How to take the 'alone' out of Barcelona
Barcelona is Spain's second largest city and over 1.5 million Catalans call it home. The city is divided into various neighborhoods of which several, including Barceloneta with its beaches and the Old Town of Ciutat Vella, are great fun to explore. The city is huge - it rivals Berlin - and the people are many, and I know this as I had to deal with it on my own for a whole month.
Getting around Barcelona unaccompanied is possible - I did - and solitude can sometimes be a welcome relief after brushing shoulders with thousands of tourists. I did find, though, that it paid to be armed with a guidebook, a map of the metro and a Catalan dictionary and phrasebook. I found that the Catalonia Today and the Miniguide publications were ideal as they provided information about the city's attractions, nightlife, fine dining, shopping facilities and transportation systems that I would otherwise not have been able to find.
Exploring the city on foot would be one way to do it - and the El Corte Ingles has great free street maps on offer - but, to me and my why-walk-when-I-can be-driven mentality, the city was simply too large to walk around for long. I opted instead for the amazingly tourist-friendly hop-on/hop-off Bus Turistic - similar to that in Manhattan - and the air-conditioned metro system (hint: air conditioning is a big plus in this humid city). My Metro tickets also worked on buses and trams but the best thing I ever did was buy a Barcelona Card, which provided unlimited free travel on all public transportation systems as well as discounts to major attractions.
Barcelona is so big that the first thing I did was orient myself within the city by riding the Harbor and the Teleferic de Montjuic Cable Car systems. While at Mount Mountjuic, I decided to tour The Montjuic Castle, and then to take one leg of the Harbor Cable Car system to Barceloneta and the beach. When I got there, I discovered that Barceloneta is also home to L'Aquarium, the Zoo-Barcelona, the 74 acre Parc de la Ciutadella and the Museum of Natural History, and that those attractions alone could keep me busy for a month.
Although I don't really enjoy shopping - museums are more my style - I did explore the popular souvenir shops to buy my obligatory black tshirt with the country's name on. The most popular tourist shopping area seemed to be The Ramblas, a extensive tree-lined street crammed full of shops and restaurants. Some of the shops that line The Ramblas did, however, seem to be set up to take advantage of the tourist - unless authentic Catalan souvenirs are now Made in Taiwan! - so I found I had to be cautious and check exactly what I was buying.
Whenever I travel I adore tasting a country's traditional food - yes, I have eaten haggis - and Catalan cuisine is what's recommended in Barcelona. After a while I noticed that genuine Catalan fare was to be found in the hole-in-the-wall restaurant down the alley rather than in the tourist trap. I also found that my Catalan favorites were the Arros negre (black rice), the waffles sold by street corner vendors and the seafood paella concoctions, but that the Greek and Turkish kebabs were also pretty tasty.
I left Barcelona convinced that it was one of the jewels of the Mediterranean and a year - never mind a month - alone in the city would not be enough time to take advantage of all that it has to offer.
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