Barcelona - a city conceived by Antoni Gaudi

We set off from Nijmegen, Netherlands to Barcelona, Spain by flight on Sunday afternoon and got off at the Girona airport, Barcelona. From here, we went to the central bus station in the pickup bus of the airport and then to the nearest metro station but could figure out nothing about how to reach the hotel. 

Arc-de-triumph, Barcelona

Being a Sunday, there was no assistance at all for the tourists in the metro station. So we moved out of the station and adjacent to this railway station is the Arc-de-triumph of Barcelona. We got a few snaps there and started off in search of Tryp Hotels, Condalmar - the place where our stay was pre-booked. We walked for some distance and decided to have something to eat but all we could get there were French fries. We could find places which serve Beer/Liquor far more than places which serve food and being vegetarians, its little difficult to find proper food while traveling. So we had to eat what we got and we again started searching for our Grande hotel based on the inputs from the lady in the bar. We were walking and relaxing in between. There was one tower which could be seen from any place in Barcelona. We realized it’s called Torre Agbar later on. After walking for some time, we took a train from a metro and got off at one station which we thought was close to our hotel. We had asked a few regarding the hotel but nobody seems to know where it is located. We might have walked for about an hour and a half then we found a small stall of Pakistanis to our luck. They had a vague idea of where the hotel was and assured us it was close by and also called up to the hotel to confirm the address. We bought some water, biscuits from them as a token of gratitude.  With their guidance and also with the help of other locals, we could finally reach our hotel after two long hours of walking and inquiry. (Had we got down at the next station, it would have been much easier for us to find out the hotel :() The fun of finding something after so much of search is inexplicable. 

Our stay in Barcelona was here

The hotel did not disappoint us in any way. Maintenance was first class. Our room was in the 5^th floor and Koti’s was in the 3^rd. We got into our rooms, got fresh and headed out in search of some hotel to eat. But we stopped at a bakery and bought some French fries (again!!). There was a Chinese fruit/vegetable shop right opposite to it from where we bought cherries, albakara, watermelon & pine apple. We went back to the hotel and all four of us took the Barcelona map out and started marking all the popular places that we thought we should cover, eating the fruits we bought. After deciding the places to be visited, we called it a day.

Next morning we started exploring the city of Barcelona. We decided to buy tickets for hop-on-hop-off buses. These are typically open top Double Decker tourist buses. I liked the way they operate. They cover all the important and famous places with in the city. There were two different services in this city - the red and the blue colored ones. We opted for the red one. Within each of the service, there will be 2-3 different lines. For eg., green line covers 10 destinations where as yellow line covers 10 other destinations which may be in a different direction of the city. Once we get into the bus, each tourist is given a set of ear phones and he can choose a language of his choice to listen to the commentary about each of the historic places. If you find the place interesting based on the comments, you can get off at the designated bus stop. You can spend as much time as possible at this place and once you are done, you can get back to the same spot and get into the same colored bus again and head to another place. There will be quite many buses operating in both the routes and the frequency is about half-an-hour or so which should be sufficient to enjoy the place. We were on a mission to cover as many places as possible. 

Me & Sunitha

Our first halt was at Sagrada Familia, a Roman catholic church under construction from over a century (1882) and it is expected to be completed by 2025. The original architect to this was Antoni Gaudi, a marvelous architect. Most of the prominent buildings in the city were designed by Antoni Gaudi and they are really beautiful. Barcelona got the fame because of his unique structures. Coming to Sagrada Familia, it is a very tall building and the architecture is so intricate that you keep staring at every detail of the building on all sides with great admiration. The view from outside is very different from that of inside. There are various sculptures on the outer wall, a very big prayer area inside and the walls and the ceilings are designed very differently. A very good experience overall. You can donate to the cause of construction if interested. 

Then we went to Park Guell, a garden which was designed again by Antoni Gaudi. We get a full view of the Barcelona city from this place. There was a lady dressed like an angel in the park who was blowing life size balloons which takes us back to the childhood fantasy days. 

