On the morning of June 8, I ran, tossed my bags in the car and the family dropped me off at the airport in Charlotte. We left a bit early and even had some time to drive through Belmont, NC and check out the town and the river access. It was a nice way to calm my nerves. Once in the airport, I was on high alert. I was not traveling as a chaperone and had no responsibilities. I was on vacation but for a control freak, the prospect of getting inside a metal tube strapped to two jet turbines is an uncomfortable one. I spoke to familiar faces and introduced myself to a few strangers. Soon we were boarded and in the air. Our first jet took us to JFK in New York. I had a window seat with really cool views.
We grabbed some airport food, exchanged some dollars for Euros and boarded an even larger plane by evening. We flew all night, though it never seemed to actually get dark outside the windows. I may have managed to sleep an hour on and off but I was ready to stretch my legs as soon as we landed in Barcelona.
Missing a night of sleep, this sunrise over the plane started what seemed like an endless second half of a day.
A bus took our luggage and our bodies into the city and dumped us near our hotel on Las Ramblas. This super-large main street runs through the heart of Barcelona down to the Mediterranean port of Port Vell. We arrived at the hotel at 8:00 am and that was too early to check in. We dropped our luggage in an office and were set free to explore the city until check-in time later that afternoon.
The entire group (minus the photographer) in the middle of Las Ramblas.
I honestly don't remember this first real European coffee. I think we stopped by a place near the hotel for coffee and snacks but the only way I remember this day at all is from photos and the few details scrawled in my sketchbook. Our minds and bodies were tired and we were already taking in so much visual information. I'm sure it was a good coffee, a proper cappuccino. And like every other proper cappuccino, it seemed very small.
A very short walk from our hotel was the little outdoor market. This alone was enough visual information for one day. So much of so much all out in a stunning display. I was immediately in love with the chocolates, but there was also fresh food, fresh fish, chunks of lamb legs, and just about any other thing you could consider chewing on. A feast for the eyes and later for the taste buds.
Christopher Columbus is closely associated with this city. There was a huge monument to him at the end of Las Ramblas looking out over the port. I was joined by Emily, Katherine, David and Jericho as we broke into smaller groups for exploration.
Here's my completely debatable theory on travel: I like to have a skeleton plan of what I'm doing but I do not like to do a ton of research. You could argue I'm too lazy to do the research, but I argue that the element of surprise is far more valuable than knowing everything you're going to see before you see it. And even with the best research, you're still going to find some things you didn't expect. Emily, Katherine and I planned before the trip to be travel buddies. Emily and I had a not-so-innocent reason for this. Katherine does the research. She even seems to enjoy it. Emily and I did not and do not. We knew that we could rely on Katherine's hard work in a pinch while also having a trip filled with childlike discoveries. A win-win. This was our first surprise, a huge Roy Lichtenstein sculpture overlooking the port. As I recall, even Katherine was surprised by this one.
One street down, we crossed a large walking path and stepped onto the sand. I am a beach person. There were really only two things I wanted to prioritize during our scheduled free times on this trip. The first was visiting the Joan Miró Museum and the second was being on every beach I could possibly be on. We were still very early into our long day of walking all over the city, but we walked right down to the water and touched the Mediterranean for the first time ever.
This was also when we spotted our first totally naked beachgoer. I believe it was Jericho who said "Whoa, that man is buck naked!". I think we all expected to see some topless beaches, but to be greeted so quickly by a totally nude dude was another little surprise. We each noted it and moved on.
From the first beach near the port I saw this very large sculpture in the distance. I vaguely remembered seeing something like this when looking up architect Frank Gehry several years ago. We had nothing better to do for a while so we started walking in that direction. We were able to walk under it and explore the area nearby.
We had walked about 10 miles at this point and we were happy when the clock said it was time to meet back at the hotel. This was the lobby of our very nice hotel. It was also extremely busy so all of our rooms were not immediately available. Sean, Pat and I were roomies and we won either the first or second round of available rooms. We figured out our sleeping situation (thank goodness all the beds are singles and all we had to do was push some space in between them) and I got changed to run. This was technically June 9 now so I owed myself a run. And yes, this run had been on my mind since we landed. As soon as Katherine was able to change into running clothes, we took off out the door and my mind started to calm.
After the run, I showered off and changed into my swim trunks. Remember, priorities! I wasn't the only one wanting to hit the beach, though. We walked down with a group of about 10 and took our place among the crowd of afternoon beachgoers. Barcelona is the number one spot in the world for pickpockets, so we were all on guard. Several people sat with our belongings on the sand while the rest of us got in the ocean. This is why I have no photos of us in the water. The water was colder than I'm used to here, but it was invigorating. The bottom is covered with millions of tiny, smooth rocks. This particular day the waves were large and it was a struggle to stay up and apparently to keep your clothing where it should be. The struggle warmed us up along with the afternoon sun when we got out.
It's easy to be paranoid when you know the reputation for pickpockets and thieves. It's also easy to be paranoid when you're traveling with a large group of college aged women (we all watched the movie "Taken", right?). As we collected our things and began to wash the sand off our feet, I noticed several eyes on our group. These dudes were not even trying to hide it. One in particular followed us over to the outdoor showers and kept getting closer and closer to us. He then called someone on his phone and began to point to specific people in our group, motioning to some unseen person. I started to notice others dressed in full street clothes getting closer to us. I made eye contact with him but knowing I saw him was not a deterrent. Something was about to happen so I walked directly over to him and stood a couple of feet away from him staring through his soul with my arms crossed. He looked at me, laughed out loud and walked away hanging up his phone. The group was ready and we walked away.
Sean had walked by the Museum of Contemporary Art earlier in the day and sent me a photo of a large KAWS sculpture. It was more or less on the way back to the hotel so we cruised by for a quick look before showering and regrouping to find dinner.
At this point it was late in the day but still very light outside. We all felt like we had been in Barcelona for a week but it had really only been one day. No one slept on the plane and everyone was tired. Our mileage was at around 12 miles now. We had a group of 9 people looking for dinner and we couldn't find anyone who would take a group that large. We had one more place to try before Emily and I were going to give up and just grab something to go. Jessica walked over to ask about a table and the lady told her no. But, they did have another restaurant location not too far away that could take us. There was a lot of confusion and trying to herd all of us together again for a walk. Then we started out following this lady we didn't know around a city we didn't know, turning down street after street. About the time I started to think logically and realize this could be a beginning scene to a thriller movie, the lady opened a door and we all walked inside the restaurant. Then, in a plot twist I should have seen coming, we were led down into the basement of the building to a private dining room. Thick stone walls and zero cell signal. We sat, all looking around silently with the same paranoid look on our faces, when the waiter came in and asked if we were 7 or 9. That's when we realized our whole group didn't make the long twisty walk. Emily and David got separated from us at some point and now we couldn't get in touch with them. I ventured out on the street to get a signal but got no response. I sent our location and then climbed back into the bowels of the building to eat. I figured that since they didn't try to stop me from leaving, we were probably ok. We ordered and this was placed before us...
Seafood paella, a traditional dish. Complete with squid, octopus, something like a crawfish, mussels and a lot more legs and eyes than I normally see on my plate. I tried everything and liked it. It was delicious.
We left the restaurant and easily found our way back to the hotel. We grabbed a bottle of water from a vendor outside and turned in for the night dead tired.
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