My flight from Marseilles to Barcelona was nice, and although the plane actually landed in the town of Reus (about an hour from the city proper) I enjoyed my time conversing with a Canadian girl I met on the bus. Once we got to the city, we were both pretty lost, and my directions that I had very diligently insisted on printing out were totally useless because they had been in the assumption I was landing at the main airport. Not a chance. So the Canadian and I wandered through the the main train terminal, looking for her connection before I headed off to catch mine to the hostel and drop my heavy pack for the night. After much bouncing from window to window, we both got oriented and I bid her farewell as I took off to the metro. Once there it was a pretty straight shot out to the natural park where my hostel, InOut Hostel is located. Apparently, this place is run by special needs adults and has a camp where they interact with special needs children to help them integrate. Its a really cool place. Only about $10 a night, with breakfast included, a pool, and a great vibe its my favorite hostel so far. The best part is that the large restaurant dining area helps to foster a lot of interaction between all the guests here, meaning you end up making some really great (and eclectic) friends.
Spent my first night hanging out with a school teacher from Ireland, meeting the others at the hostel, and enjoying the somewhat chaotic atmosphere that sometimes prevails with the staff haha. I called it an early night, but met back up with my Irish friend to explore a bit of the city. Being the smart(ish) fellow that I am, I decided that a 5 day unlimited metro pass would probably be a better use of money. Having purchased one the day I came in to the city, I of course left it at the hostel all day. Total fail. So we went ahead and walked across the city to the Sagrada Familia cathedral, which is really cool, and very strange (typical of Gaudi architecture).
After a cold beer and a sandwich at the adjacent park, we decided to try and tour the Barcelona Soccer (futbol) stadium. Although neither of us were major fans, the legendary Barca team is still a cool thing to visit. The tour was a bit pricy (20 Euro or so), but it was pretty awesome. The museum in the stadium is dark, with dramatic music playing as people process along rows of artifacts from legendary Barca players like Messi. Their hushed excitement and reverence pierces the air in a palpable way, and was reminiscent to the feeling of drama inspired by the Notre Dame. This stadium is a modern temple to the gods of Futbol, and "buddy, business is a boomin!" We got to take a self guided tour through the
stadium itself, the locker rooms, the press rooms, and all the other important parts. It probably would have been a lot cooler if I was remotely interested in professional Futbol, but for what it was, it was still very interesting.
After that the city descended into a siesta, so we decided to pack it back to the hostel for awhile before we went back out to the city to enjoy a bit of Paella and stroll the Las Ramblas street at night (quite a sight). After an hour so of the chaos, and the metro lines closing in 10 more minutes, we packed it in for the night, and headed to what was apparently a great party waiting for us at the hostel.
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