the regular price and received free vouchers but after that experience I didn't really want to get back in one of those cars. Oh well, at least it was fun to drive around in Barcelona (and realize how difficult the roads are to navigate).

When I got back I was excited to run back to Montjuic Park and search for the Olympic facilities (mostly the track). I took myself on a "choose-your-own-adventure" running tour. Eventually I navigated my way to the Olympic stadium and slowly descended to it while running down the sloping road. Once I got to the stadium which I believed to be the track I ran around it looking for anywhere I could get in. There were locked metal gates surrounding the whole facility. That is until I got to the side of the track, where I was lucky to find an opening with free entrance. I was very lucky because I did not think to bring money (since I was running everywhere) and I could get a good view of the track used during the 1992 Olympic Games. I thought this was very cool and continued running through the area housing Olympic facilities. I made my way to a bunch of really nice parks within the Montjuic Park and explored those too during my run. I eventually made it back to the hostel after my spontaneous start-and-stop run. After Kabul's free dinner, I was not at all full so I wanted to try a fillafel for the first time. We found a nice place and I ordered a pita fillafel. It was a "make your own," so I added a bunch of different vegetables to it. Broadbar was the spot that night, a cool club playing lots of hip-hop/ rap. So obviously there was a lot of good music that night.

Thursday
Thursday was our last day in Barcelona. We spent it by going to the market and getting fresh fruit juice. I got a strawberry-pineapple combination and it tasted very good. Vinny, Mike and I went into a few shops and relaxed on some benches in Las Ramblas before heading back to Pollo Rico for the final time to get a traditional Barcelona platter called "paella." It was the special of the day so it was not the best quality but I got a good feel for the dish. It was mainly rice with seafood and chicken mixed in. It was difficult to peel the full shrimps and dig out the clams but it was definitely worth it.

Now it was time to go back home to Florence so we boarded the subway to the bus station and caught our bus to the Girona airport. We waited there for awhile and tried some Spanish McDonald's before getting on our flight back to Ciampino in Rome. We did not have a lot of time if we wanted to catch the train in Rome and avoid sleeping in either the airport or the Rome train station. We worked really hard to get home that night, which included a lot of running around and some occasional subway hopping. Once we got off our plane we ran to the buses outside and found a bus going to Rome Termini (the train station). After checking departure times we found that the train heading to Florence was actually leaving from a different Rome train station. We continued running down to the subway, where we hopped a gate to get onto a subway which we took four stops to the other station. We ran to the track and found a train headed to Firenze Campo di Marte. This was about three quarters of a mile walk to our house but we needed to get back to Florence that night. We were able to board the train and buy tickets onboard. There were no more rooms with seating available so we sat in the fold-out chairs in the aisle-way. We did not care at all; we were just happy to be sleeping in our own beds that night. Once we got to the Firenze station (around 2am) I walked back to my apartment, and beat everyone who took a taxi. I know; it wasn't the best idea but I figured if I survived Barcelona I could make it in Florence.