Day 18 - Getting Lost in a Maze of Barcelona Streets

Right away I noticed Barcelona is quite different from Madrid.  It's more loose and liberal.  Madrid is slightly classier and more business-focused - sort of upper east side versus lower east side in New York.  Also, Barcelona simply has way more tourists.   I’m staying on Las Ramblas, the most famous street in Spain, so all I see out of my window is hordes of visitors walking about, but I also stayed in Porto del Sol in Madrid, basically Madrid's equilvalent, and it wasn't this mad.  The mass of out-of-towners in Barcelona means higher prices – a small example is a bottle of water from a street vendor in Madrid was 1 euro, here it’s 1.80 or a simple lunch salad in Madrid runs 7-9 euros and in Barca it’s closer to 12-15.  Perhaps, I’m going to the wrong spots, but I feel as a whole the city runs more on tourism than any city I’ve been to thus far in Europe.

Barcelona is separated into three main areas – Old Town, Eixample and Montjuic.  I spent my first day walking around the Old Town, aka Barri Gotic, and the wharf area.  Along with the main thorough fare of Las Ramblas (and my hotel), Old Town features a maze of small side streets, alleys, and passage ways filled with fun, interesting shops, restaurants, cafes and gelado stores.  I spent most of the morning and early afternoon getting lost in the sea of “calles” and finding little hole-in-the-wall shops that I wouldn’t be able to get back to if you paid me. 

Barcelona feels like the tourism capital of Spain.

Breakfast on the go...

 

It was hot, high 80's, so any opportunity I got to stand near a fountain, I took it.

The main attraction in Old Town, other than Las Ramblas, is the Barcelona Cathedral. 

Within the Cathedral are 28 side chapels.

The building was started in 1298 and was not finished until the late 19th century...more than 500 years to complete. I figured I could take a couple minutes to admire the work.

The sunlight shined through the many stained glass windows and gave a divine appearance.

Placa Reial, right off Las Ramblas, is Barcelona's biggest and most active plaza.

 

Walking the streets of Barcelona you can always look up and see a historic building, monument or structure.

The walkways got pretty narrow, which made it all the more fun to walk around and explore.

Amigos Skateboards was one of many great little shops hidden in the side streets of Barcelona.

 

 

Another part of Old Town is Port Vell, or the main wharf, as well as Barcelona's biggest and most popular beach area, Barceloneta.  Port Vell features a massive shopping and restaurant complex, a yacht club, and the largest aquarium in all of Europe. 

The Christopher Columbus monument located in the Port Vell wharf area.

I was actually pleasently surprised at Barcelona's beach and beachside cafes, restaurants and shops. The beach was big and beautiful, just like you might imagine from a proper Mediterreanean beach.

There was a big boardwalk or strand type walkway that allowed you to walk the length of the beach and capture great views along the way.

I grabbed lunch at a nice beachside spot called Bestial, which had a great view of the Barceloneta beach.

 

I adopted a new life philosophy.

 

I eventually made it back to the hotel around 5pm and right next to my hotel is La Boqueria market, one of the most vibrant food markets in all of Europe.  It's a daily market with stalls filled with fruit, cheese, nuts, juice, ice cream, and of course, plenty of meat.  I walked around for a little bit, bought some snacks and headed two doors down to my hotel. 

My hotel is called the Eurostars Ramblas Boqueria because I am right next to La Boqueria Mercado.

 

Even at 5pm on a Monday evening the market was busy. It's located just off Las Ramblas so there is a constant flow of traffic.

NUTS!!

 

This was the first market that I've seen with stalls dedicated completely to sweets and desserts. They had plastic-wrapped bars of all kinds of sweets - lemon, toffee, marmalade, chocolate and more.

Pitahaya is a fruit from the cactus family and is often referred to as the "Dragon Fruit." It is similar to a kiwi in its exterior, interior and taste.

 

 

I rested up at the hotel for a couple hours and got ready for dinner.  I did a little research and found a few new well-reviewed dinner spots to try and since I'm only in town for three nights (technically I'm here for four, but I got in late Sunday night so that didn't count) I decided to get cracken.  I picked out Bar Lobo, which is around the corner from my hotel, for my first dinner out in Barcelona. 

I sat bartop and mingled with the friendly staff.

 

First order of business, a beverage. I mentioned the staff were friendly, but this guy was a bit excited about "Jay Bay," as the Spanish call Jim Beam. Most locals don't know JB stands for Jim Beam so I have to educate them.

I started with a spinach salad with blue cheese, nuts, bacon bits and apple slivers.

Then went to the squid Andalusian style, which means battered and fried...we simply know this as calamari.

I finished with sauteed veggies - I was trying to keep this meal healthy with no pork or red meat.

 

More friendly staff. Me and my waiter had an instant connection because we are both pelon...bald.

The friendly 'pelon' waiter kept bringing me random fruit and vegetables to be funny so I put my engineering skills to work and made my own veggie tower.

 

It was an emotional good bye between us "pelon brothers."

A group of nice girls from Vancouver were sitting nearby and invited me over for a post-dinner drink.

Bar Lobo es muy bien!

 

It was a good start to Barcelona, but still a lot of ground to cover.  On Tuesday I'll be doing a little hiking and exploring of Montjuic, the second of three parts of Barcelona.