The Spaniards pride themselves in their public transport system, and the love is clearly evident in the ride from Madrid – Barcelona. The high speed AVE train that traveled at 300 km/hr was spotless, way more comfortable than an airplane, and had amenities such as a computer station, telephone / fax machine and dining car. We love Renfe.
The weather got progressively wetter and shittier as we approached Barcelona. The sun disappeared altogether, the sky turned grey, and the temperature indicator dropped as the train speed increased. Soon, our views were blurred by the rain. We later found out though, that no matter where we were and how bad the weather was, it was always lots better than the place where we had just been. While Barcelona was cold and wet, temperature in Madrid plunged almost 20 degrees. Poor Armando, he went into hibernation.
After checking into Hostal Absolut Centro which was indeed absolutely central, we made our way down to the Port of Barcelona. It was an easy trek, just look for the giant Christopher Columbus statue pointing his finger at the Mediterranean Sea. There, the pier was covered in a beautiful dark wood (Cherry perhaps). I kept slipping in my platform boots. It was fun, however there were no railings and as I could’ve easily slid straight into the ocean, had to grab on to Mika with my dear life like an old lady. Mika on the other hand wore a pair of Ed Hardy sneaks with no socks. As they got progressively wetter and eventually soaked through, she had to endure a delayed consequence of an altogether different nature. The dynamic duo was temporarily reduced to a pathetic pair by the time we made it to the Grimaldi Ferry terminal. We’re here because the overnight train we planned on taking from Barcelona to Milano doesn’t actually run on the day we wanted to travel, and the only other way to get to Italy that day was by boat from Barcelona to Civitavecchia (Port of Roma). EUrail pass holders get a huge discount from Grimaldi, so we happily splurged on a private inside cabin. Mika became deliriously happy when she saw a picture of a casino on Grimaldi’s ad. And I was getting pretty excited myself when I saw how big the boat was: it holds semi trucks, private cars, as well as a full service SPA and GYM!!!!!!! With ELLIPTICALS!!!!!! Oh, did I mention that Cruise Roma sails in between Sardinia and Corsica?!
We happily got our tickets and went to eat. Although the state of the art Port mall was strangely deserted, we enjoyed our hot meals thoroughly. The waiter had a crush on Mika, and asked us to wait for him to get off work so he could take us (her) clubbing. Mika kicked my knee under the table until it was blue and black, but I was too tired to come up with a clever response so I simply busted his balls. We had our own picks of Barcelona bars to hit up: Marsella’s for their wide variety of absinthe, Almirall for their history of being the oldest (est. 1860) and leftist bar in town, and Resolis as it was, according to the guide book, The place to hit up if one could only visit one bar in El Ravel.
First stop Marcella’s didn’t work out so well. We found it, opened the giant door to poke our heads in, only to see a massive Irish-looking bartender in a fully-lit room devoid of customers mutter something unwelcoming. We decided we were simply too early, docked out and scratched this one off our list. Next up: Resolis. Run by beautiful girls, the blond bartender poured me a very generous portion of Fernet Branca (no ice, a fat rocks glass filled almost all the top) and Mika a very generous portion of Jaegermeister (tall glass with ice) and a separate bottle of coca cola, all for 8€. I love this place. We also saw beautiful tapas (including a salad that involved actual green stuff would you believe) come out, regrettably we were stuffed by this time and couldn’t eat any more. By the time we walked out of Resolis we were pretty toasty and happy. Dark alleys no longer seemed off limits, and we let ourselves get lost briefly and walked by a hospital that later we found out was the place where Antoni Gaudí died. We were joined by all these random people while walking, like movie trailers they would just show up then disappear. One particular run-in was particular entertaining. It was two British guys either pissed drunk or on something good. Nothing coming out of their mouths was even comprehensible for the first five minutes. Then, right when my ear started picking up actual words they drifted into another alley. Finally, we arrived at Almirall. The bartender spoke English with a very Spanish lisp. Mika asked me what I wanted, and naturally I said Absinthe. The bartender had a good point: it’s got such a high alcohol content that drinking it once in a while kills all the germs and parasites that piggyback on you. I liked his point of view, but it didn’t make the green liquor go down any easier. I set the shot on fire and we watched it burn, hoping that’ll get rid of some of the alcohol. When 5 minutes passed and the shot remained full, we blew it out and took turns sipping from a straw as the glass got too hot. At the end, we left with half a shot still standing and went home very happy and warm.
