Megz and Peter in Europe 2004

Barcelona, Spain

Peter and I spent a day and a half in Barcelona. What an expensive place. 48 hours in total in Spain and we spent the equivalent of what we'd spent the previous week travelling round rural France.

However there are some disclaimers to go with this remark, and at least some of this expenditure was of our own choosing. After all, here we were in one of Europe's largest cities, on a Saturday night. So we did what every Antipodean traveller needs to do at least once - go out drinking.

So expense No 1 was an inner city hostel/pensione so that we could stumble home in the wee small hours. 60 Euro a night or NZ$250 for two nights. We could probably have found something a little cheaper, but this room came with a private shower and toilet so it was worth the extra 5 Euros.

Expense No 2 was a direct result of No 1, but was certainly a surprise to us to find out how expensive it was going to be. That is carparking. Of course our cheap hotel didn't come with a carpark, so we had to leave our car in a public carpark for a day and a half. That set us back about 50 Euros.

And you've probably already guessed what expense No 3 was - drinking. We found a pub crawl of like minded travellers run by an Aussie guy. The cost of joining the pub crawl was 15 Euro a head or NZ$60 for both of us. That got us a couple of free sangrias, a free shot at every bar, and entry into all the bars and clubs. Plus we bought our own beers in every place - I hate to think how much that cost - at least another 30 Euro.

Those were the major costs, but we found everything else in Barcelona expensive too. We arrived on Saturday afternoon but didn't really do any sightseeing apart from wandering up and down Las Ramblas (the main street) and through the gothic quarter, looking for tourist information, hostels, and internet. Saturday night we went out drinking. Met people from Australia, USA, Ireland, Finland, Singapore, Austria, and I can't remember where else. Ended up at a pub goodness knows where at 2 or 3am, stumbling drunk. Had no idea where we were. Got lost, got separated, and eventually I managed to stumble across our hotel at almost 4am, where Peter was waiting frantically.

Sunday was spent with a hangover and didn't start till we got kicked out of the hostel at 12 o'clock. We both needed to drink water and bought a large bottle on Las Ramblas, and also some ham & cheese baguette sandwiches. Normally in France I'd expect this to cost maybe 8 Euro. Not in Barcelona where everyone's trying to rip you off. Here it's 12 Euro.

Up and down Las Ramblas are beggers, buskers, portrait painters and people just trying to scam the tourist dollar. We wanted paella for dinner one night. We went to a place called OK Paella which appeared to be a chain restaurant - we'd seen OK Paella advertised elsewhere down Las Ramblas for 9-10 Euros. The one we went to was near our hotel but didn't have the prices advertised. What did it cost? 15 Euro each.

Sunday was a warm day - over 20 degrees (yay finally some warm weather). We bought some Cornetto ice creams from a dairy near one of the tourist attracions. 1.80 Euro each. From the dairy off the beaten tourist track - 1.20 Euro.

Enough complaining though. The lessons to be learned or passed on to others going to Barcelona: Either expect it to be expensive and bring lots of Euros, or if you're on a tight budget then don't buy anything along the tourist route. Of course this is just common sense also. Lonely Planet recommends the area west of Las Ramblas as being cheaper and more authentic. It's also darker, with narrower streets, and made us feel uncomfortable at night.

We did manage to do some sightseeing in Barcelona. We saw the Sagrada Familia - designed by Gaudi. Has been under construction for over 100 years and is still nowhere near finished. We went to Guell Park - gardens and buildings and architecture designed by Gaudi. And we went to the Gaudi Museum. At first glance I found the Gaudi architecture ugly and, well, gaudy. But after really looking at it you begin to see the naturalistic elements, the themes and the allegories to nature. The columns that soar up to the ceiling and twist & turn like trees. The palm fronds that make up gates & fences. The real live palms planted next to the stone palm trees that support the walkways. I like Gaudi's work.

So after 48 hours in Spain, I conclude that I like the weather but I don't like Barcelona very much. It is too, too crowded and too focussed on ripping off the tourists. Too many people wanting money for nothing. I admit that two days is not enough time to get a feel for an entire country, and I'm not judging Spain based on my time in Barcelona. There is so much there that we haven't seen. But on this trip we only had time to visit one place. Now it's off to Italy, via the south of France.

posted by Megz @ 4:05 pm