Barcelona and Beiber

Hello readers! This weekend I went to Barcelona for a Justin Beiber concert. Now, those of you who know me well probably know that I'm not really a fan of Beiber. So why would I go to a Justin Beiber concert? Well, a girl from a few of my classes (Nicole) had an extra ticket and invited me to go. Since it's Barcelona, how could I refuse? It was a great excuse to go.

My trip to Barcelona began as most of my trips have begun (I'm developing a pattern apparently). I left class, ate lunch, grabbed my stuff and the food Carmen packed, and headed off to the bus station.

On my way to the bus station, I saw this bus playing music drive by. Then another followed by a crowd of running/biking and chanting Basque people. I recognized the design on the buses from a banner that I'd seen hung around Pamplona which help me know they were Basque. It was really interesting because there some people running while pushing strollers. Them Basques are fit!

I met up with Nicole in the bus station and we then waited for our bus. The trip was largely uneventful. It was about a 6 hour ride with a 15 minute stop halfway. I was able to finish the book I was reading and start reading the Host in Spanish. I couldn't justify rereading it again without reading it in Spanish and I want to reread it because the movie is coming out. Nicole and I also had plenty of time to chat and get to know each other better.

We arrived in Barcelona at about 11pm and took the metro to our hostel.  Barcelona has this nice system of a 10-trip metro card (that's shareable incidentally) instead of only having the option of buying per day (as it is in Paris). We got off the metro and found the hostel without too much difficulty. I had learned my lesson from Portugal and was careful to know exactly how to get there. I bookmarked the map on my phone and we used it to get us there.

Now, I made the mistake of leaving my passport at home. This was intentional because I figured I wouldn't need it since we'd still be in Spain. I have a fear of losing my passport and not being able to go home/get my identity stolen. Maybe someone told me this, but I really don't remember if they did, but I should have made copies of my passport and taken it with me. The receptionist said I should at least take copies of my passport if I'm traveling within the country and don't want to bring my passport. Good idea. It'll be good to have the copies if I ever lose my passport as well. Luckily, she let me stay anyway and I emailed Carmen for the info. She scanned it for me the next day and it was all fine. You live and learn.

We got up early the next morning so we could have a full day seeing the city. We took the metro to the city center. The stop where we got off is called Diagonal, which fueled my inner Harry Potter nerd. I went Diagonally! Anyway, right as we emerged on the street, I saw a Starbucks and had to make a stop. I really miss having large to-go mugs, so I always take advantage of a Starbucks when I can. Plus I hadn't had my morning coffee and my throat was hurting.

After I had my Starbucks fix, we starting walking around. I had brought my Rick Steves' Spain book with me and there were several self-guided walking tours in the book. We followed the tours the best we could through, the Gaudi apartments, Las Ramblas, the waterfront, and the old part of the city.

To the left you see (I feel like a tour guide) an example of a Gaudi apartment. Gaudi was a talented architect and you see his stuff all over Barcelona.

The Rick Steves' self-guided tours were very informative. For instance, in the cathedral in the picture to the left, the charcoal marks you see are from when revolutionaries burned the furniture in the cathedral in protest to the cathedral's support of the dictator Franco. This is the cathedral, Santa Maria del mar, or Saint Mary of the sea. Sailors used to come in and leave replicas of their ships at the feet of the statue of Mary for luck. Very interesting.

Nicole and I spent the morning talking only in Spanish, but then we felt awkward because Barcelona is in Cataluña and they're a little anti-Spain right now. If you haven't heard, Cataluña is trying to secede from the the union  so to speak and become their own country. Catalans speak their own language and have a distinct culture. In fact, I felt like I was in a foreign country because all the signs were in Catalan. The impression we got is that it's better to just speak English in Barcelona.

Since we were on a budget, unfortunately we didn't go into any museums or anything, but since I'm going back with my parents for a day we can hit the things that I want to see. It was very nice walking around the city and seeing the sites that Rick Steves recommended. We visited several cathedrals, nice parks, and other interesting sites. On of which was La Boqueria which is a giant market and I bought a yummy fruit drink/smoothie thing that the receptionist at the hostel said is something you have to try. It was quite good!

For lunch, I got a kebab and Nicole got some pizza and then we sat back the waterfront and had a nice picnic. It was extremely windy, but it was also very relaxing. Then we slowly started making our way back to the hostel for the concert.

As we headed back to the hostel, we saw a group of people doing a video of the Harlem Shake on the metro. The Harlem Shake has gotten a bit old, but it was still cool to see someone making a video of it.

When we got back to the hostel, we switched around our stuff and got what we needed for the concert. Then we were off!

