Written 7.8.2010
I am a lucky woman. At this very moment, 12:32 AM on July 8th, 2010 I am sitting in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The ship made good time and we arrived 8 hours earlier than anticipated. As a result, we are at this very moment berthed in the dock. We cannot get off the ship however until tomorrow morning when Immigration & Customs will come onboard and clear us for disembarkation. So as I look out my window I can see cloaked in the darkness, the outlines of the Croatian homes and roads nestled on the hillsides. I would take my customary arrival picture but it is much to dark to see anything in the picture. So, I have gotten ahead and behind all at once. As you may have noticed it’s been a while since I wrote. Since my last post entry I have officially become an international traveler and have experienced through all my sensory receptacles the best of Barcelona, Spain, Rome, Italy and Naples, Italy. We have docked in those three ports. And I must say it has been more than amazing…I have done a poor job of chronicling these experiences in this space but I hope to rectify that problem immediately! Starting now………………….
Barcelona is a beautiful city, full of history, architectural wonders, and a strong cultural heritage. We arrived on the morning of June 24th, after nine very long days at sea. I got up early to watch the ship come into the harbor. The ship typically comes into harbor at the crack of dawn. The ship is usually making its approach at about 630-7am. As this was the first port, many people on the ship woke up to watch our arrival to Espana! I will attempt to detail the process below. It was amazing to watch it happen in Spain but it’s the same process for all of our ports.
The first step in the process is that a little boat comes alongside our ship. This boat is called a pilot boat and on that boat is a pilot. The pilot boat comes alongside our ship and the pilot jumps out of the boat and onto our ship. All this happens while both vessels are moving. It is really cool to see. The pilot comes onboard to help the Master (the captain of the ship is known as the Master) and the crew bring the ship into the port. This process I am told happens with any big ship that is entering a port. So in short time, the ship is guided into the harbor, the anchor is dropped and we are docked. The last few minutes as the ship comes to a stop are often very rocky and you can literally hear and feel the ship glide into those last few meters. Once the ship is berthed, the customs and immigration folks come onboard to inspect the manifests (the list of passengers), passports and make any inquiries regarding passengers. By international law or practice, the customs and immigration officials are within their rights to demand to see, face to face, anyone on the ship. Thus far, the immigration and customs process has been relatively easy and there have not been any interrogations. The whole ship is usually approved carte blanche and is cleared for disembarkation. Concurrent to the customs and immigration folks coming onboard the whole shipboard community has a meeting with a member of the United States Consulate/Embassy. This meeting, called a diplomatic briefing is mandatory for everyone. During this meeting the diplomat talks about the politics and economics of the country we are entering. They also discuss the relationship between the U.S. and that country and other things of note. In all the ports thus far they have also included information about safety and security concerns and what folks need to be aware of. In Spain, the diplomat spent significant time talking about the widespread occurrence of petty theft, pick pocketing and scams particularly of tourists. The previous night the shipboard community had a logistical pre-port meeting were many of these same security issues were discussed at length. Despite these NUMEROUS warnings, many of the students were pick pocked or the victim of petty crimes during their time in Spain. Mostly because of poor decision making and not using the good sense that God gave them. Anyway, I digress. So the diplomat does their briefing and at the conclusion of their talk and a Q& A session, the ship is fully cleared. At this point passengers can leave the ship.
So now that I spent so much time detailing what telling you about the logistics of it all, you probably want to know what I did and my experiences while in Barcelona. Well here it is………….
Barcelona is located in the Catalonian region of Spain. The Catalans have aspirations of separating from Spain because they see themselves as a separate nation. Most Catalans identify more strongly with their Catalan heritage than a Spanish one. Native Barcelonans prefer to speak Catalan than Spanish---although they do know how to speak Spanish. The signs in Barcelona were primarily in Catalan. The culture is evident. This strong identity is so evident that Spain won a world cup game and there were very few people in Barcelona celebrating. Whereas in Madrid, the whole city had a party for the win. So that was cool to see and witness.
On the day of our arrival in Spain, I spent the majority of the time close to the ship. One of my work related projects is working with the Inter-port students. Inter-port students are students who are native to the countries we are visiting who join the shipboard community for the purpose of increasing our understanding of their home country. The students join us the port prior to their home country and travel with us to their homes. So the first day in Spain, I was waiting for the Italian inter-port student to arrive. Luckily, SAS had contracted for a shuttle bus to provide transportation between the ship and the main commercial district. I rode the bus to the main area, Las Ramblas and spent most of the day walking around and exploring. Las Ramblas is a large pedestrian boulevard, which snakes through the middle of the city. There are shops, restaurants and places to buy souvenirs along the road. There are also street performers. This is a place where a lot of crime occurs because of the density of tourists in this space. If you come to Barcelona, you will spend some time along the Ramblas. I hooked up with a group of graduate students and just strolled down the street. We ended up seeing a couple of Gaudi’s famous buildings and a bar named Obama. Obviously took a picture of both but I was considerably more interested in the Obama bar than the Gaudi buildings.
Gaudi is a famous architect who designed a bunch of buildings in Barcelona. Who cares? Apparently everyone else and their momma but me. The lines to take pictures and view these buildings wrapped around the block. I was happy to see them but did not have any transformative experience at the sight of them. I have come to the realization that I am not that interested in architecture. I felt a bit sacrilegious telling my traveling companions, “No, I don’t want to walk a mile and half to look at a bunch of gaudy buildings. I don’t want to hike a hill to look at them and I definitely am not spending money to go inside.” Needless to say, I found other activities to occupy my time. Again, I digress; the first day was pretty low key. Oh one other thing about Barcelona is that one of the major plazas contains a monument to Christopher Columbus. Want to guess my thoughts about that? Boo! Yeah I know Christopher crossing the Atlantic turned out all right for the Spanish but he wins no awards in my world so a momentous monument in his honor was less than impressive in my mind.
