Barcelona to Berlin

Hi all, time for an update. So I’ll continue where I left off last Saturday. After finishing the blog entry Carma, Scott, and myself went out for the evening. We started by visiting the National Art Museum of Catalonia, which is located in Barcelona’s old palace. Some great pieces throughout the museum. We then stepped just outside the palace to watch a fountain show they have every night. The fountains create a music and light show infused with water. An enjoyable sight to say the least. Then we ventured to a Moroccan restaurant we had been to before were I was finally able to treat Carma and Scott to a big seafood platter after being treated to so many nice meals and museums.

Sunday a few of the chaperons, kids, and I visited the Catalonian History Museum for about an hour before it closed early because of the fact it was Sunday. We made sure to enjoy suiting up into armor before we left though. Then the whole group with the exception of C&S met up at the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. I actually managed to do it pretty cheaply, but the rest of the group majorly splurged. The final bill for 13 people was 310 euros!

Park Guell

I then made my way up to Park Guell, a place where everyone else had visited before, and spent some alone time wandering the park designed by Guadi. At one point while walking I did hear music so I went into the bush and ran into a random guy who had a few instruments with him, so we jammed. I then returned to the hotel that evening to play some games with the kids.

The rest of the time with the group was pretty chill. On Monday C&S, Doug, and I went for a classic Spanish breakfast, which was churros and chocolate sauce. Yum, is all I can say. Then we just wandered the old town for a while through the small alley ways and narrow streets admiring the small decorate feel of Barcelona looking for small works of mosaic or iron work in all the direction you could look. I was a little surprised we fit into the streets after our breakfast actually… zing! That night was the last evening with the group, and despite some drama, it was quite nice. The next morning I woke up to see the group off. Hugs, emails and goodbyes were given and off they went. So after a week of acting like the teenager I am and having great discussion after great discussion the group was off.

Amazingly, the day that I thought would be relaxing turned out to get quite eventful. I started with checking out a small photo exhibition C&S and suggested and after seeing that returned to the Catalonian History Museum. I spend 3 more hours in the museum going more thoroughly through the thing we had seen before and exploring the other half of the museum we never got to. I think I managed to get an amazing overview of Spanish/Catalonian history that I never received in high school. Spain is kind of missed due to the fact they weren’t in WWI or WWII hence it was great to check out this particular museum.  I then spent an hour lying on some grass near the water under the sun where I found a four leaf clover. After my rest I went in search of Gelato, which was eventually found, but at an expensive price. I savoured every lick though so it was worth it. I then trained out to my couchsurfing host for that night, Enric. An evening I thought was going to by spend in relaxing, turned into a night on the town… another great sacrifice though. We trained down to city center and met up with another CSer, a Romanian/American visiting Barcelona, and Enric’s friend, Jordi (?). We first went out for traditional Catalonian tapas and then went to a “hole in the wall” bar and had the bars specialty drink, Panther’s Milk. Another great evening filled with laughs, drinks. and great discussion.

My next day was a crazy one… the day I tried to get back to Berlin. I woke up at 5am to then train to the bus station and luckily just get on the bus to the airport in time. I thank the four leaf clover. I got on the plane and had a smooth flight to Frankfurt Hahn. Now as I said in my last post, Frankfurt Hahn is in a very awkward location. So the idea to hitch to Frankfurt and then to Berlin didn’t really succeed. Once I finally did get a ride I ended up in a direction somewhat away from Frankfurt so after some discussion with the driver I decided to hitch to Nuremberg first and then to Berlin. Instead of doing a zig zag I knew well, I would do an “L” I had never done. I finally got to Nuremberg and met up with two Brits, Matt & Maria, who were hitch from the UK to Berlin to Budapest for charity against 300 other uni students, at a gas station. We agreed that if we found a ride for three we’d share it, they got a ride in about two minutes…. damn charity excuses. Needless to say the ride to Leipzig (about half way from Nuremberg to Berlin) was a great one were we quickly started to get along. Now, by the time we were getting to Leipzig it was getting dark. We were all hesitant to keep on hitch. I might of kept going had I not been with them, but Matt told us that last year when he was doing the same thing he managed to get three free train rides explaining that his journey was for charity. So my decision was made, into Leipzig it was. Low and behold the people at the train station were very German responding with a “No money, NO train,” with every approach we made. So stuck in Leipzig we were.

Matt & Maria @ Zoro

I called up some friends at the Tee Haus and luckily managed to get info for a project house in Leipzig called zoro. After a brief episode with a crazy junkie looking for his drugs at the squat (don’t worry Mom, this is not a normal thing) and some help from the project “owner” we finally settled down for the night in an amazing dorm room with kitchen, bathrooms, and everything. Bless Leipzig’s anarchist hearts.

The next morning it has back to the highway with our thumbs out. We got a ride eventually in a big camper and cruised straight into Berlin. So after quite the adventure in Barcelona and hitching to Berlin it’s great to be home. Oddly enough I got that “weird to be home feeling,” were everything looks a little bit new, after being away from the flat for the longest time since we moved in. Julian is gone now, Jasmine is back, her friend Laura is visiting, Kate is up to the usual, and Lukas just left for Vienna to visit Marisa. Oh life at Free Love. Peace and Love, Taylor.