| Glenn's Barcelona Journals 5-28-02 It's Tuesday morning and after a long afternoon and night on the train we have arrived in Barcelona, Spain. I always do prep work before heading into a new town, no matter how big or small. I like to have a plan of attack and some familiarity with my surroundings before getting there. I had reviewed the map of Barcelona, the metro map, and the list and location of the hostels that we would target for accomodation. Upon arrival we had to transfer to a metro that would drop us off at the Catalunya station at the northern most end of La Rambla. The La Rambla is Barcelona's most famous street with the middle being a broad, pedestrian boulevard, lined with cafes and resturants and an atmosphere that hops until well after midnight. We arrived at Catalunya and headed down the strip checking out a few hostels listed in the book. After we had tried our third hostel and they were all booked for the night we took another avenue of attack (Remember we are carrying our packs still.).We opted to purchase a phone card and call a few places to verify availability and price before walking to see each of them. Of the places that we called one was full, two priced at 42 Euro's for a double (sin Bano, No Bathroom) and the last one we called was priced at 24 Euro's for a double (also sin Bano). We quickly headed off to the Hostel Galerias Malda. We quickly snatched a room for the next 6 nights, dropped our packs and, amazingly enough with renewed energy, headed back out to check out Barcelona and La Rambla. We were located just a few blocks off La Rambla and all of the action. We were also located near Catalunya as the south end of La Rambla is listed as a little shadier. La Rambla is divided into five sections, starting at the northern end nearest Catalunya, which are Rambla de Canaletes (Roman tombs have been uncovered), Rambla dels Estudis (or Rambla dels Ocells, the bird market section), Rambla de Sant Josep (section with plenty of flower stalls), Rambla dels Caputxins (the 19th century opera house is near here and the artists are abound along this section), and Rambla de Santa Monica (which leads towards the port and the Christopher Columbus monument. We strolled down La Rambla enjoying the bird shops, flower shops, and all of the street entertainment that was to be had. We also stopped into the Mercat de la Boqueria, or food market. We always enjoy the food markets as they are much more lively than grocery stores at home and you absolutely know that the food is fresh. We picked up some fruit and pistachios for snacks. After the market we went in search of an internet cafe that we had been provided information on. Wow, what a deal. We checked out "Easyeverything" which had over 400 flat panel displays (at this one location) with decent connection speed all for 7 Euro's for 7 days of unlimited use. The only thing we could not do was hook up our equipment but at that price we could afford to work online. There was also another "Easyeverything" along La Rambla but they charged 10 Euro's for 7 days. We spent some time catching up on e-mails. It was getting late and by now we were ready to head back to the room ad catch up on some of the sleep we hadn't gotten on the train last night. We had a decent "menu of the day" for lunch at a restaurant near the market and with a little snack for dinner we were prepared to crash. We were in well before the closing of the gates at 1:00 am tonight. |
| Glenn at Parc Guell standing in front of a beautifully landscaped fountain. |
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