Welcome to Barcelona
December 18 – Barcelona
We decided to be lazy for once and slept in until 10:00, looked at the guide books a bit and then hit the Internet cafe, which was actually more like a Kinko’s with a few computers for Internet access. I had quite an ordeal getting access. Jeff went before I left the hotel and was there 20 minutes or so before I was. Apparently, at this place, you have to buy an access card for 1 EURO and then each hour on the computer is 1 EURO as well. So I figured, since Jeff already bought a card, why not use his. I load his card up with another 3 EUROS and try to get onto a computer and it seems not to be working. Apparently (and I’m still not 100% sure this is correct) you can’t use the same card at two different computers at the same time. With that, I transferred my 3 EUROS to a new card (minus 1 EURO for the card) and attempted to get access again. I had a few issues getting on (which is why I’m not 100% sure Jeff’s card wouldn’t have worked), but eventually got on. I noticed a note pop up warning me I only had 10 minutes left, but thought it must have been an error and ignored it. I continued with my business, checking email, posting a blog post, etc., when all of the sudden I get a big error message warning me that I have 2 minutes left on my card. This obviously couldn’t be right. I go up to the desk and ask the lady what’s up. She comes over and points out that I’m using a more expensive machine that charges 3.5 EUROS every hour because it has Microsoft Office installed and that I’m basically shit out of luck. I was a bit annoyed, but then again, what could I do. I added another 2 EUROS to my card and move to machine that charges the 1 EURO an hour. This computer had it’s own issues such as a bad mouse and hard to use keyboard. I managed to work my way around it and get what I needed to done.After we were finished catching up with our “connected lives,” we decided to head over to the Museu Picasso, a museum dedicated to the art and life of Pablo Picasso and interestingly the only museum established in dedication to Picasso while we was alive. We were lucky enough to visit while they had a special exhibit on display entitled “Objectes Vius Figura i natura morta en Picasso” or “Living Things: Picasso Figure/Still-Life.” This exhibit particularly focused on Picasso’s “metamorphosis” works from the Cubist period as well as between 1924 through the early 1930’s. Again, no photography was allowed, so I can’t share the experience the way I wish I could, but it was a fantastic treat. I had always known of Picasso but never really knew any of his background or history. I’ve actually thought the work of his that I knew of was rather boring and not to my taste. However, with a bit of information and guidance, knowing what drove his art and what he was trying to accomplish made me appreciate it and understand it a bit more.
We spent a good 3+ hours at the Picasso museum before heading for a stroll through Barcelona. We first found ourselves walking through an outdoor mall type of area (not La Rambla) packed with people going every which way. As we broke through the crowd, we wandered around to find the main street of La Rambla. Along La Rambla, it seemed that most of the vendors were pet shops and flower shops. The pet shops were selling all sorts of birds from parakeets and love birds to chickens and turkeys, rodents from muskrats and rabbits to hamsters and mice, and reptiles such as turtles, lizards and the like. As we continued to wander down La Rambla, we came across a market full of fresh fruit, meat, and even candy. Jeff and I obviously bought some fresh candy. On the way out, I decided to grab a fresh fruit smoothie as well to counter balance the candy. After leaving the market, we sought out a place to sit down for a bit and possible grab some food. In our search, we were persuaded by a Czech girl to visit an English bar for a 2 for 1 special.
From there we made it back around to our hotel, changed our clothes and headed back out to find something to eat. We stumbled upon a place (sorry, forgot to write down the name) which ended up being pretty good and the waiter was extremely nice and overly friendly. Though he probably only spoke 2 or 3 words of English the entire time we were there, we some how still managed to communicate quite well with him, ordering 3 different things and eventually finding out a little about him such as his name which is Miguel and that he is from Ecuador.
After an attempt to find a place to go next, we really had no good leads and while walking around back toward the hotel, the city seemed quite. With that, we ended up back at the hotel and headed in for the evening.
Till next time…
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