#4: My first day in Barcelona

In order to keep everything consistent, i'm just going to update when i can about each day in order from now on.  Remember that in all entries, any time you see a blue word, click it for a link to a website to show you more info.


The first day in this beautiful city...  wow.  I can't even say enough about it.  Considering I had seen 8am twice in the same day, with a brief nap on the plane, I was ready to go!  After everyone had their bags we got on the tour bus and met our tour guide, Josep (pronounced you-sepp).  He is... quite the talker.  He's also super-proud of Barcelona.   Josep will point out a piece of architecture or mention a fact about the city.  He will give a brief list of the other top cities in Europe or the world with a similar whatever.  Then he will conclude with how awesome Barcelona is.  Example:  "Barcelona is number one city in the world for modern architecture.  Number two in the world is Chicago, back in the United States.  But we are not here to visit those places.  You are here in Barcelona, which is top in Europe, top in all the world, for modern architecture.  Top top.  What a fabulous city."  Nothing is better than whatever Barcelona has to offer. Some times Barcelona is number two, but it's usually still top in all the world.  What a fabulous city.

So after our 9 hour flight, we got on the tour bus and saw... less than half the city.  However, the city is HUUUUGE.  We did a really quick tour--I can't remember all of what we saw, but I'll upload pics soon.

We got to the hotel, and it's very nice.  Easily situated on two metro lines, so we can always get around.  The staff is friendly and they help us out in english when our spanish sucks.  And OMG, THE BREAKFAST.  Amazing!  The breakfast is made of a buffet of plump finger sausages, a sauteed veggie (like zucchini or eggplant), spanish tortilla (which is like a quiche with potatoes, but less eggy), fruits, breads, pastries and cold cuts and cheeses.  For me, I'll usually have 39 pastries, some fruit and sausage, a slice of tortilla, and then 12 more pastries for dessert.  (The pastries are fantastic.  Barcelona is the number one city in all of Europe for breakfast pastries.  Top top.  Paris may be number two, but Barcelona is definitely the best.  What a fabulous city.)

At the end of Day 1, we went down the Rambla (which is a street that waaaay back in the day used to be a dried-up river bed... keep in mind that Barcelona is 2000 years old so there's no telling how far back they mean when they say "in the past) to the marina for the Three Kings parade.  Basically, January 5th was the 12th day of Christmas, or Epiphany.  It's the day that the three wise men, or kings, visited baby Jesus with gifts.  In New Orleans we know it as the first day of the Carnival season.

There were thousands of people lining the streets for the parade--mostly families with children.  A large yacht was well lit and the kings disembarked, then were driven in old-fashioned cars through the streets, where they waved and threw candy to the kids.  This parade took all of about 20 minutes, but it was still very nice.  Apparently in Spain the early evening hours are used to take walks around the neighborhood with the family and catch up about the day, so most people incorporated their usual evening stroll to catch the parade.

One of the first things I've noticed about Barcelona is that people here really love their dogs.  There was a dog in the airport when we arrived!!  There's always someone walking their dog, bringing it into a shop or having tapas on a patio with friends and their pets.  The best part is that since the dogs are so socialized, they usually don't need leashes--they keep stride with the owners and the owner may use a leash when crossing a busy street or in a store to please the shopkeepers.  In fact, it's the children who are tethered--usually in strollers or at mom and dad's hip.  It's a lovely contrast from the states, to have the dogs walking around and the kids strapped in.  Probably one of my favorite aspects so far.

After the parade the group returned to the hotel for dinner, which was fish in red sauce, fried potatoes, sauteed eggplant, salad and pasta with a choice of red or creamy white sauce.  The desserts were strawberry mousse and custard.  The hotel itself isn't much to look at on the outside, but the interior is nice and modern.  Our room looks out onto the street, but some of the other rooms on this floor have beautiful vistas.  There's a restaurant in the hotel on the 1st floor and a pool on the roof as well.  My roomies and I had a hard time figuring out the lights at first--you put your key card in a slot next to the door and that powers the lighting for the room.  It also helps you from losing your key card.  As soon as you remove the card to leave, all the lights and TV go out.

