Getting to Barcelona
Night train from Portugal to Madrid. This time in a tiny room with two stacked beds. Sweet. There was a handy bar to ensure I wouldn't roll off of the top bunk. Because we'd been woken several times on the trip from Spain TO Portugal for ticket and passport checks I was prepared for the same on the return journey and so I slept in comfortable pajamas and my ever-so-fashionable secret document pouch inside my sweet silk sleeping sack. This sort of night train travel is the cat's spats.
Our train was slated to arrive at 8:40am in Madrid. We'd set the alarm for 7:40 giving us time to wake up, stretch, use the alarming toilet (more on that later in a different post) and snag a coffee before disembarking. At 6:40 the steward knocked on our door and informed us that breakfast was being served. Choosing more sleep over food we went back to sleep. At 7:35 he knocked again informing us that we had arrived in Barcelona.
Helpful travel tip number 1: When traveling East to West or West to East always keep yourself abreast of time zones. If you find yourself traveling through the night, maybe set your clock ahead or back the
previous evening in order to minimize issues in the groggy light of morning.
Helpful travel tip number 2: Even if you find yourself suddenly awake and undressed in a train at your destination and needing to, quite quickly, get off of the train so that the five or six train stewards who've been working through the night can also get off of the train and have a bit of a nap, don't make any sudden rash movements in an effort to speed things along. You will find that you are quite likely to smack the side of your head into one of the cabin walls and this will not make dressing in yesterday's garments any more pleasant or rapid.
A quick scurry through the station to catch a train to Barcelona from Madrid, security scan of the luggage, onto the very fast train.
Brave is just as entertaining dubbed in Spanish. Also entertaining is the fact that it's being shown on a train full of adults commuting to work.
Three-ish hours later we finally arrived in Barcelona.
The Apartment and Neighborhood
The splendid apartment lent to us was situated on Roger de Flor. Clearly, it was a fated happening. GREAT THANKS to the lovely individual who lent us her apartment for the week and to the lovely individual who set the wheels in motion. The apartment was on the "Attic" floor of a building. There was a terrace on a level with gargoyles on the Palau de Justicia. Lovely sunsets. The apartment had awesome old and skeletal type keys.
We were quite near a large park with the Barcelona Zoo. We were also near the Arc de Triomf (Spanish style, not French this time).
We did a fair bit of grocery shopping throughout our stay for breakfasts in and several home-cooked meals. One night we had a vegetable roast with bread and cheese. Another night a shrimp and tomato basil soup stew.
Helpful travel tip number 3: When buying shrimp for dinner, try to find ones who've already had the poop scooped or scared out of them. Otherwise you may find yourself watching a bit of Spanish television knuckle deep in the digestive tracts of your selected dinner fare. Shrimp poops are no joke. No. Joke.
Highlights of our time in Barcelona
Day 1 (1/31): Wandered around in the park. There are some great symbols for activities one can partake in in the public spaces around Barcelona. They are on green backgrounds. Favorites include showing folks how to crouch down to clean up their dog's poo and highlighting areas of the park okay-ed for spinning tops.
In the middle of a weekday near the zoo it is easy to find scads of middle school and high school aged young people doing young people things. Just as interesting to observe as other life in the park.
Parakeets (I think they're parakeets) are as common as pigeons in many areas of the city. It's awesome. They're bright green and chattery. Sometimes they hang our right next to pigeons and make pleasing photograph subjects.
Day something in the middle: Walked to and around La Rambla. Found some artisans selling sweet earrings. Had a fixed price menu but didn't check on the price of the drinks. Ah, folly. 4 euros for a Coke, my foot. Boooo, I say.
Saw a building covered in odd alien eyeballs.
Day something in the middle: We walked down to the beach and stuck our toes in the Mediterranean. Very pleasant vistas. Very cold water. Very persistent gentleman trying to friendly up to us and sell us broken pieces of coconuts. He tried everything short of shoving it into our mouths with his tongs. No me gusta personas quien no saben cuando parar. <this is an example of the type of [likely incorrect?] sentence I constructed while in Spain though I didn't typically talk about things I didn't like. Usually I was ordering food or asking clarifying questions. Interesting thing to note and to my chagrin: out of context I sometimes lapse in my comprehension of simple numbers. I had to really think about translating thirteen from Spanish when presented with the bill one day. Oh math class, you seem so far away.>
We also met a lady who offered us "Massagies". Intrigueing? Perhaps. Creepy with that particular word ending? Undoubtedly.
Day 6 (2/5): We trekked across the city to Park Guell, one of Gaudi's masterpieces in the city. Amanda, I tried to re-create a few of the shots from many years ago, though I didn't have those sweet shorts. We spent a ton of time walking around the different levels. Some solid photos to come. On our way there we stopped for lunch and I had scalopena de ternera. I thought maybe I'd get scallops. Perhaps scallops of the land? <My Spanish skills are much stronger in the area of arithmetic. In food arenas things get much more exciting and interpretive.> I was surprised (in a good way) to receive some sort of chicken fried steak. The hooved, milk-producing scallops of the land.
This park was the highlight of the sights in the city for me. Within this awesomeness there is a sort of cavern rock room by the main gate. It has fantastic acoustics. I did some singing of some U-Singers songs and songs from middle school (here's looking at you, trio ladies) and then Roger and I did a bit of duet-ing with the classic from
The Jerk. An Asian couple stood across from us as we sang it and at the end the man kissed his lady. High-five.
Day 7 (2/6) Last day in Barcelona: We visited two other major Gaudi sites. The one with the more colorful front facade was a bit better overall. Both kicked ass. Gaudi kicks ass. He is one rainbow-wielding architect after my own heart.
After that a last bit of eating and drinking the groceries and then off to the airport for a plane to Edinburgh, Scotland.
Bonus material.
A Spanish commercial.
Here's the conversation that might have gone down in the making of one particular cereal commercial in Spain.
Marketing Boss: Hmmmmm . . . what might be a suitable figure to market how delicious this chocolate cereal is when it hits your lips?
Marketing man A: Well we don't want to copy anything the Americans have done, which means Counts and elves are right out. I do really love their Frosted Mini Wheats characters but they're too tame, spinning about and jumping gleefully into bowls of milk. How can we build on that, make it edgier?
Marketing man B: How about this? What if we dress the wee wheat-y devil in a long-john onesie with the back flap open so that we can see his tiny buns and crack? That way people who want to feel mischievous at breakfast will identify with the
cheekiness of the character.
Marketing Boss: Not edgy enough. It needs some plot tension.
Marketing man A: What if he wants to get back in his cereal box home - but there's a cross Persian cat sitting on the lid and he can't get in?
Marketing Boss: Tell me more.
Marketing man A: Well he doesn't have any way to make the cat move - no weapons, no water spritzer. All he has is his courage and (wait for it) his fiber-induced flatulence.
Marketing Boss: I LOVE IT! It's new, it's edgy, it's a side of chocolate breakfast cereal no one's really delved into before. Make it so.
<in this imagining the marketing boss might bear a resemblance to Patrick Stewart>. Oh, and marketing man B?
Marketing man B: Yes, sir?
Marketing Boss: Make sure the audience can see the flatulence. I want this commercial to be memorable.
Aaand scene.
Bowl of chocolate cereal anyone? I'd say that's a big resounding yes.
