Barcelona, a little late Part I

So in order to actually get to Barcelona, we first had to take a train in Paris to a bus which then took us on a long journey to the airport. The nice thing about RyanAir, one of the budget airlines I flew, is that, so far as I could tell, they are the only airline that flies out of the airports they fly out of. This is convenient because, once one actually manages to find their way to the airport, there is little question about where they have to go. Getting there is always the adventure, though. They also do not us jetways, so you get to feel rather important walking across the runway and climbing the stairs into the plane.

Barcelona was very enjoyable, however, considering how much I enjoyed Paris, it was a hard adjustment. The layout of much of Barcelona is very gridlike. While this makes it hard to get lost in the newer section of the city and allows for dedicated bike lanes and the like, it seems to take away a bit of the charm most other European cities have. It also makes it a very long process to cross the street. There are parking lots at nearly every intersection which ends up making the intersections into octagons instead of squares, so one cannot simply walk from corner to corner. That aside, the older section of the city does feel much more "European" than the newer section. Running right through the center of the historic section is a street, La Rambla, filled with street performers and merchants ranging from flower merchants and little outdoor pet stores to art stands and places where you can get your caricature drawn. It ran right down to the Mediterranean Sea. Similar to Paris, Barcelona has bikes spread all over the city meant for the locals to use. The way it works is that you subscribe for the year for a relatively low cost (compared to other forms of transportation), around 30EURO I think. You are then able to take a bike from any of the stands throughout the city and you have 30 minutes to get the bike back to another "station".