Day 6: (Madrid to Barcelona) Travel Day
Today we traveled from Madrid to Barcelona (you gotta pronounce it ‘Barthelona’) via high-speed train - it only took 3 hours! I thought I’d be productive and catch up on my blog posts from Madrid this week, but then I looked out the window:
Apparently it’s actually cheaper to fly to Barcelona and you’re only in the air about 45 minutes, but by the time you check bags, go through security, get to the gate, go through customs, etc. it takes a lot longer than the three hours we spent on the train. Plus, on the train, I got to see how beautiful Spain is.
We took the AVE high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona from Madrid Atocha, which is this huge train station in the city. When I say huge, I mean HUGE – I thought I was in an airport… Everything was massive and open with super high ceilings and an indoor garden and river housing a solid 500 turtles. One thing I’ve noticed about all the transit here is that it is exceptionally clean. It’s sad to think that I think it’s weird it’s so clean (hah, thanks dirty Chicago)… We rode the Metro the other day and there were no seats left so people sat on the floor. I swear I looked like a little kid who saw a booger or something, cause I whipped my head around to my professors, gaping with astonishment. I barely like to sit on the gross carpeted seats on the CTA, and I never put my bag on the floor unless I have to because the ground is so filthy with dirt, urine, and other I-don’t-want-to-know-what-it-is liquids.. But here, these people were sitting on the floor. Just playing video games and talking, no one looked strangely at them (except us Chicagoans) and it was completely normal. I looked around at the floor and it was sparkling, actually – no stains, no liquid, no garbage, nothing. When the train left the station – no garbage was in the tracks or on the ground in the station itself. WHAT IS THIS MADNESS!? Either people here are extremely clean and have impeccable common sense (don’t pee on trains, don’t throw your garbage on the ground, respect, etc.), the cleaning crews in Spain (and Barcelona in general) are REALLY good at their jobs, or Americans are gross slobs who don’t really respect anything.. I kind of think it’s a combination of the three.
Anyways, back to Madrid Atocha and the high speed train. The station was huge and so clean I’d eat my lunch off the floor and resembled an airport. We walked through all sorts of levels and finally got to our train (where there’s assigned seats) and embarked on our 3 hour journey to Barcelona. I got all in the zone with my little tablet and keyboard and started cranking out paragraphs of text and like I said above… I looked outside and it was too beautiful to look away.
The train took us through the mountains and the countryside’s of Spain – we only happened upon one “city” which resembled more of a large village than anything, and was one of the stops that the train made. Other than that, all we could see for miles and miles were beautiful mountains, farm fields filled with grape vines and olive trees, crumbling clay brick homes, and some very small agricultural homes and towns. We did see some massive birds in these huge nests just off the train tracks – the man next to me described them in Spanish as Golondrinas, which translates to Barn Swallows, which isn’t what they were… so the hunt is still on.
We arrived in Barcelona around 6:30pm, got off the train and got some taxis back to our hotel. Before we left in the taxis, our tour guide, Rick (who’s awesome by the way) told us how important it is to be watchful of your belongings in Barcelona. Apparently, it’s the pick-pocket capital of the world and the thieves are so skilled here that you never even notice them doing it. He definitely scared the be-jeezus out of us and we were all clutching our belongings like they were small children about to wander off.
While in the taxi, I started to notice some differences in Madrid and Barcelona… Barcelona seemed much more crowded, busy, and American than Madrid did. Madrid was Spain – people were affectionate, calm, peaceful, patriotic, and vibrant. The streets were wide, there was space, and there was a lot of relaxation and enjoyment of the present moment. While Barcelona was vibrant in a different way with people looking and dressing differently and more alternatively; when just driving, I noticed more and more American stores in Barcelona, people crowding the side-walks and rushing along. Maybe it’s a good pre-cursor to have before going back to the Windy City, but it came as sort of a culture shock being thrown into such a difference in pace so quickly – I’ll give it a chance, but I’m kind of wary already.
Our taxi’s dropped us off on a corner because our hostal (hostal with an ‘a’ is like a fancy hotel, where hostel with an ‘e’ is like a dorm room) was on a street/ series of cobblestone streets that are really difficult (or impossible) to get to by car. We got dropped off, hauled our bags a few blocks down the cobblestone path and found our hostal behind a beautiful glass door right in the middle of everything – I definitely would’ve walked right past it if I was alone.
Hostal Grau is the name of where we’re staying and it’s BEAUTIFUL. Again, I feel like it was made for me. It’s an eco-friendly hostal in the heart of Barcelona, about 2 blocks from Las Ramblas (which I’ll go into more detail about later) a block from the most popular plaza in Barcelona – Plaça de Catalunya, and 6-ish blocks from the cathedral. If you’re thinking about Barcelona, definitely consider staying there! They’re incredible, they speak English, they recycle, they re-purpose materials, and they’re so close to everything – definitely recommend!
Then, we went on a short walk to get semi-acquainted with the area and were then on our own for dinner. As I said before, I felt a bit of culture-shock here, so I opted for some good comfort food, getting homemade Bolognese from a place called Mucci’s. Our group was getting antsy since we haven’t had a chance to relax so we decided to go out. (wahoo!) We all met in some girls’ room, had a bottle of wine (there were 8 of us) and went to a bar called L'Ovella Negra, where we were told a lot of 20-something-year-olds and study abroad groups go to have a good time.
While everyone else in our group was drinking and taking like million pictures – I started talking to the four people we sat down next to. There were two women and two men – the two women were cousins and the two men their significant others. The women and one of the men were from Istanbul, Turkey and one of the women moved to Spain where she met the other man. I definitely started singing “Istanbul, not Constantinople” (shout out to Angie Payne for giving me that mix tape circa age 10) it was really awkward and weird, but they laughed and it was funny. (No, I was not drunk.) Side note, they told me that there are 20 million people living in the city of Istanbul…. To put that in perspective, there’s 40 million people in all of Spain. (THAT’S SO MANY PEOPLE IN ONE CITY WTF WHERE DO THEY GO?!) We talked for a long time about different cultures and different lifestyles – asking each other questions about travel, cultural norms, and family. It was really interesting to hear different perspectives from different countries, and to be able to communicate with people from around the world (they all spoke English, which I was impressed with) in a random bar in Barcelona. The time came that my group decided to run off, almost leaving me behind, but my Turkish and Spanish friends said that they had to leave to, so we said goodbye and went down our separate ways.
I left the bar feeling refreshed and happy that I was so easily able to connect with people from different parts of the world. It’s been difficult to connect with some of the group members on this trip, maybe because we’re spending so much time together it’s almost too much, but with the people at the bar it was easy and interesting - way more captivating than a lot of the interactions I have with strangers back in the States.
Until next time I get a chance to breathe and a second to type…
-Angee.