“Vale!” is the sound of Spanish in Europe which translates roughly to “ok” and can be heard in every conversation in Barcelona, even when they are speaking Catalan. Spain was a good change of pace, and I had some good times with I-House friends Jaume and Mariona in BCN before heading to Pamplona for San Fermines (and the running of the bulls).
I had my RyanAir flight from London’s Sansted to Girona, a smaller city about an hour away from Barcelona. We got in pretty late, and after the bus ride into Barcelona it was about midnight on a Friday, and I needed to find some accommodation.
I basically started by roaming the streets for awhile, and roughing through some Spanish directions to cheap hotels in the area. On my way to the hotel I saw a bunch of kids light a palm tree on fire and start running away. Some random Catalonian guy ran past me and threw a towel to me so we both went and helped put out the fire before it got out of control. It was definitely an interesting first night. I got into a place at around 2am, and managed to take a shower and do my laundry (using the shower) before getting some well-earned sleep.
The next morning I had another mission: finding Mariona’s house. She gave me the street address and the closest metro stop, but I didn’t have much beyond that when I set off. It only took me about an hour to find it, with some added difficulty because her street has changed it’s name recently.
After ringing the buzzer I gave my classiest entrance yet with “Soy el Americano” (I am the American), which got me in the building. After getting upstairs I met a hungover Mariona and her Dutch dad who I was able to speak a little bit of German and English with.
After relaxing for a bit Mariona and I decided to take some bikes out on a tour of BCN. The bikes belonged to her Mother and younger brother so they were both pretty small, but they did the job, so we were on our way.
Riding around Barcelona on a hot summer day was a great way to experience the city, as we got to see the beaches, the parks, and the ramblas (wide streets with a huge pedestrian area down the middle). After chilling in the sun for a bit we packed up and rode back to Mariona’s house for a nice dinner with her family.
The next day we managed to meet up with Jaume, who took us on a driven tour of the city, which included a mountain-top lookout over the city and the Mediterranean. We ate some Patas Bravas (basically spicy home fries) at a little shop in town, and cruised through the city to check out some Gaudi Architecture. After awhile Mariona and I split off from Jaume and walked around some of the little squares in the city where lots of Barcelona’s younger population lives, and then we made our way home on the metro, straight to another delicious dinner prepared by her family.
The next morning we were off to Pamplona!