Barca Reunion

July 21:

I woke up the next morning in Alicante, sweating like a motha. The morning sun turned our tent into an oven, but it was a good excuse to get the day started early.
On our way to Barcelona, we stopped at the Belgian capital of Spain, Benidorm. Bart had been talking about this town since we planned on going to Spain. It was essentially Belgium and a bit of the Netherlands implanted on a beach vacation town in Spain. We listened to Dutch speaking radio hosts and got a little bit of back in Belgium. We had a quick lunch there and then finished the drive to the best city in the world, Barcelona.

Again, we were welcomed into Barcelona with a drive down some of its narrowest streets. We were trying to find the place we were staying in El Raval. We survived the streets yet again before putting La Zino into a garage. It would be the last time that I would see the van, which handled the trip and abuse like a champ. We found the place we were staying, smack in the middle of El Raval on Calle Sant Climent. This was the perfect location to start exploring Barcelona, with the center and beaches within walking distance. We found the place through an old friend of mine, Kevin, who I had met two years earlier while traveling in Prague. He had been traveling around for over a year to all parts of the world, making up his itinerary as he went. He had now settled in Barcelona to try to open a hostel of his own, and set us up with staying at his friend Natasha's place. If you are ever going to BCN, and want a cheap place to stay (hard to find in bcn, especially during the summer) I highly suggest staying here, drop me a line and I will give you the contact info.

El Raval is kind of a seedy neighborhood in some spots, but also a fun and up and coming neighborhood. I remember from my study abroad program, El Raval was in the red zone, meaning places that we should avoid. As long as you don't mind seeing prostitutes and are comfortable with the idea that people are going to try to steal your wallet, then El Raval really isn't bad. Its just a fact that in Barcelona, at some point in time, someone is making plans to try to steal your bad or wallet. I reacquainted myself with El Raval as we strolled the streets, looking for a place to eat dinner. We found a nice spot and enjoyed a good dinner. With Rachel still feeling a little under the weather (She had been a trooper in our eastern Spain stops, never letting her fever stop anyone else from doing anything), we walked the girls back to Natasha's and then headed for Parc Ciutadella, a big park just outside of the center of the city, to meet Kevin and some of his friends.

We found Kevin, sitting on a blanket in the park with about 10 other people. It was great to see him again, and pretty typical to find him with 10 other people from all over the world. He seems to be the glue for bringing different people together. With him were 2 guys from Angola, 1 person from Spain, 1 from Whales, 1 from England, 1 from Ireland, 2 from Holland, Bart from Belgium and the rest of us 3 from the States. We sat and caught up, watching the gray blue clouds pass by the moon and orange Barcelona sky. It was the perfect way to get reacquainted with Barcelona and let's just say it didn't take long for me to fall back in love with the city. I also happened to notice that the two girls from the Netherlands were speaking to each other in English, rather than Dutch. I thought that was funny, but probably not funny enough for your guys to be entertained by me telling it to you...sorry.

After a few drinks, we broke out the guitar and started a little sing along. One of the guys from Angola started the jam off with some songs from his country, Bart continued with a little redemption song and then our new friend from Whales finished it off with both an English and Gaelic version of Clapton's "Down and Out." It was a very typical Barcelona local experience, gathering in a public place with friends to drink and hang out.

We the park keepers kicked us out, we walked back to our place, going through Las Ramblas, avoiding scammers, druggies, drunks, and prostitutes. Man, it was great to be back!