Day 6: Barcelona, Spain

Day 6 (July 5, 2004) Barcelona, Spain

I did not get a wake up call and so I got up at 10 a.m. After hurrying up, we left at 10:30 for our walking tour of Old Barcelona. We walked down the street called Las Ramblas. It was full of energy and amusement. Besides the typical kiosks and restaurants, there were street performers. They would dress up in extensive outfits and stay in a stationary position until they received a coin. After that they would do an antic or pose for a picture. They would get quite irate or block some poses if someone would take pictures without paying.

Ali Nink posing with some of the street performers on Las Ramblas

On the tour, we passed through the gothic quarter, some churches, and went through the fruit/food markets at St. Josep.

We had one of two brief rain showers that made us hurry up and go to the pier and eat (around 1:00). We had a wonderful Spanish traditional meal called paella, which consisted of rice, chicken, seafood (calamari and mussel), and artichoke. Dessert was a type of pudding with burnt sugar on top.

Afterwards, we went up Las Ramblas again to go towards the Hard Rock Cafe and buy merchandise. A quick shower later, the group split up, with the majority deciding to go home and sleep a few hours. I took Ben and BJ and we took off towards the beach.

Again we took off down Las Ramblas and enjoyed the sights and sounds. We didn't make it to the beach, however. We got side tracked buying merchandise, playing at an arcade, and seeing an exhibit put on by some buddhas. We heard later that the beach was too dirty and not a place to go in the water. We arrived back at 7:00 and rested until our 9:00 meal.

After we ate, we had a brief rest until the bus picked us up at 10:30. We arrived another time at Las Ramblas, this time in a seedier part of town. I suspect some of the students might have seen their first lady of the evening. We were there early and so we wandered the streets again until show time. Once we got back, we were escorted inside to where the show was to be performed.

The Flamenco performance was good, with females and males dancing and tap dancing to the music. It was a good cultural experience for the students. It made me think about how different cultures can be in things such as dating and how girls and boys interact before getting married. It's easy to think that's how the world is by just living in your part of the world. It is necessary to see other people and examine their culture instead of hearing about it through the media. It is more powerful when you experience it yourself. The performance was done at 1:00 a.m. and so we headed home. The group was starting to mix up pretty well with the other groups from New York, California, and Connecticut.

Flamengo Dancing in Barcelona