Ready to Rambla!

I woke up this morning at 6:30 to watch the ship dock in the first port of my voyage—Barcelona!!!

It is 10:45 our time and I’ve already spent the day seeing the major sights of the city. Once we were docked, I was off the ship and shopping (what else?) the famous La Rambla Street that runs through the center of the city. After passing Christopher Columbus’ statue (He was a Spaniard you know) my friends and I reached a tree lined boulevard whose shopping, eating and general character rivaled that of any street in any city I’ve ever seen before. We had been warned extensively about the dangers of pick pocketing in this area, so we took it upon ourselves to be as theft resistant as possible with our belongings, keeping on hand on our across-the-shoulder purses at all times and developing code words for alerting others to potential criminals. I think we may have surpassed the secret service in our alertness to our surroundings, and the mere event of taking cash out of the ATM was more carefully orchestrated than most military maneuvers.

All that caution and the most questionable character I encountered all day turned out to be a lost Scottish man. La Rambla was probably a little quieter today than usual as yesterday was some or other saints day and apparently a HUGE holiday for Barcelona in which everyone stays up all night partying. Many businesses in the less touristy areas were closed for the day, and the diplomat who briefed the ship assured us that those who did have to work today would most likely be half asleep, hung over, or both. I suppose I haven’t gotten a true impression of the city yet, because the diplomat was correct on all counts. At the Tapas bar I stopped at for lunch, the waiter wouldn’t even let us order, and street performers all seemed to lack a certain zeal. Maybe even the pick pockets were too tired to give us any trouble, because in a country with 20 percent unemployment, pick pocketing is a truly competitive career path that is really more of an art form than a profession.

Having fewer people around was nice I think. It gave me a chance to see many of the city’s most famous landmarks in peace. So far I’ve seen the Sagrada Familia, driven past the Olympic pavilion, and seen lots of other cool places I can neither recall nor spell at this moment but were all truly magnificent. I promise. After a day of exploring (if you can call charter bus guided tours exploring, and I don’t think you can) I settled in for dinner and a not so authentic Flamenco show that was nonetheless very impressive.

Now I must go. I’m meeting friends to head out to the city once more—the Spaniards are finally waking up!

Buenas Noches!

Bonnie