Barcelona, Spain
June 5th, 2010
I lay here in my hostel in the Bari Gotic district of Barcelona, sweating profusely as there is no air conditioning. I was supposed to be in Nice today, but I couldn’t pass up the party last night and missed my train, which only runs once daily. But at least I have time to write up a blog about my time in Barcelona, and my god, this place is WILD!
Amy and I could not get on the high-speed trains from Paris to Barcelona so we had to book a sleeper train. This is one European experience I don’t care to ever repeat. You stay in tiny little compartments called couchettes, with each having six cots hanging from the wall. This would have been great if we had it to ourselves, but instead, two creepy guys from Turkey and a bizarre guy from Nigeria were also booked in our room. None of them spoke English, and their French was super hard to understand. Needless to say, communication was difficult. I tried my best to get sleep, but I spent the night rolling around on my cot while the Turkish guys cooked lamb kebabs over a portable grill on the floor. Seriously.
The next morning, we awoke to a gorgeous sight out the window: rolling mountains placed in juxtaposition to steep cliffs that plunged into the turquoise sea. Most of the train rides up to this point have been pretty boring, consisting of vast farms and grass lands. But Spain is an exception; it is a truly beautiful country.
When we arrived in Barcelona, we checked into our hostel, the Kabul in the famed Plaza Reial. This place is notorious for being one of the biggest party hostels in the world, and man oh man did it live up to the hype! We dropped off our bags and headed out to explore the city.
Some things about Barcelona that I noticed immediately… the fashion is great. It’s like South Beach, very trendy. The weather is incredible. I was so sick of the cold in north Europe. The architecture of the city is so cool, with every single building being completely different. The contrasts of buildings in the cities I’ve explored so far are incredibly varied: the narrow canal homes of Amsterdam, the medieval gothic facades in Bruges, the near uniform Haussmann architecture seen all over Paris, and now the explosion of diversity that is Barcelona.
Amy and I spent our first day exploring a bunch of Gaudi’s buildings, including the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and Casa Mila, which are simply stunning.
We headed back to the hostel and befriended our roommate Alyssa, and went out for authentic sangria. One pitcher had us all buzzed! It was so delicious and authentic!
We got up early the next day and went on a walking tour of the Bari Gotic. We saw some gorgeous churches, Roman ruins that still exist in the city, and thousands of bullet holes in a church wall from executions during the civil war.
As we walked along, I made friends with three of the guys also on our tour: Mike from Philly (I can’t believe how many friends I’ve made because of my Gator and Phillies hats), Blake from Chicago, and Lucho from Santiago, Chile. Blake is also solo backpacking, and Mike and Lucho had just finished spring term in Germany and were travelling around. We headed back to Kabul and also met my other roommates from Seattle, Sam, George, and Matt, as well as a hilarious Mexican kid named Eduardo. We now had a huge crew rolling around Barcelona! We all headed out to the club at 2 am and partied until sunrise. The clubs here are insane, but incredibly expensive. We danced until feet were sore and wallets were thin, then we caught cabs back to Kabul and passed out.
The next day, Amy, Mike, Lucho and I rented Go-Cars to bomb around the city, beach, and mountains. This was straight up the most fun I’ve had while in Europe! They are these tiny little cars (think go cart) that handle like a moped and are legal on the streets. A GPS guides you past all the tourist sites as you dart through traffic.
After two hours of narrowly avoiding death on the streets, we once again headed back to Kabul, met up with the rest of the crew, shared a few bottles of 1 euro Spanish wine, and headed out on a pub crawl through the Gothic district. One stop was an incredible bar called Espit Chupito’s with over 1000 different shots, each of which comes with its own routine. The hilarious bartender was serving up whipped cream covered dildo shots, flaming lemon bombs, and ethanol gas shots that are lethal (more on this in a bit). I don’t really remember much from the last club, because I was annihilated. I do know that I woke up too late the next day to re-book our hostel, and it was totally booked for the night. So off we went to find a new hostel.
We ended up getting a room right on the beach, and randomly ran into the Seattle guys along with another guy from Kabul, Devon. We chilled all day on a gorgeous Spanish beach, drinking beers and frolicking in the waves. I must say, I could get used to that!
We left around 7 pm for a champagne bar called La Xampanyeria, a cute local eatery frequented by locals. You order cheap strawberry champagne (something like 80 cents a glass) and get delicious tapas served right at the bar. As fun as this resto was, it was literally jam packed (and we were all covered in champagne), so we headed back to Chupito’s from the bar crawl. After a few shots were downed, I gave the bartender a big tip. This, he decided, warranted a special shot just for me. He mixed together several strong liquors and topped it off with 151. He lit the concoction on fire and collected the ethanol gas burning off in another glass. To take the shot, I had to snort the gas through my nose and quickly pound the shot. Oh my god… after one I was dizzy and bleary eyed! It doesn’t help that we did several of these hellish creations. The rest of the night is a veritable blur, with Eduardo, Amy and myself walking back to our hostel on the beach at 6 am.
I set my alarm but of course it didn’t wake us. I missed my train, and of course, it was the only one leaving Barcelona that day. I was able to get Amy to her train station in time, but now I had to find another hostel. I went back to the beach hostel and found Eduardo who looked like he had been hit by a truck. Both of us lugged our hungover corpses across town, found a new hostel, and have been lying around all day feeling like death. After 18 days of non-stop sight seeing by day and raucous partying at night, I knew this day would be inevitable… an “I can’t get out of bed” day.
That pretty much sums up Barcelona. I’d have to say this is my favorite place thus far. The people are nice, everything is cheap (except for the clubs), the weather is perfect, the beaches are stunning, and the nightlife is insane. However, much like my stay in Amsterdam, the fun of the city is eclipsed by the actual people that made this place so special. The crew that formed in the Kabul hostel was a great group of people, and for three days, we did everything together. Some of these people I will see again on the trail (me and Blake are in the same hostel in Nice tomorrow, and I might see Devon in Greece). Others like my Philly brother Mike and Lucho, the funniest Chilean ever, will head home soon, and I probably won’t get another chance to see them. Same goes for the Seattle guys, who were a real great group who I really enjoyed getting to know. You guys were all great and I thank you for making my stay in Barcelona a wild time! You are all welcome to come crash with me in Florida should you ever want a vacation! And to Amy, I’m sorry I ever doubted travelling with you would be anything but incredible. I thought I had to do this whole trip solo, but having you with me these past eight days has been amazing. I wish you all the luck in Madrid and I’ll see you in two months! So trek on my backpacking pals, stay safe, and never order the Monica Lewinski shot at Chupito’s!
-Batty
