BARCELONA - CONTINUED

Her friend had to give a lecture at some academic institution, so they parted ways on their second day in Barcelona. She walked down the streets, armed with map in hand and the Serbian couple’s suggestions in mind. For the first time completely alone in a big strange city, she couldn’t but feel awed as she imagined how far she was from home; despite the fact that some things were similar. Cars and buses filled with people travelling to work, shops opening up their wares to people, crowds of people waiting to cross the streets. Yes, in Barcelona the preference was not as much to the pedestrian as it was to time. So, people had to wait for their turn to cross streets. No car would stop for them. It was all business and money here. She could make that out. She was overwhelmed with everything around.

 

She quickly made her way to the tourist places, to get away from that busy and mindless city life. She wrapped her sweater closely around herself, to keep warm against the chilly wind. She couldn’t believe it was this cold in April. She made her way to the famous Arc de Triomf, at the entrance of Park Ciutadella. It was a beautiful pathway, with lovely structures and lamp posts. She was amazed by the number and variety of museums around that place. There was a museum for chocolates too. Having wandered into a couple of such museums, she got bored and made her way to the beach.

It was quiet a small beach, with soft, almost white sand. The sea was a beautiful dark blue - a color she had never seen before. It contrasted beautifully with the light blue of the sky. There was something quite dreamy about the sunlight in Spain. It felt light and golden – not like the burning, scorching sun in India. Despite the chilly wind, the beach was filled with people, even in the middle of the day. There were lots of women with their children playing around them. She was shocked to see people in their swim wear, daring to venture into the sea, despite the cold. They took off their clothes without any inhibition, while she could never even peel off her sweater in public without feeling as if she was stripping. She saw some people making shapes on the beach – beautiful sculptures, made painstakingly with sand and water. She wondered how any could invest so much mind, time and effort on something so temporary, so transient in nature. They must be so sure of themselves – these artists.

She met up with her friend at the beach and they both decided to make their trip a little more adventurous by going into the nearby casino. That was the first place they had to show their identity proofs to get in; they looked too young to be going into casinos. The inside was quite fascinating, with machines so colorful and lit up with lights – each made up to enchant people and get them to play. She wanted so much to try her luck at one of the machines, but was too embarrassed with all the people staring at them. They quickly made their way out; as they were sure the management would have thrown them out pretty soon. Out of the casino, they made their way to the Ciutadella Park and admired the beautifully kept lawns, trees and shrubs. But the best feature of the park was the fountain. It was a huge structure with very intricate and beautiful carvings. It was a very tranquil site, with swans and ducks swimming around and pigeons cooing from the life size carvings of flowers and people. The size of park was immense, and after some time they gave up trying to explore the whole place.

As they walked back to their hostel they heard loud cheers emanating from a nearby pub. It was an English pub, her friend informed her. Not really understanding the significance, she insisted on entering it. Once again they had to prove they were above the legal age to drink at the entrance. The inside of the pub was exactly as she had seen in the movies – dark, crowded and people staring into the TV. It pictured a live match between Barcelona and Arsenal, which being hosted by the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona that day. She had never seen people so involved into the game, not even in the Cricket World Cup in India. Soccer fans are crazy, she thought. With beer mugs in hand, people were cheering and booing loudly at the players. They had to get out before some physical fight broke out between the supporters of both the teams. They walked on to a nearby Spanish pub, and were surprised to see none of such action there. There were just a few people calmly following the match on television, without making any noise. Different people, different cultures.

The next day, they crossed the huge city to see Camp Nou, Barcelona’s famous stadium. She had never been to any athletic stadium, and she had no idea why they were going to this place; her friend had insisted on it. Once she got in, she realized why. The immense size of the stadium astonished her, not to speak of the size of the field. Never having seen an actual full size soccer field before, she wondered at the stamina of the players who run around it a thousand times in a single game. They must be super humans. The stadium was still being cleaned up after the previous night’s game – looking at the size and state of it, she realized they would take a few days for it get over. After a brief tour of the stadium’s museum, they rushed back to their hostel to pack. There were flying back to Madrid for the last leg of their journey. She couldn’t believe it had already been a week since she came there. How time flies!!!

To be continued…..