I was walking to get lunch (also known as the first meal of the day...oops) and then I realized that, I've seen this too many times. So I turned around in the middle of the street and got on the nearest metro.
I got off a few stops away near where Parc Guell is. I figured I would just walk around there for a bit, grab a bite to eat...still nothing too strenuous. I was wrong. This park is a mountain. I hard core hiked for two hours around this bitch and I loved every single second of it!
The last set of steps I had to climb (out of about 150) before reaching the park itself.
the incline is a little more servere than the picture shows, especially if you didn't bring water because it was kind of a spur of the moment thing (don't worry there were fountains that I made good use of).
Finally I made it to the park and it was so so so beautiful, I can't believe I almost left this amazing city without stopping by. For starters the big city feel of Barcelona is gone the architechure has notably shifted to a more "old Spanish residential" feel. I was not in Cincinnati anymore. The view that this mountian climber got, though was more than worth it...
oh heyyy Barcelona...you are looking nice today
I WAS THERE! I WAS THERE!
crappy panorama
But wait! Besides all of these nice views of the city this park was also Gaudi HQ! I saw his house and his Park Guell project. I think I'm in love with him. I didn't get a good close up because I didn't have much euro on me and didn't want to trek back empty handed so I got some cheapo shots
Gorgeous, right?! Sorry I'm so cheap guys.
Gaudi's house AND my thumb...no autographs, please.
Man, I love this park
part of the mountain that is this park
me enjoying my decision to not chill out
how much do you miss this face??!
so after being thoroughly tired out by this adventure I headed back to the hostel (very hungry)
just the motivation I needed to climb the hills all over here (I think the only place this grafiti is acceptable is Malaysian mountains, btw)
Then I needed to go check "eat as many tapas as humanly possible on your last day here" off my list. I did. I didn't even care that I was eating by myself, I went to two tapas places and just went for it. I only took some pictures though, sorry, again :(
sideways tapas
when you eat alone you're allowed to have dessert every now and then!
AND NOW! Here we are, Monday afternoon. I'm headed to the airport very soon but I was hell bent on getting a tenth intervew in Barcelona, especially after I messed Valencia up so bad:
"habla ingles?" "no" "okay"
"habla ingles?" "si" " can you help me with my project" "i'm from mexico" "dammit"
another shoutout to EU hostel people who helped me improvise!
Anyways, its a weekday which means there will be people on a college campus!! I'm finally making a routine of getting my ass to universities on weekdays...so I hope to keep this up! Woohoo!! I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of time to try to get a lot of interviews, especially since I stress about finding airports/have a hyper need to get there very early (not the worse thing) so after walking around for 20 minutes I found Niladi (there is a 100% chance I spelled that wrong)!
#10
I began explaining my project and Niladi immediately jumped in with "I think the EU could be better" she talked about how Spain, and particularly young professions are struggling economically because of its association with the EU. She said that its hard for young people to be finacially strong enough to move out of their parents homes. She thinks that Spain has an important role to play in the EU, along with Italy, Portugal and Greece...the ones in the south. So there is some sense of identity there, perhaps? With the European south? Interesting.
I asked if she liked the social policies of the EU and if they were important. She said that, yes, socially, the EU is much better than economically. It is important for the EU to stay connected that way. But economically, not helpful.
--
and I can't say I completely disagree with this stance. Two things in the news have been pointing me to trying to form an opinion on the true importance on the EU. The first thing is the Greek economy. Luckily I will be there from the 15-19th, which leaves a whole week and a half until a compromise has to be made and the PM said that he wants to wait until creditors become more resonable (my dad likes to point out that there might be riots/strikes if the compromise isn't suitable for everyday people). So fingers crossed things stay calm on that front while I'm there, but, at the same time, tensions are going to be high when I go to talk to people so I'm going to have to be careful with how I approach these conversations. The economic future of the EU is rocky in the south and east...what does it mean that the newer countries aren't strong enough to join the monetary union? and that countries in it are defaulting out? I don't really think the identity of the EU can be based on the economic security of the union.
However, I think the real future and identity of the EU has a place in the social policies. This belief has been strengthen by the people I've talked to specifically in terms of the climate policies and the migrant policies. Although, I still hold that the EU already has a culture of being more sustainable than the rest of the world asking about these two policies together has helped form a better understanding of contributing factors of a common EU.
Kind of off of that, I was listening to the news the other day when I heard how Austrialia is handling the refugee crisis. Abbott is encouraging the EU to take a harsher stance, like he is, against refugees and smugglers. I'm glad that the EU is a united front on this because if these were individual countries acting they might be more easily swayed to take a harsher, inhumane stance, like Austrailia is.
Note: Austrialia government just paid a boat of refugees to turn around and go back #what and the island off the coast of Austrialia where some of these boats have made it have been deemed a violation of human rights and integrity by the UN. Tens of thousands are just being kept on this island in terrible condition, with nothing. That was one of the most heartbreaking newsstories I've ever heard and I'm glad that the UK, Ireland and Germany have sent fleets to join the countries in the south and work on this issue together, instead of leaving the countries on their own to struggle.
Okay. That's it for now. Next check in will be in Greece, I suppose!! :D
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