European Vacation 2006

Barcelona!!

I Forgot Something
Before I get into Barcelona, I forgot to mention a few things. When I wrote my last blog, I was in such a hurry to get it finished that I didn't tell you guys the funnier things. My dad and I spent a couple days in Prague. We spent most of the time just walking around and talking. During one of our first coffee breaks, I remarked to the waitress how cold it was. She broke out into a rant about how we Americans are weak. That we don't have snow in America. I laughingly asked her if she knew where Colorado was, but I think my humor was lost on her.



When the day was done, we started looking for a cab. We had walked for hours, and a ride back to the hotel sounded good. I walked up to an ordinary looking taxi, and asked if he knew where "Andante" was. He didn't flinch, "yes". So we jump in. Instead of making a right to head toward our hotel, he made a lift. Then a couple blocks up he made a few more lefts. Then he proceeded down to where there was a bridge and made a right. A couple blocks up he made a couple more rights. We made a huge figure 8 and landed at a hotel whose name is nowhere close to Andante. About a block before he stopped, I told him we weren't even close to our hotel. He insisted. When we stopped, I jumped out and growled at him. I didn't pay, and he didn't even flinch. At least I didn't have to jump out while it was moving. We walked home anyway.

The next day I was determined to get to the castle, which I missed the first year I went to Prague. In my usual way, I jumped in front of a moving tram. The guy is laying on the horn, and somehow I leapt back onto the curb with all my parts still attached. The driver was pissed!!

What's in Barcelona?
When Kristin chose Barcelona, it wasn't even on my radar. In March I mentioned she might meet me in Europe; I told her she could choose the destination. I really had no idea what this city was about. She and I booked our airfare at the same time. Kristin would be flying in from Toronto, and I would be coming from Budapest. We tried to find flights that would put us in the airport in Spain at roughly the same time. Without knowing it, we ended up with the same connection: Munich to Barcelona.









Munich to Barcelona
So of course we talked about hustling seats next to one another when we got on the plane. The flight would be just 2 hours, but by that time we wouldn't have seen each other for weeks. We boarded together in Munich. She sat in her seat, and I sat in mine. Not surprisingly we each had a married couple sit next to us. As if that wasn't bad enough. The guy sitting next to me was shaped like a barrel. Immediately after takeoff, he let out a loud fart. This was going to be a long two hours.

After checking in to our hotel, which for some reason was in the middle of an industrial area, we caught the metro to the gothic area of town. This is the part of Barcelona that is lined with the oldest buildings, including a monstrous, gothic church. The cathedral is huge, and the whole area of town is fantastic. We walked around a bit and eventually ended up at the marina. And that's when the drinking started.



A Place Made for Drinkers
We found on our little trip to Spain that when you order vodka and any mixer, they fill the glass half-full with vodka. This is not a problem for a veteran drinker like me, but Kristin weighs less than 100 pounds. You can imagine how some of our days went. Occasionally we would try to get the waiter to stop short of a half-glass, but most of the time they just looked confused. "You don't want a ton of booze?"



Disgusting Seafood
Dinner took us to the Port Olympic, where I caused scene by sending back some really disgusting looking grilled shrimp. When it got to the table, the stench almost sent us both running. I told the waiter that I would pay for it, but I couldn't eat it. It took about 15 minutes to get everyone on the same page, but I did get to have dinner. We were both bushed from travel, so we skipped dancing.

Who is Goudy?
For weeks leading up to my trip, my friend Glenn informed me that it would be a serious mistake for me to miss the Goudy buildings in Barcelona. It seems that this Goudy was a designer, and he was commissioned by this guy Gruel to make some special buildings. So when Kristin and I got up, we jumped on one of those city tour busses that allow you to jump off and on at whim, and we took the one that hit all the Goudy buildings.




So what happened next was predictable. We got on the bus, rode it until there was something cool to see, and then jumped off. I took some photos. We grabbed a cocktail. Then we boarded the bus again. Then repeat. And repeat. By the time the tour bus got to the last stop, we were seriously finished. And we saw most of Goudy's stuff.




Scratch Ibiza
We intended to go to Ibiza the next day. I purposely made our hotel reservations for just two nights. We were coming back to Barcelona for the last 2 nights, and I had no intention of staying in the industrial part of town when we got back. So we walked up and down streets in the gothic area, and we found a new hotel just a block from the cathedral. Next we needed to book our trip to Ibiza. Of course there were complications. All flights to Ibiza for the weekend were booked, and the ferries were at really inconvenient times. If decided to go on the ferry, our 4 day weekend would shrink to 2 days. So based on our new agent's advice, we booked a hotel in Platja D'Aro, a little beach town just 2 hours drive north of Barcelona.

Never Trust a Cab Driver
When everything was all set, she asked for a passport. For obvious reasons I have made it a habit of leaving my passport in a safer place than my pockets, and now if we wanted our reservations, we had to go to the hotel and grab a passport. Kristin thought we could just take the metro, but I needed to take a cab. The cab ride to the hotel was fine, but somehow we drew the cab driver from hell for the way back. This guy took us down to the port, up the freeway, around the back of the district, and up through the street. We were going in big loops; the whole time I'm asking him where the hell he's going!! It was 15 Euros. We took a cab to the airport for 15 Euros.

That night we went back to Port Olympic for food and dancing. This cab driver roped us into going to his friend's restaurant, and after a strange dinner, we walked down to the clubs. Kristin and I danced until late and called it a night.



A New Barcelona
Five days later we would return to what felt like a completely different Barcelona. We stayed at our new hotel in the Gothic quarter. Instead of cabbing into town for dinner, we just wandered around until we found fun places to eat. It was great. We spent our last day wandering around the best part of the city.

posted by Adam Stern @ 1:47 AM