On the Road with Dave
Posted by Dave Cividino (NOTE: Dave told me I could post his e-mails on the blog. I figured it would be nice to have some international perpsective. If you don't know Dave, that's unfortunate. He is a former UMass Rugby player, an English major, Canadian, and one helluva guy. He sends these from Europe, were he's backpacking and doing us proud. Rock on Dave... rock on.)
Barcelona is one crazy place. The streets are always full of people from 10am until 7am. The peak of partying is around 3am over here. These people really know how to throw down. I have had a few interesting experiences since I arrived a few days ago. I am staying in a really cool hostel in the center of Barcelona but I only had one night booked and there was no rooms available for the next day. When I got up on Saturday and checked out I decided not to worry about where I was going to stay that night and just go enjoy the day, after all it was Canada Day (happy belated Canada Day!) and I headed down to the beach. After a few minutes at the beach I met a couple of guys from Seattle. I told them I had no place to stay and they said they were staying at this guys apartment who rented out beds so I checked it out with them and the guy had 1 bed left. It was a little sketch because it was down a ghetto street and in this random apartment that required me to walk up a very steep spiral type staircase that felt like I was using a rotating stairmaster. It was a cool experience though because it was a side of Spain I probably would never have experienced before. I went out that night on a pub crawl and watched the soccer games (god damn French won again). If I have to hear the French, "Leux le bleux" chant one more time I am going to lose it. the pub crawl was cool but we ended it at a club, which I hate and I got separated from the group I was with. This was not a good thing because I had no idea how to get back to that apartment from where I was so it was looking like I was going to pull an all nighter or spend the night sleepin on the beach. Fate was on my side that night though. While I was walking around the club I ran into the guy who owned the apartment and hung out with him and his girlfriend the rest of the night. We ended up chillin on the roof of the apartment until the sun came up. I came back to the hostel I was at the other night with the two guys from Seattle and we´ve spent the days walking around and hittin up the beach. The main street, La Rambla is a crazy street.
On an average day walking down La Rambla you will see a lot of different sights. There are shops and little cafes on either side of the street and in the middle is a wide walkway where vendors and performers entertain the passerbyes. These performers range from street magicians to break dancers and then there are the performers who paint themselves up and dress up in different outfits (bronze cowboys chiefs, coal black bums, fred flinstone, cleopatra, the devil...one of the guys in the apartment I stayed in was the devil on the street...a 35 year old English guy who painted himself red, wore horns and a cape and jumped around on the streets and he made around 120 euros a night doing this...) It was pretty incredible because these people make a living off of posing and not moving for hours on end in the blazing summer heat while tourists took pictures and dropped in their change. On Canada Day there was a gay parade going down La Rambla (the second gay parade I´ve seen in 2 weeks...we´re here, we´re queer, WE GET IT ALREADY!) but it was pretty funny to see because all the attention was drawn in to the parade and the street performers had a look of utter helplessness on their painted faces because they were losing business. If you want a piece of surrealism, this is the place to see it.
The city itself is beautiful and surprisingly clean. The people are much nicer than those damned french and a lot more relaxed, most likely due to the fact that blinking causes you to sweat an ounce of fluid due to the intense 35-40 degree heat. I am going to wait until this evening to go check out more sights and then hit the nightlife again. I imagine seeing the sun come up is going to be a common tihng while I am here. I have decided that after the running of the bulls I am goin back east into Italy and then Switzerland where there is a lot of extreme sports and sight seeing withouth loads of tourists everwhere. I will be unable to send out any emails for about a week since I dont even have a place to stay in Pamplona and then will be on a train for at least a day.
I hope all is well back home and if you want, send me an email and let me know how things are going. Until then, Adios Amigos!
(Dave can be reached at dave4417@hotmail.com.)
Barcelona is one crazy place. The streets are always full of people from 10am until 7am. The peak of partying is around 3am over here. These people really know how to throw down. I have had a few interesting experiences since I arrived a few days ago. I am staying in a really cool hostel in the center of Barcelona but I only had one night booked and there was no rooms available for the next day. When I got up on Saturday and checked out I decided not to worry about where I was going to stay that night and just go enjoy the day, after all it was Canada Day (happy belated Canada Day!) and I headed down to the beach. After a few minutes at the beach I met a couple of guys from Seattle. I told them I had no place to stay and they said they were staying at this guys apartment who rented out beds so I checked it out with them and the guy had 1 bed left. It was a little sketch because it was down a ghetto street and in this random apartment that required me to walk up a very steep spiral type staircase that felt like I was using a rotating stairmaster. It was a cool experience though because it was a side of Spain I probably would never have experienced before. I went out that night on a pub crawl and watched the soccer games (god damn French won again). If I have to hear the French, "Leux le bleux" chant one more time I am going to lose it. the pub crawl was cool but we ended it at a club, which I hate and I got separated from the group I was with. This was not a good thing because I had no idea how to get back to that apartment from where I was so it was looking like I was going to pull an all nighter or spend the night sleepin on the beach. Fate was on my side that night though. While I was walking around the club I ran into the guy who owned the apartment and hung out with him and his girlfriend the rest of the night. We ended up chillin on the roof of the apartment until the sun came up. I came back to the hostel I was at the other night with the two guys from Seattle and we´ve spent the days walking around and hittin up the beach. The main street, La Rambla is a crazy street.
On an average day walking down La Rambla you will see a lot of different sights. There are shops and little cafes on either side of the street and in the middle is a wide walkway where vendors and performers entertain the passerbyes. These performers range from street magicians to break dancers and then there are the performers who paint themselves up and dress up in different outfits (bronze cowboys chiefs, coal black bums, fred flinstone, cleopatra, the devil...one of the guys in the apartment I stayed in was the devil on the street...a 35 year old English guy who painted himself red, wore horns and a cape and jumped around on the streets and he made around 120 euros a night doing this...) It was pretty incredible because these people make a living off of posing and not moving for hours on end in the blazing summer heat while tourists took pictures and dropped in their change. On Canada Day there was a gay parade going down La Rambla (the second gay parade I´ve seen in 2 weeks...we´re here, we´re queer, WE GET IT ALREADY!) but it was pretty funny to see because all the attention was drawn in to the parade and the street performers had a look of utter helplessness on their painted faces because they were losing business. If you want a piece of surrealism, this is the place to see it.
The city itself is beautiful and surprisingly clean. The people are much nicer than those damned french and a lot more relaxed, most likely due to the fact that blinking causes you to sweat an ounce of fluid due to the intense 35-40 degree heat. I am going to wait until this evening to go check out more sights and then hit the nightlife again. I imagine seeing the sun come up is going to be a common tihng while I am here. I have decided that after the running of the bulls I am goin back east into Italy and then Switzerland where there is a lot of extreme sports and sight seeing withouth loads of tourists everwhere. I will be unable to send out any emails for about a week since I dont even have a place to stay in Pamplona and then will be on a train for at least a day.
I hope all is well back home and if you want, send me an email and let me know how things are going. Until then, Adios Amigos!
(Dave can be reached at dave4417@hotmail.com.)
This entry was posted by Ben Myers, on
Monday, July 03, 2006.
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