Park Güell, La Sagrada Familia, Good Eats and Thinky Thinky.

So I slept all day yesterday, woke up, hung out in my hotel room for a few hours, then took some codeine and a muscle relaxer, and went back to sleep. I have not slept this much possibly ever, and it was goddamn amazing! I don't think I've quite beat the jetlag, but I am tons and tons better than I was before yesterday. So I lost a day of Barcelona, but I think in doing so, I vastly improved the quality of the following ones. Many thanks to all the friends who offered jetlag advice on fb - I've been following it! Sunlight ftw!

There are a couple of things that occurred to me today.

One is that I'm really, really glad I speak Spanish.

They say that everyone speaks English in Europe, and maybe that's true - I don't know. In Spain, it seems like English is more of a labor for the people who can speak it, with few exceptions (usually people who want to sell me stuff).

Also, it's kind of nice to be thinking in Spanish again - even though sometimes I don't understand everything people here say, in part because I'm out of practice, in part because on top of having a Spanish from Spain accent, they have a Catalan accent! Most of the time, I'm fine with Spaniards speaking Spanish, but the cabbie who brought me back to my hotel had a really strong Catalan accent. (Think about those parts in Snatch or Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels when they had to subtitle the people speaking cockney or the Pikeys. Okay, not as bad as the Pikeys, but still!)

Another cool thing is tricking people - another of my cabbies today (okay, listen, I've been taking the Metro, but there was something wrong with the L5 Line and while it would have been nice to walk to Sagrada Familia from where I was, I'd hiked my ass all over Park Güell and I needed some AC!) asked me where I was from - he seemed quite surprised to hear the U.S.! He said he'd thought I was Cuban or Mexican. (LOLOLOL oh Mary!). This is an awesome compliment, because I'm generally a little self-conscious about my Spanish, because I'm nowhere near as good at it as English. Also, the guy at the store where I bought my cell phone said I speak Castillian better than he speaks English! (Now, I don't know if that's a comment on my Spanish or his English, but I'll take it! LOLOL)

Something else that occurred to me - or I guess it'd be more of a discovery - is that the Barcelona Metro is as fucking awesome as everybody says. It's awesome, it's clean, it's modern, it's reliable, it's speedy. I bought myself a monthly pass today, and at 47.50 Euro, it's not a bad deal at all - a little more than a monthly T pass in Boston, but hey, it's Europe - everything's more expensive here. Also, the Barcelona Metro makes the T look like a horse and buggy as far as speed, accessibility, and coverage of the city are concerned. Psha!

The third thing I discovered/occurred to me is that I actually really, really, really like hiking. I just don't like hiking with other people.

I'm kind of a city slicker to begin with - my experience with hiking equals exactly one (1) dog hike with Doug over a year ago. Besides that, I'm overweight and out of shape, and in general, the people I know who hike are decidedly not (there may be a connection here... LOL). However, when hiking by myself through Park Güell, the back end of which turned out to involve a lot of dusty-footed climbing over unpaved, mountainy terrain, I found I enjoyed it. I was careful when I needed to be, slow when I wanted to be, and took my time to look at the landscape around me and go at a pace I was comfortable with. What this resulted in was a really enjoyable hikish walk in the sun, and climbing to the top of some kind of peaky-hill-high-place-thing successfully and happily! There was no stress about being the n00b fattie holding everyone up, there was no being uncomfortably out of breath and trying to front like I wasn't, there was no tripping or falling or anything - just a nice walk, and an awesome view! Granted I didn't dress for it - LOLOL I wasn't expecting Park Güell to involve this kind of business - but my ballet flats have good, substantial soles and served me well. Maybe a dress wasn't the best choice of attire (my skirt flew up and I nearly gave the other tourists a bit of a show at a couple of points - it's windy in Barce!), but overall, I was fine!


This was my reward for climbing and stuff.

So there was that.

Anyway, after scaring the shit out of myself and climbing to the top of that little mountainy peak thing, I was like, "Now where the hell are the sculptures?!"

So after a little searching, I did, indeed, find them.

