Barcelona, Badalona, Beaches, Garbage & Machismo

Greetings,

I arrived in Spain at 4:30am and waited around the airport until the shuttle opened. I took it downtown and caught a subway to a stop I knew with a 24 hour reception which a friend from Buenos Aires recommended. The place was fine for a night and in ten minutes I’m transferring downtown into a room near Sagrada Familia. So I’m in Badalona which isn’t Barcelona which explains why I nearly fell asleep on the subway ride here.

I will note that on the subway ride I couldn’t help but think “lots of sketchy characters here”. Sure it was 6:35am on a Saturday morning but still. Also, the beach here in Badalona is pretty bad, not much of a vibe and it had garbage floating in it. At first I saw debris and I love swimming in the sea; not paddling but actually swimming as a form of fitness and had to cancel said swim when I realized I was in a garbage stew.

When I was putting my stuff down on the beach this macho man with Napoleon syndrome was staring me down. When I got out the stare intensified and I could feel him trying to intimidate the SHABL soul which was met with great resistance. I looked him in the eye and said “Hello?!” with the body language of what do you want / what is your major malfunction? He looked down at the sand then away; really strange. I live in C. America and spent a good time in S. America; never have I been involved in something like this.

I’m here another few days to a week then heading south as I have a flight to Rome from Valencia on the second of September aka once I leave here that will be that. I was supposed to fly to Barcelona from Belgrade on the 6th but I realize you only live once and was eager to start speaking Spanish. A foreign language is like a fistful of foreign fiat currency that never runs out.

I just wrote about it in further depth on SHABL; you can read it here.