On the morning of the 4th, I had a specific task ahead of me: to get to Perpignan in southeastern France in time for a big party at my friend Vero's place. I'd promised to attend. Using the web in the hostel in Porto, I'd pieced together train schedules that would get me there in time. Basically I first had to go up to Vigo in Spain. I got up at the crack of dawn, slipping out while my roommates were still asleep, and taking the Porto metro to the main station, where I bought a ticket to Vigo.
It was a slow ride, taking several hours to crawl through the northernmost part of Portugal, and into Galicia. I turns out that Vigo is a dramatically beautiful city, as one could tell arriving in the train. The view out of the long inlet between the mountains seemed uncannily like the Pacific Northwest. It easily could have been in Washington State, except for the ubiquity of the red tiled roofs
Once in Vigo, I followed my plan by immediately buying a ticket on the night train to Barcelona. It was almost a hundred euros even without a berth. I would have only a first class seat. Part of me looked forward to the challenge, to see if I was still capable of sleeping on trains, like I used to so often. One night wouldn't kill me.
The departure time left me with almost six hours to kill in Vigo. Unfortunately there was no left luggage, and Vigo was a very hilly city. I wondered how the hell I was going to kill the time. After stalling for a while in the station, I put on my backpack and just started hiking up the hill outside the station, figuring a downward return trip would be better.
The sidewalk above the station offered magnificent sunny views of the harbor. To my surprise I immediately found a movie theater. What a perfect opportunity to catch a flick and kill some time!
Unfortunately the little multiplex was closed (shown in photo). The first showing wasn't until 5:45 in the afternoon, which was only a hour before my train was supposed to leave. So no movie in Vigo.
But I noticed that a few of the films had versions in the Galician language, which seemed to be everywhere in Vigo. I guess there is not universal agreement whether or not it is a language unto itself, or a dialect of Portuguese. It is somewhat a politically sensitive issue, as one might discern.
I thought I mind wind up hiking the entire afternoon, but I found an Internet cafe with cheap rates that also showed music videos. It was a nice way to catch up my blog. Some of the videos were ones I recognized from the Aer Lingus flight, including my new latest favorite, Never Miss a Beat by the Kaiser Chiefs, my latest favorite band.
The Internet is a great time chewer. In the late afternoon I hiked back to the station, caught some dinner in the form of a ham and cheese bocadillo (I could live off those in Spain), then boarded the train.
It turns out Spain is really paranoid about trains. You have to go through luggage screening like at the airport in order to get on the "Tren Hotel," as it is called.
Sleeping on the train wasn't so hard, once they turned the cabin lights off, which wasn't until after midnight. I managed to catch a few hours of downtime as the train rumbled on through the dark, and I was bright-eyed when we rolled into Barcelona Sants station in the morning.
Fortunately Barcelona, being a big city, had luggage lockers (you have to put your bags through a security screening). That left me free to roam around the city until the evening, although a blister on my foot from my still-not-broken-in boots kept me limping slowly.
I first headed over to the famous Sancta Familia cathedral designed by Gaudi. This turned out to be a dud, costing eleven euros to get inside, but being nearly completely under renovation. Mostly what I saw were other tourists (update: the exterior was awesome, see comments)
In the afternoon I explored the old city (which is very nice and flat), including the big indoor market. The Illa de Peixe (Island of Fish) was my favorite part of the latter. I capped off my visit by trip up the elevator of the Columbus monument on the waterfront.
The biggest surprise about Barcelona was the prevalance of the Catalan language, which seemed alive and well. It made me wish that I had at least learned the pleasantries before arriving, just for fun (even though Spanish always works too, of course).
But why travel, unless you're going to make it fun?
2 comments:
Sounds like an amazing adventure you're having! If I'm not mistaken, Gaudi's cathedral is'nt "under rennovation," but is actually still being built in the first place. It is a century-plus-long construction project that will not be complete in our lifetime. Perhaps you feel less ripped off knowing that? Did you climb one of those endless spiral stairways?
Thanks for the heads up. The situation was that there was hardly room to do anything inside. It was like cattle, with everyone shoulder to shoulder. Almost everything inside was obscured by scaffolding. There were no staircases open, and there was a two hour wait for the elevator. If it's original construction, then that's cool. I got what I paid for. I loved the exterior---absolutely fantastic. But I didn't want to pay eleven euros to see it, I guess, since I've never before paid to see a cathedral in Europe.
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