The Matt Faus Blog

After having Ashley in Valencia for a weekend it was my turn to visit her in the city of Barcelona. Well, we had originally planned for me to visit her during her last weekend in Europe, July 12-15, but instead we decided to squeeze in a trip to Rome on that weekend, so I moved my travel arrangements forward a couple weeks.

Anyway, I arrived in Barcelona Friday afternoon. The hostel’s website said that the walk from the train station to their location was a short trip, but it turned out being a little longer than we anticipated. However, I was able to pick up a cheap European rolling suitcase for 20E on the way there. About eight minutes down the road I realized that I was missing my camera bag, which had about $700 worth of electronics in it! Leaving my big bag with Ashley, I sprinted back to the store and, luckily, was able to retrieve my camera. Nothing like misplacing the most valuable thing on you to start the weekend!

Checking into the hostel was relatively easy. I got my key and meal ticket and headed up to my 6-man room while Ashley waited in the lobby. It wasn’t luxurious, but the bed was comfortable and the place was very clean and safe. My roomates’ seemed to be German, but we didn’t really interact much besides hand waving me to where my bed and locker where.

After picking up a 10-trip metro ticket, we headed to Ciutdella Park to bask in the beauty and chat the evening away before heading to Rosa Negra for dinner, which Ashley had fallen in love with during her stay in Barcelona. Upon arriving it was quite apparent that several other Barcelonians had also falling in love with it, indicated by the 40 minute wait time. We were able to get our table and enjoy a wonderful meal of nachos, quesadillas, and a burrito. I even added some sliced jalepenos to get some enjoy some much-longed-for heat.

In the morning we made our way to a little town outside of Barcelona called Figueres, home of the Salvador Dali art museum. The life, art, and museum by this man were incredible. He designed and filled the entire museum from the ground up. His art is very surreal and evokes thoughts of the fluidity and chaotic nature of time and space. His art ranges from drawings and paintings to sculpture installations and jewelry. Most of his works change shape and form from different perspectives. One drawings was of small puppet-like figures playing around a city street scene, but when you looked closer the outline of a man could be seen through the whole painting. There was even a room that when walking through it seemed like an odd room, but nothing too crazy. After climbing some steps and looking through a drastically concave lens the room clearly shows the image of a woman’s face. It’s a little hard to describe, but hopefully you get the picture. After seeing the museum I could safely say that Dali is one of my favorite artists.

One interesting sight we saw before boarding the train to get back to Barcelona was the guard for the local prison in Figueres. He was standing there looking quite menacing with a flak jacket and fully automatic submachine gun. I remembered seeing a similar enforcement officer at Fiesta de San Fermín and how these figures really gave Spain an edge in law enforcement. Crazy.

After arriving back in Barcelona, we met some of Ashley’s friends at the Fountains of Mont Juic to watch the spectacular light show that is put on there every night. The fountain itself is huge and then when all the lights and music combine with the 50 foot jets of water it creates an unmatched mingling of the senses. Beyond the big fountain there are cascading fountains that come all the way from the top of the hill from the National Art Museum to the bottom. The fountain show was probably the coolest thing I saw in Barcelona.

The next morning a mishap involving my cell phone and the prearranged meeting location set us back an hour or so, but luckily Ashley’s outstanding intuition was able to rescue me from the sprawling city. After apologies and regrouping we made our way the Picasso Museum, but since it was Free Saturday the line was incredibly long. Taking into account the unbearable heat, and the previous day of art, we didn’t feel too guilty walking away towards La Rambla. I know I’m from Texas and have been around heat plenty, but Barcelona has no breeze to offer any kind of relief – it’s like being in an oven.

A lot of Spanish cities have a street called La Rambla where merchants restaurants and tourists abound. It could be roughly equivolated with Main street in cities throughout America. That evening we made our way to the Barcelona Rambla and picked our way through the crowds, stopping to enjoy a street entertainer or have a look in one of the shops setup. There was also a gay parade going on and with the flamboyant flag waving and screaming topless women added to the spectacle of the time.

Overall, Barcelona was a lot of fun, but not somewhere I would go to too much effort to visit again. It was crowded like New York, but Spainards don’t know how to handle that. Walking through the street one must continually dodge old women with their puppies and other people who just don’t know how to get out of the way. The best part about Barcelona is the Metro. There are literally stops every few blocks all throughout the city. The trains run every 3-6 minutes, and it’s just really easy to get anywhere.