The next morning we set out to visit Sagrada Familia. What a project, started in 1882 and not due to finish until 2030. Towards his last years, It drove Gaudí mad. We got to see the special exhibit regarding nature’s sacred geometry and Gaudí’s architecture, which made me very happy. We got to go up in an elevator then walk down one of the spires, which made me ecstatic. Gaudí was often sick as a child, so instead of playing with other children, his mother would take him into nature. He became interested in forms found in nature, such as the growth and formation of quartz crystals, the beehives’ hexagonal configuration, the golden means spiral, and how trees form scabs / scars when their branch gets severed. All this and more were integrated into the design of Sagrada Familia. For example, the slender columns that make the interior of the church feel like an enchanted forest and the white organic oval shape that marks the tops of them are all modeled after trees; the palm tree pattern on the ceiling is based on the fibonacci sequence…. etc. This church is so organic, and pleasant to be in. I loved the winding staircase coming down from the spike, it reminded me of a dragon’s spine. When we got back down from the top of the spire, one of the French kids came running out to vomit. Must’ve been afraid of heights. That kind of did it for us, we left to get a fresh breath of air. Then we both decided that we really needed to try Pans y Company, kind of a better and more luxurious Spanish version of Subway. As we had no idea where there might be one, we asked the police and they pointed us to the right direction.
In the evening we met up with Pepe’s brother Nacho and his girlfriend Pax. Pax is short for Fancesca, who’d have ever guessed?! Nacho’s short of Ignacio. Mika told him to go watch Nacho Libre, because it’s one of her favorite movies. After showing us the original Barcelona cathedral Santa Maria del Mar, La Seu Catedral and various other spots in the Gothic part, we went to have dinner at a most charming small restaurant. We had just four fantastic dishes and wine that came straight out of giant casks. Nacho is a chef, Pax is a translator. Pax told us all these funny things about Franco and his reign, it was an awesome dinner. Oh, let me mention here that the waiter had a crush on Mika here as well. He kept coming by to check on us, and would be all forlorn and asked “Where did she go?” whenever she stepped away from the table. We had such a great time with Nacho and Pax that apparently, as we found out later, they told Pepe “These two girls are crazy. Everything to them was ‘I like it! I want it!’.” We had such a great time that we decided to meet again the following day before we embarked on Cruise Roma. After Pax showed us what she called her “project” which consisted of a very baroque looking shirt and a pleated skirt, this awesome couple took us to the Boqueria, Barcelona’s famous market. Again, there we liked everything and wanted everything. Mika drank the best kiwi juice, I had the best strawberry-coconut juice, and Nacho had a papaya juice. We also stocked up on jamon, cecina, cheese and membrillo for the 18-hour cruise. Yes, we found it necessary to have food IN ADDITION to the bento boxes that Nacho made us and the pastries we picked up at Rambla 31. Nacho actually made us bento boxes. Each one consisted of a personal sized tortilla espagnola, two slices of different types of cheese, a few cherry tomatoes, a mini apple that’s got a diameter of 1.5“, and a flan for dessert. Oh, he also made a bag of toasted chips from baguette. We were ready to get adopted. After lots of hugs and laughs, we parted ways and embarked on our journey. Even though Spain was home to neither of us, we didn’t feel like we were going anywhere far until now that our feet were firmly planted on the boat. Goodbye Spain!
Mika, thanks for being so patient when I was hunting for a pair of El Naturalista. And where the hell is the Balenciaga store anyway!??
