I arrived in Barcelona from Toulouse, France on a 20 Euro Euroflix ticket, after a sleepless night's sleep on a comfortable luxury bus. The mind is more burdened than the body is not tired. Because I slept a little on the bus at night. At that time, the newly bought sunglasses with 160 euros in my book pocket, i.e. 18,000 rupees, fell somewhere on the bus, I noticed it after getting off the bus. Why did Bokasoka Bengali go to Europe for the first time and put his sunglasses in his pocket on the night bus? Probably the aristocratic poor (!) Europeans with sunglasses worth 180 euros wanted to visit in the middle of the night.
We arrived at St. Christopher's Inn, booked the day before, near the city center, to see the city at dawn with a broken heart. Yes, it's not a cathedral or a church, it's a low cost hostel. The first hostel of my traveling life is this St. Christopher Inn. Booking.com's visit list still contains all the information including location date, cost.
It's the opposite of what I usually do when people travel. Everyone travels through the night and comes to the hotel or hostel to rest, but I am not a member of that group. There is a lot of sleep in life, but I am in favor of traveling as much as possible to make money. Somehow, after writing my name in the registrar's book at the hostel, I left my backpack in the bag and hung a small bag on my back and went out to see the city.
There is a different kind of fun to see the city in the morning. The city can be seen in a secluded environment at this time. When you go somewhere, you have to see all the quiet and restless forms of that place. That's why I never miss the opportunity to see the festive city at night as well as the city in the morning. Anyway, at least I didn't go down without explaining myself first. I will be lost in Barcelona in the morning like myself.
According to the decision, I walked wherever my eyes went, wherever my mind wanted, so I walked for three hours from 6 am to 9 am. I saw with my own eyes the real look of the quiet city of Barcelona. I wandered through the streets of the city and returned to the hostel. Now it's time to have breakfast. I washed my hands and face and sat down to have breakfast with a little rest. The hostel charges 10 euros per night, including unlimited breakfast in the morning.
I sit down to eat breakfast, I eat a little more in the morning. A Chinese girl is sitting opposite me. I was filling my stomach by pushing and shoving, at this time I noticed that the Chinese girl was filling her stomach with breakfast in the hostel as well as filling her bag. I was quite surprised, though I didn’t understand the reason. The reason for this will come later in the story.
In St. Christopher; Image Source: Hostelworld.com
After breakfast, I hung the small bag on my back again and went out. This time I will go around according to the plan. I want to stay in Barcelona for 2 days. Every European city has tourist buses for sightseeing. 1/2 day package tickets are available. These can be rotated indefinitely. These buses usually ply around major tourist destinations one after the other throughout the day. You can board any bus as many times as you want throughout the day with one ticket.
I saw a counter of the tourist bus near the city center and proceeded. I saw that by then many people had bought tickets and were getting on the bus. I asked the girl in charge of the counter for a tourist map of Barcelona. After reading the map well, I realized that the tourist attractions of the whole city of Barcelona are divided into 2 zones - Red Zone and Blue Zone. Buses ply around all tourist spots throughout the day in this circular zone, carrying ticketed tourists from one place to another. If you want, you can buy tickets for two days, and if you want, you can finish all the trips in one day. I thought, There is no point in buying a ticket for 35 Euros for two days in the way I have arranged the travel plan. The day before, I looked around lightly. The ones that I like will be taken to the subway tomorrow and I will take a good look around. I bought a one-day ticket from the ticket office for 20 euros. Then I got on the bus.
Barcelona in the morning; Image Source: Author
I first went to the port area of Barcelona. Very tidy area, and small private pleasure boats like the ones we see in the movies, there are various colored pleasure boats anchored here. Some are leaving the port, some are anchoring. I sat for a long time and saw these. I was sitting on a bench here when I met the Chinese girl who had breakfast together in the morning. I greeted you politely and introduced that I had breakfast at the same table with you in the morning, we are residents of the same hostel.
At this the words became a little frozen and we both started looking around the port. At one point I asked the girl why she had filled her bag with dry food for breakfast in the morning. The girl smiled and for the next 5 minutes I listened to the story of a nation's thirst for travel, fulfillment of the desire to know. At the same time, I realized how the Chinese can go around so much.
The gist of the girl was,
We Chinese want to rule the whole world one day, so we need to know about the people of the whole world, their way of life, food habits, education and culture. We will see two cities for the same amount of money you spend on one city. Our experience will be better than yours. You see, in the morning I took boiled eggs, bread, honey, fruit juice, twice as much as people normally eat. I ate half of the food and carried the other half in a bag. My days will go by eating these all day long, these are all nutritious food, the body will be good, there is no cost.
At night I will go to the place where Chinese immigrants live, which you know as 'China Town', and have dinner with Chinese food at a very low cost. Then the cost of my stay for the whole day was reduced to one meal at a time. In this way we are traveling all over the world from healthy to low cost.
The boys and girls of our country save money as well as study all year round and go out to travel around the world as planned on holidays.
