Saturday, June 1, 2013

Espana: Another World

31/05:

Flew into Barcelona this morning, which meant getting up at 4am... curse you easyJet! First thing I noticed is that people weren't exaggerating when they said that everyone speaks English here. It took a few hours before I could actually get someone to speak to me in Spanish. Of course, all that changed when I ventured out to my hostel this evening, which is in a "real" Spanish neighborhood to the north of Park Guell (pronounced like "gway"). Out here away from the tourist-driven downtown, you really get a feel for what Spanish life is like (as much as possible without living it yourself, anyway). And in that Spanish life, they don't speak English. I was made humorously aware of this when the lady at the hostel's check-in desk couldn't pronounce my name. (Native Spanish speakers can't make the "th" sound)

The sights today included a few rides on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour, a pass through the Picasso museum (really interesting to see stuff from his childhood through to the crazy weird stuff most people know him for), an awesome Catalan lunch, and lots of wandering around the streets of the Barri Gotica.

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