When I remember Barcelona I picture a large city, busy yet clean, with big trees scattered throughout the sidewalks. Much like Boston, Brandy says. Though I´ve never seen Boston, I imagine I'd agree with Brandy. I admire the city and I am fascinated by the culture. It was a pleasure to simply roam the streets and observe the Spanish living their lives. I would love to return to Barcelona and when I do I will check out more of Antonio Gaudi´s crazy architecture. We observed some of his works from the street and I think we concluded where the adjective "gaudy" may have stemmed from. Just check out this picture of his Casa Batllo and you may agree.
Our hostel was wonderfully located in a very central, busy and charming area of Barcelona. This mega hostel was great but because of it´s size and number of guests, everything is portioned for the guests-the shower (1 minute at every push of the button), the AC (turns off automatically in the middle of the day), the light in the toilet room (shuts off after 5 minutes), and even the stove (off in 15 minutes). The hostel does offer paid tours for the guests though. One night Brandy and I signed up for the "Tapas & Flamenco Show Night." In actuality, it turned out to be a couple pieces of toast, a 20 minute performance (which was great) followed by a night of bar hopping. The hostel advertises for some local bars and in return they each offer a free shot of something awful like peach schnaps to hostel guests who are brought there on tours. After Brandy drank all of our free shots :) we retired for the evening. A great night, though an unexpected shot of Spanish nightlife.
The next afternoon we set foot for two things: 1. T-mobile, to inquire about a new phone for me and 2. a Mexican burrito with sour cream, one of Brandy´s cravings. Spain is not like the States where a Mexican restuarant can be found on every other block. When we got to the cell phone store it was closed, so we walked to kill some time and what did we stumble upon? A Mexican restaurant! Not the true Mexican portions we are used to, but it was just what the Doctor ordered. We even got festive and decided to wear a costume.
Brandy and I were especially looking forward to our time in Barcelona so we could use our Spanish-speaking abilities. And that we did- though Catalan, similar to Spanish but extremely different, is spoken in Barcelona. So they could understand us, but we couldn´t understand them. They also speak with a terrible lisp, which we refused to take seriously.
No comments:
Post a Comment