Barcelona – Part 1 | Un très long voyage de noces

Barcelona – Part 1

20 Mar 2014 – 22 Mar 201

Noha

Why did you come to Barcelona?

Since we plan on visiting Barcelona with Peter’s parents in the second half of April, we didn’t really want to come to Barcelona at this time. We preferred to go straight from France to Andalusia, however, it was impossible to do it by train in one day, and the only logical stop was Barcelona. We originally planned on stopping just for two nights, but our Granada hosts could only receive us one day later, and so we stopped in Barcelona for three nights.

What is your impression of Barcelona?

Barcelona is a big city, noisy and overwhelming.

I say that because we haven’t been in a big city since Paris and Cairo (more than a month ago) and I got used to the small peaceful South of France. We haven’t seen much of Barcelona at this time (knowing that we would come back later) but we saw the Plaça de Catalunya

and the Rhamble street which seem to be the heart of the city.

Close to Barcelona is multi-peaked mountain called Monteserrat which is very popular for hiking and climbing. The rock formation makes for different shapes identified by locals: elephant, mummy, pregnant woman (looked like an Ape to me), fat monk, etc…

On the very left is the elephant, and in the middle is the mummy. The resemblance is more noticeable in person than in the excellent picture I have taken.

By Montserrat is the Benedictine abbey Santa Maria de Montserrat…

…where there is the Virgin of Montserrat sanctuary believed by some to house the Holy Grail.

Whom did you interact with?

We were hosted by Salvi for three nights.

Salvi grew up in Vacarisses (translated from latin to village of the cow) near Barcelona.

Vacarisses

To him, Vacarisses is the center of the universe. It is between Barcelona and Montserrat where he has been climbing since he was 12, and have already climbed all the Montserrat peaks. He works for the police as an analyst for political groups. One year and half ago, he travelled to Latin America for seven months where he visited every latin American country (except for Colombia) with his now ex-girlfriend. In September, he dislocated his shoulder while climbing which prevented him from climbing since then. He is still undergoing physical therapy and seems truly distressed that he cannot climb for another few months.

Salvi introduced us to his girlfriend Agata, who spent most of the time with us. She grew up in Barcelona, decided to learn German, and is now a German teacher for school kids. She has a dog called Truska (4 years old), who also spent most of the time with us.

We also met Salvi’s parents on our way to Montserrat. His father is a politician in Vacarisses, his mother used to be a teacher, but now she is at a higher position overseeing training of teachers. Both of them did mountain climbing (in fact, according to Salvi, everyone in Vacarisses does mountain climing, and you’re a freak if you don’t). His mother learned to speak french a couple years ago, so it was useful for me to communicate with her, since she didn’t speak much English. She seems to have alot of hobbies: pottery, embroidery, learning languages. They have a seven months puppy: Lluna.

How did you feel about this surfing experience? What were your interactions with your hosts like?

We had a blast surfing with Salvi! He is very funny, entertaining speaker, very generous and kind hearted. We had alot in common: like us, he only knew about couchsurfing while doing his trip in South America, surfed alot (not nearly as much as us though) and understands how meeting people can dramatically change your travel experience. In fact, like us, travel to him became more about the people than the sightseeing. He is not a party person, which is a relief to us. He knew exactly what a long term traveller needed and gave it to us (made us feel very welcome, keys to his apartment, laundry, offered to store some bags for us, took us to non touristy spots, etc…).

We had dinner every night with Salvi, which was mostly cooked by Agata so we were spoiled by her as well. Even more, when we visited his parents, they made us a delicious cake, fed us alot of fruits, and gave us the rest of the cake to eat on our long train ride to Granada.

How did you spend your time in Barcelona?

I am going to leave the full narration to Peter to avoid some repetition, but I will talk about the day we went to Montserrat.

