We left Barcelona on Sunday night on another crappy night train. We jumped on the train, walked down the cramped hallway to our “room” (jail cell) to find a stinky guy already lying down in one of the beds. While I spazzed out a little, we walked through the train to find somewhere else to sit – even though we didn’t have seats reserved, just the crappy couchette compartment. We found some empty seats and hoped we wouldn’t be asked to move. We didn’t. It turned out that noone even came by to check our tickets on the 9 hour train ride from Cerbere (border of France and Spain) to Monaco. Strange. The carriage was also of subzero conditions. In the middle of summer, I had socks and shoes, jeans, and two sweatshirts on. Grr! Thank god Barcelona was wonderful enough that it didn’t really matter.
Sonar was really great. We saw Hexstatic do an awesome DVJ set to showcase a new system by Pioneer. Massive Attack played live with a full band it was really lovely. We caught the last half of Kid Koala who is INCREDIBLE. Essentially, he’s just a DJ, but he actually makes music with his records – making violin sounds with the fader slide, trumpet sounds with the pitch control, and taking notes from certain ridges in the records to make completely new songs. Even if you don’t like DJs, if you ever get the chance to see him you should definitely do it.
We saw the Gaudi temple the day we left. It is incredibly amazing. It’s been under construction since the late 1800′s and it still going. You can climb all the way to the top of the older towers and you get a lovely view of Barcelona. It’s definitely worth the €8, because all the money goes to the completion of the temple.
One of the strange things about Barcelona is that at night there are loads of guys (typically Indian) out roaming the streets with six-packs of beer asking if you want to buy a beer. But they are actually selling hash, coke and whatnot, or have a friend nearby who is selling it. It’s strange coming from New Zealand via Houston, where you never see people on the streets selling dope (at least, I haven’t).
So, I’m back in Monaco for a day or two before I leave for Italy. P and I went to the beach today and swam with some fishies and got really, really burnt. Hopefully it will go before I have to sit on my burnt butt for 9 hours on a train, but I know it won’t have. C’est la vie!
sounds like you’re really busy. i hope you are having fun, though. i really want to tour Europe some day.