The bus is pulling out of the station as I write this and although I don’t know how hard it is going to be to type while moving, I thought I’d share some thoughts on my stay in Barcelona. First, where’s the beach?? I couldn’t find it. I was told that the beach would be a spectacular place for some sightseeing, but unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found. I guess it’s one of those things that you have to know a friend, who has a friend, whose cousin knows where to go… I don’t know anyone.

Second, to sum up Barcelona would be to say that for me it’s a one time stop, I don’t see myself ever coming back. It seems to be just a big city with a few beautiful buildings, and tons of people. I still don’t understand what all these people are doing. They seem to be just walking, that’s it, just walking, they aren’t taking photos, they don’t seem to be buying anything, they’re just walking. So although I’m glad that I got to see this city, I think two nights here was enough… maybe with one more day I would have found the elusive beach that I’ve heard about. ☹

Like I said I’m on the bus headed for France, Marseille to be more exact. I should be there in about six hours or so, and I’m looking forward to it.

After being less than impressed the first day here in Barcelona, I took off this morning to do a more structured walking trip. Last night I had planned my route, and did get a little bit excited about some of the things that I saw on the map. My first goal was to get to a bullfighting ring, or maybe stadium is the better word. I have to admit that I was having a little bit of a problem reading the map, maybe the problem was that it was still relatively early, maybe it was that I didn’t orient myself properly when I took off, but after the first hour I managed some semblance of understanding the map. Though when I think back, I don’t think that I ever really understood where I was, or what I was heading towards. I’d find my place on the map, only to not find the street that I needed to go to. Anyway, no worries, I had a full day of seeing most of the inner city of Barcelona. The bullfighting ring was a bust, nothing to see but bricks.

The first few hours I didn’t take any photos, there simply wasn’t anything of interest to me. After that though, I started getting into more interesting architecture and the photos came shortly afterwards. In the end I probably ended up taking close to a hundred or so. Probably the most interesting was the parliament building, though I’m not sure if that’s what it was. I know it was a very substantial government building and I do recall seeing the word, “parliament” somewhere, so let’s just go with it.

Behind the parliament building were some trails that led up, and when you’re quest is to see things, up is always good. If anything I knew that I could take some scenic photos of the cityscape if I got high enough. I did. I think I managed to get to the highest point of Barcelona when I reached the top of the hill. On the way there was this other guy doing the same thing as me, he was younger, but lugged a backpack like me, dressed like me, and seemed to be thinking the same as me. We came to the same place at the same time, to a dead end with a fence blocking our way. We kind of stood there for a second, and then decided together that we could jump the fence. We didn’t talk before, but then he tried at one spot of the fence, no luck, then I tried at another, no luck. He mentions that it looks easier at the very end of the fence, so he tries and makes it, I do as well. We say good-bye and we’re on different ways. One thing that happened to me is that at the first place I tried, the top of the fence went through my shoe. If you’ve ever stepped on a nail you can imagine what it was like. I stepped on the top of the fence it held, then slipped into my foot. It stopped before going into my foot, but I could feel the fence pushing against my foot.

The point that I realized that I was tired and needed to think about heading back was when I was at the highest point, on a castle overlooking the water. It turned out to be a good decision because I’d already done the hard work of climbing up the hill, all I really had to do go down.

I’m in Barcelona right now in my hotel room and to be honest I’m just not sure of the city. When I got off the bus in Sevilla all I could think about was, “wow!” but here all I can think about is, meh… I should mention that this is my impression after only being in the city for five hours, who knows what I’ll think later on, it could be that I’ll love it here.

So let me put my first thoughts into perspective for you. The city is big, big like Paris, Berlin, or London. It’s a completely working city too, not that that should be a surprise, but unlike Sevilla or Lisbon, it’s packed with cars, workers, and tourists. Everywhere you go to the point that you’re competing for your own personal space just to walk along. If you enjoy Christmas shopping in a very busy mall you would probably love it here, I don’t. I feel like I can’t do anything without bumping into people or having to swerve just to walk. It’s basically a madhouse.

So after I checked into my hotel I paced around a little bit and decided to go for a walk. On my way to the hotel there was some impressive buildings that at the time I didn’t feel like taking pictures of, so I thought that this would be a good time to go back to the bus station, to one, get my ticket out of here, and two, to take the pictures. After that I decided to see a street that has been converted to a kind of walking mall, it’s name is, Rambas, or something like that. Like the rest of Barcelona, Rambas was packed with people, but it had kind of a fun feel to it. There were a few street performers there, and lot’s of souvenir kiosks lined both sides of the walkway. I stumbled into a fruit market and grabbed a snack for my walk back. At this point I was getting tired. I figure I got somewhere around five to six hours of sleep on the bus and it was starting to catch up with me.