After this we saw the Olympic stadium (geeeeee) – my god!!! this is so huge. Our wide angle lens could not cover the view of the entire stadium. One would have to rotate his head at least 180 degrees to get the complete view of the stadium. We simply loved it and imagine how it would look when it is completely filled with people. 

Then we saw the foot ball court of Barcelona :). World’s most favorite and renowned football team originates from Barcelona as you all know. We also saw the world trade center of Barcelona from within the bus. We also visited Casa Mila, another unique structure by Antoni Gaudi and the University of Barcelona which Vamsi considers the most important view point of Barcelona.

We had been to boating also. There was a collapsible bridge there. When the boat was about to start, the bridge was closed and our friends were on the other side, so they couldn’t come to the side where boats start. But luckily the bridge was opened on time and we could enjoy boating as well.

Our last stop for the day was at a casino, yes you read it right – we got free entry tickets from the tourist guys to visit this casino ;). We met Vamsi’s friends who already visited the casino, so they said they would wait for us and we got in to the casino. I never thought I would visit a notorious place like casino. We saw many different games that would typically be seen in a casino and played by cowboys etc. This also was a very different experience. After spending about 10 minutes there, (my heart was thumping in these ten minutes as the atmosphere there was as typical as would be shown in movies) five of us started walking to the place where his friends stay, in hope of finding something good to eat as there was a Pakistani restaurant nearby. We started walking along the beach eating the chuski that we bought in one of the stalls and I saw a foreign couple walking along. The woman was wearing a white Indian kurti and she smiled at me probably recognizing me as an Indian. I felt very glad. We walked very long – it was as if we were walking to digest the food we had rather than eating (as Venkatesh says in Malleswari – idi tinataniki nadustunnattu ledura, tinnadi aragataniki nadustunnattu undi). 

We stopped at the La Rambla Street to decide if it is worth walking farther. We somehow decided to go have the food there. This hotel is another kilometer from there. We managed to go there finally (It should actually be – I managed to walk so far…). The people in this hotel were very pleasant and also we got to hear Hindi in the Spanish land :). We ordered veg biryani there which tasted pretty decent. The owner of the restaurant guided us to the nearest metro station which will go the Diaogonal Mar(The nearest land mark to the Tryp Hotels). We thanked him and headed towards the metro. Vamsi’s friends came to see us off till there. In the metro we met Imran, a Pakistani plumber(Hindi again :)) Vamsi started some conversation with him and soon he got to know that we were worried about going back to the hotel as it was very late. He assured us that there is nothing to worry about and gave us his mobile number and asked us to call him at any odd hour if needed. He said he would accompany us till our hotel and then go back to his place. His place was again some one hour from the place where we stayed. We appreciated him for this kind gesture. Vamsi calls him “Zinda dili insaan”. Trying to help someone not considering things like ‘they are strangers’ or ‘why should I care when it is already too late for me’ or ‘what if I get trapped while helping them’ clearly showed that there was no pretense or hypocrisy in his words. We could only sense honesty, kindness and brotherhood :) . It was around 12.00 am by the time we reached Diagonal Mar station. Added to this, we had to find the way back to the hotel. The roads were deserted but for a very few people and I started panicking. Again with the help of some locals, we found the way to the hotel and without a word retired to bed.

The plan for the next morning was La Rambla Street. So, we got fresh and started for that place. On our way we saw many bicycles parked at a place by name Bicing. Bicing – that’s the name of the bicycle rentals in Barcelona. It is a very nice concept; if you are registered with them, you may take the bicycle for rent from one bike station & park it at any other bike station in the city. You can find a bike station at every 800-1000 meters.

At the La Rambla Street, we did some shopping and roamed along. This place has many different stalls displaying all possible things including clothes, gifts, plants, watches etc. Towards the end of the street is a metro from where we can go to the airport. We took this metro and reached the airport and back to Nijmegen on Tuesday evening.