2 Weeks to Go After a Perfect Weekend

I can’t believe that I only have two more weeks left in Barcelona. It’s actually freaking me out a bit. I’m excited to see family and friends again, but it’s hard to believe that after 6 months, I’ll be leaving Barcelona, probably for a really long time. What’s weird now also is that I really feel like I know a lot about Barcelona. I really feel like I live here. I know where things are, and people now speak to me in Spanish first if I have exchanges on the street, for example.

At the same time, I know it’s time to go because I’m running out of new things to do. But I want to fill up my time, as much as possible, with seeing new things. And this weekend, I had a great time going to new places. The first, embarrassingly, was the beach. I can’t believe that I’d never really been there, but it’s not so strange since I’m not really a beach fan. On Saturday, I took the metro to Drassanes station at the end of Las Ramblas, and then I walked from there around the port, to the tip of Barceloneta, and then down the beach to Port Olympic, and the beaches in Poble Nou. It was a nice walk, actually, and so I’ll probably do it again. The beaches here remind me a lot of New Jersey. There’s a boardwalk, although it’s flat on the beach, and there is heavy development along the entire beachfront with restaurants mostly, until you get to Port Olympic where the discos and the big casino are. Right when you enter Barceloneta, there is a statue by Roy Lichtenstein, which I have a picture of on the right. Also, when you get to Port Olympic, there’s a fish sculpture by Frank Gehry, which I also have a picture of. And there are all sorts of interesting buildings. Barceloneta is traditionally a working class neighborhood, but it’s being gentrified quickly, much to the consternation of locals. There have been protests and demonstrations, but in Barcelona, like in most cities, money talks, and there’s a lot of money to be made “cleaning up” the neighborhood. You can tell when you switch from Barceloneta to Port Olympic, because the stores get “nicer” and the parks, etc., get “cleaner,” but in fact it’s more sterile. Port Olympic was completely redeveloped for the 1992 Olympics, and the Olympic Village bordered it. Now those buildings have been turned into apartments and condos, and it’s one of the most expensive neighborhoods.

It was fun to walk around, but exhausting. The sun is really hot in Barcelona now. And even though the temperatures aren’t out of control; it’s a strong sun. And I was pretty out of it for the rest of the day.

The next day, I decided to this park, called Parc de Labyrinto, which as you can imagine means Labyrinth Park. It’s in the north of the city, up against the mountains, near one of the campuses of the University of Barcelona. It was impossible to find. It’s not on any maps because when you get this far north, the maps stop. So I walked around and around in an area that was, in my opinion, an incredibly depressing, spare neighborhood, and I had no idea where I was going. Luckily, I asked directions from an incredibly nice woman named Leticia, who walked me to the park, which itself is amazing. I have no idea where she was going, but she just took me there. It reminded me of my first night in Spain, in Madrid, when my students Alex and Alejandra and I asked a woman where Plaza Mayor was and she just turned around and showed us. Leticia also showed me another park right next to the Labyrinth which is called Parque de Palau de Hereus (or something), which has a palace, which has been renovated and now houses one of the colleges of the university.

Anyway, the Parque de Labyrinto has, as you an imagine, a labyrinth in it, which is why I wanted to go. I got completely lost in it, and it’s not really that big. I walked around for awhile, and then I stopped in the center for a banana to get some energy back and figure out how to get out. It was fun, and it was funny to watch the children running around getting into the spirit of getting lost. Finally I did get out, and then I walked around the park, which is quite beautiful and really peaceful. The park is next to the Velodrome, built for the Olympics and which still hosts bike races. It’s the first one of those I’ve ever seen so I took a picture.

Later than afternoon, I met my friend Marta to go to the Caixa Forum, a free museum space created by La Caixa, a big bank in Catalunya. They converted a clothing factory designed by Puig i Cadaflach, one of the three big modernista architects. They had a big exhibition on William Hogarth, that was interesting. But the building itself was cool. I forgot my camera, if you can believe that, so I don’t have any pictures, but oh well.

I also saw Harry Potter and a French movie called Odette Toulemond, and I ate some fabulous food, so it was a great weekend. Then today back to school, where we welcomed a woman from Austria and a woman from New York. It’s crazy how that happens with this school. But then we got the really bad news that this week is la última de nuestra profesora más fantástica because she goes on vacation next week. So this means that for my last week, I have to have a new teacher. Blah!

Things I have to do before I leave Barcelona: go to the Maritime Museum, go to the City Museum, go to the Museum of Catalan History, and have hot chocolate at the Chocolate Museum. Then I may have done it all. (Having already gone to the Erotic Museum on another trip).