When we arrived to Montserrat, Salvi proposed a rapid 30 minute walk because it might rain later. I still didn’t learn my lesson, and believed it was just a 30 minutes walk. Ofcourse, we ended up climbing for more than one hour all the way to the top of the mountain. I was out of breath, but enjoyed the exercise. We also enjoyed Truska (Agata’s dog) and Lluna ( Salvi’s parents dog whom we picked up on the way) company.

After the long climb, we were able to see the view from top which was breath taking.

After walking through somewhat scary slippery parts (again, I am the only who notices the danger), Salvi asked us if we want to go back down directly or if we want to take a longer two hour route around the mountain to get back down. After debate, I voted for taking the more difficult route because I didn’t want to regret it later. It ended up being a nice walk, neither long nor scary.

What did you like about Barcelona? What do you think Peter liked about Barcelona?

To be honest, I haven’t seen much of Barcelona. We only walked around for a few hours so I can’t answer this question, and have to wait for our upcoming visit there in a couple weeks to talk more about.

About this trip, I enjoyed Salvi and Agata’s company at dinners, and when we took the trip to Montserrat together, everything was perfect.

They are both very opinionated in a funny way. They tend to argue with each other about ideas in talk-show-rivalry style.

Speaking of rivlary, I enjoyed the rivalry between Agata’s dog (Truska) and Salvi’s parents dog (Lluna) over Salvi. Truska (who just met Lluna) felt very jealous of her. Whenever Salvi gives Lluna any attention, Truska interferes, gets upset in all shapes and forms, and tries to block them from each other. We joked that this is the only time two females will ever fight over Salvi.

Another high of the visit is watching Salvi try to speak French. As his mom spoke French and not English, for our sake he tried to make a conversation in his French (which he hasn’t practiced in years). Whenever he spoke french, his body posture would change to make himself taller, his voice would become higher in pitch and volume, and he would end up speaking mostly in Spanish anyway.

I think Peter enjoyed Montserrat and the dogs company very much.

Is there anything you disliked about Barcelona? Do you think Peter disliked anything about Barcelona?

This was the first time we visit a big city since we have been in Paris and Cairo. Having got used to peaceful Southern villages in France, I was a little put off by the pollution, noise and crowds.

Also, my brand new hiking shoes that I bought less than a month ago for 70 Euros have a hole in it! It is not like I go hiking every day, only maybe four times since I bought them. Never ever buy Colombia hiking shoes!

I think that both Peter and I disliked buying a bar of chocolate from a big Supermarket in downtown. The whole thing ended up taking too much time waiting in line among people who don’t really wait their turn, and when it is their turn, they take too much time. It felt like a wake up call from our dreamy french villages.

How did the reality compare to your expectations for Barcelona?

It is as big as a city as I expected. I was not surprised by anything we saw.

However, the couchsurfing experience was very different than we imagined and exceeded our expectations. When we contacted Salvi, his profile was a shared profile between him and a German girl. The whole time, I thought it was the German girl answering us (not Salvi). We theorized that it is probably her who wants to meet us because we have had no luck with Spanish people in Barcelona or other cities. We arrived to find out that it was Salvi, and that he had broken up with the German girl, however, he is too lazy to update his profile. He is now with Agata who cohosted us and was wonderful to us. We didn’t really expect that much warmth from the two of them.

Any regrets?

No regrets, to the opposite. We originally planned to stay in Barcelona only for two nights (i.e. one full day). The only people who agreed to host us in Granada could only host us a day later than we asked. I asked Salvi if we can stay with him one more day and he immediately agreed. I was annoyed having to take one day from Andalusia to give to Barcelona (given that we will return there), but that extra day was the one where we went to mountain Montserrat and visited Salvi’s parents, so, in the end, it was a blessing that we didn’t go to Granada on that day.

Did you learn anything new?

