Wes @ Play - Barcelona, Spain - 2009 Mobile World Congress

Barcelona Food

• The sandwiches (bocadillo) are served dry, which makes eating a serrano ham sandwich akin to eating salty rubber bands between two sheets of styrofoam. There's usually olive oil or tomatoes to be had, so ask for it.
• If you're a meat eater, you will have a great time. Many restaurants have excellent grilled steaks, chops, etc. including some that are of legendary proportions. If you're vegetarian or vegan, people will look at you like you're from Mars.
• The best entrees I had were a entrecote topped with foie gras, and a really lovely octopus.

Speaking Spanish

• Definitely study before you arrive. Few people speak English, although they will try to accomodate you as much as possible. I had 48 hours to refresh my freshman high school Spanish, but it was well worth it.
• You'll notice signs in what appears to be Portuguese at times. That's Catalan, and you'll notice that some people in Barcelona mix the two languages.

10 Tips

1. 10. Take the subway (Metro); it's cheap (1.13 euros one way), clean, and fast. Automated ticket machines are in English and other languages. Signage is excellent.
2. 9. Watch your stuff—camera, purse, or wallet. It's a safe city, but even locals scolded me for dangling my camera around my shoulder.
3. 8. The Rambla is crazy crowded and super touristy. It's worth seeing definitely, but the equivalent in San Francisco is Pier 39. If you enjoy eating, go somewhere else.
4. 7. Take a heavy sweather if you're going out at night during February. As soon as the sun goes down, it can get bone-chillingly cold if there's a breeze.
5. 6. Barcelona is a small city. You can usually walk from attraction to attraction, and the neighborhoods are all very interesting.
6. 5. Relax. There's a siesta which shuts down some businesses during the middle of the day for a few hours.
7. 4. Spain is not Mexico. A tortilla is an omelette. Tequila is exotic. Chorizo is more like salami.
8. 3. Grocery stores are usually closed Sundays. Plan ahead. There's at least one chain that is open, but most are closed.
9. 2. Banks close at 2 p.m. sharp. If you need to change money or cash traveler's checks, plan ahead. The banks in town also don't charge the 7 euro per check fee that they do at the airport.
10. 1. Go see La Sagrada Familia cathedral. It becomes glaringly clear that a genius architect plus skilled craftspeople equal greatness. It's amazing what humans are capable of when they're allowed to be human.

La Sagrada Familia Cathedral
My one and only stop was Gaudi's famous Sagrada Familia cathedral, which has been under construction for more than a century. Tickets are 11 euros for adults, plus 2.50 for the elevator ride up the towers.

NOTE: There are two elevators, and they allow access to different parts of the church. If you only have time/interest in one (the lines can take 45 mins), I highly recommend the western side (the side with the modernist facade), which goes up the taller set of towers. If you're at all physically challenged (sprained ankle, etc.) skip it. The stairs are narrow and steep.

I've dreamed about seeing this building since I was 10. It doesn't disappoint.

Hints

• I went in the mid-afternoon. This was fortuitous because the stained glass windows cast beatiful golden and blue light across the interior, and the carving details show up much better on the facade.
• Plan on spending 2+ hours there
• Notice the materials used. Although they are using what looks like poured concrete now, the stonework is magnificent and varied in composition. The columns in the nave are subtly different.
• The views from the towers are spectacular, but I REALLY wouldn't want to be up there on a windy day. There's basically nowhere to hide from blowing rain either.
• The Sagrada Familia metro station is literally 10 feet from the ticket booth.

2009 Barcelona Vacation - April 7-14

Scott and I were originally supposed to go to Barcelona for a short vacation in February, immediately before Mobile World Congress. That fell through when I was laid off, but a) I felt like returning and b) I felt bad that he'd been practicing Spanish for months.

FLIGHT

We flew on Air France, the online reservation system for which needs some work: it has an annoying habit of displaying your name like this "Mr Kashiwagi Wes".

Air France food in economy class is not very good compared to KLM, but much better than British Airways. Most of the flight attendants vanish midway through the flight, so drinks and snacks are self-service in the galleys, which quickly gets congested.

