Barcelona Trip: Best Trip Ever...part 2- The Fun continues!!

Barceloneta Beach-Relaxing and Soothing 

Flashback:

March 2014: Three young guys with youth in their mind, spring in their spine and glares on their eyes marched like they owned this beautiful place called Goa. Introducing the 3 Musketeers -Sidd, Mandar and Tush. Ask the streets of Baga beach in Goa, remind the grains of sand on Calangute beach and the walls of Vagator fort about these 3 individuals and they will express carefree bachelorhood. Sidd. Mandar and I had an amazing time in Goa. However this time around, Mandar could not make it to Spain.

Sidd, Mandar and I- Goa 2014

And now back to our evening in Barcelona. We approached the hostel door and the earth shook, wind blew furiously and the seconds around us slowed down(Well that's what happened in our filmy minds) as we encountered a character at the reception. This character was someone we never imagined we would see here in Barcelona. Soft spoken, Shy, from Karwar(our native place) with an air of innocence and giving the impression of a diligent guy. Was it Mandar (our cousin who just missed the trip narrowly by a day)!!! Was it a funny way by nature to screw with us or was it a probability of 0.000000001 turning true. Folklore say that there are apparently 9 individuals in this world who look like you. This guy looked like Mandar but his mortal name was Vijay. 

Sidd, Vijay and I -Coincidentally in Barcelona

Our brother was with us in spirit!! In the name of this miracle, our spirits were high- literally and figuratively.  Bar to bar we hoped having a shot at shots and the day Day 2 completed with feelings of exhaustion and yet with a twinkle of joy and excitement with the turn of events with Vijay

The Dil Chahta Hai Trio....

Barceloneta Beach in scorching sun

Barcelona Day 3:

Day 3 started with late breakfast and a walk to Barceloneta beach to get our cycles. There was another Indian to help us get bikes at a cheaper rate. The Dil Chahta hai trio started their journey on their geared bikes to explore Barceloneta beach. It was a Sunday afternoon with scorching heat on top. The crowd on the beach could give competition to the crowd on Dadar station or Howrah bus stand. Finding a spot we settled to have beers from our very own Pakistani guy. Imagine the horizon with brown sand, white skin, color full dots and the majestic Mediterranean Sea. People lying in glory taking in the tan and sipping on colorful drinks. Atmosphere is as relaxed as it can be. It was a typical European holiday one had imagined seeing the Travel channels. Waited a while there and then dropped Vijay to the hostel as he had to go back to Paris. 

Casa Batlo- Gaudi's structure

With the rest of the day off we just wandered the streets of Barcelona. Cycling through pedestrians and signals we made our way through. Gaudi’s architecture of the buildings was quite amazing to watch. Now Gaudi was a hell of an architect. His designs of buildings will give you the jitters. Wandering aimlessly for a while we decided to go to Montjuic hill. With the earphones on and the Google lady guiding us we started the journey. Now to describe the way upto the top there will be some parallelism with the legendary movie “ Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar”. Now Sanju(Aamir Khan's character) a.k.a Tushar and Sidd looking at this cycling exercise and the Deepak Tijori(the villain) was none other than Google Maps. We cycled through roads, escalators, slopes, mountains, forests and footpaths but at every step the Maps prevented us from reaching Montjuic (Like I said in my previous blog, Google Maps are also on vacation in Spain!!). Aamir Khan made it look so easy in the final race with all the fighting and cycling and everything. And there we were competing against our fats and lethargy. With the happiness that Tenzing Norgay reached the Everest we reached ours. 

The Tiring Cycling journey through slopes and stairs 

Montjuic castle is anything but a castle. Its like the Dil Chahta hai fort (Vagator fort). Just walls around. But the view is sensational. On one side you see the Barcelona port in all its grandeur and the other side  the entire Barcelona city. We could see miles and miles of land and sea embracing the sunshine and creating an illusion of infinite mass. All the cycling was worth the effort. I'm sure Dad would have spent the entire day there examining the port, shore, dredging channel, etc. Mom could have spent the entire day looking at the landscape and make a painting out of it. Tai and Salil would have captured the entire scenery in their camera and made some awesome pics. Whereas Tushar would have just sat on one chair with a Mojito in his hand and immersed into the winds blowing and the the beauty lying in front. Lethargy at its best!!

