Dark History of Barcelona

We made it to Barcelona, typically early morning as the cruise ships tend to do – and they clearly wanted us to bug off.

So off we went to sit in the shade, surrounded by luggage, to wait until 11, at which point we could deposit our stuff in the AirBnB, then check in at 1pm. We went off to lunch and dutifully returned shortly after the appointed time.

A couple of the towels had moved, but otherwise, the apartment was in the same condition as it was at 11. Crap. I really need a nap.

Contacted the owners. The housekeeper had an emergency of some type and they promised it would be completed within a half hour.

Well, that came and went with no one showing up. At 2:30 the owners said they’d try to find someone else to clean.

Well, sod it. I’m changing the sheets myself… except that the clean sheets are in a locked trunk and the key is AWOL.

You know how hard it is to use a washing machine in a foreign language when you’ve no instructions? Worse yet, the owners don’t seem to know either. Beloved to the rescue! But it will still be a while because the sheets, as is the custom here, will have to hang dry. On the balcony.

Then the housekeeper finally showed up, apologetic (from her gestures and tone), but despite my high school Spanish, we couldn’t make heads or tails of what each other was saying.

It took me a while… she speaks Catalan. It’s kind of similar but not enough that I can catch the occasional word and mime my way through – because it’s more similar to French. It’s like listening to Spanish while intoxicated, I think – the accent is familiar but the words make no damn sense.

Catalan isn’t widely spoken outside of this part of Spain (northeast and into a bit of France), but in Barcelona, 95% of the population understand it and 73% speak it. There’s something to be said for being raised bilingual.

Anyway, off from that tangent. She mercifully made the bed and I got my snooze in.

We went in search of a grocery – I love comparing prices etc when traveling. Annoyingly, however, the world does not revolve around English speakers. Very few of the products had English translations but thankfully there were pictures on most.

Bread is crazy, especially fresh baked bread. We’ve been eating like locals when not on ship by having bread, cheese and tomatoes for lunches, and Beloved said she fancied a baguette.

The first ones we found were 45 eurocents (about 47c).

Big spender she, Beloved went for the 70 eurocent loaf. Dang. In Athens we paid more than €3 ($3.20) so I’m thinking there’s government subsidies involved in there. Other things were cheaper too, other than the fresh fruit/veg, but nothing significantly higher than California.

In a fit of apparent madness in the months previous, I booked us on a “Dark History Tour of Barcelona”. Started at 9pm.

“Um… when does it start, exactly?”

“9:00. You booked it.”

“I do not remember this.”

Beloved rolled her eyes.

For those who don’t know me, 8pm to about midnight is my primo sleepy time. Why on EARTH I’d book such a tour is beyond me. Then, also, come to find out it involved not ghoulies and ghosties and long legged beasties, but a laundry list of medieval tortures and violent crimes committed in the city.

What?? Oh, dear god.

It was rather interesting after I got over the shock of being told the tour was two hours (somehow my brain invented 45 minutes).

At one point, the tour guide shockingly mentioned the red light district. Oh, my delicate sensibilities. She talked about how travelers couldn’t speak the language and how, oh how, would they find the brothels?

I smirked at Beloved. Honey, I got this, I might be a lesbian but I paid attention at Pompeii. She rolled her eyes and waited while I started casting about for phallic symbols.

“Can you find it?” said the guide.

Not a dick pic in sight.

She shined her red pointer light overhead.

Got to bed at midnight, discovering the AirBnB is directly over a nightclub. Mercifully, we’re on the 2nd floor (3rd US) and we didn’t catch the cigarette smoke. It was too hot to sleep with the windows closed, couldn’t get the air conditioner to work, so whatever. We both snored through the sounds of revelry.