I was quite impressed by the girl's words. I also thought that is why I also skip breakfast but spend about 25 euros on lunch and dinner. The girl spends only 5 euros there all day. That's 1 in 5 of my expenses. If I could turn around like him, I would be able to turn around at about half the cost. I talked to the girl for another 30 minutes that day. The girl changed my mind about travel. Talking to the girl, I realized that traveling doesn't really mean much. Later, when they met at the hostel at night, the girl said goodbye, promising to chat more. I got on the tourist bus.
Port of Barcelona; Image Source: Author
In the morning my interest is to visit the beaches of Barcelona. I have already read on the internet that there are a total of nine beaches in Barcelona. I wish I could visit at least five today. The reader may be laughing at the thought of how it is possible in one day! Yes, possible. Most beaches in Europe are less than a kilometer long. Those of us who have seen Cox's Bazar as the first beach of our lives, get a lot of smiles when we see these beaches in Europe. However, the main attraction of these beaches is that they are very tidy and tourist friendly.
The beaches are very close and the tourist bus is only a few minutes away. So in two hours my 5 beaches went round. Each beach is very clean and beautifully arranged. No one is bothering anyone. Who is enjoying lying on the beach like that. After traveling there, I got on the bus and returned to the city center.
The city center of Barcelona is always busy day and night. I searched Google and found an Indian restaurant. The restaurant is in an alley and the food is quite standard. It cost 15 euros to eat a Hyderabadi biryani. Even it is quite expensive as in Europe, where the price of different chain foods is between 5-6 euros. After eating, I sat in the restaurant and took a rest and left for the new camp.
A beach in Barcelona; Image Source: Author
New Camp is the ground of Barcelona Football Club. This is where the home venue, training, training of the youth team is all. I got off the bus and bought a ticket for 20 euros. The new camp is much bigger and takes a lot of time to tour. If you want, you can spend a day here. There are a number of shops selling clothes, shoes, footballs of their players. The club has a museum. There is a room where all the trophies won by the team are arranged. Since I have less time on my hands, I ended up turning around within an hour. Then I left to see La Sagrada Family.
The main stadium at New Camp; Image Source: Shiblee Imtiaz
Not just Spain or Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia is a place to visit all over the world, a place to think about. Construction of the Roman Gothic-style basilica began in 182 and is still under construction. It is thought that its construction could be completed in 2026, 100 years after the architect's death. Pope Benedict XVI declared the site a basilica in 2010. It is currently a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Originally, the architect of the installation designed the design in a very complex way, which is why it takes so long to complete. More than 4.5 million tourists visit the facility every year. I also became one of them and went in to buy a ticket. The installation inside is really very pleasant and very complex in nature. I took some time to walk around each floor of the building. Its design and architecture are truly remarkable. Each corner of it is made of different marble stones and glass. Construction work is also underway for the visitors. I toured the installation for about 2 hours.
Leaving here, I have seen several other tourist establishments from outside throughout the day, some of which I have selected to visit on the second day. Also on the second day I decided to walk as much as possible and try to understand the life of the people of this city.
La Sagrada Familia; Image Source: itinary.com
Aslam returned to the city center in the evening. For those who have walked Walking Street in Pattaya, Thailand, Bangla Street in Phuket, or Khaosan Road in Bangkok, this may seem like the grandfather of Walking Street. If we combine twenty streets like the streets of Thailand, it will be like the walking street of Barcelona city center.
Thousands of people are walking, eating, chatting like a stream. When I was traveling, there was a movement for a separate independent state from Spain to Catalonia, centered on Barcelona, but what we mean by movement-struggle is not the slightest example here. Looks like there's going to be a festival. Even all of Barcelona's big brand shops, shopping markets are located here.
I went to one store after another. I look at the price of clothes and shoes and think about the poor condition of my pocket. I bought a Lionel Messi jersey from a shop at the lowest price, and it cost 20 euros. I bought a bottle of Barcelona team water for 5 Euros for a close friend. I bought some more souvenirs like this. After walking for about 3 hours, I got hungry and entered a Turkish food shop. The cheapest food on their menu was 20 euros. That too is kebab. The Turks pronounce kebab kebab. Turkish kebabs are very popular all over the world. I have visited Turkish food stores around the world, including Singapore and Thailand, and seen the popularity of Turkish kebabs. It is also delicious to eat and gives a lot in quantity. Usually one cannot finish eating a single plate of kebabs alone. After finishing the meal, I walked around for another hour and came back to the hostel.
I met the Chinese girl in the living room of the hostel. The beginning of our travel chat. I first came to know from the girl - travel is actually an informal education, it has to be nurtured in mind. It is necessary to study enough.
Travel is planned. Going to the place of travel and mingling with the local people, one has to take a deep look at their lifestyle, food habits and culture. I also learned that travel makes people wise, humble and teaches them to live as social creatures. You should travel whenever the opportunity arises in life. The earth is a multi-layered place. The only way to know about each level is to travel.
The girl taught me many hand-to-hand traveling techniques. How to choose a hostel, how to fix travel expenses, how to plan a trip, how to travel at a low cost I got my initial initiation from that Chinese girl in St. Christopher's Inn. Travel changed lives on the first day of a trip to Barcelona and the Chinese girl at St. Christopher's Inn.
This English article discusses the traveling experience of the author in Barcelona, Spain.
Europe is really a nice place to visit. Very nice!