After dinner a couple girls and I went to the Gran Via, which is the main drag in downtown--sort of reminds you of Canal Street in New Orleans.  It's super wide with a large median in the middle.  On the median there were Christmas bazaar-type trailer booths selling kids' toys, clothes, souvenirs, lingerie, video games... you name it, they had it.  Ellen and I were looking for the caganer (ca-ga-nay), which is a figurine of a man with his pants down and... making number 2, as little kids say.  He's mostly found in nativity scenes in the region.  Basically, the tradition is that nativity scenes here portray the entire city of Bethlehem, not just the manger.  So the little houses have people cooking dinner and weaving yarn and doing normal activities--and then there's the one guy who didn't get the memo that the Christ Child was being born, and decided to use the bathroom instead.  In some familes, it's a tradition to hide the caganer around the house during the Christmas season as a game for little kids to hide.  They're very popular collectibles and they come in all sizes, not to mention celebrities such as Barack Obama, the king and queen of Spain, famous soccer players and actors... nobody's too high up to be a caganer.

I didn't find the caganer but i did buy a nice leather satchel, which is what I've seen the women around town wearing.  Barcelona has a lot of pickpocketing--it's home to immigrants from around the world and around Spain because the region is so prosperous due to great ports and industry.  Thefts have been especially high in this economy, and of course tourists are an easy target.  It's very sound advice to take only one or two major credit cards (not many places take Discover--mostly Visa and Mastercard at local places and national/international ones take American Express) and a day's worth of cash on your person. The rest of your cash and definitely your passport should stay hidden in your suitcase, or in a safe if the hotel has one.  I had planned to just use my backpack because I thought we'd be on the bus most of the time and I could take a small amount of cash in my pocket.  Instead I bought the satchel, which has all the zippers on one side so you can easily place your hand over it when passing through high traffic volume or on the metro.  (Another tip:  when you can, sit on seats in the metro because it's harder to pickpocket you.  If you're standing up, keep your hand on the OPPOSITE pocket where your money is as a distraction.  It's very easy for someone to bump or nudge you when they get on the subway and be off at the next stop before you notice.  If your hand is nervously hovering over your money or jingling coins, they read your body language and "accidentally" bump into you on that side.  A brief second later, and you're 50 euros down.)

The metro itself is very easy to use as well.  All the lines are color coded and many stops have intersecting lines.  I bought a 10-time pass from the ticket machine, so I can ride the metro or bus 10 separate times before it runs out--which it did my 3rd day, so it was a good investment.  If you get off the metro and take the bus within an hour's time, it still counts as just one punch, or vice versa.  I've figured out the system quickly so when we make plans to go out in small groups, we find a location, find the nearest metro stop to it and hop on, transferring lines if necessary.

And now, for pictures!  I'm only including a couple; I've taken about 250 pictures in the first three days!  I don't think I can upload them all to the site, so instead I'll make a photo account somewhere and post a new link every day.  I'll also try to update more about where we've been and where we're going, but it's almost 2am here...  we have to be on the bus at 8:30, so I need to get some rest.  I'll be back to update more soon!

 Part 1 of 3 panoramic views of about HALF the city.  In the middle there's a fountain with four columns in front of it to represent the four red stripes on the Catalonian flag.

 Part 2 of the panorama

...and part 3.  So beautiful!

I took those pics from the steps of the Royal Palace, which is now a museum (that I will visit on my own time).  Remember my cliffhangers from yesterday?  The fountains in Barcelona are VERY well taken care of and very pretty.  You don't throw change in them, you don't drink out of them and you don't play in the water.  In fact, doing more than taking a picture in front of one of the fountains will earn you a visit from the police--and quickly.  The singer Shakira was fined for dancing in a fountain while shooting one of her music videos here.

And the funicular?  It's basically a cable car pod that goes up a mountain and over the marina (of the Mediterranean) so you can see some of the city's viewscapes.  I plan to do this before I leave.

This was the back of the Olympic stadium the city built for the 1992 summer games. 

Professor Genny's kids looking over a park designed by a Japanese architect.  The white sculpture is actually a TV broadcast tower.

One of the three kings and his entourage in the Epiphany parade.

For Epiphany, the Spanish eat a king cake as well.  Theirs is more of a bread (and not very sweet) with candied fruits on top (and it's not that great tasting, actually).  On the Gran Via, a bakery had a vendor trailer up and this was in the display case.  Everything you see is candy or toys--even the coconuts, which are spun marzipan coated with chocolate.

PS:  Remember that "golden book" I mentioned as a cliffhanger?  Well, it's tonight's cliffhanger too, because that story is all about Day 2's adventure.  But I'll throw you a bone--it's a very special honor.