The Adventures of Merrick: Barcelona

March 7th, 2013

The week has been long and the preparation tough but the day has finally arrived: Barcelona! Got my ticket, got my bag packed, got (at best) general direction on where to go, and got a camera for documentation! Sure, the camera hurt the wallet a little bit, but there is a plan: The camera has a 15-day return policy on it. In theory, my phone will be ready for pickup before this 15-day return period ends. Therefore, once my phone and I are joyfully reunited from our involuntary break, I will promptly return the camera for a full refund. Can't go to Barcelona without a camera, right?

March 8th, 2013

It is hard to choose words that accurately encompass all that Barcelona is. Every building is a piece of art. The streets are bustling with life. There is an energy about this city that just makes me want to smile. Barcelona is different from anything I have seen before in my life. From the outside, I probably looked like a child on their first trip to Disneyland. No doubt I felt like that, too.

Thank goodness I didn't have to endure my first Ryanair experience alone. Purely by chance, a student from a previous class of mine and his girlfriend were booked for the same flight. I followed them as third wheel through the Ryanair process. It is for them most part straight forward, but there is one major factor that I would have not figured out if I were by myself: it is required that a Ryanair employee signs your ticket BEFORE you enter security. I had no idea this was standard. I no doubt would have been rejected from my flight if I hadn't been with people who knew what they were doing. Phew!

I arrived at Corey's place near 1am, and promptly fulfilled my CouchSurfing duty and passed out on the couch. Corey, a previous host from San Diego, wasn't actually home then. I greeted them in half-asleep stupor upon their 4am return, then zonked out again.

I spent the entire next day getting lost with Liz, Corey's family friend from San Diego who was also staying the weekend in Barcelona. Conveniently located at the central location of Passeig de Gracia. For ease of reading, here are the things we saw in the order we saw them:

Casa Batllo - En route to Parc Cuitadella, where Corey was meeting his program for a picnic.
Arc de Triomf - Still pretty awesome despite the large pink Nike Dome parked in front.
Parc Cuitadella - Fountains, museums, awesome architectural visions, and a giant mammoth I tried to climb.
Barri Gotic - Gargoyles should still be used in architecture today.
Museo de Picasso - I am normally not a big art museum person, but I did appreciate seeing how Picasso evolved as an artist throughout his life. Very interesting.
Barcelona Cathedral - So big!
Starbucks - Wifi break. That cookie was better than life.
Porto Olimpico - Awesome street performers and structures.
Colom - Couldn't get a good picture of this one :(
La Rambla - And I thought that the Alicante La Rambla was bustling. This street definitely lives up to the hype. Also, it has some damn good falafels.
Starbucks (again) - Liz likes coffee.
The Women's Day Event - March 8th was a women's day event, promoting equality among genders and resulting in women dressed in purple playing drums and chanting. We were drawn in by the extremely large crowd surrounding the spectacle.

Later that night, Liz and I were supposed to watch Corey during his Castell practice, or in other words, "people stacking". This is the Catalan-originated sport in which people create human towers much more impressive than the standard 6-person human pyramid. Unfortunately, we missed seeing it live. But I took a picture of the wall that had photos of it and we saw some people still practicing the process of climbing onto peoples shoulders. So that counts for something...

After getting a beer at La Bolsa, similar to the Dow Jones bar, we called it a night.

March 9, 2013

Honestly, before this trip, I wouldn't have been able to tell you if Gaudi was a person, place, food, or an adjective describing someone's bad taste in fashion. I know a little better now. At least enough to know his significance in the history and architecture in Barcelona.

Liz and I walked from Corey's to Park Guell, stopping to see Gaudi's La Pedrera along the way and winding through the smaller streets simply for the joy of exploring and enjoying the perfect weather of the weekend. We only needed to ask for directions once, which was pretty good in our book. Not only is Park Guell a masterpiece in itself, but it is also one of the highest points in Barcelona, producing a spectacular view of the city. I was hurting that I couldn't get a panoramic with my non-existent phone. It's okay, just got to hold out until my return trip in May. Also, my camera died.

Afterwards, Liz and I parted ways and I went to meet up with the one and only Claire Lamneck! Both she and Corey had been talking about a tunnel that had been re-purposed as an outdoor climbing area. The tunnel itself I completely underestimated. I was expecting a small tunnel outfitted with a few holds and easily doable with Converse on. Instead, we found that it was fully dressed with holds, bolted routes, and climbers of all levels. Needless to say, I felt a little noobish.

Ended up returning to the tunnel with Corey and his Canadian friend about 20 minutes after returning to Plaza Espana with Claire, followed by a spontaneous viewing of the Magic Fountain of Montjuic. The show was extremely similar to the World of Color show I saw in Disneyland during my 19th birthday, except with John Williams music. The return home was another mini-adventure, as we were three people to two bikes. The solution? Stand on the back of Corey's bike as he whizzes by pedestrians and through crosswalks, and try not to lose balance.

The rest of the night consisted of conversation about traveling, analyzing personality types, sharing strange dreams, and finally completing the night with two Erasmus apartment parties, one in which the theme was the letter "P". We ended out last night together right and said our goodbyes before parting ways the following morning.

March 10, 2013

Barcelona bouldering shot down all confidence I had in my climbing since I've arrived in Spain. Sunday morning I met Claire to go to a climbing area about an hour north of Barcelona. I didn't send a single thing. Not even the warm up. Bah!

As they say, even the worst day outside is better than the best day inside. I got to work on my Spanish a little more (in which WOW they speak much clearer and slower in Barcelona than in Alicante) and I got to see a little bit of the area outside of the urban forest of Barcelona. I even saw Montserrat in the distance :)

I am sad to be leaving Barcelona after such a short time, but I look forward to my glorious return with the family, and perhaps another day or so later in May. The trip has left me with the realizations:

I am inspired to legitimately begin a training program for my climbing.
I want to continue to pursue learning Spanish past my time abroad, as well as look into learning another language to expand my communication horizons.
A new-found hunger for exploration has come over me. My encounters with people from all walks of life here in Europe has left me feeling as if I have been in a box for the last twenty years. So many people my age have already had experiences far beyond anything I can comprehend. They have stories that leave me breathless, yearning for the day that I can relay similar stories of my own. Perhaps this is premature, and I am having the equivalent of a mid-life crisis in my early twenties.

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