Spain but the S is not silent (for a bit)
By: Carl Mendoza
Tags: Spain, Covid 19, Solo Travel

Barcelona

Passage of Grace

Me and Barcelona go way back, the year is 2016 and I just finished my placement.

My uni lecturer referred me to a company he knew the owners, who were looking for someone to do summer work for them, and coincidentally, we had a family trip planned to Barcelona that same summer, basically, I had my own money to essentially make my own trip out of this one.

But long story short, just like in Madrid, I never managed to see everything in Barcelona part 1. With my extra travel budget — I made my own solo trip to Valencia for one day, and guess what, it rained when I was there.

Being a bad tourist, I even got lost for a couple of hours so I didn’t really get to see Valencia well, apart from the beach — it was less crowded than Barcelona tbf.

Fast forward to now, this time, I was always going to make the most out of it. Especially not being able to travel for almost 2 years.

I always get confused which ones Plaza Espanya and Catalunya

I don’t really have itineraries as such, they are more ideas in my head of places I would like to go, with no clear time of when I want to be there for.

Unlike Madrid, there were a lot of places that I have missed the first time, namely Parc Güell, Arc de Triomf, the Gaudí houses and obviously, the Sagrada.

Can never get a good angle of La Sagrada

Spoiler alert for those who haven’t been inside

The first time I was here, I thought 'Barca' is this city that is just for tourists, like everywhere is a tourist trap, and that people who actually live there go somewhere else if that makes sense.

But as a tourist, I don’t care, I’m here to have fun. The motto of 'first day is always a rest day' went out the window, as soon as I’ve left my bags in the hotel, I was out to explore the city.

First place I wanted to see was the Arc de Triomf, mainly because I was intrigued why it sounded like the one in Paris.

Might look cloudy but it was hot as heck

As with all my other travels, I got lost but managed to get there eventually.

Like I said before, my mindset going on this trip is that I just wanted to wander aimlessly, which is what exactly I did — I literally walked everywhere with shorts and flip flops, chanclas or tsinelas to whoever ends up reading this.

I’ve been longing for stupidly hot weather for a while, and this was just perfect. Even though it got really painful and uncomfortable walking for miles on old flip flops, I didn’t really mind, especially after being morbidly unhealthy for a few months before and without much mental stimulation.

For Barcelona, I literally just went to most tourist sites as you would expect. For whatever reason, I wanted to go to Passeig De Gracia, just for the name alone.

One funny story I had is when I went to the beach, I felt a bit left out seeing all the people swimming on the sea, and since I am on my own, its pretty much impossible. Initially, I just wanted to take photos, walk down the beach and then go.

Is it salty because its the sea or is it the people doing all sorts lol jk

But the sun was just too nice not to try getting a cheeky dip.

Something I 'learnt' about myself when I am away travelling is that I am more confident, resourceful, maybe braver. I wasn’t going to leave this beach without swimming in the sea, no señor.

Initially, I walked just close to the water to see if there are 'friendly' looking people who won’t mind watching my things, even just for a bit. But soon I realised, the risk was too much, I mean, I need glasses so if someone makes a dash for it, I would be pretty much fxcked.

Next I walked to one of the lifeguard stations to ask if theres a place where podría dejar mis cosas? leave my things essentially.

The guy I spoke to was Argentine, I could tell straightaway from the accent, like Palermo from Casa de Papel.

He was like, quieres lockers! and told me to look for a place called 'Spiderman' (stick with it), as you’d think I was like okay… he did say which lifeguard station its close to so I wasn’t completely wtf. I thought he meant there’s a spiderman art or something near where the lockers are.

La ‘Platja’

I walked to where he told me its close to, and as expected no spiderman anywhere, so asked another guy, and after a bit, he knew what I was looking for.

Turns out, 'Spiderman' was actually a surf shop called Espai del Mar (hahaha), in short for Espai del Mar de Catalunya apparently.

Your friendly neighbourhood

But yeah, managed to keep my stuff in there safely and just spent the whole day on the beach. Honestly, it was just perfect.

Even though I managed to stow away my stuff before I went for a swim, some things actually got wet — including my metro ticket.

But this ruined ticket would actually lead me to making friends randomly in Barcelona.

To use the public transport there, you have to validate your ticket to either a machine on the bus or on the barriers for the metro.

Since my ticket was ruined, I told the bus driver that mine was está roto, broken and therefore can’t validate. He took my ticket off the and started scratching on the metal bit of the ticket and said try now, and it worked!

Anyway, met someone on the bus after all this nonsense and we started talking about the city and random stuff really.

Eventually, she even took me near her home where you could see a really nice view of Barcelona.

Hello from the otherside (of Barcelona)

Thanks Juli, if you end up reading this — was cool lol.

After this, I got going since I am leaving for Madrid the next day and needed to pack.

But before I do, I wanted to see Plaza Catalunya and Las Ramblas one more time since I’m leaving quite early the next day.

From my hotel, 'Calatunya' was a couple of metro stops away. Still with my broken ticket, the metro barriers would not let me through even though my ticket is still valid, just ruined by saltwater.

As I was struggling trying out different metro barriers, one guy must have seen me, made eye contact somehow and gestured as if to say get behind me (to get through — illegally of course).

After essentially fare dodging, thanked the guy for letting me through with him, made attempt with a small talk just so its not awkward walking off after being let in, and turns out this dude was from Colombia.

Since the country is another country that I would like to go to, we started talking about Colombia, and how life is in Barcelona.

After I told him I live in England, he said I speak two languages, Español y mierda, I know its stupid but I actually made my night.

And that was it really, this trip gave more 'substance' to Barcelona, next time I come back there, not only I can reminisce about the tourist spots, but also remember the nice waitress in Clot offering me free shots after my meals, making friends with a local and being taken on a funicular ride to a nice viewing spot of Barcelona, the Colombian dude on the metro who made me commit a crime and all the countless friendly people I have met along the way.

Late night Rambla

Might be cringe and sounds like Bourdain but to me this is why I love travelling so much. It’s always cool meeting new people from different places and hearing their stories. Not to mention the food and obviously the tourist sites, I mean I wouldn’t be there if theres nothing to see o sea.

So please world, let’s not try to F things up again, life is hard enough without a pinche pandemic and travelling is my main outlet to refresh and reset, and not be able to do so was just painful.

Waiting for El Corte Ingles to open

Ta luego

Until next time Spain/travelling, hasta pronto!