The Fetmans Take Barcelona Day 3, and then London: Leaving Spain...So Surreal...

Saturday, June 24

Woke up for the last time in Spain. Wow, I just could not believe it. Ironically I didn’t sleep too well due to the incessant firecrackers set off in the streets that night. I assumed that it was because of the World Cup or something. I got ready and we all headed out to eat and then planned on checking out the Miró museum and the Parc Güell. Once downstairs I asked the receptionist about directions and he told me that it was a Barcelona holiday so the museums might not be open. Damn! We hoped for the best. We went to a little tapas bar for breakfast…Spanish tortillas all around! I ate a lot because I was so hungry. The food was not bad. I had a pretty good ensaladilla rusa which I knew that I would miss so much once I left the Iberian Peninsula. Sigh. We then walked down las Ramblas in hopes of finding a cab to the museum. First we wanted to call and see if it was open. So I rudely cut a in a line of a bunch of tourists at an info counter (the men behind the counter kept refusing my service without waiting in line but I insisted…the line was way too long for the brief question that I had). I asked for the number of the Miró museum for which the dude actually spent a lot of time searching. I felt badly for holding everyone up, but then again, I didn’t really care that much. Soooooo many tourists were out since it was Saturday, and a holiday (so no natives were really out). I got the number, called the museum, and to our luck it was open. Yessssss.
The museum was far away so we grabbed a cab (which was a struggle due to the holiday) and took it up a mountain to the modern, architecturally cubist museum with a gorgeous view overlooking Barcelona. We entered, locked up our bags, and looked around. We started in the first room which was some random Miró multimedia—the coolest was the big Miró rug. Very neat. My family looooves Miró so this was going to be exciting. We then headed downstairs to an exhibit by some new artist (they have exhibitions for new artists there). It was so cool! Let me see if I can describe this exhibit: a circle of wires releasing drops of water onto different services (such as pots, bowls, strings, etc.) and on the objects were microphones attached to speakers which amplified the sound of the water drops hitting the objects. The water fell randomly, but changed which object it would hit every few minutes. The piece was huuuuge and basically took up the entire room. It was really peaceful and dark down there, and the music was so soothing…and natural! It was so cool, innovative, and fascinating—I had never seen anything like it. I reeeeeally enjoyed that exhibit. So smart. Natural music. I tell ya. Modern art is friggin sweet. Then we walked around the many areas which held work from his early stages onto right before his death. There were also works donated by artist friends of his (such as Henri Moore and Rauschenberg which were all really amazing to see). My favorite works were from the middle of his life when he was using the most color. Shana and I found some pieces that we really loved due to the immensely bold, overstated colors contrasting the simple, black figures. Sigh, I love Miró. We also checked out the outdoor exhibit on the patio overlooking Barcelona (amazing view) which held many interesting Miró statues and sculptures. Interesting. Oh man, it was also so hot out…definitely the hottest it had been since we arrived in Barcelona. Yeah, it was a scorcher. We headed back into the museum and looked around some more. We were probably in there for a little bit under two hours. We looked around the crappy gift shops (that was disappointing) and then headed out.
