Day 1
We arrived last night at 10pm. We took the train/bus instead of a taxi (not the easiest thing to do at night when you don’t know the language and the street name is “Passeig de la Mare de Deu del Coll”).
We found our hostel and it’s literally a castle. Stained-glass windows, tourettes, elaborate stone work, on-site laundry… We checked in and had dinner (Cliffbars) while we watched a James Bond movie (Goldeneye) dubbed in Spanish.
This is my first hostel experience. Charles and I are in separate dorms-I have 5 girls as roommates who speak Italian, I think. We smiled at each other a lot. I took the only bunk left, a top one up a ladder, and nestled in for the night.
They woke us for breakfast with 80’s music (Curt would have loved it) then switched to Spanish Xmas songs for breakfast and by the time we left for the day they were playing Hindi pop.
I have an awful feeling that I snored last night. I hope not. I would feel really bad. But I think I might have because the girls didn’t seem to be talking to me at breakfast this morning. I felt much better when one of them waved at me…an Italian gesture for hello of some kind.
We took a lovely stroll through the neighborhood. My high school Spanish is rusty so we bought a diccionario at a small llibre. Found a park with a view of the city and a bocci grounds. It’s definitely winter here. Sunny but cold. Even the palm trees are bundled up. We both slightly under packed, but Charles bought a cool Euro jumpa today and I am quite happy wearing the same exact sweater every single day for the entire trip. Really.
The architecture is beautiful. So much detail in the windows and gates and archways and eaves. Balconies. Balconies on every window. And I love the narrow streets. The city, like London, is built to human scale. The buildings aren’t too tall, the streets aren’t too wide-more for walking than driving. It is a joy to wander through.
I’ve been trying to find a theme for the trip. Something to set the tone, a spiritual filter, a way to approach our travels. But most of the themes I think of (Adventure?, Self Discovery?, The Common Bond of Man?) seem trite and corny. So I continue to look for one. Maybe it will become clear in the end. Until then, we’ll be drawing angel cards each day. Today I drew Harmony and Charles drew Openness.
Charles took it to heart and made a new friend, Leon. Leon is from Sydney so we went out at night in search of a pub. (Potential theme: cute bald men we know) We found a great loungy place by asking the body piercing parlor for a recommendation.
Leon is studying law and is on summer holidays, so we all talked about travel, Australian politics, and morals vs. mores until the conversation naturally turned to the question: Do things happen to you for a reason? Leon believed so and Charles did not. Where Charles sees coincidence, Leon sees a cause. I agreed with Leon (while keeping the Harmony), that there is a spirit at play that we cannot measure and prove. Bigger patterns at work.
I once had a discussion with my host-father in India, Mr. Tandon where he was arguing that there was fate. I disagreed with all my heart because it took away my free will and it seemed that if fate existed, then nothing I did would matter. It’s not a topic, of course, that either side could ever prove nor hope to convince the other. But 15 years later I agree with him and see that the presence of…consciousness, god, a bigger pattern in the universe… does not take away my free will. In fact, my will allows me to follow up on the “coincidences” –like meeting a certain Australian, traveling with him to Europe and finding myself in the middle of Spain sipping wine as the conversation turned to rugby.
Day 2
We started our day at the great internet cafe we found that serves real coffee. We took another new friend, Jason. Charles’ angel card was Delight, Jason’s was Joy and mine was Flexibility.
In one of my emails I found this note from a friend: “Charles looks like a lot of fun…he’s very cute in his pictures.. I might have to say however that I have fallen for camera shy Barry!!!”
Which gave us the idea for our new feature: Bachelor of the Day.
It was great toodling about with Jason because he knew Spanish and could do things like order and ask the girl on the subway why there seemed to be a rush hour at 2p (universities get out for the day-siesta)or that the Spanish word for “no worries” is tranquillo. He’s in town looking for a job. Had a good lead on the day we left so we’re hoping something turned up for him (and we hope he finds a nice big apartment).
Jason told us about a park with a maze. It was on top another hill near a velodrome (bike racing track) that had been converted to a used car lot. We all split up and tried to race through the maze. In the middle was a clearing dedicated to Eros with 6 different archways out. You could hear the fountain (the end point) but the archways closest to the fountain were dead ends. Of course, the right archway leading to love was the farthest away, the least direct.
We bid Jason goodbye and were on our way to the train station…