It was dark by the time the plane landed into Barcelona. I found my hostel and crashed for the night. I must have needed it, because at 10:30am the receptionist came into my room, shook me awake and told me I’d lost my €10 deposit because I didn’t check out on time. No problem I thought, I fucked up, it was worth every cent though, I really enjoyed the sleep. The guy was really rude, and said to hurry up. I asked if I could extend my stay and he said once I’ve checked out he’d see if they had any room. That did it for me, I wasn’t putting up with that shit, so I made the most of their free wifi, had a nice long hot shower, talked to some friends on Facebook and made the most of my €10 deposit. I walked out of the lift into reception, about 40 minutes later, and the reception guy, who woke me up, said “about time”. I threw the key card over the counter, and walked out, to which he asked after me “ aren’t you going to extend?” Who would extend in a place where the staff treated you like shit? Wanker.
I went to find Carolina from Poland, who I’d met in Stockholm. She saw my Facebook status the previous night and said she was also in Barcelona, and her hostel was cool. It was St Christopher’s Hostel and it’d only been open a month, everything was brand new. Before I left the last hostel I saw there were around 50 spare beds left on the Hostel bookers website, so was pretty sure I’d just walk in and get a room. When I got to the front of the large line, she said they were full. Not believing what I heard, I then used their free wifi to book a bed online for the next 5 nights. At 2pm, after lunch in their café (with 25% off for guests of the hostel) I then proceeded to check in. I had an 8 bed dorm to myself for the whole stay. They said there were some problems with their booking system, to which I totally agreed. That can’t be good for business.
Hoping the city of Barcelona wasn’t out to get me, Nick, Carolina and I explored the city that afternoon (Carolina had met Nick the day before, also an Aussie travelling the world). I felt a great vibe and really like Barcelona as a city. We walked around the old town, and ran straight into a wine festival. It was €8 for a wine glass including 4 glasses of wine. So we all grabbed that deal and had a laugh. After a while we ran into some friends I’d made from the Oktoberfest campground. So we joined their group of English, Americans, Australians, Kiwis and locals for he rest of the afternoon. I was at a stall filling up with a glass of red and saw a lady buy a full bottle for €3. Sure enough, bottles were up to €5 each, so in around half an hour we all had a bottle and a glass… the afternoon ended up a little messy. Haha Spanish wine is yum… I think.
Finally able to use my 2nd GoPro, I was ready to take some cool shots. I’d charged it overnight and signed up for the walking tour. I met Monica from San Francisco and we took lots of pics. It was a fun tour and we saw lots of historical monuments, from WW2 damage, buildings built for the 1992 Olympic games, works of art by Picasso and Los Ramblas. We enjoyed it and as always, you get your bearings in a new city by doing the walking tour.
That night Monica & I went to a Paella & Sangria cooking class. It was around €19. We met at a bar at 7 I think, and started the class. We met Alex from Pennsylvania and another dude who was weird. The chef took the 4 of us to the market, just off Las Ramblas, where we bought our fresh seafood for the Paella. He showed us the different parts of the cow in the window of one stand, which displayed a cow’s head, feet, penis, balls, liver, kidneys, tongue, blood and others. Apparently the Spanish use them for flavor and nutrients in their soups and things, but don’t eat them. It was a good laugh anyway! We then went to a restaurant on the beach road where we sat in the back. It was dimly lit and had a cosy atmosphere. When we got there we were shown how to eat tapas properly and how to make Sangria. The chef showed us the secret to cooking Paella, using the 4 seafoods (Prawns, Shrimp, muscles and pippies) onion, capsicum red & green, tomato sauce, and lots of herbs and spices, including saffron. The recipe is on cookingclassbarcelona.com. Overall it was a great night & well worth the money. We all left very full of food and sangria. On the way home we were walking up Los Ramblas & I was carrying a bottle of sangria (we couldn’t finish it all). Blokes would come up to me and ask if I wanted to buy some pot (smoking and owning a plant isn’t illegal in Spain), to which I’d then hassle them back trying to sell my sangria. They soon left me alone. We all had a bit of a laugh; they don’t like it when you try to sell them something back.
Nick is a huge sporting fan and wanted to go to a football game in Barcelona. So Nick, Carolyna & I paid €80 each and went to the Barcelona vs Celtics game at Barcelona Camp Nou Stadium. The stadium has a capacity of 110,000 people and is the world’s 3rd biggest football stadium. The crowd numbered 75,000 for this game, and it started around 8pm. We arrived around 30 minutes before the game, after getting the underground to the venue. The streets in Barcelona were ablaze with Celtic fans that were in town just for the game. You could buy all the merchandise along the side of the road between the station and the stadium. One scarf I found amazing was a Barcelona vs Celtic scarf. It really was a friendly match. I didn’t get any pictures of this as my phone had a problem and I had to leave it connected to the computer. I wasn’t feeling the best this day and tried to sell my ticket to anyone who would take it, but everyone already had tickets. But I’m glad I went as it was a great experience. The Celtics scored first, but Barcelona had the scores even for half time. The game was tied until 1 min from the end (in the 6 minutes overtime) when Barcelona scored their 2nd goal. The stadium lifted and was roaring. It was an amazing sight. As we were sitting about halfway up the stadium behind the goals, we had a fantastic view of the ground. I found it a lot smaller than the Australian stadiums, because a soccer field is smaller than a cricket/AFL ground. We were going for Barcelona, so it was a great end to an amazing experience. Messi was the best player on the field I was told, apparently he’s one of the best players in the world. It was a great first game to watch. I enjoyed my time and would like to go back to explore the city some more.
- Barcelona is in the state of Catalonia and is the second largest city in Spain with over 4 million inhabitants.
- They Speak the Catalan language, then Spanish. If you ask where they are from, they say Catalonia, not Spain.
- Catalonia as a state is trying to become an independent country.
- They had great cloud formations for photos, probably due to its Balearic sea location.
- The sand from the beach is shipped from Egypt before each summer.