I Stayed In Gothic Quarter,it’s Gritty & Captivating.
Well, welcome. It’s Mike back again. This time you find me in Barcelona, Spain. My first trip back to Europe in many, many years. The last time I was here was 38 years ago. I was part of a was a tour back in those days. I was in my 20s, so it was uh long time ago. And I probably I probably only spent a couple of days in Barcelona back in those days. But I’m here up in the morning. It’s probably about 8:00 in the morning. I’m staying in a hotel which is in the main uh square. Just had a breakfast with the hotel which was quite nice. But now I’m just out having a first look around. And it’s unusual coming back to a European city of so many years. As if you if you watched my channel, you’ll notice I’ve been in Asia mostly the last two years traveling around there. But Barcelona being a very big tourist center now. Spain’s taken over as number one tourist country in the world from France. Stick with me on this video because I’m I’m going to show you the raw side of Barcelona here early in the morning. I go down a lot of the side alleys into the center squares before the business gets up and running. So, you have a look at Barcelona close up just to see what it’s really like without the cosmetics. Stay with me on future videos, too, because I’m going to be doing a car tour of the whole of Spain, including Morca for six days, and then I’ll be hiring a car and traveling right around Spain for another uh 19 days after that. So, there’s going to be a lot happening here. I’m going to get to as many cities as I can. I’m going to show you how to go about a car trip holiday, how much work’s involved, how much effort has to go into it. It is tiring, but it’s great fun. And as you know, I’m I’m I’m a solo traveler, so it’s interesting. I go all the way up north of Spain through the center and down south. But this video here, you’ll see much more of Barcelona coming up. Yeah, this is a fabulous part of Barcelona here. My hotel is just down that road with a center square. But I’ve come to this area here, which is down by the the river here, I think, the port. But there’s a lot of old significant buildings here. Beautiful old buildings. The sun’s just starting to come up now. So, while I stayed in that hotel area, it’s right next to the Gothic Quarter, which is an old Roman medieval part of Barcelona. laneways lead into the Gothic Quarter. So, it’s it’s very similar. Now, Barcelona is Spain’s second largest city. It’s population approximately 6 million. It’s the capital of Catalonia. So, it’s uh two languages, Catalonian and Spanish spoken. It’s a very multicultural area, too, this part of Barcelona. I noticed there was a lot of um Moroccan, African, Islamic people. It’s high density living, especially around where my hotel was. I was talking to my taxi driver who picked me up from the airport to the hotel. cost me €37 by the way into the center of Barcelona. But I was talking to the taxi driver and he said this yesterday, which was a Saturday, five or five cruise ships arrived. Big ones, too. I I saw one of them docked in the water over here yesterday. It was the MS C. Is it huge? Huge cruise ship. He said, “Yeah, there’s five arrived in one day.” So that gives you an idea on how many people are coming or how many tourists are arriving in Barcelona and the greater Spain area. But this area here, this is uh this is seems to be a lot of uh government buildings or heritage style buildings. Been here a long time. So I’m walking along the marina front here. Got beautiful weather. It’s about I think the forecast is about 26° about the last or 26 27° for about the next week. Um so yeah, beautiful. I’m just walking around with shorts now. It’s about 8:00 in the morning, but beautiful, absolutely wonderful weather. It’s Mediterranean weather like my hometown Adelaide, South Australia. Same sort of thing when I drove in. They’ve just come out of summer here, of course. So, everything’s brown and dead. You know, the plants and on the sideboards, parks, everything’s brown. It’s after after a summer. Exactly what Adelaide’s like after a hot summer. So, they’re coming into a autumn now here. But yeah, this is uh amazing. Right in the middle of the city. Now, I think what I should do is try and get across that. That looks like it’s a highway or a train line there. I think I might try and get across there to the other side where these heritage buildings are. Old stone work. Lots of lots of stonework here too, which is nice. thing. Me being a retired stonemason, I always look at the walls. Right, looks like we can go over the over the road here and get back into the probably the business district over there, I would say. Yeah, these little lineways in Barcelona. Look at them. See, they just go down these streets. It’s I saw a car coming down here, but these are obviously apartments, I would say. And they wouldn’t be cheap. You’re right in the heart of Barcelona here, but they leave it all in its original condition. That’s a car park in there. Excuse me, sir. Who lives? Are these private houses? Are they? Yes. Private private apartments. What? Apartments? Private apartments? