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Vitória-Gasteiz, Álava, Spain, October 17, 2006
We have been staying in the state of Navarra, near Pamplona (famous for it's “Running of the Bulls”) for the last few days. As we sit in the Cathedral of Santa Maria in the Basque city of Vitória-Gasteiz, a huge structure from many centuries ago (and known as the “new” church), I'll try to say a few things about the party town that is Barcelona.
Barcelona is a big, cosmopolitan city. While Madrid may be bigger in terms of size or population, Barcelona certainly felt bigger to me. There are people from every part of the world. A waiter at a pizzeria we ate at spoke six languages and he was working on a seventh. We made friends from places from Australia to Brazil to Indiana. All in all, Barcelona has the feel of a world capital, much like New York City, or Paris or Tokyo (I imagine).
Barcelona is also the heart of the Catalan independence movement. While this movement never got the recognition (or infamy) of the Basque separatist movement, it is a strong movement nonetheless and it is evident on the streets. All the street signs have Catalan first, and Castilian Spanish next, if at all. The Catalan language seems like a mixture of Castilian and French, and was fairly easy to understand.
[Continued October 18, Mendioroz, Navarra (near Pamplona)]
In Barcelona, we stayed at a place called Kabul, which has nothing in common with its namesake. It seems something like Memorial Union in Madison, Wisconsin, just from wilder years. There was a bar, a pool table and a jukebox that constantly played pop hits from the U.S. and Europe from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. every day. It seemed like the kind of place Coca-Cola and MTV would come up with if they made a hostel aimed at the young, hip traveller. The average guest seemed to be about 18 years old and ready to party. The rooms were dormitory style (co-ed, if you were wondering) and had anywhere from two to 20 beds in one room.
It rained two of the three days we were in Barcelona, and while that didn't slow down the party scene, it did cut into our sightseeing time. We did, however, get to see the Sagrada Familia church (Gaudí's masterpiece that is yet to be finished). It is, to say the very least, an impressive structure.
However, Barcelona is party town, and we fell in with the rhythm, perhaps a little too well! We became friends with our roommate, a very kind Aussie from Melbourne named Eve. While in Barcelona, Eve ran into some friends of her brother, and the all became friends. For Liza's birthday, we all teamed up and went out to have some fun. First, we took in a Flamenco show at the bar below the hostel, which was free for Kabul guests. Then, we went to a really cool bar off La Rambla near the Wax Museum, called El Bosc de les Fades, which translates to something like the Pixie's Forest. The place had live trees and all sorts of decorations from the Wax Museum, which I think it was affiliated with. We had a great time. There, we met two older couples from Liverpool who were on vacation. They joined us and we went to another bar. Finally, we ended up buying samosas from a street vendor, and going to sleep right after Liza convinced me to teach my secret samba technique to some Scandinavian tourists.
Barcelona was really an incredible city, although most of it felt like I was anywhere but Spain. We made good friends and had great times. We look forward to seeing our new Aussie friends Down Under in a few months!