hola barcelona! day uno

I found the tourist info booth at the FAR end of the airport and the person inside told me to go on the train to Sants Estacio and then get on the metro to Diagonal. In the process, I found out that one of my bags was HEAVYYY! I chatted with some Canadian girls on the train. Sants Estacio was announced just as Sants but I assumed Estacio meant station and got off. I was a bit lost in the major train terminal, but figured out where the subway was, mastered its ticket machine and got on it. Once I arrived, I tried hard to decipher my maps, but really didn’t know where I was going or where I was or which way was right-side up on the map. In my haste, I dragged my vest across the ground and a woman yelled something about my jacket-a!! I picked it up and smiled at her. Everyone gave me “why are you dragging suitcases around here?” looks, but didn’t seem to want to offer directions, no matter how desperate I tried to look.

Diagonal is a shopping district with lots of trendy looking boutiques and some chain shops. It’s also very old fashioned looking. Its sidewalks are made of hexagonal patterned tiles, which are very pretty, but not so appealing when you have to drag a suitcase over them. There were rows and rows of essentially flat-fronted buildings in various neutral-pastels, many with metal balconies with curly designs in them. Also, lots of the buildings had shaped cement decorations near the tops, bottoms or windows-- flourishes. I really felt like I had arrived in Europe! Everyone around me seemed to also be tourists because they were all speaking in different languages and some of them also looked lost and snapped photos.

I asked a couple for help, saying Francisco Giner? They asked what language I spoke in English and said they were Italian. They pointed me off in the direction I was going, saying left, right and pointing right. I went right down a main street, which turned out to be Passeig de Gracia. It was fairly crowded. When I saw the street sign, I thought it mean the side street which tipped my map the wrong way. I went past La Pedrera (Casa Mila), a Gaudi apartment block, now also a museum. There was a long line in front of it. It was rather impressive with its curvy walls, tiered floors, and scalloped roof. From what I’ve seen so far, Gaudi architecture looks like it’s made of clay, but more like it was originally doll-house sized. It’s hard to imagine making those shapes in such a great scale. It had detailed metal decorations around the center balconies and doors. The thing that stood out the most to me about it was the fat four-sided cross on the roof. I’m definitely looking forward to getting into that building.



I entered the neighborhood behind the Casa Mila and tried to match its streets to my map, unsuccessfully, of course. I found a woman coming out of the shop and she pointed me ahead and to the right. Ok! Another woman verified that ahead was the main street I was looking for, Avinguda Diagonal. I crossed it and went right. It still didn’t match my map, though because my map didn’t have baby-streets labeled! Also, it appeared that the alleys changed names after crossing a street further on. I decided to get to the further on street and went down an alley. It had more old pastel buildings with neat decoration. An old man tried to shield me from the traffic as I leaned out to see the street signal.

I finally went back toward the left and found the street I needed. I finally found the snazzy hostel: Hostel Managi Bernab. If I’d listened better to the Italians—gone left then right, I wouldn’t have had to trek my suitcases all over town. The clerk at the front desk didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Spanish to her. We figured out where my room was without a language in common. I’m hesitant to speak Spanish (I’ve found out) because I never formally studied it. I am not confident with it. I need to man up and just start talking.



I found my room in a very mod hallway: number 7. It had a bit of tinsel and an ornament hanging beside the door frame. Inside, the ceiling was incredibly tall. There was a single bed with a blue cover and a plaid-ish yellow, green and blue curtain above it. Behind that was a monstrous window. Naturally I opened it and stuck my head out. A woman on the street below spotted me and laughed. I had a view of someone’s garage with graffiti and many peoples’ balconies with their laundry stretched across the bars to dry. I was slightly surprised by how small the room was. I really don’t need more space, though. The bathroom looked fairly standard, although the shower looked precarious. It had a curtain around 2 sides of a small square.

I organized a few things and then fell onto the bed. I set my alarm for a cat nap and reset it every time it went off. I slept for a couple of hours by the time I actually got up. Then I decided to look for food and scope out the neighborhood and take pictures. Earlier in the day, I didn’t have my camera out because I was having trouble enough maneuvering my 2 suitcases.

I found another Gaudi building right near my hostel. It had a cave-like feel with swirls of building coming in toward the windows. Beams that reminded me of stalactites/mites stretched across the windows, connecting the two sides. I continued back to the main street and saw a statue of a woman and an obelisk in a traffic circle I hadn’t even noticed before. In the distance, there were a few palm trees.



I went back to the street where I’d come out of the metro and went down it. It had a passageway in the center for pedestrians and separate single lane roads on the 2 sides for both directions of traffic. It had the old buildings and interesting lamp posts—some mod and some old. There was a large model of a piece of pasta with an ad below it.

The trees which line every street seem rather Gaudi to me too. They are almost gnarly, twisting in different directions. Their bark is sort of mottled looking as different layers have grown.

I ended up back on the main Passeig de Gracia and passed over Avinguda Diagonal. I found a shop called Buenas Migas focacceria. As I passed I saw pizza-ish foccacia slices with toppings and tarte/quiches in the display case. I had to turn around and go back. I decided on a foccacia with brie slices on top. They heated it up for me and gave me a glass of ice with a lemon for the Coca Cola Zero that I ordered. On the table, a stale roll was cut in half and pushed back together to hold up a paper about the shop. The tables and chairs were in a pale wood with straw-like material for seats. It had a nice view of the people going around the corner on the outside. It had cute black and white flower-print wallpaper and dried flowers hanging from the ceiling. You can bet you’ll be hearing about this place again. I guarantee I will be returning there… regularly.

I went further down Avinguda Diagonal and came on an interesting building I would have guessed was a church. However, it had shops in it and no cross. It had very interesting geometric shapes of brick and stucco around its doors and windows and towers out of the top. From there, I retreated to the hostel. I bought a water at the corner store on my way in. It mostly has fruit and a few other foods. I had no luck finding a store to sell me the things I need like lotion and shampoo. Perhaps tomorrow. On the way back, I saw another side of the Gaudi in my neighborhood. It had protrusions of bay-window sorts of rooms off of the sides and intricate details.

I asked about internet at the front desk and got the wireless password. My computer was dead. I got out my transformer and tried to plug it in. It didn’t FIT into the plug! It didn’t have the small round protrusion required to get to the plug. I almost cried, but went to the front desk instead. They DID have a converter they could give me.

Back upstairs the internet worked and bonked in waves, but I was finally able to email my family and make posts and upload my pictures. That was a good distraction to keep me awake for a bit, in hopes of getting onto the right time zone. I installed my alarm on the door and looked up where my class is tomorrow and marked it on the map (which I THINK I now understand). Hopefully I’ll get there on time!