Barcelona: the arrival (10.18.07)

Though my body is still in Spain, my mind has crawled into a small dark hole and is waiting for the weather to warm up in Cairo before hopping back out again. We transfered from Bilbao to Barcelona very very early in the morning on Thursday and a combined result of lack of sleep and feeling emotionally fragile because of continued tensions between my father and I, I spent the most of the day somewhat withdrawn and in an iPod cocoon (Slaid Cleaves & bhangra were the music of choice.) In the early afternoon I ended up having a very emotional (on my part) conversation with him, which somewhat patched things up for the moment, but left me completely depleted for the rest of the day. The three of us ate lunch together at a restaurant on La Rambla and I took a short walk with my mother to try and enjoy the shops, the mimes, the teeming masses of people bustling through Barcelona. Exhaustion took hold early, and I returned to my single hotel room for a bath and a nap.
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The phone woke me up at 7:30 and I realized that I only had 30 minutes to get myself ready for our dinner and flamenco show in the evening. I seriously considered bailing out and heading back to sleep and am so glad I didn't. I have never really appreciated flamenco, either the music or the dancing which just seemed like stomping and posturing around the stage. This show changed all that. There were 4 dancers, 4 amazing classical guitarists, 4 male singers, and 1 female singer. Together they belted out such emotionally charged and amazing music, and the dancers reacted to it very intensely. With their stomping, slapping, and snapping they literally BECAME the music and slowly transformed themselves during each set from serious and focused to smiling and ecstatic. I later learned through some literature that many of the artists had studied at conservatories in Barcelona and Madrid!
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On Friday I decided not to join the 8-hour bus tour with the group, recognizing that I enjoy cities the best on foot. It will be a challenge today if I actually want to see a significant portion of this city of 4 million people, but I am not going to stress about it. I did learn during the bus trip from the airport yesterday that it is the second most popular world tourist destination after the US, and it is either the 2nd or 3rd port in the world in terms of number of cruise ships that depart from its port. The regional language is Catalon, and all the schools and universities are taught in Catalon, though in university some of the professors may opt to speak in Spanish. My plan on Friday is to head downhill towards the Mediterranean from our hotel, wander around a bit, go to a museum or a zoo, and come back to do some internet. It will be a very relaxed day in BarTHelona :-)