The Second Time Around

When I came to Barcelona the first time, I was 20 years old, my Dad had recently passed away, and I felt like there was an entire world out there ahead of me. I decided to do something different, and planned a trip across the pond with Barcelona being my first stop. I absolutely fell in love with the city--it's churches, it's narrow and dark streets, it's tapas, it's understated beaches, it's funky modern art (that is featured in almost more places than you'd like), and just about everything my eager self could experience. I continued to travel over the next few weeks, and nothing I experienced gave me the same feeling that Barcelona did.


If you can't catch a sunset, you can always opt for the sunrise... The beach in Barcelona.

I began my second venture into the city by catching a sunrise on the beach, which was made all the more easy by staying in Barceloneta--the sort of fishing district of the city full of old-timers. I then spent the next couple of days visiting the same sights and reminiscing a little bit (Is there an age or some kind of defining moment that permits somebody to reminisce? I don't really feel like I'm old enough...). I walked the city and road the subway to almost everything I had been to before: La Sagrada Familia, La Padrera, Parc Guell, the beaches, and of course, the absolutely ridiculous shrimp statue that resides along the waterfront between Barceloneta and La Rambla (Barcelona's main and unavoidable boulevard full of "gifted" performers).

From Left to Right: L-Antoni Gaudi's unfinished tribute to the Sacred Family, La Sagrada Familia. It's still the most impressive cathedral I have ever seen, and it almost makes me want to go to church. M-The chimey's of La Padrera, another of Gaudi's mystifying works. R-Parc Guell, yet another one of Gaudi's productions, initially a privately owned park that was eventually opened up to the public.

I took in some new things too, like the nighttime music/fountain show at Montjuic (It sounds really cheesy, but damn, if there is anything more romantic than watching the sun set from above the city with a huge museum in the background, a fountain in front of you, and Madonna blaring over the speakers then I want to know about it--whether you're alone or not), and continued my fascination with world futbol by taking in an FC Barcelona game (Thanks George!). I made friends with the guy that worked at the Burrito joint down the street, and found a comfortable watering hole [read: tapas joint] complete with surly AND nice servers. All in all, everything that I experienced didn't lack any of the emotions I've experienced in my prior 6 months of travel, and it wasn't all that different than the first time I came here, but at the same time was.


I was privelaged enough to almost perfectly capture the closest thing to a goal that I saw during the FC Barcelona v. Getafe football match.

So what did I learn from going back? I'm still trying to figure it out. The city has remained pretty much the same, but my experiences this time around were different. I knew how to speak Spanish (even though the population prefers to speak in their native Catalan tongue), I wasn't with my buddy Thomas, and I've grown up--though I still like to visit the occasional club, my daily routine was a lot different this time. Plus, you'd think that seeing so many things would skew my fondness for Barcelona, but I don't think it really did or has. It's always going to be the first place I ever traveled abroad, and even if it happens to suck each and every time I go back, I'm still going to have those memories. And I will constantly be reminded of what was probably the most important period of growth in my entire life every time I think of the city.

Now, it's off to Istanbul and Turkey...


Dear Uncle Gary, Finally, here is another picture of me. I have decided that I will not cut my hair until I get home. Mostly because I will probably never let it grow long again in my entire life, or at least until a supersweet midlife crisis. But also, because I am afraid of getting my haircut in all of the countries that I will visit. Love, Cullen