Day 2 in Barcelona found me on a SAS trip to Montserrat. Montserrat is a monastery located way up high in the mountainsides of Barcelona. The views going up the mountain were absolutely breathtaking and it’s hard to put into words or capture in pictures. I took a couple of videos and only that comes close to capturing the beauty and awe of the mountainous region. After spending a day in the urban center of Barcelona, it was wonderful to retreat into the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside. Once you get up to a certain point in the monastery, you get off the bus and you can hike up higher on the mountain. You also can enter the monastery. I did this trip with Chela and we chose to enter the monastery first. There were lots of clergy, nuns and monks wandering about. The grounds of the monastery were beautiful although it was overrun with tourists from all over the world. The monastery is famous not only for its location but also because it is home to the Black Virgin Mary. I did not get a chance to see the Black Virgin because the lines were so long but if I ever find myself in Spain, I will visit Montserrat again and hopefully see the Black Virgin. Now as you know I have limited interest in the Black Virgin as a religious symbol or icon. I am more interested in the existence of a Black figure given the largely negative perception held of the Moors (Muslims) and most people south of the Spanish border by Spaniards.
This brings me to another topic….race and Spain. In general there were not many black people in the part of the country we were. The black people I did observe were primarily street vendors who seemed to largely originate from the Continent. While I did not feel unwelcome in Spain I did not necessarily feel welcome. I don’t want to impose my American sense of race relations to a different context but I don’t think Spain is a country I would feel comfortable traveling through by myself. Maybe just me but that’s my sense.
So Montserrat was beautiful, hope you were able to see my pictures in the slideshow. I included comments so you know what you are looking at.
After Montserrat, we came back to the ship and hung out for a little bit. We were able to find two free tickets to another SAS trip called Barcelona at Night. Before telling you about this trip I must tell you that the students who make it on this trip in general, have MONEY! It costs 10,000-15,000 for the summer voyage. Granted a number of students get scholarship and other financial aid to finance the expense but this is by no means a voyage that a typical working class family can afford to finance. As a result, some of the elements of the experience are taken for granted. Students were required to purchase their trips back in April. However once they came onto the ship and made new friends, they suddenly had other plans. Their non-refundable trip tickets became disposable to them. When that happens students have two choices, they can either donate their ticket to the free box for any other member of the shipboard community to pick up or they can try to sell them. Being the frugal woman that I am, I often check the donation box for trips. I am lucky to have a friend who is equally as frugal. So to continue the previously started story, we found two free tickets for an excursion that night. So who looks a gift horse in the face? Not us! So off we went. It was awesome. We visited Mont Juic where many of the Olympic complex was built for the 1992 summer games, including the torch. It was cool. From a certain point on Mont Juic you can see breathtaking views of the entire city. From that vantage point, I was able to take an awesome picture of our ship docked in the harbor. Our free trip also included a tour of Spanish Village--- this constructed area in which architecture from all over Spain was contained. That also was nice to get an overview of how different buildings are constructed in the country. It felt a bit like a Disney World set. But oh well. The Spanish built this area specifically for a World Exposition Fair. After that we drove by Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia. His unfinished masterpiece that is still in construction. They have been working on this building since 1882. I still don’t get what is taking so long. Just call the building finished and be done with it but oh well! The final stop on our evening tour was the fountains for a beautiful night show. It was lovely.
Day 3 I did some shopping for souvenirs on the Ramblas. We also visited the Bocquiera, a famous market. We also were able to find a flea market. It was nice to go to the flea market and have interactions with some regular folks away from the tourist drags. I did not buy very much but it was nice to visit a different part of town.
Day 4, we wandered around a mall and got some cool Spanish treats. A good time was had by all.
So my overall impression of Barcelona is that it’s a nice city. However it felt very manufactured and fabricated to me. A little contrived. Many of their major tourist sites were conceived as part of international events, the Olympics or a number of World Fairs. As a result, much of their city is relatively new or renovated. I like that to a certain extent but I like my cities with a little more authentic flavor. I am confident that such areas exists in the city but in my short time I was not able to witness too much of it. Barcelona did have much more graffiti than I would expect from a similar city in the US but I found similar issues in Italy.
Some rituals or things that I am doing during my journey that I think you might find interesting.
- - I am collecting a magnet for each of my ports.
- - I buy 2 bottles of wine or special liquor in each port--- I hope my dad keeps his promise to pick me up from Virginia. Otherwise I will have trouble transporting all this liquid on a planeJ
- - I am sending a postcard to my family from each port. I am also sending postcards to friends at certain ports so be on the lookout for your postcard. If you would like to get a postcard but don’t think I have your address, please send it along.
- - As we usually get into port early in the morning, I always take a picture out of the window of my cabin of the first site I see upon waking up. So I can remember my first site of each port.
- - I try to catch a picture of the last sight of each port as we leave. Some of the pictures aren’t that clear but they remind me.
I think that’s it for Barcelona. I will work on uploading my Italy pictures and detailing my experiences there soon. I must admit now, {spoiler alert!!!} that I love Dubrovnik, Croatia!!! It is by far my favorite port so far. I will tell you more about that soon.
