Chapter 3 – Hola Barcelona

Hey guys,

It’s been a month since I last posted and I’m sorry about that. I’ve been held up with work and didn’t get much time to sit down and write. I don’t want to delay this anymore so I decided to publish whatever is complete. Hope you enjoy it.

Day 1:

I landed at El Prat, Barcelona around 11 am.  The first thing I did was get a SIM card since my mother was getting worried about my whereabouts (after only 3 days).  I took a shuttle from the airport to Plaça de Catalunya. Once there, I would rely on my phone to get me to my hostel. Not so surprisingly, my phone died. Fortunately, I walked into a small shop where the owner was kind enough to let me sit down and charge it.

I had booked accommodation at the Sant Jordi Sagrada Familia hostel. Based on the directions provided, I was to take the metro to a particular station which was a minute away from the hostel but that route had been closed off for maintenance. I asked an old and  friendly looking man to point me in the right direction. Instead he grabbed me by the hand and took me in the opposite direction of which he was walking before I approached him. I was at the receiving end of two random acts of kindness in a span of less than 30 minutes. I’d always heard how friendly and generous people were but I finally experienced it.

It was past noon by the time I reached the hostel. I decided to sleep for a couple of hours before heading out in the evening.

As usual, I had no fixed itinerary. The great thing about hostels is that most of them provide you with free maps and also recommend places to visit. That way you don’t have to be a destination expert to see the good stuff.

The first thing I did was go to Barceloneta beach. I spent a couple of hours taking in the fresh air. The best part was that I ran into a group of people swing dancing. It was one of those rare times I wished that I’d known to dance. You can see the video here.

On the way back I stopped for dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant. As a vegetarian, my options were very limited but I had to make do. On the bright side, I ended up consuming more than a couple of glasses of Moscato wine (not a big fan of wine but this was REALLY good).

I spent the remaining part of the day walking through narrow streets until it was time to head back to the hostel.

More to come.

Cheers

P.S. I’m trying out the slideshow option for displaying photographs. Do you suggest I display each of them as tiles separately? Let me know what you guys think.

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