Wow.

It's like a big sculpture you can walk around in. Outside. It's... I don't even know if it's worth describing. I mean, there were tourists everywhere, from all over Europe and beyond - and I guess that was another thing that was nice about being alone, and about being abroad - I felt the liberty, for the first time, to just be a goddamn tourist. I had my camera out all the time, took pictures of every damn thing, people-watched, wandered around lost a few times, asked questions, and generally just let myself feel the wonder of being in a wholly different place that was completely new to me. It was great! As for the park itself - well, I took a bunch of pictures. That's all I can do. I will say that I hadn't known places that beautiful existed - that people could make art like that out of objects that we can be inside of, that surround us. It is a special thing to be surrounded by a structure that is, in itself, so obviously art. It was wonderful and felt otherworldly in places, and was such a great and lovely experience. I don't think I saw everything, either - I'll most likely go back before I leave and see if I can't find more.



I also took a side trip to the Casa Museu Gaudi - which is a really cool-looking pink house on the grounds where he lived. All I have to say is that clearly, I need to live with a great crazy artist architect. Well, actually I probably don't - I haven't read up on Gaudi, but if he was that talented and creative, odds are he was seriously maladjusted, or at least had major woman problems, so maybe not.

It had been my intention to write on La Sagrada Familia and maybe even the very fancy lunch I had - but I've decided now that I'm too tired. LOLOL. Anyway, the pics'll be up on fb. :D

A Letter to My Mama - or, I have arrived! :D

I wrote this letter to my mother in response to an e-mail she sent me asking about Barcelona, and giving me information about ancestors of ours who lived in Barcelona in case I wanted to do a little research on her behalf. ;) I feel like it covers my initial impressions of Barcelona (as well as the resolution to my accommodation problem) pretty well, so here you go.

Dear Mami,

I'm sorry it took so long for me to get in touch with you! It's been a crazy couple of days, and my sleep schedule is all fackacked (as evidenced by the fact that I'm now writing to you at 3:31 AM, local time!). I'll be happy to do a little searching; while I'm not opposed to hanging out with the young crowd a little while I'm here, I'm also definitely interested in checking out some of the older places, and I'd already had vague plans to explore the art and architecture of the city (of which there is a great deal!). I can't make any promises as to my success, but I can say I'll try. The people of Barcelona have seemed open and friendly thus far (except for this one lady in reception at my hotel - she seems snooty as hell and I think she judges me for being American and not as good at Spanish as I ought to be. But I heard her English, and it's not better than my Spanish!). As to your request about telling you about Barcelona, even though I've not yet been here twenty-four hours, I can share with you my initial observations.

First of all, I think I may have mentioned that I had about a 24-hour layover in Dublin yesterday. (Dublin, I can tell you from my brief encounter with it, is one of the friendliest and good-natured places I've ever been. The people smile easily, are quite warm, down-to-earth, and funny. I adore the Irish, and wish I could have stayed longer - and everyone I encountered who asked how long I was staying expressed regret upon discovering I'd be leaving so soon!) Late last night, about 11:00 PM local time (or 23:00, as they say here in Europe), I got a call from my "Check-In Manager" at the apartment I rented, telling me that the apartment I'd booked (and already had made a partial payment on) was not going to be available when I arrived due to a 'water problem,' and that they were going to give me another apartment in the city center for three or four days until it was fixed. I cannot tell you how jetlagged I was, mami - my Circadian rhythms are completely nuts right now - so when he told me he'd give me the address when I arrived rather than right then, as I'd asked, I didn't insist. I went to sleep, feeling very suspicious and not liking this development at all.

Of course, I woke up less than four hours later, and this time, I was a complete mess.

The first thing I did was send a text to my friend Liz, who is maybe the most wonderful person in the world, and asked her to come online. She helped calm me down, she gave me the contact information for her mother's travel agent, and she stayed online with me throughout the process of figuring out what I should do (and helped me figure, to boot).