Once we got to the concert, we saw an enormous line of people already there. I used my height advantage and saw a T-shirt vendor so Nicole could buy her T-shirt. Then we got up towards the front and waited for the doors to open. They were supposed to open at 5:30, but they didn't open until 6:30, when the concert had pretty much started. Nicole and I were lucky that we were able to get in and see the first performer, Cody Simpson. A lot of people didn't get in until Justin Beiber, which is lame because they missed Cody Simpson and Carly Rae Jepsen. I would not have been happy if I had missed her. Bad organizing, Barcelona.

It was funny to hear the Spanish girls cheering. They pronounced Justin Beiber differently. Like Ya-stine Beeeber. At first we didn't know what they were saying. Moreover, just the way they said cheers were different. We did do the wave though! That was cool.

When Nicole and I got into the pavilion, we didn't actually sit in our seats. We found a spot near the stage by the railings and watched Cody from there. After he was done performing, we had to move on. I left Nicole to use the restroom and fill up my water bottle. When I went back into the hall, I went to where we had been standing before to see if Nicole was still there. Instead of Nicole, there was this large crowd of Spanish girls asking this guy for an autograph. I didn't recognize him at all, so I assume I was a Spanish star or soccer player or something. I stood there trying to figure out who he was but then the people he was with took him somewhere more obscure and then I went back to our seats to find Nicole.

We ended up watching Carly Rae Jespen in the front row of the section where our seats were, but not our seats. She sang "Call Me Maybe" and "Good Time" with Cody Simpson, which made me very happy. Those are the only two songs I know by her. She was so cute on stage, very bubbly and excited to be there. She did a great job.

After Carly Rae Jespen was done performing, the people whose seats we were in showed up and so we went back to ours. However, there were people in ours so we went back to the area where we were when Cody Simpson performed and sat in some seats there. Then we found some seats in the bottom section right near the stage from the side. We stayed there the whole night and were really close. It was awesome.

Honestly, I couldn't hear Justin Beiber singing very well over the crowd of Spanish girls cheering and singing and he just wasn't singing all that clearly. However, it was a great show. He danced with his dancers and the dancers were really good as well. Each song had a theme. He even did songs where he played the guitar, drums, and piano each. All in all, it was a great show.

When the concert was over, we headed back to the hostel. The bus ride back was absolutely packed, but one of the girls was playing Beiber music on her iPad and a lot of people were singing along. It was kind of cool.

When we got back, we pretty much went straight to bed. One of the annoying things about this particular hostel was that you had to pay deposits for pretty much everything you wanted to use. We had to pay a deposit for the room key and another for a towel. Therefore we only got one room key and had to pay if you wanted a towel. We got the money back when we checked out, but it's so you don't steal them. I also bought a lock for the locker in our hostel. Anyway, we shared the key which was kind of a pain but we didn't want to get another one.

On Sunday, we were planning on going to La Sagrada Familia for mass, but you had to pay to enter and wait in a long line so we went somewhere else (see picture to the right). La Sagrada Familia is a Gaudi cathedral that is still not completed so they overcharge for everything to get the building done. However, it is gorgeous, even from the outside.

After the mass, we went to La Sagrada Familia to look at it. I wanted to go in, but there was a huge line, so I'm thinking I'll go with my parents. Maybe we'll buy advance tickets online.


I checked my Rick Steves book for more things to do and I saw that it's really easy to hop on a bus and get to this really pretty park (Montjuic) that has an art museum. We saw that we had 25 minutes until the bus came, so Nicole went to Subway to get lunch and I got a tea from Starbucks. That took a while and we finished just in time to run and catch the bus.





The book didn't explicitly say what stop to get off at so we just kind of watched for landmarks nearby. I saw in my book that it was near Plaza de Espanya so we got off there. Well, the plaza was packed with people. Turns out we had stumbled upon some kind of run that ended in the park we wanted to go to. We worked our way through the crowd and climbed up to where the museum was. It's actually a castle that has been turned into an art museum.

We were up high enough that we had a beautiful skyline view of the city. It was there that I realized that it was Saint Patrick's Day--I saw a girl wearing shamrocks and otherwise dressed spiritedly. Saint Patrick isn't a saint that is widely celebrated in Spain. Only in places that have been Americanized/Irishized.

By the time we made it to the top, it was kind of time for us to head back to catch our bus to Pamplona. Got to the bus station area early enough for me to get lunch and Nicole to eat her subway. After that, we headed back to Pamplona. I read more of the Host and worked on homework for my literature class.
Now I'm back in Pamplona! I'm looking at taking a quick trip with some friends to Santander this weekend. Santander is a coastal city northwest from Pamplona. We're going to rent a car and do a little of the Camino de Santiago. Tell you more about it when I'm done!