I should have read more about Spain going to Spain, but had no time (looking for hosts, catching up on the blog, sightseeing). Once in Barcelona, I found out that we are not in Spain yet and people don’t speak Spanish. We are in Catalonia who are pride of their identity and consider themselves separate from Spain. A catalonian would not like it if you call him Spanish or call Barcelona to be in Spain. Catalonians speak Catalan. Catalan is “Spanish meet French”. It is very similar to Spanish but alot of the vocabulary comes from French and pronounced in a Spanish accent. For example, milk is leche in Spanish and lait in french. In Catalan, it is lait but pronounced differently than french. Catalonians call the non-Catalonians to be Spanish. According to Salvi, when Spain won the world cup in 2010, Catalonians did not particularly care and might even haven been rooting for the opposing team!

How do you feel about this experience so far?

About the trip, I feel good. I wish we had more time for Andalusia, it still baffles me how even though we quit our jobs, we still can’t spend as much time as we want in places.

I am a little frustrated by Couchsurfing in Spain. Compared to France and Germany, it is much more difficult. I remember one day when we were in Arles, Mathieu our host was encouraging us to stay longer, our Montpellier hosts were encouraging us to go earlier, Thierry had invited us to Espeluche and Béatrice said we can go see her parents in our beloved Chalencon if we feel like we need a break. We were welcome in four different places at the same time, and were torn between so many lovely invitations but cut everything short to go to Spain. Now no one wants to meet us here!. One funny note: when I send requests to hosts, I include the blog link (for them to know about us). When I was sending the requests to Germany and France, I always noticed a spike in views from these countries (I attribute it to German dutifulness to do as they are told, and french curiosity). When I sent the requests to Spain, not one Spanish (or Catalonian) person clicked on it. At least now we know where we belong! To everyone’s defense though, the weather is getting nicer and they are probably getting more requests.

Additional comments?

Mother’s day is March 21st in Egypt (the first day of Spring). When I moved to the U.S. 10 years ago, I asked my friend Maie (we call her Tweety) on the first year to bring flowers to my mother on my behalf. I meant it for that year, and knew that I have to ask her every time. However, without me asking, she has been doing it every year without fail. This year, she even said to my mom that the flowers are from Peter, her and I. We may only speak once a month or once every two months but she is still my loyal and dear friend. Happy mother’s day to my mom!

What are your expectations for Granda?

For the first time, we don’t know where we will be sleeping two nights from today. Our Granada hosts accepted us only for two nights, we haven’t found hosts for our following stop (Sevilla) yet, so this is as close as we came to Spontaneity. I expect Granada to be beautiful in a different way than we are used to. I expect the time will be hectic, and I have no idea where we will be sleeping in two days!

Peter

Why did you come to Barcelona?

We had planned to visit (at least) Madrid and Barcelona, probably the two major cities that tourists think of when they think of Spain. Our plan was to go to Madrid and Barcelona with my parents in April, and for the two of us to spend some time in the south of Spain and then Portugal before their arrival in Madrid. In order to go from Toulouse to the south of Spain by train, it’s almost impossible without stopping somewhere first, and Barcelona was the logical choice.

What is your impression of Barcelona?

Well I have to say that on this particular stop we barely saw the city at all. From my limited impression of Barcelona, there’s a central square, Plaça de Catalunya, with a famous pedestrian street, La Rambla, that leads down to the sea. Both are swarming with tourists. We stayed a little outside the center, in a neighborhood on a gentle slope, that seemed liked any city, more or less.

We also had the good fortune to see a famous mountain not far from Barcelona, Montserrat. The mountain itself isn’t like a typical Alps-ish mountain with a sharp snowy peak; rather, it has several small, rounded peaks in distinctive shapes. Each peak has a name: Fat Monk, Elephant, Mummy, Pregnant Woman, &c.

Elephant and Mummy…

Several villages are located at the foot of the mountain. Partway up the mountain is a famous church and monastery, a popular tourist destination.

Whom did you interact with?

