Glasgow and Barcelona

Tuesday night we had intern pizza Tuesday again. I enjoy hanging out with the other interns discussing Scottish politics and gorging ourselves on Dominoes pizza. 

Wednesday morning I went to my first committee meeting. I went to the Local Government Committee Meeting which my MSP is in. I went with three other interns. They were discussing the High Hedges Bill, which as my roommate Frances calls it, is a classist bill aimed at regulating how high your hedges can grow. At work I finished briefs and some research for my MSP, which are getting easier as I figure out better ways to prepare the information. I then scribbled down all our hostel and flight information. Julianne and I left work early. We changed in the work bathroom and walked to Waverley in our concert clothes. Our friend gave us free train ticket vouchers, so we hopped on the crowded train to Glasgow. Immediately after leaving the city, everything was covered in snow. It was so cool (literally). We arrived in Glasgow at 4:15 so it was already pitch black. We grabbed crappy paninis and coffee from Cafe Nero near the Central Train Station and then walked to our hostel. The sidewalks were frozen, I don't really know how that's possible, so we slipped the whole way. We dropped our stuff off and headed straight to the concert to get in line. 

By some incredibly awesome happenstance, they split the line right at the person in front of us and made a new line, so we were right at the front of the line. When the doors opened we were second row. 

They had three opening acts. The first was Piff the Magic Dragon, a magician in a dragon suit with a chihuahua named Mr. Piffles, who put on the strangest magic act I've ever seen. "Hi, I'm Piff the Magic Dragon. I bet you know my brother, Colin." He also played the bag pipes, which were attached to his dog. The second act was Post War Years, who were good, and then Dawes who were even better. 

Then Mumford & Sons came on at 9. The curtains dropped then whipped up dramatically as they started playing "Babel". They didn't interact with the audience as much as I've seen at other concerts, but they were still incredible. The whole crowd was jumping up and down and screaming the lyrics. They were so talented too. They could all play so many instruments and all sang amazingly and harmonized and rocked out on their instruments, it was so cool. When they played "Little Lion Man" the crowd lost it and went crazy. We ended up getting squished back a few rows, but we actually were getting pushed less back there, so it was better because I don't particularly like getting pushed at concerts. 

We slipped our way back to the hostel on a post concert high and went to bed. We slept in, got breakfast at a pub, bought a sweater from Primark, and went to catch the train to the airport. We weren't in Glasgow long, but my impression was that it was a slightly dirtier, eclectic Scottish city. It had old buildings, but new ones as well. 

On the train, we passed through some of the towns my MSP represents, which was cool because I was like, "I wrote a motion about this town!" 

Our flight got delayed so we chased the sunset on the way to Barcelona. 

Barcelona was surprisingly very stressful. I forgot how hard it is to travel in a country where you don't speak the language and I experienced a little bit of culture shock. My Spanish is terrible in the first place, so it would have been hard to get around on that anyway, but it was made worse by the fact that they don't speak Spanish in Barcelona, they speak Catalan. It is a combination of Spanish and French with different spellings, so even words that I may have been able to recognize in Spanish, I couldn't decipher in Catalan. 

Coincidentally, Catalonia is trying to become independent from Spain like Scotland is from the UK, but it is unconstitutional for them to try and secede, so they can't. Whereas the UK doesn't even have a written constitution and Westminster and the Scottish Parliament have agreed on a referendum. 

When communication in Spain, I had to rely on simple incomplete sentences like, "T10 billete por favor" when buying a metro pass or "Passeig de Gracía uno uno seis por favor" when we gave up on public transportation and took a taxi. Barcelona is also huge and the metro was not excellent, so it was very stressful trying to figure out where we were going. More than once we walked the opposite direction for twenty minutes before realizing. I also learned an important travel lesson that I really should have already known: comfort > aesthetics. I wore my black Oxford shoes the whole time so my feet hurt immensely. I only had one backpack, so I only brought one pair of shoes. Another important travel lesson is to remember to eat regularly, drink water and get enough sleep. All things that are easy to forget. 

We checked into our hostel and then went to dinner. Most of the things on our Barcelona bucket list were food related. In a very Spanish style, we ate our dinner at 10 pm. It took us two hours to eat all our food and I was so full that I could barely move. We ordered paella, sangria, and churros con chocolat. The paella was perfectly spiced, the sangria tasted like cool mulled wine, and the churros con chocolat were these churro loops that came with a mug of hot, thick melted chocolate. I'm not a big churro fan, but with the chocolate it was grand. 

Paella and Sangria, I chickened out on the seafood paella and got chicken paella. 

