Our adventures in Spain began in Girona (just outside of Barcelona). We arrived there from Dublin on a "plastic plane" (gotta love low-budget airlines) after 24 hours of travelling. We had to take a 1 1/2 hour bus ride from Girona airport to the city of Barcelona. Once there, our travel wasn't quite over yet. We then had to hop on the Metro (subway) to get to our hostel. It was there that we were introduced to the scams and robberies of Barcelona. We witnessed our first pickpocket as a man went chasing after a couple yelling "Policia, Policia!" (Police, Police). According to our handy-dandy Rick Steve's guidebook, Barcelona has the highest rate of petty crime in all of Europe! Thankfully, we made it to our hostel without being accosted.
The youth hostel environment is a very friendly one because most people are travelling on their own or in small groups and just want to get to know other people. We were greeted in the lobby by various travelers from the US, Australia, Canada and England who were merrily drinking beer from the beer machine (yes, you read correctly, no soda, just BEER!) Unfortunately, we didn't join them that night. After 36 hours of being awake, we only had one thing on our minds---SLEEP!
The next couple of days were spent exploring Barcelona. Our first observation was that Barcelona is a very touristy city. Most of the people who cater to tourists speak English. We were eager to try out Spanish, but that would have to wait. Although Barcelonians (?) know Spanish, most speak Catalan (a Spanish dialect from the Catalunya region that bears a striking resemblance to French). We toured the PIcasso museum where some of his earliest works from childhood are displayed. Most of the works were in the Realism style (actual pictures of people that look like people) and very different from his Cubism style that most of us are familiar with. Fun Fact: Picasso's secret desire was to be a bull-fighter. Later, we decided to tour the city history museum, yet much to our dismay it was closed due to Siesta. The Spaniards have it right. They go to work later, take a 3 hour Siesta from 2-5 for the big meal of the day and a nap, go back to work until 8pm, eat dinner around 9 and party until the wee hours of the morning. We returned to the history museum after siesta and were wowed by the remains of an excavated ancient Roman city upon which Barcelona was built. We walked along glass walkways built above the old city and saw where wine was made, the laundry was done and even where meat was cured.
Barcelona was an interesting city, but we were eager to move on to someplace with more of a Spanish, rather than tourist feel.
