Today’s post is a bit non-technical, well actually it’s completely non-technical and it’s not actually today’s post, but actually yesterday’s – thanks to the missing internet in the hostel I’m staying in. That last fact of course makes the post a little technical again, but hey, nobody’s perfect.
So basically got up at 7, take-off at 10 and arrival in Barcelona at 13:00. My luggage decided to do go on the sight-seeing trip around the airport with some other luggage it had met on the plane, which made me at first think I was going to have to survive Tech-Ed with only the clothes I had on me and maybe some Freebie-Shirts (that I hope they will be handing out. What’s a Microsoft Event without T-Shirts 
. Well anyway, luggage arrived finally and the bus to the city center wasn’t to hard to find either.
So here I was in Placa de Catalyuna (every spanish speaking reader will have to forgive me over next few days if I write some bad spanish *g*). The hostel didn’t look to far away on the map. Well it was a map with out a ratio legend, so my guess was as good as asking the dogs on the street how far it was. Arrived at the hostel (Absolut Hostel – so far I can recommendend it), greeted by a wonderfull german speaking lady or girl who told me my room was in the other building. 10 min later I arrived in my little paradise (and I MEAN little – I’m interested in wether I will actually fit in the room lengthwise or if I may have to somehow go diagonal – but it doesn’t matter).
Go a tip to go to Mt. Tibidago and drink some coktails in the Manublau (or Maublau?) bar. Hopped on the metro (cheaper than in Viena and it more precise about when the next train is coming) and off to the last station, where there is actually a thing called Tramvia Blau (now I’m only guessing, but it could mean blue tram line – but it is really only a guess). I saw the blue thing just departing, so I decided to go up the hill on foot.
First thing you see are expensive villas, side-by-side all the way up. Amazing, so beatiful and I saw the first sign of Barcelona’s reknown publishing industry. (I read that there were a lot of publishers here.)
Finally arrived at the top (which is actually only where the tram stops, the hill/mountain is much higher, but the road stops for pededstrian and the mountain-train wasn’t open, so I couldn’t go any further). Saw the bar, saw all the people in the bar and decided to pass on the cocktail. Wasn’t a bad idea anyhow, since I hadn’t eaten anything all day and who knows where I would have ended after drinking a few Mojitos.
The view was spectacular anyhow. Barcelona is in between the mountain I’m standing on and the sea. Great. Now it was time to get some food. Now pleeease don’t judge me on this – but yes I was actually looking for a MacDonalds. I know it’s just about the last thing you are supposed to do as a tourist, but I wanted something where I could get some food without too much hassle with my little-to-none spanish knowledge.
Anyway, I started from the mountain and decided no to go by train or metro. Just popped in my Ipod (Soundtrack from Brokedown Palace – if anyone wants to know) and headed in direction sea. And to my great astonishment I actually nearly got there. After about 2.5 hours going in the same direction I had seen lots of things, but there wasn’t a single MacD. I’m not joking, these were the main shopping streets and tourist areas but there wasn’t a single MacD in sight. I went by a KFC and Pizza Hut, but come on, you don’t come to Barcelona to eat at KFCs or Pizza Hut… (*G*).
Almost at the sea I decided to include a random variable in my “FindAMacDonals” algorithm. Hop on the next metro, hop off a few random stops later. I got off a place that looked nothing like the place I had got on (see below for more on that) and continue looking for a Mcd. My feat were hurting like mad, I was very hungry and getting a little fed up. But then appeared a light. Somebody asked me in English if I knew where the next ATM was. I said I had no idea, and after some small talk we found out we were both students (he was from Norway I think) visiting Tech-Ed. Chances of that happening (we weren’t wearing Microsoft T-Shirts) near to nada, but cool. So we went off in the same direction until he found an ATM and I was still left hungry searching for food.
Ok, I was desperate, more than four hours gone by hadn’t eaten for a century and a small sign caught eye. Pizza Hut. Quickly I thought about why I shouldn’t go there, a few seconds later I was trying to explain to the guy that when I say “large Pepsi” I do not mean the 2 litre bottle of Pepsi. I’m not sure why, but they don’t seem to have cans in the restaurant (only in the metro stations), so I ordered a medium Pepsi – which is a 1 litre bottle – and my favorite Deep Pan Hawaii. When it finally came… aaaahhh… how wonderfull can food be
It was about eightisch so I was thinking about what I could do this evening that will not strain my legs anymore. Checked my tourist guide and headed off for the cinemas, because they were near to the hostel. The guide was talking about the “cinema mile”, which ended up being one cinema at the corner – maybe I just went into the wrong direction. So I headed off back home and am now writing this wonderfull post.
Registration starts at 9, so I’ll be heading off at about 8, to see if I can change my PreConf Session – somehow I got automatically registered for the Ajax Track. I’d like to see what else there is. Then I’ll have to plan my session shedule, because I don’t have Internet here at the hostel and last but not least I actually have to register for a university class tommorow at 14:00 because that’s when registration opens.
So to sum up 5 facts about Barcelona:
#1 One of the cities in Europe that has evolved most in the last decade (similar to Berlin) which gives the city an interesting patchwork style. The older part of town isn’t the least bit similar to the other parts, which themselves are nothing like the neighboring parts.
#2 Catallan is not Spanish. They may understand spanish. I hardly understand the Spanish signs but I don’t understand the Catallan signs at all. Ciudad is Ciutat, a lot of the -cion words are -cio in Catallan. I haven’t even figured out how they conjugate verbs.
#3 Barcelona is one of the most beautiful and pictoresque (or is it pitoresque – without an my http://dict.leo.org I can’t even check the spelling of that!) cities I’ve ever been too. It’s a pity I’m here on my own, there are places that are so romantic, the little side-streets and the mediteranian style. I’m not even going to start about how fantastic some of those villas look like. I’m really looking forward to the sea.
#4 Gaudi is cool. The stuff he’s setup in Barcelona are amazing. I must find out more about him back at home.
#5 You do not become rich in Barcelona. You should be rich before coming to Barcelona. The housing and rental prices shot up in the last decade, but the work pay has stayed the same. So basically the Barcelonians can hardly afford the rent, but you would never know just by seeing them. (Somebody told me that’s how I found out.) I don’t know how they do it, but with a city such as Barcelona you might think that you need nothing more.
Makes me happy…