Our host, Salvi, and his girlfriend, Agata. Before we came we thought that we would be hosted by a German and Spanish couple, but it turns out we were mistaken and both of them are Spanish. Salvi comes from one of the villages by the foot of Montserrat and Agata is from Barcelona.

A little over a year ago, Salvi had come back from a long (seven months?) trip in South America, where he visited every country except Columbia, which he missed only for lack of time. He told us how amazing and welcoming his hosts were in South America. Noha has always been excited about going there, while I have been less-so, but hearing Salvi’s stories made me want to go, too. Since coming back he has worked doing research on extremist political groups, working for the department of police but not doing direct investigative work. He’s also extremely passionate about mountain climbing — it seems that mountaineering and climbing enthusiasts are very well represented on Couchsurfing. Unfortunately for him he seriously dislocated his shoulder late last year, requiring surgery, and forcing him to give up climbing until later this year.

Salvi is a very welcoming and generous person, and he’s also very funny. Even though English is his third language (after Catalan and Castellano/Spanish) he was comfortable enough with it to make jokes, often making silly statements in a deadpan manner. He was even funnier when he spoke French, and Noha loved how he would hold himself in a different way and his voice would rise an octave when he tried it.

Agata was also very welcoming and warm even though she wasn’t involved directly in Couchsurfing. Salvi accepts the requests and then she ends up helping with meals and basically doing as much hosting as he does. She learned German in school, because she wanted to be different from everyone else who learned English, and now teaches both German and English in school, and visits Germany frequently. She told us some funny and hair-raising stories about her students. She and Salvi met each other through a mutual friend, on a mountain climbing outing — it seems that everyone in the Barcelona area does at least a little bit of climbing.

We also met Salvi’s parents in the house where he grew up. His mother speaks French so we were able to communicate, but actually Noha ended up talking to her more in Castellano than in French. They very kindly received us for coffee and even baked a cake for us, the leftovers of which we took with us for our long trip to Granada the following day.

And of course I cannot omit our interactions with Truska, Agata’s dog, a four-year-old Pointer/Dalmation mix, and Yuna, Salvi’s parents’ dog, an eight-month-old (or so) Golden Retriever. We met Truska on our second night and she immediately started barking at us out of nervousness, but quickly became acclimated to us. The following day we met Yuna on the outing to Montserrat, and it was funny to see not only how much she loved Salvi, whom she had only seen a few times, but also how jealous Truska became on seeing Salvi give the least attention to Yuna. I thought that the dogs would get along and play together but in fact Truska kept making efforts to dominate Yuna and seemed not to like her presence at all.

How did you spend your time in Barcelona?

We had a long trip from Toulouse to Barcelona. It was mostly unremarkable, except for the third train we took, a long, local train from Port Bou to Barcelona. I watched as a man across the aisle started talking to a young asian woman reading Borges’ Ficciones, and then they talked for the whole trip. She spoke flawless (to my ears) Spanish, which I found fascinating, for some reason. I wonder what people think when they hear my (terrible, flat) American accent coming out of my ethnically vague face.

We had a little trouble getting to Salvi’s place because I made us leave the train one stop too soon. But after a lot of walking we got there, and met Salvi on the steps to his apartment. Salvi reached out his hand to me in some sort of handshake, and because I didn’t know the custom of embracing in Spain (I should say, Catalonia), I started to pull him in for an exchange of air-kisses, but I think I pulled him a little off balance on the steps and we ended up in an awkward hug, the type of thing you see among white American men sometimes. Salvi welcomed us into his home and we talked for a while, and then went out to get supplies for dinner. Agata came shortly after and they prepared a typical Catalonian dinner, of bread, cheese, various sausages, and salad, followed by some strawberries and yogurt for dessert. Salvi and Agata hold different opinions and often disagree when they talk, but in a playful manner. At night I went to plug in a charger to the outlet but it caused all of the power in the apartment to go out (a quirk of the wiring), which forced Salvi to get out of bed and reset the circuit breaker.

