My Life in Barcelona

My Spanish classes ended last Friday and it´s funny, the more I learn, the more I realize I need to learn. Just only yesterday I went into a clothing shop to ask directions to the Museo Picasso. I started off by saying ¨Donde de...¨ to the saleslady and she just responded, ¨Just say it in English.¨ My ¨two-week class ego¨ was needless to say quickly deflated. At least I can say, ¨No Se (I don´t know)¨ quite well as I´ve been asked for directions to the city quite often. I found this scooter on the street, and have been going to school as my means of loco motion. I was that tourist zipping around Barcelona with a wide grin, whom all the locals thought was Japanese. There are wide boulevards to go on and a few bicyclist around but nothing like Vancouver. The cars are actually quite polite and don´t honk when I am pushing the scooter around.

Getting a haircut with hand gestures and broken Spanish, and suddenly raising my hand and yelling ¨Un momento¨ when the barber was about to shave my head was also quite an adventure. I managed to stop him in the nick of time.

I´ve also been enjoying the beach here. It´s not too bad for one so close to a major city and the beach does go on for quite a while. It´s crowded on the weekends, especially on Sunday as most of the stores are closed here (except the grocery stores and dollar stores run by the Chinese, East Indians and Arabs. Yes !!!).

Believe or not? I actually found a ¨Cash Converter¨ in Barcelonia. Yes, I couldn´t believe my eyes but there it was. I had to make sure I wasn´t in Surrey or East Van. I haven´t seen any pawn shops in Europe and this must be a new oddity. It was busy. Now where´s that vacumn cleaner I need to hock. From what I can tell, I don´t think the concept of garage sales is practiced here, and matresses, tables, fans, and other used items (hence, the scooter) are usually just discarded by the garbage cans.

I´m off to Madrid next week and back on the road. Staying and studying here in Barcelona, has been a nice break from traveling, and I´ve been staying at an apartment for the past two weeks, cooking, washing clothes, etc. All the normal day to day stuff. Hope all is well with you.