A Spontaneous Weekend in Barcelona - Parte Uno

So, a couple weekends ago everyone in the various groups of American students was planning a trip to one local or another. Some people were going to Barcelona, some to Lison Portugal, and others to not as distant locations such as Gijon or Aviles. Myself and some friends included were deciding upon either Portugal or Barcelona. Portugal would be interesting but the travel time by train was about 20 hours due to the fact that for some reason the route there backtracks almost to France first. So we decided on Barcelona. One friend and I decided to get our plane tickets online one night and as we went to buy the tickets the price jumped within that minute from 80 euro to 122, this is a large difference and I was only going to fly somewhere because 80 was relatively cheap for a last minute booking.

Thinking that we would be going no where this weekend after all, my friend and I decided to check out the train station to see if anywhere cheap and interesting was available. Upon reaching the train station we learned that within the next hour a train to Barcelona was available for about 35 euro each way, so we decided then and there to go for it and bought our tickets and ran home and packed within the hour of time we had to make it to the train. Upon returning to the station we found the rest of all the others who had been mentioning going to Barcelona over the past week standing there waiting for the same train haha. The ride took about 11 hours and went overnight. We had to sit in little cabins of 8 people at a time, 4 by 4 facing eachother, seated mixed with strangers. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't exactly comfy to say the least.



So finally we reached Barcelona! Here it is at 9:30ish in the morning as we wandered from the train station, map in hand, and no plan for where to stay or what to see.





This is the harbor we walked to, about 30 min from the train station.


Near the harbor is a rotary where in the center is a large statue of Christopher Columbus pointing seaward, dedicated to the fact he left from this city on that fateful day back in the late 15th century.




Here's a close up at the top. It's a little weird that in Spanish, Christopher Columbus' name is actually Cristóbal Colón. Which is why it looks like it says Colon in the red portion below the column cap.

And here's a close up of the bottom.

And this is a large cat sculpture, obviously. I do not know who created it nor what it stands for but I thought it rather funny to just have a large cat randomly in a park I was passing though.

This is the entrance to the hostel we got. The first one on the beach was full of course so we had to go look in the city itself to find another. This one had room and we were both exhausted so that's how this choice was made.

Here is the main entry to the hostel, it had Aborigonee digiredoo music playing when we entered, all in all a bit different than we expected.

This is the hallway where the bathroom was, yep, the bathroom, as in singular. The whole floor shares it.

And here is a shot of the room itself. What you see are 4 bunk bed style partitions on each side, totalling in 6 people sleeping in a room with you that you do not know. For not having reservations I guess this is what you get.

And lastly for now, this is a shot of my luxurious private quarters, and private as in I had a curtain to pull across the front part so no one could watch me sleep. For about $15 american a night I couldn't complain however.

Tomorrow I will post more pics and some video clips of what I saw as I went through the city.