View from the Montjuic castle

Barcelona port in the background

The descent was fairly quick (just 20 mins as against 2-3 hours for the ascent). Now the 2 Sapiens after the walking and cycling were hunting for food. 

Barceloneta beach: Lebanese food: Chicken Shwarma and Chicken Pizza and coke. The heavy meal complemented with the beach in front was the perfect ending to the evening. Well wait it was not just the end. It was 15^th July: finals of the FIFA world cup. France had beaten Croatia and the French people in Barcelona had gone bananas. French flag with French songs and French people marching on the beach like they have captured the world. Now the amazing part was that the celebration went un-interrupted by any kind of police, in fact people joined in the celebrations and made the occasion even more pompous. France winning the world cup and the 2 Sapiens winning the fight against fats, the day was well spent.

Barcelona Day 4:

Day 4 held special promise. Destination: Costa Brava for Scuba diving and meeting Cooper. All attempts by the Sixt (Rental agency) sales lady to promote the BMW X1 were futile. It had to be the Cooper. Finished the formalities and went to the place where the Cooper was waiting for us. “ Knock Knock- Cooper” , “ Knock Knock-Cooper”, “Knock Knock-Cooper” was the first thought in my mind. Basically inspired from The Big Bang Theory series. It’s a feeling of awe. Its love at first sight. Now since Sidd had the international license, he started this unique journey which started from Barcelona airport and lasted 1000 kms away till the Sevilla airport. Well how could I elude from this joy of driving on Spanish Roads. The drive was amazing but Il get to that later. Mission Scuba Diving!! 

Knock'Knock'Knock Cooper!!!!

With thoughts that we would get Katrina as our instructor, we drove along till Costa Brava. Like the Bollywood movies, there was a twist in the tale. It had been raining cats and dogs when we arrived in Costa Brava. With rains come gushing loads of mud and the water underneath becomes hazy and thus the Dive could be cancelled. My Hrithik moment of fearing the water and then capturing my fears and hymning the Javed Akthar lyrics were washed down the drain. Well to be honest I don’t fear water and I know how to swim but the Katrina scene was worth looking forward to. We waited and waited and thought of grabbing an early lunch.

My Hrithik moment of pondering about the dive

Our instructor- Unfortunately not 'Laila' :)

Then as luck would have it, it stopped raining and the Sun smiled on us. With hopes in our hearts and excitement in our nerves we set out on the boat towards the minutes of underwater awesomeness. BTW our trainer was a European guy with the hippy happy go lucky nature. There went our dreams of meeting Laila and getting mesmerized by her charm. The preliminary dive into the cold Mediterranean sea got our hearts racing and made us forget the hiccups of the rain cancellation. To describe the underwater experience was like a fairy tale with mermaids and corals and just the sound of infinity radiating through the water. Its like getting transported to a different world devoid of past or future. Time stays still and you soak in the years of positive energy of the ocean into this karmic senses. True to the fairy tale, it was magical!! The depth inside the water can affect your ears and that’s what happened to me. The infinity of the underwater ended but the joy it filled in our hearts was infinite. To celebrate this dive, we went to the Costa Brava beach and cheered ourselves to Coca Cola. 

Preparing for the dive

Chilling in the water post dive

The feeling of peace and oneness after the under-water dive, the waves cackling on the virgin beach and music in my ears was divine. These are some moments in life which are etched into your imagination for the simplicity that life really is. It was that moment where mind did not wander to future cravings or past misgivings but just today's heart beating life in your body. The day which started out with uncertainty and zing of the Cooper ended with lighter hearts and heavy souls as we returned to Barcelona in the Cooper. The drive back in the evening reminded me of the NFS-3 game which we played as children. The lights, the speed, the excitement and adrenaline took us back to our childhoods as we made way into Barcelona to end the day on a high note.

The Soothing experience on Costa Brava beach post the dive

The Smile says it all about the dive

Oh my Gaudi!!No trip to Barcelona is complete without the visit to the 2 mega structures in Barcelona- Sagrada Familia and Camp Nou (Barcelona football stadium). To be continued in the next part........