Barcelona (Part One)

I flew into Barcelona about two and a half weeks ago and barely saw any of the city. I was exhausted from the two plane flights and so could barely register anything other than to figure out how to get the city bus from the airport to the bus station and then up here to Martinet. Sightseeing wasn´t high on my agenda at the moment.

So it was with great excitement that I arranged to have the day off yesterday and take the bus into town to spend the day being a tourist in the great city of Barcelona. In fact, I was so excited about it, that I couldn´t get to sleep. It was really my first big trip and there were things to think about...what was I going to see, how would my Spanish hold up, would I be able to blend in enough to not be immediately targeted for a con or pickpocketing (common crimes here).

I did what I could to prepare of course. I stashed my two forms of identification in different spots, used a money belt, had cash in different places. I had a small tourist map, which featured many of the more popular sites in the downtown area, and I had circled some of the stuff I was interested in and got a general sense of the layout of the city. I think this is so important. This is one of those things that can make me more comfortable, and I´m not standing out there in the middle of the sidewalk with a big 'ol unfurled map, bringing attention to myself. One of the travel tips I´ve gotten is, that if you need to consult your map, fold it as much as possible to the section that you need, you generally don´t need to look at the entire city, just a portion of it. Also, take a look at your map in a cafe or a shop, and not out on the street. I think too, unfortunately, because I´m travelling alone, and because I´m a woman travelling alone, I have to be a little hyper aware of my surroundings. I think this is true for women in general...which is a pretty sad statement, still, about our world.

But probably, more than anything I like to just look like I know where I´m going, even when I´m hopelessly lost. I don´t dawdle around, and I just keep moving. I like to throw in a couple of jaywalking at crosswalks, just to show I´m comfortable with the movement of the city. If I get really lost, I just stop somewhere, buy something to drink and get my bearings. It all seems to work.

Anyway....

Dawn wasn´t even starting to break when I was readying myself to walk down to Martinet and catch the 7am bus to Barcelona. Orion was just setting behind the little hill across the river and the birds hadn´t even woken up yet. It reminded me of those walker days - oh so many moons ago - when we would get up at 4am and be packing before any other stirring of life was taking place.

There was a footpath that led down to the town of Martinet. I had never taken it before, but I knew where it started. I had my head lamp and was looking forward to the walk, there were no bears or mountain lions up here to worry about walking in the dark, and it was likely that any big creatures I encountered would be of the domestically hooved variety.

And boy was I wrong about that.

So I´m about three minutes into my walk. The path is overgrown, but I can still see it, and I´m cruising along, happy as a clam, when WHAMMO!

I am brought up short, my boot digs into the earth to stop myself...and I´m pretty sure I let out yelping, "whooooaa!". After my senses all caught back up with each other I find myself staring at the most gi-normous spider web stretching across the entire pathway, with an equally sizeable host in the center.

Now, ok, I respect spiders. They are really cool beings - but I can´t help it, they give me a little bit of the heebie-jeebies. I never kill them when I find them in my house...and depending on where they are, I´ll just leave ém alone. But I don´t want them crawling on me...and certainly don´t want to walk into the web of one the size of the palm of my hand.

So...I stood there for a minute, letting my heart stop racing, and it occured to me that I had a bit of a problem. Guys, this web was massive, and from the looks of it, there was going to be no way for me to get through it so I could continue on my way. I didn´t want to break it...it was way to cool and beautiful and who was I to destroy someone´s home?

So I started looking at ways to climb around it, probably through the bushes, when I noticed an opening! There was a spot, that if I was careful I could crawl through it, minding my backpack, and get through to the other side without either one of us getting hurt. This I did, and lo and behold, made it through with only a little bit of bouncing on the part of the web. I thanked her for not charging me a toll, and went on my way, and then I thanked the Goddess of all beautiful crawly things that it was nightime and I had a good headlamp. If this had been daylight, I might not have seen this web...as it was, the lamp caught the glistening of the spirals and really lit it up for me. I shook off the thought of what could´ve been and hoped that was the most exciting this walk was going to get for me.

And it was...other than a little mooing and dog barking in the distance, I didn´t come across anything else and soon found myself on the ALSA bus, heading into town, the sun just beginning to rise along the mountains. At one point, the light hit the spire of an old church, way up on top of a hill and I was struck with that feeling that you get sometimes when you are cresting the top of a roller coaster, or you see a bit of nature or art that clearly speaks to you, or someone just brushes their hand across your arm and you realize you´re in love. It´s that kind of sinking, excited feeling that comes in moments of full awareness of life, and that´s what I was experiencing at this moment on the bus. This landscape so unfamiliar, where I was going was unknown, I didn´t speak the language well or know the customs...but I was here and I was giving it a go and I was excited about the whole prospect.

We arrived at the Barcelona Estacion du Nord at just after 9am. I immediately went inside and bought my return ticket (this time was so much easier than the last time I had to do this...and I even had the same gentle soul working the ticket counter!). I would have about eight and a half hours to see as much as I could of this town. I knew that I could spend a week here and not get to everything, so I really just focused on a couple of things.

Mainly, the architecture. I knew that this was the city of Anton Gaudi, the 19th century architect who designed some fantastic structures. I saw one of them from the bus and wanted to get a closer look. I also wanted to see some of the Gothic and Renassaince churches that were all over the place. Just don´t have those in the states.

I had also heard about the CaixaForum and wanted to see that. Wanted to get to the Barcelona Museum of Art, and just poke around in the small city streets of downtown. I didn´t plan on seeing too many specific things, ´cause that would´ve been pure frustration and rushing about. I needed to keep things pretty loose if I was to enjoy my time.

First things first was to find some food. I had eaten a Nuttela (my new favorite food) sandwich before getting on the bus and I was ready to eat something a little more substantial. But...I admit to being nervous. I was about to enter shops and try to order something, and it´s nerve wracking. I decided to do a little gentler approach and go into an actual market and buy a few things for the day, which ended up being pretty fun.

The market was fairly small, but it was stocked with tons of stuff. Think of a good-sized corner store and that was the size of this place. But it had a couple of guys stocking shelves, a meat counter, two check-out lanes and American pop music on the speakers.

I got myself a baguette (still warm), some camembert cheese, salami and sardines. Figured that would totally hold me for the day and it only cost me five euros (about $8.00). I basic bocadillo sandwich would´ve cost me two to three euros, so I was saving some cash there.

However...I still needed some caffeine and for that I would have to brave actually ordering something from a human. I tried to remember what Gwen tells me all the time, "they´re just people, Nik," whenever I get nervous around someone.

So, I found a nice looking little cafe (they are everywhere, with several customers enjoying little cups of something at the tables outside. There were lots of dogs, there was lots of smoking. I went inside and up to the counter, and, in my best effort simply said, "un cafe con leche por favor." Which, you know really doesn´t sound like much, but when you´re there and their looking at you, and there´s other customers...you just don´t want to screw up...and god forbid they ask you a question...like this woman did..."para llegara o aqui," and she knew, from my accent...and my halting, trembling voice, that I was a foreigner, so she used sign language with me as well.

Now. If people would just use flash cards, it would be so much more helpful. When I see the words 'para llegara o aqui,' I know what she meant. But when it comes in a rush like that, and I´m not prepared...well it just leaves me as flustered as all get out, so I appreciated the little pointing language, demonstrating "aqui."

So I said, "aqui, por favor," and found a little table at to look at my map and figure out where the heck I was going from here.