The next day, our only full day in Barcelona, was mostly spent at home, because we woke up late and then had to spend some time looking for hosts for stupid Sevilla and also Portugal. We finally made it out of the house, first to get some food at a nearby café, and then to go to the train station to get our reservations to Granada. Noha handled the interaction with the teller (who was rather curt) all in Spanish. We went to Plaça de Catalunya and saw a ton of tourists, including two girls who seemed to be competing for space among the pigeons to take the typical ‘I’m in a big square in Europe’ photo.

We walked a little down La Rambla, stopping to get some candy at an awful Carrefour, and then wandered down a side-street and saw some kind of courtyard garden.

At this point we were feeling a little overwhelmed at being back in a huge tourist city and aimless without a guide, so we decided to get some groceries and head home. Salvi and Agata came a little later with Truska, and we had some pizza for dinner. Salvi told us about his huge work lunch where he had to stuff himself and drink who-knows-how-much beer and wine, poor guy.

Salvi and Agata had offered to take us to Montserrat on the following day, to which we eagerly agreed. They woke up before us (of course) and brought some food for breakfast, and then we headed out. Salvi drove us to his parents’ house and we picked up Yuna, and we took his parents’ bigger car.

Truska in the car…

We drove up partway and then walked to the main tourist area, and guiltily sampled some cheeses from vendors along the way. We started the hike up the mountain, passing a small church and meeting lots of other tourists on the way.

At one point we were talking to a group of Erasmus students at a branch in the path, and Salvi suggested to them that they take the longer route, about 2 h of walking. They left and then we had to decide what to do; we felt bad about taking the short route back down and decided also to take the long route.

We reached the top of the funicular line and then took an easy sloped path back down, and in the end the route wasn’t all that hard. Back down we went into the monastery, and waited in line to see a famous statue of the Virgin with Child, behind a clear protective enclosure but with a small space open for a ball in her hand, which faithful visitors often kiss.

On the walk back to the car a sudden storm began, with even small pieces of hail. We waited under a tree while Salvi ran to retrieve the car.

Safe in the car, we drove back down and had tapas at a small bar. There were pictures of climbers on various peaks, and Salvi pointed out to me which of the lines he had climbed in the past — basically, all of them. We returned to Salvi’s parents’ home, but they were not there; Salvi climbed the gate (I guess he couldn’t help climbing something) and let us in, and his parents returned a little afterwards. They gave us tea, coffee, fruit, and cake, and we talked in Spanish and French. At some point Salvi’s language skills came out, as he tried to speak in French and Portugese, with hilarious results. Afterwards we stopped by a grocery store to get supplies for the ride to Granada — with the amount we bought one would think we were about to embark on a three-day hike, instead of ten hours of sitting in trains and stations. At home we had soup for dinner, and Salvi discoursed on the changing relationship customs of generations to come, while Agata disagreed with his opinions. Then we got ready and made our goodbyes, because we had to leave early the next day.

What did you like about Barcelona? What do you think Noha liked about Barcelona?

I can’t say anything much about Barcelona itself. Plaça de Catalunya seemed like a nice plaza, large, fountains, pigeons, tourists, McDonalds, &c. I would have liked to follow La Rambla all the way to the end but we didn’t have the time. Montserrat was wonderful and I would happily return with my parents if given the chance.

I think more than anything we both really liked meeting Salvi and Agata. Especially because it’s been so hard to find any Spanish people that want to meet us! They’re both really fun to be around, warm and welcoming, and treated us very kindly. We actually found it strange that they enjoyed our company: they seem like very cool people with active hobbies, and I was surprised that they didn’t prefer to go out with friends over hanging out with two meek strangers, but I’m glad they did. I’m looking forward to seeing them again soon.

Is there anything you disliked about Barcelona? Do you think Noha disliked anything about Barcelona?

