Of all the cities that we were visiting on this trip, Barcelona is the one where we would be staying the longest. So it was in that spirit that we slept in a little bit longer than usual, and instead of rushing off to do some sightseeing we walked down the street to a little café on the Rambla thoroughfare, ordered some bacon, eggs and toast, and two hot coffees with milk. At our hotel in Barcelona we had skipped the breakfast option, and we were happy to go out and get something different each day.  The breakfast was just what we were craving, and the constant stream of people walking down the street towards the local subway station made for interesting people watching.
Kuniko was excited to finally get a chance to see the Sagrada Familia, so we decided to head that way and take a look. It looked to be about 2 km away, so instead of taking the subway we decided to walk it and see the city as we went. It was a bit of an indirect trip, but we crossed town on some not-so-busy streets and got a flavor of the city that tourists usually don’t see. I liked the feel of Barcelona a lot, as long as we were away from the tourist hordes. We arrived at Sagrada Familia, and it was definitely impressive. Kuniko had been looking forward to this the whole trip, and I think it met her expectations. The thing is so tall and the scale so large that pictures really didn’t do it justice. We walked to the front entrance to get a better view, and were surprised to see a huge line of people (think Tokyo Disneyland) already waiting. The line wasn’t really moving, either. We made the decision to come back earlier on another day, and instead walked around town some more.
We visited the location of a historic hospital nearby, and then walked across town another direction to find a park that was designed by Gaudi as well. We walked all over town, and thanks to my iPhone and a free application that has GPS maps, we could navigate our way easily. All the walking was good for burning calories also – and that proved to be even more important later on once we discovered the local cuisine.
The park designed by Gaudi was pretty interesting. There were works made of tile throughout the park, and especially dramatic was a tile lizard straddling a staircase as we entered. I was interested in the use of color, and also the creativity in arranging the tiles in such a way as to bring order to chaos. The park was packed with people. There were countless vendors who set up a sheet on the ground, laid out their wares, and were ready to dash off when the security made their patrols. They often put their souvenirs on the sheet in foot traffic – I’m sure many people are looking at everything and step on the products accidentally. The vendors knew they’d have a sale if it happened, so they did what they could to encourage it. Capitalism finds a way, I guess.
After the park we walked to the nearest train station (Lessup) and went back to an area closer to our hotel (Catalayun). We were feeling a little hungry by then, so we walked into a pinxtos bar for a snack and some cold beer. When I think of Spain I think of tapas. Pinxtos are just like tapas, only with a local Catalan flair. In the front of the bar were glass cases, and the paper menu in front of us identified the different pinxtos that we could order. Everything was cheap, the pinxtos were designed to be beautiful as well as delicious, and the ordering system was simple. As we drank our cold beer and got into the ordering system, we noticed that more and more of the customers coming in were Japanese. In fact, at one point, I was the only non-Japanese sitting at the bar. It was easy to listen in to their conversations, as opposed to the locals who spoke Catalan, which I couldn’t understand at all. Everyone was enjoying the place, and I guess that it is probably in a Japanese guidebook somewhere. We moved on to another pinxtos bar down the street and it was a repeat performance – we walk in to a mostly empty place, and soon afterwards the Japanese tourists started to show up. The restaurant should be paying us to eat there! After all the beer and cava we decided to head back to the hotel for a little siesta – we had done a lot of walking today.
The nap refreshed us quite a bit, and soon we were back out on the crowded streets, walking through some historic neighborhoods for sightseeing and shopping. We walked by a restaurant that was recommended to me by one of my former students, La Peradeta, which is a seafood restaurant that is popular with locals and very reasonably priced. We were there two hours before opening, though, so we thought we ought to find a way to kill some time. Luckily, right nearby was the Picasso museum, so we could spend a lot of time looking through at so many works of Picasso. They had a lot of his early sketches, as well as some very famous originals.  It wasn’t too crowded since we were there just an hour before closing time. There was an American family with a teenage boy who was getting into all kinds of trouble. He kept trying to touch the artwork (which made the staff angry) and tried to take pictures of them with his cellphone (which also pissed them off). Nightmare tourists – and I’m sorry to report that they were American. Ugh.
We still had about a half hour before the restaurant opened, but we went over there early to see what the situation was. Surprisingly, there were four young people standing outside the shutters waiting for it to open. We decided we might as well wait, too, so we kind of stood against the wall next to them. The group ahead of us just smiled and kept talking. The restaurant had two shutters, and it wasn’t clear if one was the entrance, one was a window, or if they were both entrances. We were kind of lined up in front of one shutter and the initial group in front of the other. As we got closer to opening time, more and more people started showing up. Kuniko and I both felt surprise that nobody really tried to line up anywhere. They just found a loose crowd outside. At about ten minutes before opening a staff member raised the shutters and started to organize the line. As it worked out, the shutter we were standing in front of was the front door, and we were first in line. We backed up a bit to make sure that the four people before us could get in front, but just about everyone else in the crowd of maybe 70 people looked pissed that they had to line up behind us. Lots of aggressive looks and they crowded right up behind us – which was kind of a personal space issue for Kuniko. In the end they finally opened the door and we could go in, but the system was very unusual.
Luckily we weren’t first, so we could watch the other people order. Upon entering the restaurant there was lots of fresh seafood on ice in the front, with signs saying what it was and how much it cost (of course, in Spanish). The walls were lined with instructions and extras (again in Spanish), and then the lady looks at you expectantly and says, “What do you want?” It’s a lot of pressure with 70 people behind you eager to get in and eat and you fumbling through a foreign language. But luckily we could pick out some big shrimps, a couple of small lobsters, and big slab of tuna, and some oysters. The staff put everything we chose into a bucket, and then passed it on to the kitchen. We paid at the next station, and then sat down to await our dinner. The kitchen staff cooked the fish however they liked, and then they called our number and we picked up our food as it became ready. The oysters were served raw (yum), and the shellfish was served grilled with a spicy sauce. The tuna was pan seared with a tangy citrus marinade, and it was my favorite of all the food we had. The price was very good for all that fresh food and we left the place satisfied. The line was about 100 people long by the time we left, so it pays to get there early.
On our way back to the Rambla we crossed town and found a lively bar and café that had a nice atmosphere. We stopped for a glass of wine, but ended up staying for tapas and paella – kind of a second dinner. At each restaurant or café that we visited in Spain I would teach Kuniko how to order and make comments in Spanish, and when she did each waiter or bartender would give her a big smile and take care of us the rest of the meal. This place was like that – Kuniko ordered paella in Spanish, the guy smiled and started our order, and then laughed at Kuniko’s victorious reaction to her ordering success. We are serious about trying to use the local language when traveling, and the good vibes we get from the locals when we try (or fail) make things go so much better.
We wrapped things up and walked home to the hotel, after a small wrong turn that almost had us at the beach. Luckily the extra distance helped to digest all that delicious food in our stomachs.
