Barcelona, Spain, 24th-25th September 2011

We just arrived at our hostel. It's quite a decent one with a balcony. Nice for smoking. There's a bar downstairs. It took us sometime to find the hostel. Walking up and down streets, sent from one street to another. I couldn't take it anymore I decided to just take over. I managed to find the hostel and Ömer started to complain about how badly the address system was. Oh, man. It's really ok not to know. We just arrived at a country so we needed to understand their system first. Why, why, why must he complain so quickly? Just one more way to cover up a weakness. I disn't see it as one but being too proud to ask was a weakness. Luckily in Barcelona, he decided to do more asking. But, the people here don't speak English. Oh well... ROOM SHARING When we arrived at the hostel, there was is man waiting at the reception. It turned out that the lady wanted us to share a room with this man. I, although a little reserved was kind of OK about it. But Ömer just refused to give in. I thought meeting people and making friends are a part of travelling but I guess not when we are in a group. The man turned out to be Irish and he said that he'sbeen to Singapore before. He also helped us with the translation because we couldn't understand a single word that the lady was saying. Lesson learned, always have a dictionary when travelling. And don't go to too many countries in one holiday. It's not practical to have so many different maps and dictionary also and trying to understand a different system in every country. MORE HOSTILITY I tried to ask some people in the streets for direction. Most of them were just walking. None of them stopped. Most just shook their heads. Bloody hell man... I'm not selling anything! I was just trying to ask for directions. Ömer had it easier asking for directions. Another WTFF moment. Only those who were not walking were caught on their spots. And they were nice enough to help out. BUDGET TERMINAL THAT WAS SHORT OF SEATS We had to wait close to two hours at the Ciampini Airport and we had difficulty finding a place to sit. Ömer was saying that he won't be taking airplanes again. The waiting was so tiring for him. The trains and buses were more comfortable. Barcelona, Spain, 25th September 2011 We started this morning with a walk to meet Erhan. We ended up taking the train to Maria Cristina Stn to meet him. A couple said it would be quite a long walk to Numincia where Erhan was staying. As we were walking I noticed how quiet the city was. It was a Sunday morning and I remembered there was quite a celebration the night before. Most of the shops were closed. It was just amazing I thought. A metropolitan city like Barcelona was sleeping on a Sunday morning. The shops were closed and the whole place seemed more real than Rome. By real I mean the Human factor was there. Somehow in a very busy city like Rome when there were so many people, the place felt very cold. There was human interaction but hardly any communication. All communications were strictly business. In Barcelona, when the city was rather empty and people were doing their thing, cycling and taking a walk, playing a bit of sports, jogging, the place seemed less pretentious. It felt real. There really was nothing special about Barcelona this Sunday morning but I loved it for its trueness. BARCELONA FC Since the train station was quite close to Barcelona FC stadium, we thought we should just pay it a visit. I was not much of a soccer person but I might as well. There was a museum for the club but it cost €22 to go in. I gave it a miss. I'm not a fan. So we went to have some light refreshments at the bar there. The chocolate drink was superb. I had two small cups of it. It was quite pricey though, about €3 each. Once in a while... Then I remembered Shikin's jersey. I smsed him to check if it's ok to get him a Barca FC jersey instead. He was ok with it so I did. That was one expensive piece of clothing. €81 per piece! I told him he would have to pay me back. SHOPPING STREET After the stadium, we walked down the street. Most of the shops were closed. So it was just one of Ömer's walk. This time round we stopped a number of times to rest. That's more like it.  Then we had lunch at Subway. That was a big piece of Tuna sandwich that I had. I told Ömer and Erhan that I wanted to just rest in the room. I've had enough of walking for the day. So we went back for a break. Before going up to the room, I called Altay. I told him about how I wanted to rest to save my energy for tonight. I wanted to see the night life of Barcelona. I didn't think it would be that exciting. But.... DEMONSTRATION One hour after resting, Ömer forced us to get out of bed and go for more walk. I said I've had it with the walking and told them to just carry on without me. Then when they were about to leave, I heard some percussion bands playing in the street below. I got really curious. I told the guys to wait for me cos I wanted to have a look at the celebration. When we arrived at the streets, there was this procession that was going on. I went closer. The procession turned out to be a demonstration! All the placards and banners were in Spanish but we joined in anyway. Then I asked Erhan, what if the procession was against immigrants? Then I would be a big misfit. So I pulled myself out of the procession. As I was walking along the sideway, I asked a lady what the demonstration was about. The Spanish were demonstrating for the government to waive off their mortgage debts. A few years ago, the housing prices went up. So they had to take up a big loan to pay off for their housing. Now, the price of houses dropped and the locals not only have to pay off their mortgage, if they needed to sell off their houses, they would be in great debt. The people wanted this debt to be waived off. I parted with Erhan and Ömer as I wanted to follow the demonstration further. But when I realized I had gone too far, I decided to just go back and find them. They were at some place I didn't really know so I just walked on anyway. Then.... MEET AUTUMN FESTIVAL Ömer said they bumped into the demonstration again. So, I just walked along one of the streets in search of a crowd. Then I heard noises.. And drums... And I followed... Then there was a crowd. I'm back with the demonstration I thought. I looked at the procession. The guys were in costumes. They dressed up like devils and there were these dragon-like floats that each group had. The big crowd was somewhere ahead and there were fireworks. Hardly a sight for a demonstration. These people were celebrating an occassion entirely different from the previous demonstration. This was something. Barely a half hour ago I was with a demonstration and then, I turned up in a celebration of a festival. I asked one of the men in the crowd. He told me that they were celebrating the end of summer and coming of autumn. Wow! In one night, two entirely different processions. I stayed on to enjoy the fireworks till about 9pm. Then I went to look for something to drink. I had a drink at the park opposite our hostel. LEAKAGE While I was drinking, I saw this man, very presentable, good looking, ran into the bush in the park. Not really that hidden. Not quite a bush. He was still in sight. I thought he was playing hide and seek with his friends. So grown-ups here play hide-and-seek. Haha... There were also ladies sitting and walking nearby.  Then he took off his belt, undid his zipper... and took a leak! Another 'WTF' moment. Couldn't possibly take a picture of him. JAZZ CONCERT It was about 10pm when I finished my drink. Ömer hadn't called me back. Well, he must be having his fun with Erhan. I wondered what they were up to. Since it was still early, I went in search of another possible celebration.  'Go to where the noise is, Iman...'  So I followed my voices within and then I saw a concert at one of the plazas there. It's probably one of the major monuments in the city. It was a jazz band concert. Nice songs to just chill out to. Some of the people in the audience were dancing away to the music. Well... What an evening it turned out to be. If Vienna was a city for classical performance art, Rome had a nice street performance art scene, Barcelona was just the place to party. I came to Barcelona at the right time. Even Ömer is still out past midnight. I really must know what they are up to.