So, Barcelona was a bit of a nightmare. To top of the whole theft incident and subsequent scrambling to get everything in order, a guy started lurking outside of the hostel and getting increasingly creepy the last couple days. Of course he took a particular liking to me, as I am a creep magnet. Lucky me.
Saturday afternoon I was walking several blocks away when he approached me on the street and I thoroughly freaked out. I don't know how long he had been following me, but in that moment I heard the magic words, "do you know this guy?" spoken with attitude in none other than a good old fashioned American accent.
Enter, Chris and Melissa. My saviors turned out to be a young couple from Florida, on vacation and doing some pricey shopping on Passieg de Gracia. Chris, self-described as confrontational, promptly told creeper to "get the fuck out of here" and Melissa asked if I wanted to walk with them.
All I have to say about this is: god bless Americans. We are brash, no-nonsense, and I love it.
They walked with me for several blocks, and made sure he didn't follow when we went our separate ways.
Chris and Melissa from Florida, thank you.
I eventually made my way back to the hostel via a very complicated and circuitous route (nervously checking to make sure I wasn't being followed the entire time) and wondered how on earth I was going to survive another full day in this godforsaken hellhole of thieves and stalkers.
As you can imagine by this point Barcelona felt officially ruined for me. Like, fuck this city and get me the hell out of here (like, now) status.
So, obviously, I wasn't about to leave the hostel alone again.
One of the perks of hostel life is it's quite easy to make new friends. Especially when the internet only works when you're sitting in the lobby. I had met Kenneth from Miami a couple days prior, when we went with my room mate Lety to midnight mass Christmas Eve (no, I'm not Catholic, or frankly even religious, but I enjoy attending church in foreign languages. And the music is beautiful). Kenneth was also present for the whole purse jacking incident, and spending the wee hours of the morning in a foreign police station does kind of force you to get to know someone. He came to Europe with the intention of spending three weeks, and now he wants to move to Germany. Which I think is awesome.
So, we had already chatted about going to dinner together earlier that day, and that afternoon we met Marlot, a young Dutch girl from Amsterdam in the lobby. As it turns out creepy guy had also been trying to talk to her, so we formed a trio and hung out the rest of the time together in Barcelona.
Sunday morning we trekked over to Park Guell, which is just gorgeous and you get a view of the whole city from the top. Here's a few photos (credit goes to Kenneth, as obviously I am lacking a camera at the moment).
After this we went over to the gothic area where we grabbed lunch at a kebab place; five euros will get you a beer and more food than you need, and it's delicious. What's not to love?
We did a whole lot of walking and eventually made it back to the hostel, took a break, and then headed out for tapas. Marlot and I shared a bottle of cheap red wine and a tapas sampler, and she patiently listened while Kenneth and I got into an enthusiastic discussion about US politics and social issues. Then she prodded us out of the restaurant to Club Mojito for salsa dancing.
Yep, I'm still uncoordinated as hell, but we had loads of fun. The dancers there were so intimidatingly good! Personally, I'm not convinced it's possible to make my body move that way, but a girl can dream.
We got home way past bedtime and I wasn't particularly excited to get up the next morning for my train, but I made it. It was a bit of a bummer to leave just as I was starting to really have fun again.
Here are all the photos I have from before my camera was stolen.
But in the meantime I'm in Madrid, staying at a really nice hostel through New Years.
Fun fact, if you order a beer anywhere here, they give you free tapas. Seriously. I went to a place called El Tigre yesterday afternoon (recommended by both Kenneth and the front desk here), and for five euros I got a pint and it came with a huge plate of snacks. Potatoes, bread with meat and cheese, croquettes, yes. I'll probably go back again in a bit, there's also a market that sells olives down the street that I'll probably make a stop at.
So far, I'm liking Madrid. All I've really done is walk around, but for some reason I'm not feeling like hitting museums or anything. I've done so much of that in my trip I'm kind of enjoying just wandering and seeing what I find. I'm feeling a little under the weather today as well, so I'm taking it easy. I want to be able to enjoy New Years - there's a tradition here where you try to eat one grape per second for the last 12 seconds before midnight (I guess the local superstition is you get your wish if you manage it). Apparently, this is harder than it sounds and also winds up being hysterical, and the front desk is providing grapes.
In the meantime, I'm happy to be in a new place, and looking forward to continuing my adventures.
~Swan
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