There's this The 1975 lyric that goes 'I bet you thought your life would change, but you're sat on a train again'- and I think that perfectly captures how I'm living right now. We started travelling 3 weeks ago tomorrow, which has absolutely flown by; but somehow, simultaneously, Paris feels like months ago, and this lifestyle is one I've adapted to so quickly. Maybe I dramatised the way this trip was going to go in my head- a Don Quixote style adventure with mountains and ravines, trials and tribulations that would completely change who I am as a person. But as of right now, I'm still very much the Bracknell boy I always have been; I'm just a lot more comfortable now with a backpack on my back, and more familiar with a two-pronged charging port. Literally, I'm just sat on a train again.
Today was the last day of this trip in Spain, and I've absolutely loved it. Whilst of course, there are similarities between all the cities we visited, I loved how each Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona had their own style and vibe, that ran right through from the architecture to the people themselves.
We arrived in Valencia quite late in the day, with a delay on the train's arrival not helping that matter. There'd been heavy rainfall in the city in the days before our arrival, and you could still feel it in the air; the second we stepped onto the platform, the moisture clung to us, making our already sweaty clothes (the beauty of backpacking <3) feel like we'd just been swimming in them. Too tired to try and make sense of another metro system we decided to make the walk to the hostel, SOM Valencia, which wasn't far at all from the city center. Valencia felt like a very youthful city, and our first interaction with the locals was an immediate taste of that- Zac and I were stopped at a staircase to make way for some kids who were skateboarding, one making a jump down them to the applause of his friends. As cool as it was though, I needed a shower, and the Reading game was on TV so finding a pub with Sky Sports was top priority.
St. Patrick's was the pub of choice, and I think we ended up going back each night we were there, as much as watching the 1-0 loss on that first visit could have deterred us. Beers were a good price, staff were friendly, there were plenty of TVs to watch the sport, and it had table football and a pool table- it felt like a bit of home comfort which was nice to return to.
I didn't really know what to expect of Valencia going into our 3 nights there; we had nothing booked or planned (including our train out of there) and thought we'd just take it as it came. It sounds silly but- Valencia seemed to be just the average Spanish city; maybe because I didn't have the opportunity to do a guided tour as I did in Madrid and Barcelona to learn more about its culture and history, but nothing particularly stood out to me. That is of course, other than its Science Museum, perhaps the focal point of the city and its tourist figurehead. I'd written an article about European cities around a year ago now, and Valencia featured on it- I wrote about the juxtaposition between its historical and modern sides, and that was even more prevalent seeing the museum in person on our second day. Walking up to it was like seeing a spaceship from a sci-fi film; and although the inside was obviously more geared towards kids, visiting its 'hemisphere' cinema was maybe one of my favourite parts of this trip so far. We'd purchased tickets to see 'Our Blue Planet', a film exploring sea life across the globe, and it was incredible immersing ourselves in the movie in the (thankfully air conditioned) dome. Our final day in Valencia was spent at the beach- which, it turns out, would be our last beach visit until potentially Naples in 20 days time, and it was much needed. Granted, I did not put on enough suncream, and the rub of my backpack straps against my sore red skin was less than pleasant in the days following, but lying there in the sun, the sound of crashing waves overlapping scattered Spanish conversations, was absolute bliss.
The next day, our lives on our backs again, we stepped off of the very same platform we'd stepped onto 3 days prior and embarked North to Barcelona. We spent four nights there, and I'd like to think looking back that we made the most of them. Again, it was a long train from Valencia so we arrived in the late afternoon, and took the metro to our hostel. Something I didn't realise until the second day- there are 2 seperate metro companies in Barcelona, running different lines from different stations, which is a bit confusing without the help of Google maps. Our hostel was right around the corner of one of Gaudi's houses, which was a really cool sight as one of our first impressions. Exhausted from a long day of train travel, we opted to buy some food from the nearest supermarket and have a good old English beans on toast for dinner- and it went down an absolute treat.
The odd thing about this hostel was that the bathrooms weren't connected to the rooms, which made for a less than favourable experience when waking up in the middle of the night needing the toilet. Once making it through to the morning however, one half-dressed corridor walk at 1am later, Zac was still feeling the effects travelling the day before, so I decided to do a bit of exploring on my own and find breakfast. I absolutely love travelling with my best friend, but it can be a really refreshing feeling after arriving in a new city going on a walk alone with your thoughts and taking it all in. I think I ended up having a chocolate cookie and a bag of crisps for breakfast, but it didn't particularly matter- we'd travelled thousands of kilometers at that point, and I'd made it to Barcelona, entirely on my own. And that felt worth rewarding.