Churros con Chocolat

One of the Gaudi buildings near our hostel

We woke up the next morning and went to Las Ramblas, the long market street in Barcelona. We went in a covered food market, which was cool. They were selling chocolates, candy, spices, and whole fish propped up on ice, gaping at you. 

We then got gelato and ate it while walking around. I branched out and got vanilla cookies gelato. Gelato is way better than ice cream. It's creamier and sweeter. 

We then thought we were walking through the Gothic Quarter. We got lunch and I ordered the only thing that had I word that I sort of recognized - formatge. Close to the French word for cheese, but no where near the Spanish word. I ended up getting a little solid baguette about the size of my thumb with a slice of cheese on it. Julianne go ta ham and blue cheese sandwich that she ended up tossing. After our unsuccessful lunch we realized we weren't in the Gothic Quarter and took the metro a few stops to get to where we intended. We stopped by the cathedral, then walked around the narrow alleyways and wove around. It was very easy to get lost, but I knew the direction we wanted to aim in, so we made it out to where we started on Las Ramblas. 

Roman walls

Catedral

Gothic Quarter

We then went to the Sagrada Familia. It was designed by Gaudi, a Spanish architect who designed many of the buildings in Barcelona in his very distinct style - lots of details and round shapes. No sharp edges on roofs or windows. It's all very 3D and rounded. The Sagrada Familia is unfinished, but is still stunningly huge. Gaudi was an ambitious guy. In Istanbul the buildings were very intricate and detailed in the decorations and paintings. I've never seen architecture where the building itself had so many intricate details built into it. My initial reaction was that it was weird, but in a good way. It was really unlike anything I've ever seen before and was my favorite part of our Friday in Barcelona. The front had doors with bible verses carved in 3D out of bronze and there were four spires and geometric carvings of people. The inside had huge spiral staircases and simple drawings on the floor. There were checkered ceilings and these huge windows. Some were stained glass and some were clear, but the way Gaudi designed it, it let so much light in. The light was very pieced and it was a cool effect. 

The other side of the Sagrada Familia looked different. Every part looked different, there wasn't really any symmetry or unifying pattern. The other side looked like the spires had uneven balls of clay dripping down them, but when you looked closely, you realize that they're tiny carvings and sculptures and the architecture is unbelievably intricate. 

Sagrada Familia

What it will look like when it's finished. The brown parts are what is existing and the white is planned. 

We were closeish to the hostel, so we decided to go back for a break before going to dinner. We checked our Facebooks on our phones. iPhones and free wifi are so great to have while traveling. We ended up falling asleep for an hour, so we also got to experience the Barcelona siesta.

We wanted to go to the beach, so we went to the coast for dinner and saw the Port of Barcelona. We stopped by a statue for a few pictures. It was hard to find food because it was all seafood, so we found an Italian place. I got an incredible pesto gnocchi. We then walked through a palm tree park near the water to get to the metro.

Columbus Statue

Lion near the statue

Port of Barcelona

We were trying to squeeze as much out of our short trip to Barcelona, so we decided to see the Arc de Triomf, a red version of the one in France. My feet hurt and I was tired and the public transportation to get there was so stressful. We had to wait 10 minutes at a metro to go one stop, then catch a tram one stop. It took us forever to find the tram, and we waited on the tram for a long time before the driver even showed up. We went two stops then switched back to the metro for one stop. When we got off the tram, I had no idea where we were and couldn't find the street names on my map. I used the most useful Spanish phrase I know, "¿Dónde está...?" to ask the only person around for directions. We walked a bit and eventually found it. We took a couple pictures then took a taxi back to the hostel. 

Arc de Triomf

On Saturday morning, we woke up early, packed, had toast and coffee at the hostel, then took the metro, funicular, and a cable car to get to a fort on top of a hill in Barcelona. I had to stumble through asking directions in Spanish a few times, but we made it to the fort overlooking Barcelona and the ocean. It was probably my favorite part of the trip. I really enjoy seeing cities from a live Google Maps perspective because you can see the whole city and get a feel for what it looks like and where it is in the world. It was so bright and sunny that it was painful because my eyes are adjusted to 24 7 darkness. But the city was beautiful. Some of my observations of Barcelona was that it was a mix between Rome, Istanbul, and Santa Barbara. Also, sexism was more prevalent there than in many places I've been before. We then made our way back to Edinburgh by cable car -> funicular -> metro -> train -> airplane  -> train to Glasgow -> train to Edinburgh -> walking. 

Gaudi building on Passeig de Gracia

You can see the Sagrada Familia from Montjuïc

From the Castell on Montjuïc 

The ocean from the Castell

It really was an incredible week. I smelled really bad by the end of it and couldn't wait to shower and do laundry. I can't believe I only have two more weeks here. This quarter went by so fast. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, but I love it here.