Field Trip 2: Jaume I

September 26, 2010

            The field trip we took on Monday was a lot different than the first one.  I like to consider myself pretty adventurous, and by this point we had been in Barcelona for about a month, so I had already done some exploring around Jaume I by myself.  I had been there before to check out the shops and grab a bite to eat, because I was told by some friends it was an area I should familiarize myself with.  Even though I had already seen this area, going there with a local was a lot more interesting and informative than just walking through there acting like a tourist as I had done before.

            One thing that is a lot different from where I live (Poble Nou) and Jaume I, is that the streets are a lot more narrow and tight in Jaume I.  There is definitely a lot more of an ancient city feel in Jaume I that I just don’t feel in the area around my apartment.  It is clearly an area of the city that was designed long before there were SUVs or even any type of car, because sometimes it’s hard enough just for the crowds of people to fit through some of the passageways!             

            This trip also had a really authentic feel to it because there were many times we were exposed to more of the local life, whereas in the museum from the first field trip there were a bunch of other tourists just like us.  At one point we ended up in a square where there a bunch of kids playing soccer with each other.  It was entertaining to see about 30 kids playing with just one ball, but there was something more interesting we quickly noticed.  I looked across the square and saw a bunch of small and some sizeable dents taken out of a large stone wall.  As I wondered to myself what could have destroyed something as tough as stone, my question was immediately answered.  It was one of the sites where the Civil War had been fought, and the wall was destroyed like that from bullet holes.  It was interesting to me that no restoration effort has been made in a square where (I would assume from all the gunfire) probably a lot of people lost their lives in a battle.  That also makes the area cool though, and helps to preserve the memory of those people that fought and died for something they believed so vehemently in.

            The last thing we talked about was how in the Jewish Quarter there were signs on the walls that either told horse-drawn carriages to go left or right, based on which way traffic was supposed to be directed.  This truly shows how small the passageways were because at one point in time two horse-drawn carriages must have gone down the same alley headed at each other, met in the middle, and gotten stuck for a considerable amount of time as the drivers struggled to free them.  This reminded me of the current situation in Barcelona with the complex routes on almost every city street.  Where I am from there are not nearly so many one-way roads.  Me and a friend rented scooters one day when we first got to Barcelona and found it extremely confusing to navigate the roads when we were faced with so many “do not enter” signs.  I can only imagine that this must have been about twice as hard and frustrating for the horse carriages of the past.

            It was great to get a little outside my comfort zone and get to know such a historical part of Barcelona that I had only been to a few times before.  I will definitely be coming back to Jaume I to check out some of the bars and restaurants that were pointed out to us.  At some point my friends are visiting me in Barcelona and I definitely think they would enjoy seeing this area as well.