I got back to the hostel and Zac suggested we go to the Old Town, where he'd stayed before when he came a few months ago. So we took the metro (the other rail company this time) to Placa Catalunya, and had a bit of an aimless wonder. It can be nice to do that sometimes, stumble upon things yourself, and that sort of formed the main part of our first full day- although we did then tick off some key bits of sightseeing, the Arc de Triomf, and of course La Sagrada Familia. Once again- and I'm going to give you a spoiler here, we did this every night in Barcelona, because when you are living on a budget, kitchens are your best friend- we cooked our own meal back at the hostel, Zac's own recipe tomato and tuna pasta rounding our day off surprisingly well.
Our hostel offered free walking tours every morning (and pub crawl tours each evening, but we'll get to that later) and I decided to tag along at 10.30 the next morning. Zac was still feeling a bit rubbish, but I didn't want to miss out, so I decided to do it on my own- and I'm so glad that I did. There are so many interesting things about the structure of the city that I wouldn't have known without the guide's input. Barcelona is famous for it's grid layout; but what's amazing about it is, the original architect who planned the city to be built this way after the fall of the Roman Empire decided to do so as he pre-empted a faster means of travel than the horseback of his time. The man predicted cars! I picked up facts like this throughout the 3 hours we spent wandering the city. Did you know that Barcelona's Arc de Triomf, which was constructed for the 1888 World Exposition in the city, was nearly the home of the Eiffel Tower? Barcelona's city council rejected Eiffel's original proposal, and in the following year he took his design to Paris instead, where it stands today as the city's most iconic landmark.
Seeing Gaudi's influence, hearing of Picasso's time here, it's unsurprising that Barcelona is the home of the creatives. Our visit to Park Güell, Gaudi's masterpiece, only reinforced that notion. Something about the energy of the Catalan region is inspiring, it's in the buildings, in the parks, in the very streets you walk down.
I'm not disguising it very well- I love Barcelona.
As I mentioned earlier, our hostel offered a pub crawl tour of the city, and feeling the good vibes it had in the daytime I was interested to see what its nightlife had to offer. We had a pretty good deal- for 20 euros each, our guide took us to 2 different bars as well as a club, and we got a free drink in each one. As expected in the bars, drinks were pricy, around 8€ for a beer, so it wasn't exactly a night of heavy drinking. But our tour of them didn't even start until 10.30pm, and we didn't leave the last club until around 2.30 the next morning. Barcelona definitely has the right idea when it comes to partying.
A lot of people may tut at the idea of using TikTok to find things to do abroad, but for me, its been a really helpful tool in finding cool places I wouldn't explore otherwise. Our final full day in Barcelona was a prime example of this, visiting its Science Museum. From the exterior, it's maybe not quite as impressive as Valencia's- but inside, I thought it was way cooler. The CosmoCaixa is located at the foot of Mount Tibidabo (as a Friends fan, that was very important to me), and is home to its own 'living rainforest', an area that recreates the climatic conditions of the Amazon, including its own water cycle, plant, fish and bird ecosystem. Seeing a live Arapaima was insane to me as someone who grew up watching Jeremy Wade's 'River Monsters'- a fish as long as I am tall swimming straight past you isn't something you experience every day. After a full day of exploring the museum, its dinosaurs and gadgets and capybaras included, I demolished a Pot Noodle in the hostel and we then made our last stop at another TikTok hotspot- Dow Jones', known better as the 'stock market bar'. This place had been in both Zac and I's saved folder for months leading up to this trip and we couldn't miss it before leaving Barcelona. The concept is interesting- prices of drinks change depending on how many of them are bought, much like stocks. It was pretty difficult to understand really, and I think we ended up paying about 5.50€ each for a pint, but the concept was a cool one nethertheless.
And so really, we're all caught up- this morning we showered and packed up (I definitely didn't have to cut my lock with bolt cutters because I'd locked my key inside of the drawer) and returned to Barcelona Sants where we caught our train to Lyon. Unbeknownst to us, today was Catalonia day, a massive festival in the city, and flags were hung all over the city seemingly overnight. It seems a shame to miss it, and to be leaving Spain at all; there's been a sense of comfort in understanding the language a good bit here. But, a night in Lyon, then Annecy, and then 3 weeks in Italy await us- and I think we're at a good pace.
So, (somewhat?) experienced traveller now, signing off-
Cheers for the read,
EV
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