Day 7: (Barcelona) Hola Barcelona!

¡Hola Barcelona! Today was our first full day in Barcelona and we were so excited, but it was a struggle at first.  I wanted to start off the week strong in Barcelona but from all the walking and all the tours, my brain needed a new hard-drive.  My hard-drive was plainly just too full to really retain any more information.  That being said, I apologize for not having as much in depth information about the places we visited – the only thing I really retained from the day is that 1. Cèntric, the place next to our hostal has AMAZING ham sandwiches (that you eat for breakfast!) and 2. There are topless beaches here.

We started our day by walking to the Cathedral (Catedral de Barcelona) where their Sunday tradition was in full swing.  Because Sunday is a day of worship and rest, every Sunday in front of the Cathedral Barcelona, a huge band plays where the local elderly come and dance the traditional Catalunyan dance, the Sardana.  They all stand in a circle and hold hands and raise them above their head, while dancing mostly with their feet.  It was really cool to watch and it was very festive, heartwarming and full of life. 

While we were there, we met our tour guide, José from Hidden City Tours, which is a tour company in Barcelona that is working to give jobs to the homeless by giving them opportunities to be tour guides.  Spain is in a total economic crisis, which they don’t widely publicize, but there are many many people living on the streets, without homes or food or family.  This organization is not only doing good by giving homeless people (who often struggle very hard to find work) a meaningful job, but they’re also allowing tourists to hear and experience a different perspective on the tours – which we did.

José was previously a semi-successful architect with a wife and two children before he lost his job and in turn, his home.  He had a very difficult time on the streets, turned to not-so-great substance help, and eventually found his way around food banks and soup kitchens in the area.  He got involved with Hidden City Tours and now has his first apartment in over 3 years.  While he was living on the streets, he told us that one of the places he would spend most of his time was the library, reading and understanding anything he could get his hands on.  The joy, energy, and excitement he brought in this tour was just the breath of fresh air that we all needed.  He was very informative, and gave a really interesting perspective of Barcelona, taking us to places where most tourists never go, showing us small shops and plazas (like Plaza Gotica and giving more “local knowledge” of the Old Town area of Barcelona.

We finished our tour with José and even though we were all tired and hungry, you could tell that he, his story, and his sheer positivity had touched us all.  We ate a semi-quiet lunch, maybe because we were tired, maybe because we were reflecting, like I was.  We finished eating and started on our long trek to the beach… When I say long, I mean LONG, we were walking for a solid 40 minutes before we arrived at the coast.  Along the way, we stopped at some preserved ruins of the civilization of Barcelona in 1714.  They were preserved in a large building that was originally going to be a market.

We finally got to the beach where we laid down in the hot sand and soaked up some Vitamin D with some much needed down time.  Side note, the beaches in Barcelona are way made to sound way more luxurious and beautiful than they actually are.  There was about 3,000 people there and instead of sand, you just saw bodies lying like puzzle pieces – trying to maneuver themselves in the best possible situation.  It took us a minute, but we were quickly reminded that we were, in fact, in Europe where nude beaches were a thing… I didn’t take part in it, but it was weird to notice and react to the difference in culture.  When I first saw the topless girl next to us I was a little embarrassed and thought she needed to cover up, which may have just been because of the way I was raised, but I wasn’t used to seeing so much exposure – even in the skimpiest of outfits in America.  But, thinking back, it’s just a difference in culture and norms.  In Spain, I’ve noticed that they’re much more affectionate, passionate, sensual, and generally open.  There isn’t the same sense of shame or embarrassment for things that is so prevalent in American culture.  It’s great, actually, and I wish we had that sort of attitude back in the States – and no, not for the nude beaches.  I just think that people wouldn’t be so tense and uptight about things and would be able to relax more knowing that everyone is open and carefree and they most likely won’t get judged for what they’re doing… It’s really quite beautiful. 

Anyways, I digress, after the beach, we decided to make the half hour trek back to our hotel – using a real paper map, guys!! And, after a while and a lot of confused staring, we did it!  We had the rest of the night to ourselves, which was pretty much a first, and I took it with great appreciation.  I took some solo time, since I’m kind of introverted in the sense that I need to be away from people to decompress – so I walked around Old Town looking at shops and restaurants.  I ended up eating at this semi-fancy place called Santa Anna where I ordered chicken, wild rice, asparagus, and olive oil French fries.  Yummmmy!  I was really feeling it, had my notebook out writing down some notes about the day and my reflections – you know, feeling kinda classy and educated alone at this restaurant in Europe… and then “Love Shack” came on and I almost spit out my water I thought it was so funny and out of place.  It didn’t matter though, because that’s a great freaking song and it only helped raise my spirits.  I had been feeling kind of overwhelmed by the constant movement, tours and interaction so it felt good to have some alone time – something that I most definitely take for granted.

I went back to my hostal, snuggled up in my bed and caught up on uploading pictures to my computer and writing a few blog posts… Turns out that when you love photography and then you stop taking photos because you’re so busy and then you bring your camera to a beautiful, foreign place; you end up taking a shit ton of pictures.. So now all the space in my computer and on my four flash drives is filled to the brim and I still have another week or so in Europe (whoops).  However, nothing actually made its way to the blog, so even though I’d been working until 3am, nothing felt like it got accomplished except for my bed being slightly warmer due to me sitting there for hours.