Shaking frame of my bed woke me up around 7:30. One of the girls climbed up on the top bunk bed and, I realised, turned on the air conditioning. It was only when I felt the cold air made it's way to my lungs that I realised how hot it was in the room. The sheet and blanket were crinkled at my feet. Well, body knows what it needs even when mind is asleep. I must confess it was nice to lay on a bed uncovered without shivering after few a moments and cuddling under a blanket. It reminded me of hot summers in Slovakia when I used to wake up in the attic room, just under the roof window. That room did not let us sleep too long during summer, if you stayed there too long past sunrise it would boil you alive... It seems like it was a life time ago.
I got up and searched my bags in the dark. Some of the people in the room were still asleep. At the moment we are 4 girls and a boy. Two girls are from Sweden and one from China. She is traveling alone like me though she keeps to herself. Not that I was being particularly social. I was still enjoying the fact of being alone... having time to look around, contemplate... Still sleepy I marched through the reception to the bathroom. I really wanted to wear a dress... I don't have that many opportunities of wearing them without freezing my but off... But the forecast said it was going to be a showery day. I hoped it would be wrong, but then I remembered I am no longer in Scotland so the weather forecast actually can be right (and it was).
I stole myself a vintage table in the corner of the hostel terrace to have my breakfast. There is not much of a view from there as it's surrounded by walls of close-by buildings but it was nice to sit outside. The air smelled like holidays.
I decided to plan my day at least a little bit. I was meeting a friend of mine later on so I decided to stick to the city centre... which turned out to be not so small of an area to cover at all... Sometimes, I forget how small Edinburgh actually is...
The main reason why I decided to come to Barcelona is... drumroll.... a story!
Surprise, surprise!
To my defence it's not just any story, it's one of my favourites... though it's not just the story.. it's a lot of little details working in unison... the writing style, choice of words, settings, pacing of the story and, most of all, amazing characters. Plus, it has a Cemetery of Forgotten Books in it... A labyrinth of all books that were worth saving or protecting... What a wonderful idea!
Of course, I'm talking about The Shadow of the Wind from Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The story takes place in Barcelona... and now that I walk around the city, the story is perfect for it. They belong together.
I decided to start with a little tour of the places and streets from the book... first on order was the Gaudi's Casa Batllo. I love Gaudi's work, whether in painting, sculpture or architecture. That man was a genius. The colours, the shapes, the light (I love how he uses the light)... it's surreal, a dream... no sharp edges and colours, colours colours!!! I am not sure if we were allowed but I put my hands on everything in that house. It begs you to touch it... it's designed to be touched. I came there early in the morning so I had the opportunity to enjoy it in peace, without hundreds of tourists tugging m and pushing me around. If you have a thing for surrealism and like to see it materialised, you should definitely go and see it. although the entry fee is a bit of a downer (20.30 Euros)... Again intelligent me, I left my student card in Edinburgh. Why would I take it with me? Nooooo need, right? You see, I did not forget it, that would not be so bad, I actually, intentionally took it out of my purse along with other thingies supposedly useless outside UK.
I also visited the streets of supposed locations of the home of the Sempere's bookshop homes of other characters and - my favourite - the hiding place of the Cemetery of forgotten books. Truth be told that street looked really dodgy and abandoned, but I guess that's appropriate... Imagine if there really was such thing as this cemetery! Secret refugee camp for rejected, band or abandoned books hiding under the city. I sincerely hope there is such a place... not necessarily in Barcelona but somewhere in the world.
It was not too difficult to resurcet the story in my mind and spill it into the streets for which it was created...even with the considerable number of tourists wandering about. Some areas are overwhelmingly crowded and this is not even the peak season. I wonder how it looks during the summer... though, I am not too keen about finding out. Crowds of people make me feel tired and sad.... except if there is food involved... like at the Mercat de la Boqueria, which has become one of my favourite places in Barcelona even before I set foot in it... one look was enough.
The innumerable winding allies of this outdoor market were hugged from both sides with stands obediently kneeling under the mountains of exotic fruit, vegetables, fish, meet, spices, sweets and treats. Mingling odours were tickling my nose, bright colours enslaving my eyes... For a moment, my ears were saved from the noise of traffic by resonating voices of vendors selling their goods accompanied by clinking and clanking of cooking process and a distant echo of a street musician...
If lived here I would spent half of my time here and the other half cooking. I spent ages wandering around and treating my tastebuds to some new flavours before going back to my Shadow of the Wind exploration quest.
After about 5 hours of tireless wandering, I had a crisis of enthusiasm... now it seems natural, but at that time I was not really aware of how long I've been going around. Suddenly everything seemed really annoying - especially being alone because I had no one to complain to. When I was about to give it up, I looked up and found myself in a random old narrow street. Right opposite me, on an old crumbled wall was a simplistic painting of a tree. Next to it a short line written in big white letters read: 'Wake up! Matrix has you!'
I couldn't do anything but start laughing... an inside joke between the universe and me. A nice reminder indeed. It's sad how many people go through their lives without ever waking up... I don't wanna be one of them. I took a deep breath and went to find myself a a coffee-serving refuge. I restocked my energy supplies. You know how it is, satisfied body, satisfied soul.
When I stepped again into the streets I put the map in my backpack and left my expedition to pure chance. I mingled into deeper and deeper into the Gothic quarter and La Ribera loosing myself in narrow allies silently guarded by never-ending procession of balconies. In one of the small squares, I discovered a film crew shooting a scene for a movie from what appeared to be early 20th century period... Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures but I stayed a for a while watching them at work, absolutely fascinated by the amount of work and obsession with the littlest detail went into that scene.
I got back to the hostel completely exhausted. I took a shower and a short nap before going to dinner which was prepared every night from scratch by the hotsel staff for a few euros and so far has been always delicious. Even better than the food is the atmosphere as random travellers gather at a common table... I love listening to peoples stories, so obviously I subject everybody I meet to a thorough interview. This is by far the most pleasant hostel I've ever stayed in. The whole day ended with a lovely pub crawl and a lot of dancing till early early morning... which obviously completely incapacitated me for the next day so my the 2nd day of my quest... does not even deserve to called a quest... the best thing about it was the food and coffee... But I have learned my lesson, so the next night... no actually I learned nothing... I totally went out again. People here are so happy, and active and friendly... and the party goes on and on... Nice... I like this city more than I thought I would
A few points to point out:
- there is a disturbingly hight number of pharmacies in this city... on every corner... like Starbucks in US
- there is also a high number of candy shops... but that's not so much disturbing.. that's just plain awesome
- where ever you go, there is nowhere to hide from relentless foreign 'street vendors' trying to sell you beer, water or an umbrella... it's amusing and sometimes a little annoying but then everybody needs a job... I bet I annoy people all the time :D
- it's good that I only have a hand luggage otherwise I would spend all my rent and utilities money on clothes, chocolate and ice-cream
- the weather is making fun of me... again... the rain chased me here all the way from Scotland... at least the temperature is reasonable... the weather is supposed to go back to AMAZING on Tuesday, cause I leave on Monday evening.
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