A One Way Ticket

November 6, Sunday¿ Barcelona

Ahhhhh....Spain.

Home to bullfighting, chorizo, tappas, and Estrella Damm Lager. And the home of nearly perfect weather. It was 70· today with brilliant blue skies, a wisp of a breeze, and a smiling sun.

I flew in under rather auspicious beginnings. All I really knew was that I was going to Girona Spain, which I knew from a weathered map that it was on the Mediterranean. I had a Spanish-English pocket dictionary in hand, and a sense of abandon. Which aside from a plane ticket and a pocket of euros is all you really need.

What I didn´t figure in was another time change. Whoops. Just figured its pretty much south from where I was, so why the need for a time change. Regardless, they changed it on me, and I got to Girona at something around 10 pm. Which is fine if you know anything about where you are aside from being near the Mediterranean. So, it was with a sort of shrug that I hopped on a bus bound for Barcelona, yet another city I didn´t know much about besides the geography, an Olympics was there a few years back, and that when you say Barcelona, you are supposed to pronounce it ´Bar-they-lone-a´. So, naturally, it seemed like the best place to go.

The bus arrived into the big B at around 11:30pm and uncerimoniously dumped me off at an abondoned station. It´s dark, it´s empty, and it´s a city of 1.5 million. Good odds for a mugging. So I quickly hauled the proverbial ass and sped off towards lights and the sound of vehicles. A long walk took me to a street I had heard of called La Ramblas (which is naturally pronounced La Hamblas).

Working with two cute aussie lasses, we found a hostel called the Ideal Hostel, which I thought was appropriate when at the sliding glass doors of the place, there was a huge vending machine that produced only beer.

And now I am living the Barcelona life. Eating squid, watching the national team win at soccer, fending off unsavory folks on the streets. But yet, as the Polish would say: you must try...

And I did and so must you as well. This is a grand city. Most everything that I heard about this place is true. It is big. It is beautiful. It is fun. They have walkways lined with palm trees that are supported by even more lines of Sycamores, all the way offering quaint benches to relax at, for if there is anything the Spanish have got down to a science is how to take it easy.

It is imperative to visit La Segarda Familia - an absolutely collosal structure dedicated to various events in the life of Christ. I don´t believe I´ve ever seen such an edifice of its size or detail. Begun by the renown artist Gaudi, it towers over most of the city and is unlike anything I´ve ever seen. Gaudi, the city´s patron, is evident everywhere throughout the city, from sculptures to gargoyles, and most especially in the mosaics. And what amazing mosaics.

The Mediterranean is dreamlike in its azure glory and I shall bask while I can.