We thought about taking a cab down, but finding a cab all the way up there was pretty difficult. So we thought about taking the cable cars down. While walking towards them we stumbled upon a Metro stop. I asked the man working the ticket booth about how to get to Parc Güell, and he told me what lines to take. Perfect. We bought tickets, hopped onto some sort of indoor gondola thing that took us onto more level ground so we could board the Metro. We took a couple lines and ended up by Parc Güell, the infamous Gaudí-designed park located atop a foothill. Well, little did we know how treacherous of a walk it would be. It was so hot out and we had a long ascent…primarily by foot…in the sun. Sigh, needless to say it wasn’t too pretty. We walked up a steep paved street until we got to an outdoor escalator which was a bit of a relief, although we were already dying of heat and sweat. We walked up a bit more, took another escalator, and this process continued until we had ascended 3 or 4 outdoor escalators. Then we were dead tired and at the entrance. Damn you, Gaudí, for making your park so hard to reach! We then walked up an uphill dirt path (although not as steep, just as hot) and walked around. We were so exhausted and didn’t quite no where to go. We wanted to find the famous huge mosaic bench and the Gaudí lizard statue, but were at a loss. We used our best instincts and walked. We found the highest peak of the park on which sat a Gaudí-inspired crucifix. Shana and I did not have the will nor energy to walk up the steep rock hill to get to the top, so Mom and Daddy did it and took some pictures while Shana and I caught our breath. We were dead. Ugh. We walked around some more, descended a bit, and then found it! It was huuuuuuge. There’s a huge area held up by columns and enclosed by a wavy mosaic bench which, so I’ve learned, is the largest park bench in the world. It was so cool. Around the park were some brown, more natural-looking pillars with flowers atop. The mosaic bench was amazing. Each section of the bench had a different design and color scheme. Mom spent a lot of time taking pictures…she reeeeally loved it being that she’s a huge mosaic fan. We all ended up splitting up and looking around. Standing at the edge of the park one could see Gaudí’s old house (now his official museum) and two little Gaudí houses below that didn’t look real…they looked like gingerbread houses! So amazing! I headed down the windy staircase and ran into Mom. We found the famous Gaudí mosaic lizard which was pretty cool…and crowded…impossible to get a picture! And there was also a little fountain with what I believe was a mosaic dog head which spit out the water. Pretty neat. We then got all the way down and stood underneath the park where the pillars stand. Above were different circular emblems with their own unique mosaic designs. So cool! We then went inside one of the two little houses (the only one that was open…it’s a gift shop). We didn’t really see anything good, but it was cool to be inside. Mom bought a couple Gaudí photo books which are really nice. Yeah, we were lovin’ on the Gaudí. We then found Shana and Daddy and went into a man-made Gaudí cave which was pretty cool. Mom took some more pictures while the rest of us sat and rested. We were beat. It was so hot and we had walked so much. As great as it all was, we were about ready to go. As sad as I was to leave Spain, I was ready. I felt like I had finally done all that I needed and wanted to do and was ready to go back to the United States with my family. The Parc Güell was our final stop in Spain. Next stop: Barcelona International. I couldn’t believe it. But like I said, I was ready. It was time.
We walked out of the Parc Güell, walked down the road a bit, checked out some cool little shops (a lot of all-mosaic products shops…Mom was in heaven) and then grabbed a cab back to the hotel. Well, I couldn’t remember the address, so I had the driver drop us off on the corner of las Ramblas Catalunya and Diagonal (a few blocks from the hotel). We got out and took a nice stroll back to the hotel on a beautiful early evening (the heat had dissipated and it turned into a nice evening). Nobody was on las Ramblas, not even tourists! Talk about holidays. It was a perfect, peaceful, final stroll on the streets of Spain. We stopped in a little health food place since we were hungry, and got some sandwiches. Then we got back to the hotel where I had the reception call us a mini-van taxi for our intense pile of luggage. The taxi would take about 20 minutes, so we sat in the lobby with our pile of luggage and relaxed. This was it. My last minutes in Spain. I couldn’t believe it. But it was time. It really was. The driver showed up in a huge van and helped us load up. And we were off. The taxi driver was super friendly, and my parents pointed out that this would be my last true opportunity to have a Spanish conversation for a very long time. So we talked the whole way. The driver was so overwhelmingly nice; he told me all about the holiday that was being celebrated (turns out it’s the biggest celebration in Barcelona next to New Years. It celebrates the first official day of Summer…hence why nobody was around—they all went to the beach. This also explained the firecrackers I heard the night before. He told me all about the history and the myths behind it…it was great! A perfect final real Spanish conversation. Sigh, I’ll miss them dearly.