I tried calling the "Check-In Manager" again - no answer on his phone. I wrote a letter to the agent I'd been working with, explaining the situation to her, and telling her that I was very troubled by this, that I am a woman traveling alone, and that I'd heard stories of people coming here having been promised one apartment and then having it switched for another at the last minute to another (generally a smaller one, one with less amenities, one in a much less savory neighborhood, or all of the above!). I told her that I could not take risks with my safety, and that I needed to talk to someone right away. When I didn't hear back (at what was, for them, 4:00 AM LOL), I started looking at hotels, and booked the one I'm currently staying in (which is, OMG, the nicest hotel room I've ever been inside). Now with a confirmed place to stay until at least Saturday morning (a four-star place to stay! For $82/night! Your daughter is a bargain hunter, if nothing else. LOL), I was able to get ready to leave Dublin comfortably.

While I was at the Dublin airport, waiting for my flight to Nottingham, England (where I had about a three-hour layover), I got a call from Ahmed (my check-in guy). He sounded half-asleep, and I told him very politely and firmly that I wouldn't be needing their services anymore, that I would not be staying at any apartment they offered, and that I'd like a full refund of the amount I had already put down. He told me in an apologetic tone that a refund would be impossible, and I told him it certainly wouldn't be - that I was not being given the apartment that had been agreed upon, and because of that, our agreement was null and void. When he insisted that I could not be repaid, I told him that I had family in the area (LOL I did not mention that they'd all been dead for a few hundred years, and that my closest living relatives to the area were on Mallorca), and that I was certain they'd be more than happy to refer me to their lawyer if necessary, but that I'd prefer not to have to do that, really. Then he started tripping over himself, asking when I'd be getting into Barcelona, that he'd call me, and I told him that wouldn't be necessary, that I'd surely call him once I was settled in. He hung up. LOL.

So in the hour (seriously, one hour) it took for me to get from Dublin to Nottingham (by the way, have I mentioned how completely endearing the people's accents from these areas are? Seriously. I LOVES it), I had voicemails, I had texts, and an urgent e-mail from my booking agent. My booking agent told me that she didn't know what was going on, but that she'd spoken to my landlady, and that there had been some misunderstanding, and that the apartment was ready for me today. Then, before I could reply, she called me (on my American cell - LOL I fear seeing my phone bill already), and we talked about it a little in Spanish. I told her that I'd already booked a hotel room, and that I wouldn't be staying there - I was clumsy and jetlagged, but she asked me to send her an e-mail about the situation, which I told her I would - in English! So I did, explaining that I had already paid for the reservation, that it couldn't be canceled, and also, outlining my concerns, etc. She was very apologetic, and told me she was very sorry for the confusion, and that the apartment was definitely available; I told her if I took the apartment at this point, I would clearly need them to take off the four days I'd be staying at the hotel from the price. After a bit of back-and-forth about whether I could/would cancel the reservation, I got on the plane to Barcelona, and went to sleep for two hours.

Once I got into Barce and was in my lovely hotel room, I got another call - and saw that I'd missed four others (FOUR OTHERS) between Nottingham and Barcelona somehow. This time, it was the landlady, again, apologizing profusely, reassuring me, telling me that both her company and my agents had been in business for ten years, that they were very professional, that this had never happened before, that they understood my concerns, etc. Now, she sounded quite sincere, as had Alba - being the skeptic and cynic that I am, I have no doubt that they had some concern not only about the fact that I'd already been a good American and brought up the subject of lawyers, but that since I'd made all the arrangements online, that I'd be all over Expedia and the NYT travel section online and Lonely Planet and wherever else I could clack my displeasure in consumer reviews. At least, that's what I'd have been worried about, because trust and believe, I'd had every intention of writing to anyone who'd listen about my experience, just to warn other novice travelers about the pitfalls of apartment rentals.


Eighth Floor. Holy hell.

