A Barc-adventure

At 12:30 a.m. Thursday morning, my friend Esmier and I ordered tickets for an 8:30 a.m. flight of the same day for Barcelona, Spain. I had found a concert of a band I really enjoy, The Sounds, for later that night a while back, but we didn't make the decision to actually go until the day before. It seemed like a good enough reason to go. We couldn't pre-order tickets, so if we got in great, if not we were sure we could find something to do. I mean it is Barcelona right? Well so the adventure began.

Soon after the purchase, a short flight, and long bus ride we finally made it to Barcelona. We found that our hostel seemed to be right in the middle of everything, so that was quite convienent. That day we meet up with a friend of Esmier and explored the Parque Guell (my first experience to the architect Guadi) before heading over to the place the concert was at. We had asked our hostel people for directions, so we were pretty sure we knew where it was, but unfortunatelly I couln't remember the name. Razz-a-something... That didn't help, but we did manage to find it. It was a club, Razzmatazz, located in a wearhouse district, the perfect place for a rock concert. After almost getting scammed with overpriced tickets, we managed to purchase tickets for the correct price and make our way in. We ended up on the 4th row of people and had a pretty darn good time. The crowd was having fun and because of the catchy lyrics of all of their songs, I knew most of the words to all the songs, so it made it even better.

Before the start of the concert I told Esmier the two laws of concerts. 1. You always end up behind the tallest person there and 2. A sweaty, tipsy person will break their way up to the front of the line and push their sweaty body past you to get a better seat for a group they may or may not know. Both happened within the first 10 minutes of the show. The theory even applies to European shows I guess.

Well the next day we visited the Gothic Neiborhood and walked through the old Barcelona, streets filled with history. In this neigboorhood I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that most of them were wet and smelled a little funny and that they probably have been like that for a very, very long time. But they were very interesting nontheless and made me full of of those feelings like I'm only a speck in history. But even if I'm just a speck, I'm a speck that is happy I don't have to live in wet, smelly streets. There were also several protests going on throughout the city, I wonder if it had something to do with the streets.

We ended up on the beach and took a little sun. It was obvious too cold to swim and unfortunately I failed to touch the water. I still have never been in the Medetarianian Sea. I managed to touch hundreds of year old walls, the Sangrada Familia, an Olympic Stadium, but I falied to set even one toe in the Medetranian. I'm dissapointed in myself, I'm usually big on touching important historical objects. Well I don't think the sea is going anywhere, so I'll be back for you Medetranian, don't worry.

That night we went in search for el Bosc de las Fades, a forest themed bar that was rumored to be incredible. We didn't make it there very fast. Starting about 100 feet from the actual place, we managed to look around the Gothic Neighboorhood for about 30 minutes. We started asking many people for directions and it was here that I learned a lesson that every small town kid must learn their first time in a big city. You can't really ask everyone on the street for directions. I managed to ask some of those wrong people. While searching there was a man standing on the corner who asked me if I wanted something I certainly did not want. I answered no gracias, but then asked if he knew where this place was. I mean if he was going to ask me a question, I could certainly do the same. He seemed to get a little nervous and not really know where it was. A firend of his, obviously in the same profession, came up and started to "show us the way." As he lead us he started to ask what kind of things we wanted, more stuff I definitely did not want. I realized it was a very bad idea to be following him and was very thankful we were still on a busy street, so we kind of snuck away and asked another person. But it just seems to me that men in their profession should know the back allies of the city the best. The supply chain of illegal substances must require a substantial amount of knowledge of the layout of the city. I just don't understand why they couldn't give a straight answer. We did eventually find the place, and were thankful we lived to tell the tale. And yes it was worth the search. Imagine Lord of the Rings, but instead of Frodo, there is a friendly Spanish bartender. And instead of being located in the Shire it was located in a wax musem.

Most of the next day was spent at Mountjuic, another park with the Castle of Barcelona, and at night... the Majic Fountain Show. And it is about a million times better than it sounds. For 2 hours we we enjoyed the music and visual stimulations of the MFS. The words I can type can not explain how amazing this was. That is why I made this video. Water has never been so cool.



The rest of the trip was swell and now it is back to the real world. But I did find out that Thursday is some sort of holiday, so tomorrow is pretty much Friday. And Hillary comes soon! Fun things are ahead, but I do have a midterm in a week which really could do some damage, so I'll do my best, I just hope the test writers don't do their best as well.

And I just finished the new CD by the Decemberists, those hazards of love make for good songs.