Barcelona/Carnaval

Back from my extensive hiatus, I have practically written a novel of updates. To begin, my trip to Barcelona (BCN) was a lot of fun. I was kind of concerned because we had 6 people in our group and that makes agreeing on where to go next slightly difficult. Everything all worked out though, like normal, and it was a lot of fun.

The first day we were there was a day of recuperating. Even though I feel as though I don’t need a nap for a long day, it’s good that everyone else gets their naps. :) The day started with a bang very early in the morning to catch the bus to the airport, we ended up taking a cab because we couldn’t find the right bus stop. Valerie masterfully leads us to Las Ramblas via subway but then struggle to find our hostel, Hostal Paris – sounds delightfully luxurious, no? While everyone was napping, I couldn’t fall asleep or really even hear the tv in our room because someone woman across the courtyard was, um, having a good time with her lover. We go out for dinner for some ‘exotic’ food – the size of BCN makes it a good intersection for a variety of ethnicities and people, apparently like London, so there are tons more options for restaurants here than in Santiago (the options here are: bocadillos, tuna, ham, some other type of seafood, pastries, coffee/chocolate). And where do we go? McDonald’s. Which is kind of exotic, except I found out when we were bussed home that we have a McDonald’s here in Santiago even though I don’t think I could find it. We go out that night to a cute little café/bar thing and get a jug of sangria. Yum-my.

The next day we go to the Picasso museum. This museum was organized really well, I was very impressed. It was ordered chronologically and had explanations about his stages and his personal life, what inspired him and so on. One thing I learned that exists in BCN: an Arc du Triomf! I know!! Like in Paris! I was kind of freaking out about how cool it was and so we had a little photo shoot there. After the museum half of our group heads for the ocean and the other half goes to The Erotic Museum, which is the largest of alll erotic museums in Europe – that says something about the European culture as well as something about Spain, I think – anyway, we couldn’t tell if it was meant to be educational or entertaining. Valerie, Alana, and I decided that it is an educational museum about an entertaining topic.

We also went to La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family) and Park Guell, two of the most important and famous works of Antoni Gaudi. To describe these structures, I think I would use the words: abstract, imaginative, on acid, pretty. We went into La Sagrada Familia this time and could see the progress of the inside. I think it is very cool to see a modern cathedral being built, because every other cathedral has already been finished 400 years ago, this is a very trapped in history feel. Throughout a lot of Barcelona, especially the parts I saw 4 and a half years ago, felt the same but different. It felt smaller, for some reason, and not as new. I don’t know if it’s a deja-vu thing or being accustomed to more European things or just having grown up, but it made for a very pensive trip.

The premise of our trip to BCN was to experience Carnaval in a big city, but little did we know: Carnaval doesn’t exist in big cities unless you are in Brazil. The pamphlets we get handed out advertising drink specials or whatever never mentioned anything about Carnaval. Either way, I feel as though we were representing the Carnaval attitude in BCN. We went to a very posh club and all bought cocktails, UNFORTUNATELY they cost 7 euros ($10)! So we were on a mission to find cheap drinks. We walked in a different direction and lo and behold, found Temple Bar! I had another freakout moment because I went to the real Temple Bar in Ireland. Well, every girl knows the best way to get cheap drinks is to get free drinks. So, we did. I met this guy Steve, who is a personal trainer trainer from New Zealand and he misconstrued my birthday being in June for being sooner, so he started buying me shots so I could practice to do 21 shots on my 21st. He also convinced the bartender that my birthday was ‘soon’ so I got a few free drinks out of that one. We went back and forth between Temple Bar and My Bar and all the English speakers (who am I kidding, everyone in BCN was an English speaker, if not native) were buying us drinks. This was an amazingly fun evening and my budget was much happier than having to buy expensive cocktails.

The last day Hannah, Mindy, Farashta, and I went to see Montjuic. For a view of the city, we went to the beach and then up to lift over it. Apparently, there is supposed to be a Montjuic castle, but we never found it. It felt very much like the caves adventure revisited. I mean, castles are supposed to be huge and not hidden, so we were a little perplexed. We returned for some delicious Chinese food and to just hang out before leaving for the airport. Our sneaky, economic plan is this: don’t pay an extra night at the hostel (which, by the way, smelled disgusting) even though we kind of got ripped off in that regard, and subway to the airport and stay there for a few hours before our early flight. The problem was the subway. The system shuts down at midnight and the last train out was at 11:58 pm, which meant that it was either this subway or nothing and it was our only shot. Anyway, we got on the wrong one and went to the end of the line, which was supposed to be where the airport was. The 6 of us are the only ones on the subway and the conductor leaves to talk to us, I ask him where the airport is and if we are going there and he says that we are at L’Hospitalet, and please, as if we know where that is. So they turn the subway around and put as at a more populated stop. When we get there, two security guards are there to escort us out of the subway station. They even had a dog there! We are taking bets on if it is a drug-sniffing dog or a bomb-sniffing dog. To continue, they took us completely out of the station and called taxis for us. For as awkward and kind of scary the situation was, it was really fun and the security guards we met were very nice guys. We got to the airport and checked in early to just sleep before the flight. Uy, what a trip!

The Tuesday we returned was Mardi Gras. So after I woke up from my finish sleep from the airport, I heard a latin/mariachi band playing in the street. I followed them around for a while and the day was so gorgeous!! It’s so nice to have sun all the time, it’s hard to deal with bleak, rainy days for long stretches of time. Later in the night was the parade. It was pretty cool, pretty much like a normal parade but with Spanish music and Spanish cultural references – that I only partially understood. I really want to go to Brazil once for a Carnaval because it seems like sooo much fun! And Mila, Valerie’s piso mate, talks so enthusedly and nostalgically about it I can’t help but want to be there some time. In conclusion, BCN was great fun even though the Carnaval aspect wasn’t there. I liked the culture mixture and the numerous things to do and of course seeing the sun :) and it was a nice vacation with my friends.