Barcelona

Wednesday 09/27/23

Another day of travel. I checked out at around 11 a.m. and then waited because my train didn't leave until 12:34. I thought... but when I arrived at the station at around 12:15 and looked at my ticket for the seat reservation for the first time, I noticed that the reservation was for a train at 11:25... Gone stupid! I immediately got a row ticket with a number in order to get a new seat reservation as quickly as possible, but it just didn't move forward and after almost two hours at the limit of my patience I finally got a new reservation, but the train is departed from another train station and went there directly with a free shuttle bus. The train ride was very relaxed, even if there was no WiFi again. When I arrived in Barcelona I took the metro to the hostel. At first glance I found Barcelona a bit unappealing, the street of my hostel looked very sketchy, even though I got used to it quite well after 5 days. Another disappointment was that the hostel once again didn't have a kitchen, at least I now know that I have to pay close attention to that when I book a hostel.

Thursday 09/28/23

As always on the first day, I explored first, I looked at two of the Gaudi houses, one Casa Batllo and one Casa Mila, very nice, but I didn't like the area there, too many people. On the way back to the hostel I ended up in the old town and I really liked it there. I looked at a few small art galleries, walked past the Arc de Triomf and the Cathedral de Barcelona. In the evening I went out for tapas and paella with Clara, a German girl from my room. We first went to a market with two other girls before splitting up. After dinner, the two of us walked through the night, which is something I rarely get to do.

Friday 9/29/23

On Friday I had another very relaxing day because I noticed again how my neck was starting to hurt. So I put on a face mask, watched a movie, got food and that was it.

Saturday 09/30/23

Saturday was basically an “art day” I started with the Picasso Museum and then went through the many small art galleries in the old town. So many beautiful paintings by "unknown" artists, it made me so happy to see so much art ( https://www.artevistas.eu/ ). I once again bought a lot of postcards that I will never send (it's pretty expensive). Back at the hostel I quickly grabbed a few snacks and breakfast for Sunday and then I went to sleep.

Sunday 10/01/23

On Sunday I got up at 6:45 a.m. (very uncharacteristic for me) for Sunday mass at the Sagrada Familia. So I got up and only then noticed that it was still dark when I wanted to start walking. So I delayed it as much as possible. Even though the walk to the metro was very short, it was still a bit scary. When I arrived at the Sagrada Familia at around 7:45 a.m., there was already a very long line there, even though mass didn't start until 9 a.m. I actually got in but had to hand over my pocket knife and my Sharpie at the entrance. I got a pretty good seat in the church, but that didn't help me much because the service was in Catalan and I understood almost nothing. After the fair I quickly picked up my pocket knife and my Sharpie before I went back to the hostel. I rested there a bit and then took the metro to Park Güell. It was really beautiful in Park Güell, a few musicians played a few songs, and the buildings there were really incredibly beautiful. On the way home I got empanadas (absolutely heavenly). During my siesta I watched a film. Then I quickly went to the sea again and collected lots of stones, glass stones and shells.