It has been a while since we were in a major (really major) tourist destination, and we haven’t been in a big city for some time. On our last few stops in the south of France we saw smaller cities and countryside, and even in Toulouse where we didn’t make any trips outside the city, the ambiance was relaxed (but not boring) and untouristy. So it was a bit of a shock to come back to a big city full of tourists again, and it felt a little overwhelming. Especially when we went to get some chocolate at a Carrefour on La Rambla: it was full of people and noise, the self-checkout machines took forever, the women behind us wouldn’t give us any space, &c. I am glad that we’re getting another break by going to Granada before heading to Lisbon and later Madrid.

How did the reality compare to your expectations for Barcelona?

I thought that we would see more of the city and get back to our city-walking routine, but we didn’t. I didn’t know anything about Montserrat and I’m glad that we went. I was pleasantly surprised by how much we liked Salvi and Agata: we thought of Barcelona as a (slightly annoying) stop on our way to Granada, but in the end it was well worth it I’m happy that we met such nice hosts. In fact we hadn’t meant to stay three nights in Barcelona, but had to change our plans when our Granada hosts could only take us for two nights, but things worked out well and we had the chance to go on a great outing and meet Salvi’s parents.

Any regrets?

Well, we didn’t really get the chance to see much of the city because we left the house so late on our first full day. But we had work to do, so there isn’t much to say, really.

Did you learn anything new?

The first language in Barcelona isn’t Spanish (Castellano) but Catalan, which is very similar but has more similarity to French. Barcelonians and Catalonians in general don’t like to think of themselves as part of Spain, and Salvi told us the rivalry between the teams Real Madrid and FC Barcelona is about more than just football. He told us about an upcoming referendum on independence and how he feels strongly about being Catalonian first, while admitting that wanting to put up more borders is a little silly, and that the vast majority of Catalonians who want independence would never approve of violent methods to achieve it, unlike the Basque Separatists.

On the way to the Montserrat monastery we sampled various cheeses, several of them from sheep’s milk. In France we ate a lot of sheep’s milk cheese (usually called brebis, or ewe, just as goat cheese is just called chèvre, or goat). I didn’t realize it was popular outside of France as well. It’s probably our favorite type of cheese and I don’t know why it isn’t popular in the US. It’s between normal cow’s milk cheese and goat cheese in its sharpness and texture.

Also, I’ve never seen a female dog try to dominate another female dog. I didn’t even know they had that sort of aggressive behavior. I think perhaps Truska should have been a boy.

How do you feel about this experience so far?

Well I’m not ready to go back to big cities. We find that it’s not only easier to find hosts outside of big cities (despite the fact that big cities usually have far more hosts available) but that you get to spend more quality time with them and see more interesting, unique things and do more outdoor activities. And I have to admit that it’s cheaper. The major problem with avoiding big cities is that they are transportation hubs and much easier to reach without a car or bus.

Additional comments?

Well as of this entry we’re officially caught up with our blog (at least for another two days). It’s a weird feeling not to have to write things at night and in any free time, though finding hosts on CS has lately taken more time than usual. I don’t even know what to do with my time and sometimes waste it on the internet when I ought to finally get back to reading Proust or studying French. And now I’m wondering if Spanish wouldn’t be much more useful to study, especially if we want to go to South America at some point.

Some of our hosts find it funny and silly that we both have computers, and we even both have cameras which is a little stupid (we’re seeing the same places and are almost never apart). We shot ourselves in the foot with this double-column format. We also use both computers in our host-finding system (I search, she sends). But these are excuses and I’m sure if we really wanted to, we could make-do just fine with one, and shed some baggage weight. I think we’re both too independent-minded (or just foolish or technology addicted) to have just one computer, camera, phone, &c.

What are your expectations for Granada?

The major selling point of Granada is Alhambra, the famous mosque. But we’ve heard from other hosts (Thierry and Agata) that Granada itself is beautiful and small, and Agata told us how tapas come free with drinks. I think we’ll like it a lot and want to stay longer.