After having braved the bone-chilling weather for the last month or so, I decided to give my tropical body a break. So I was off to Barcelona (with its boiling 10-13 degrees) to fight the January freeze.
On the bus from the airport to Barca city centre, there were a group of inebriated men (claiming to be rugby players) who were asking this mother / daughter duo all sorts of questions about the city (“Where is the best place to party?”, “Where does one get cheap liquor?”, “Where are the best bars?”). The mother spoke no English and was busy having the most horrendous coughing fits while the daughter was patiently trying to answer their increasingly inane questions. My ears pricked up when she told them to avoid Las Ramblas at all costs during the night (“You will definitely…how you say it….definitely get stolen”). That was not good news for me since that is where I was staying. But forewarned is forearmed and I moved my wallet, money, and passport to even safer locations than normal. After having done the needful, I strained to hear more of their conversation - when the spires of the Sagrada Familia came into view the girl proudly pointed it out to them.
“What’s that?”, one of them asked.
When she told them, they followed it up with “Who’s Gaudi?”
That’s when she gave up.
After checking in into my hotel I decided (with my valuables safely tucked in) to go for a wee stroll along Las Ramblas - I got a shock of my life when I saw the number of people there. Now this was 21:30 - at the same time in Edinburgh, you'll probably just see a few inebriated people moving from one bar to another but here in Barca there was no place to walk (over the next couple of evenings I figured that this was the case on EVERY street in Barcelona - people can't seem to remain in their houses after 21:00. They just HAVE to come out). No wonder Las Ramblas is a pickpocket’s haven. If I were in that noble profession, two productive evenings there would be enough to keep my kitchen fires running for the entire year. I kept on patting myself regularly (not in THAT sense!) to check if I had not been divested of my belongings and am happy to report that I did not contribute to the revenues of the pick-pocketeers during my stay there.
A bit about Las Ramblas - running down the center of the Ciutat Vella (‘old city’), it is actually a series of five shorter streets (Rambla means a water flow, and is derived from an Arabic word ‘ramla'). Each of these five sections (the rambles?) has its own specialty - La Rambla de les Flors is where you go if you need to stock up on flowers. La Rambla de Santa Monica hosts temporary art fairs. And if birds are what you want to buy, then you need to get to La Rambla dels Ocells - I found that out the first morning there when, before these bird stalls had opened, I could hear the cocks and roosters sounding their morning alarms from inside the closed stalls – it took me quite a while to figure out what was going on.
The Gothic Quarter (Barri Gòtic) has a very medieval and labyrinthine feel to it – this neighbourhood has many landmarks - the Cathedral, Government hall and the City hall, Picasso Museum, and also one of the most interesting of Barcelona’s squares - Plaça Reial, where I was pleasantly surprised to see elderly gentleman selling and buying all sorts of coins and stamps! At the Cathedral I saw this lady talking to her God – she was having a very animated discussion with her Maker and by the tone of her conversation (monologue?) she didn’t seem to be too happy with the way her life was being run. She started chiding the Man (Woman?) upstairs and then people around her started getting uncomfortable – especially this one man who was trying to have his own discussion with the aforementioned Maker. Finally disappointed with a lack of response from God, this lady finally decided to leave the Cathedral – and while doing so made a few unmentionable gestures directed towards the altar.
The rivalry between Barcelona and Madrid is like that of Delhi / Mumbai, or Lahore / Karachi, or Edinburgh / Glasgow. Madrid is the capital of Spain and seems to have a far relaxed pace compared to Barcelona’s giddy speed. What strikes the visitor about Barcelona is the buzz that the city has - especially at night after what would be considered bed-time in most parts of the world, people in Barcelona are still out on the streets (imagine Karol Bagh during prime-shopping time. That’s what Barcelona is like 24/7).
So no matter where you go, you’ll see lots and lots of people. And plenty of tourists. And none more than near Gaudi’s creations which are littered all over the city. I’m not someone who is really impressed by contemporary architects but I found Gaudi’s creations really different (giddy? bad pun!). His free forms are inspired by nature and don’t seem forced and have a totally different rhythm to them. His most well-known imprint on Barcelona is the Sagrada Família, a church that has been under construction since 1882. Gaudi spent the last 15 years of his life on it and was unable to see it completed at his death in 1926. In fact it is still under construction as architects try to maintain his spirit in the development of the Church. Understandably the spires (and the construction cranes which now seem to be an integral part of the structure) are one of the most popular attractions in Spain. The Church is expected to be completed in 2026 (at his 100th death anniversary)!!!
Park Güell is a garden complex with the unmistakable Gaudi stamp – the park was originally part of a commercially unsuccessful housing site, an idea of Guadi’s patron, Güell. The project never took off and was later converted into a park. But still there is a lot to see here – the gazelle-like buildings at the entrance, the multi-coloured mosaic dragon fountain, the house where Gaudi lived for many years, and the serpentine bench at the first level - apparently Gaudi used the imprint left by a naked workman in clay to shape this bench. Apart from these, there are a number of other Gaudi buildings in Barca - Casa Battlo, Casa Mila (or La Pedrera), and Palau Guell, each of which are unique, unusual, and strangely shaped.
I also spent quite a bit of time in the Barceloneta and the waterfront areas, which were re-developed for the 1992 Olympics. These areas have numerous restaurants, bars, and the Barceloneta and Sant Sebastia beaches can be found here (given that is was January there were not too many people in the water – despite the fact that temperatures touched 15C).
On my last day, with some excess time of kill, I decided to take my window shopping custom to El Corte Inglés (The English Dress Style), which is Spain’s largest department store chain. This particular store had 7 floors and there must have been the equivalent of Edinburgh’s population on each floor which made even window-shopping such a slow experience.
From Barcelona, I decided to go for a day-excursion to Montserrat (I chose it over Tibidabo - those who watched 'Friends' regularly would remember Joey's-How-to-get-sex-for-sure-story). Montserrat (literal translation: serrated mountain) is about 30 miles from Barcelona. A train gets you to the base of the mountain from where you have to take either a funicular or a rack-rail to get to the top. I took the rack-rail thinking it would be some sort of folding railway carriage (needless to say I was disappointed). I reached Montserrat, which has a Benedectine monastery and from where one can go for nice walks with great views of Barcelona, the Mediterranean, and the Pyrenees. Montserrat is a great place to amble around – watching all sorts of people – tourists, believers, and cyclists. Cycling from Barcelona to Montserrat is a popular excursion trip. Well, I wasn’t cycling back to Barca, so I quietly took the train to Barca and its bustling streets.
Next stop Switzerland!
