The next day after I spent my first night in Sitges I collapsed. At least figuratively speaking. In my travel journal I made the analogy to a movie in which a character on a vacation, falling down after barely outrunning pirates, spits out some dirt and says "I've had about as much vacation as I can stand." My feeling of exhaustion came close to that. I spent the day in the apartment watching DVDs and eating a little. (BTW my friend there has since corrected my mangled spelling and pronunciation of the name of this town, it's actually pronounced SIT-ges).
During the remaining time in Spain I took the train into Barcelona from Sitges, visited Park Guell, Casa Battlo, and managed to get lost. One day I had lunch in a "Tapas" restaurant off La Ramblas. (First, a quick word about "Charles Ives." He was a composer who liked dissonant music, his father inspired him with among other things, having two marching bands approach each other then pass each other while playing entirely different songs.) I wrote in my travel journal: "Charles Ives would love this place. I'm in a small cafe-like eating place, there's 80s music blasting on the radio and until a minute ago a young German woman shouting into her cell phone, plus other sounds). In the dictionary next to the definition of cacophony there should be a picture of this cafe.
I finally found Casa Battlo, but the light sucked. This was a good day to visit Park Guell (pronounced "Guey"). On the way I encountered a mural which I found a somewhat uncomfortable "mirror" (it's always a revelation to see what others think of you, even indirectly).
Not everyone in Barcelona is enthusiastic about the tourist trade, I see.
Park Guell started as a high-end housing project with Gaudi as the chief architect, the project fell apart with only a few buildings and common areas completed. He chose "Hansel and Gretel" as the theme. The light was pretty bad most of the time, which made my pictures terrible. The park was mobbed, even in the off season on a weekday. I walked past a what I thought was a statue which moved when I drew near it. It was a young woman in a "Gaudi Dragon" costume. She noticed me when I stopped short in surprise then walked around her cautiously, smiling good-naturedly through the "mouth" of the head of the dragon. (I did not get a picture, the light sucked). I walked from Park Guell to Sagrada Familia. The photo options were pretty thin, with the sun setting low on the southwest horizon. But I did manage to get one that's not too bad. (The picture above is the only one that needs to be in the message, so to speak. For the rest of the pictures I have put them on a flickr account, link below).
From Sagrada Familia I headed home but had my first "nightmare" experience on this trip. Let me explain. My big fear when traveling (irrational, I realize) is that I am lost and do not speak or understand the language. Of course, if I really were in trouble, I could call my friends who live there to rescue me, so I was never in any actual danger. I became disoriented when I tried to find the transfer from the subway system to the train to Sitges. I walked back and forth along a nearly half mile long corridor twice, until I found a teeny-tiny sign that led me in the right direction to the correct platform. But what I had not realized was that while I felt the stress and anxiety level ratchet up I nervously scratched an itch on my temple so hard that I drew blood. So there I sat on a bench on the platform waiting for the Sitges train with a trickle of blood down my face. A person on the platform and another on the train inquired as to whether I was OK (in Spanish or Catalan, I am inferring what they actually said).
Monday, Nov 10. My lesson learned from before, this day in Barcelona I paced myself, ate two small lunches, snacked often and set reasonable goals. I accomplished everything I set out to do. I arrived at Casa Batllo in time to enjoy the light and take lots of pictures. I spent the better part of a day in Casa Batllo, a mansion that Gaudi designed for a rich patron. Architecture with a sense of fun. Children must have had a wonderful time growing up in that house. I had overall success in finding non-smoking eating places, with good food.
One Spanish waiter nearly cracked me up with his resemblance to "Monsieur Grumpy" from Paris. He had that kind of resigned patience mixed with with ill-concealed exasperation that comes from dealing with a bunch of foreigners who do not understand anything written or spoken. For example, when I was about to leave I took a step toward the door, stopped, turned around, looked for the restroom, then as my eyes found the waiter - before I could try to ask - he pointed (with a dour look on his face).
After Battlo I took some exterior pictures of other buildings, either on the modernisma list or ones I found interesting. I learned to look behind me. It happened a couple of times that I stood in front of a building I was looking for with my back turned to it, looking across the street wondering where it was.
Back in Sitges, over the weekend I managed to take a few pictures, two of which I added to the flickr set, one of the town and the other of the sunset. Sitges is where I met the Mediterranean Sea. This makes a total of 5 of the large bodies of water I have visited (the others: Atlantic, Pacific, Caribbean, South China. I think I'll skip the Beaufort and some of the colder waters).
There were far too many pictures to include in an e-mail message, so now that I have figured out Flickr, you can see them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sadunlap/sets/72157623367924338/
My trip back was largely uneventful. One of my friends there (and great hosts they all are) drove me to the airport. I barely made my flight to Madrid, however, because the Barcelona airport staff misdirected me to the wrong gate. The closeness to the departure time together with hardly anyone in the waiting area tipped me off that all was not well. I managed to find the correct gate and board the plane, but not without some running and stress (it's good to travel light). I was feeling a bit tired of Spain by that point.
Despite some of my negative experiences I would recommend a visit to Barcelona and would like to go again someday. As long as you plan for delays, scout out non-smauging eating places and do not expect to accomplish *too* much in a given day, your trip should be fine. I had the good fortune to know people who lived there and who could take me around for the first few days. And I thank everyone who made this trip possible and very enjoyable.