The flight was fairly uneventful except for takeoff where we hit a lot of turbulence, so much so that one of the passengers put his arms up as if he was riding a rollercoaster.

Charles De Gaulle airport is so amazingly designed. It makes any of the other airports I've been to look like prisons. We breezed through security.

The flight to Barcelona was also uneventful and dull for Scott since Europe was under a cloud cover.

HOTEL ESPERIA TOWER

We arrived in the afternoon. The taxi driver asked us if we were here for the Munich vs. Barcelona soccer match, then soaked us for 25 euros for what should have been a 9 euro trip (you can see the hotel from the airport). There's supposedly a surcharge if you come from the airport, but my first driver didn't charge me this in July. Uh...

We stayed at the Hotel Esperia Tower, which is over the top architecturally, like the Pompidou Center in Paris—all exposed venting, glass elevators, red superstructure, exposed stairwells, and a silvery domed restaurant at the top.

The front desk spoke English, which is good because my Spanish leaves me when I'm tired. They were very efficient, and we were in our rooms in about five minutes.

Our room was large for Europe. You enter into the dressing room / bathroom, which is all mirrors and polished black stone (think funhouse), then go through a frosted glass door to the sleeping area, which is decorated in a spare but not cold way. The view of the city and surrounding hills is excellent. The shower had one of those three way showerheads (overhead, side jets, or handheld), which I'm no longer considering for my house.

The hotel sits in a working class neighborhood called Bellvitges (bell-veet-jes). We explored the barrio and found a small middle-eastern run bar where I introduced Scott to cafe con leche. We went there every morning after that since it was friendly and cheap (less than a a euro per glass).

The hotel's breakfast buffet (25 euros, or 17 euros if you choose to have it everyday) offers a fairly typical spread, with local sausages, "American" food, hot and cold dishes, and fresh orange juice. Room service is 24 hours, and also very good.

The nearest Metro to the hotel is the Hospitalet Bellvitges stop, about a five minute walk from the hotel.

TAKE THE METRO

If you go to Barcelona, take the metro. It's fast, cheap, and extremely convenient. On Saturday, it runs 24 hours; on other nights, you'll probably need to take a taxi back to your hotel since it closes at either midnight or 2 a.m.

Trains typically come every 5 minute or less (10 minutes for some) and are usually very clean and new compared to US systems. They were smart enough to add ridges to their plastic seats so you don't slide off at every stop, which I wish someone in the US would copy.

DINNER

Dinner #1: We went to Suerna, which is where I went when I was in town for Mobile World Congress in February. It's directly across from the Fira near Plaza Espanya. I had the tournedos with foie gras and mushrooms, and Scott had the chuleton, which is a large boneless steak.

We sat in the non-smoking area upstairs, which was empty except for one couple. Everyone downstairs was glued to the televised game. Our waitress was fabulous. She didn't speak much English, but she spoke Spanish instead of Catalan so I could understand about 30% of what she was saying.

Dinner #2: I liked this place so much that we returned. We started with garlic shrimp and ox carpaccio, both of which were fantastic. Scott had the tournedo, and I had "sheep ribs" which turned out to be a 6-7 lambchops which were okay.

LANGUAGE

I was noticing that American tourists much be completely baffled in Barcelona because a lot of the signage is in Catalan (Catalá), not Spanish. Most locals also speak in either Catalan or a mixture of the two. Sometimes the differences are slight or non-existant, but "please" in Catalan is "si us plau" vs. "por fabor." Catalan sounds like a mashup of Spanish and Portuguese, and Netti said that in the countryside they speak it really fast.

I was a bad boy, and didn't learn as much Spanish as I should have. The key is always to know how to say basic pleasantries (yes, no, please, thank you), numbers, and the way to say "I would like..." (Quisiera...) which gets you far in every country.

GAY BARS

TIPPING IN SPAIN

Apparently, Scott and I were unknowingly throwing money away left and right. Tipping is similar to Germany where you round up, but you just leave the tip behind instead of telling the waitor/waitress how much you want back. I told Netti and Andy that we gave the cab driver a 5 euro tip and they both gasped. It's apparently similar to Germany, where you round up, although I still usually give what I think they earned.