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they they are. How old would these be roughly? Do you know the age? Uh 19th century. 19th century. Yeah. So, 100 years old. Yeah. Yeah. Very uh Yeah. Very narrow streets, too. Well, they are narrower around there. Are they? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’ll go down here then. Have a look. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yes. Uh who are you? Who are you? How are you doing? Who are you? Good. You’re a Spaniard. No. Where you from? I’m from Morocco. Morocco. Down south. Welcome to Spain. Yeah. Thank you. Live there, you know. Where do you live here? You live here? Yeah. I just come here one day. Oh, just one day. Where are you from? No, South Australia. Australia. But I come here yesterday. Yesterday I arrived here. Uhhuh. And uh I’ll stay 3 days and I’ll go to go to Morca. Mora, the island. Ah, she’s good. Hey, what’s your name? My name Mud. Mud. Yeah. And you? Mike. Mike. Nice to meet you, bro. Good on you. I’ll put you on video. Yeah. You’re welcome. Mud from Spain. Morocco. From Morocco. Yeah. Beautiful. Original from Morocco. Yeah. Should I go to Morocco? I should go to Morocco. Yeah. Good. Yeah. It’s so good. Good. It’s so beautiful. Yeah. All right. Summer is so beautiful. You can just go. I’ll see how I go. I’ll see how I go when I go down to southern Spain. Yeah. Gibralta. Yeah. Thank you, sir. Thank you, brother. Yeah. Look, it’s uh Yeah, it’s it’s different. It’s much different to what I’m used to, of course. I don’t know what this is. What’s that? Yeah, she’s Yeah, some people going past there. Looks like they’re on their way home from night out, actually. Yes, it’s a it’s stone and it’s been some parts have been rendered Yeah. Look at it. It’s totally different to what I’m used to. So, so narrow and so they’re about most of the buildings are all the same height. They look like they’re about between six and eight stories high. [Music] Good papa. Good bubba. [Music] Okay. So, I’ve come out into another square, the Hotel Roma. Hotel Roma. Now, I did see that online when I thought about booking my hotel, but see, here we go again. Another centralized square here, surrounded all with apartments all the way around. Looks like fine dining in here. Hello. What’s the name of this one, sir? How do I say that? Gala. Very good. Formal. Very formal. Yes. And what’s the name of this square? Placal. Yeah. Very nice. Yes. Ah, real. Oh, yeah. Placial. I’m having trouble with my Spanish. I speak no Spanish. No Spanish little. No problem. Thank you. Thank you. So there it is. Placa Pla real. Hello. Yeah, look. It’s Yeah, look. It’s amazing. There’s you got very very fancy restaurants, but then you’ve got you got graffiti all over the the walls here. say we’ve got another very nice restaurant here. Then you got more of these little sidewalks off of the main court there. Got a nice little bar here. my bar. Might have to try and get there one night. So stay with me for future videos on this great city of Barcelona where I’ll take you to the major tourist areas where the fabulous Gaudy architectures on display. Thank you for watching and I’ll see you next time. Hey, hey, hey. [Music]
Walking through Barcelona , The raw edge to this city from the bustling energy of La Rambla to the serene beauty of the gothic quarter . I discuss the architecture of the buildings , the street landscapes , the Barcelona port , number of cruise ships entering Barcelona . Can the city be cleaner , i show you the graffiti and street art, the restaurants , bars , the people coming home late . Come to Placia Reial with me , alive with music and palm trees . Whether your planning a trip to Catalonia , this walk will give you an appreciation of what to expect .
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