We arrived at the Barcelona airport a few hours early. I mean, we had nothing else to do, and we had no idea what traffic would be like. We checked all of our bags and sat around. We tried hooking up to the Wi-Fi in the many zones they had, but it cost money and my computer was on low battery. So out of boredom we took many walks around the shopping areas and duty free stores. Woooot. I went to a bunch of bookstores and newsstands to find Harry Potter 3 to replace the one I left on the train, but they were all in Spanish. Boo. There goes that entertainment for the long plane ride ahead of me the next day. Oh, I should explain. We were taking a night flight to London, sleeping in London, then flying directly to Chicago from London the next evening. So our flight that night would only be a couple of hours; plus, we’d gain an hour (it’s an hour earlier in London). I was kind of excited—I’d never been to London! Just like I can say I’ve been to Switzerland (my flight to Spain), I can now say that I’d been to London. Anyways, I was feeling a bit perturbed that I wouldn’t have a book to read on the plane when I stumbled upon…dun dun dunnnn…Us Weekly! In English! Yesss!!!! Perfect. Shana also bought Cosmo in English. My reading entertainment had been restored. I was so happy because I needed some major briefing on celebrity gossip before I would return to the States. Niiiiice. We then went to a waiting area to sit around for an hour. We played the Movie Game very unsuccessfully for awhile just doing what we could to pass the time. Then we migrated to our gate. We were delayed about twenty minutes which was kind of annoying. Then we boarded and were off. Goodbye, Spain. So weird. At the time it didn’t feel like I was leaving yet. It felt like I was just taking a little trip to London. It hadn’t hit me yet. The flight was quick and easy. We didn’t get food (Iberia is a shitty airline…last Iberia flight I’ll be on for awhile, woohoo!), but whatever—we had eaten some (gross) sandwiches at the airport. We then landed at Gatwick (or was it Heathrow? I can’t remember) Airport. We were all so exhausted. Although it was only 11pm, we were just dead from traveling and all the walking in the heat from that day. There was some confusion about waiting for baggage. You have to stand in front of a TV monitor and wait for them to call your flight to get your bags. It took for-ev-er for us to be called. It sucked. Then it took forever to get a cab. They didn’t have mini-vans, so there was worry about fitting our luggage. We had a back-up plan of Daddy renting a car for the night to take the luggage which made me nervous…Daddy driving stick on the left side of the road?? Don’t even think about it. Luckily we got a station wagon that was able to stuff all of our luggage. The ride was long and grueling…about an hour (we were staying at a Holiday Inn next to the Heathrow Airport since we’d be flying out of that one the next day). It was still very silly to see my dad sitting up front on what would be the driver’s side…I can’t get used to this United Kingdom left side driving thing, I tell ya. The weird and yet great thing about being in London was that my dad could take over. When we were in Spain I was in charge because I was the only person who knows the language. But in London my dad could sit up front, talk to the cab driver, the hotel reception, the people at the airport, etc. It was nice to be able to sit back and relax and purge myself of the responsibility for once. Sigh. We arrived at the lovely, circular Holiday Inn. It was weird getting out of the cab and feeling cold for once…it was probably around 60 degrees there. Omigod, an American place! And they speak English! So weird. That was so crazy for me at first. We checked in and got our rooms. We didn’t have air conditioning which was kind of annoying, but not terrible since it wasn’t too hot out. I was gross, so I showered. I tried to charge my computer, but I forgot that they have different outlets in the U.K. Dammit! We were able to fit one of my adapters into the razor outlet to try to charge my computer overnight. Before passing out I watched some very fascinating, uncensored British “Big Brother”. Funny people, them Brits. I fell asleep at around 1am. I was well on my way home. No longer a Spaniard. I was so tired that it didn’t even phase me. I was very aware of, however, the fact that this would be my last night in Europe…as a quasi-European citizen. Wow. So strange. I couldn’t believe how fast the past 5 ½ months had flown by…