Anyway, I told Begona that I was glad she understood my worries (and she really did - I feel like it really struck her that I am a young female traveling alone for the first time in a city and country where I've never been before), and that if the apartment I'd booked was still available, I'd really love to see it, because if it was what we'd agreed on, I'd much rather stay there for the rest of my trip than hotel-hop (though that had been starting to sound fun, too, since I'd been able to find AMAZING rates). I also told her, though, again, that I'd need the price to be knocked down to account for the four nights I'd been staying at this hotel, because really, what had happened wasn't my fault, and I'd had no recourse, in my mind, other than to book a hotel in light of the information I'd been given on such short notice. After a bit of hesitation, she agreed, and told me I could come see her before Saturday if I wanted to meet her so that I could be reassured, etc. (And I'm going to take her up on this.) So, after my four days at this beautiful hotel, I'm almost definitely going to be in my lovely apartment two blocks the beach! (If you're interested, Google Map [address omitted], Barcelona, and do the street view to see the exterior and explore the neighborhood!)

As far as the city itself is concerned, I've already been struck by the dichotomy of Barcelona. The airport is situated in a very industrial area, sort of like a Barcelonian Newark. The cab ride in showed an interesting countryside - in some places with the Mediterranean on one side, mountains on the other, and huge industrial plants in between.

Once inside the city, the architecture for which Barcelona is so famous was readily apparent - there are beautiful, interesting buildings everywhere. But in the neighborhood I'm in right now - Porto Olimpico - there's a great deal of construction under way as they build "El 22," a new neighborhood dedicated to technology and modernity. This is interesting, because many lovely buildings and hotels sprang up here when the Olympics came to Barcelona a few years back, but prior to that, it was a very old industrial area, with textile factories and the like. There are buildings all around that are half-crumbled or at least decrepit, emblazoned with graffiti tags and age, sharing blocks with huge, beautiful buildings of all kinds of architecture, parks with huge art installations visible from the street, and beautiful churches.

One thing about Porto Olimpico is that it doesn't have all the nifty density of some other neighborhoods in cities I've visited. I got to take about a 3.4 km taxi ride (I think that's a little over a mile, but I really have no idea - LOLOL I seriously need to learn the metric system so I know where I'm going and what the temperature is). There, at the recommendation of the snooty reception lady at my hotel, I went to a place called El Corte Inglés, which is a nine story (nine story!) department store in the heart of Barcelona, where I was able to buy a Spanish SIM card for my cell phone, an adaptor plug for my netbook, and a few groceries! They also had clothes, housewares, every kind of makeup, perfume, accessory, hardware, or seemingly anything else you could imagine. It was an intense shopping experience. I was too tired and jetlagged to try to figure out the Metro today, so I took a cab there and back - which gave me a chance to get a little peek at the city and talk to my lovely cab drivers, who were both really awesome and friendly. (Both of them told me about the festival of San Juan - which is still going on outside my window, from what I can tell - though the fireworks have subsided somewhat, and now it's mostly just car alarms and drunken calls of an indeterminate nature - all this I can hear from the 8th floor. LOLOL - Barcelona surely knows how to have a good time (and this is an especially refreshing change from Boston, where bedtime is 2AM, rain or shine)! I opted out of the party tonight because dear god, my whole body was aching with all the traveling and poor sleep. So I watched a little from my window and enjoyed Spanish pizza and watching a few of my shows that I've missed out on since I've been here! :D

Anyway, the city center is very lovely, and there are many amazing buildings throughout. I wasn't able to get a consistent understanding of what the neighborhoods were or how they worked - the architectural styles, conditions of the buildings, and character of the area all seemed very mixed up to me, most likely because I'm so new here. But hopefully it won't take too long for me to get a grasp on Barcelona and how it works. I really like it, though - I've encountered some really friendly people, and I'm excited to do some exploring tomorrow (or today, I guess - but I think I'm going to try for a nap first)! I kind of want to go to the beach, too (both my cabbies warned me about thieves, and advised me not to bring all my documents when I'm wandering the city, and to only bring as much money as I need; my second cabbie told me to bury my wallet in the sand when I go swimming at the beach). I'm excited both to swim in the Mediterranean and to do a little family research!

Anyway, I hope I haven't bored you with this long e-mail - but you asked! :D I hope to talk to you soon - I miss you and love you!

Love and love and many kisses,

Your niña