Our guide, Joan, took us through narrow alleys in La Raval which is the poorest area of Barcelona and used to have a lot of crime, prostitution and drugs. There has been a major effort to clean up the area and last night I never felt unsafe as we walked along-safety in numbers and all that! Joan told us several stories about the area. There is a street that is supposedly haunted by a robber. Legend has it that a poor young man joined a war for the money a soldier got paid and stole things to sell for extra money to send home. At one point he stole a chalice from a church and hid it. After that he was killed in the war. He haunted his fiancee to get her to return it because he could not go to heaven until it was returned. She found the chalice but then he could not remember where he stole it from and it was never returned. So he still haunts the street looking for someone to help him. Joan also showed us a wall that kept falling down until the builder used human blood in the cement and human bodies within the wall. Another legend concerned a huge building which remains empty because every time someone lived in it, they jumped out the windows and killed themselves. Yet another story was of a woman who kidnapped children from poor neighborhoods and killed them, using their body parts for all sorts of purposes. Shades of Ed Gein! This one Joan swore was true and sure enough, I was able to find the story online. We all thought it was a horrible story!
Today my class had three of the students from Brazil have their last class with us. They all got their certificates and when class was over, our substitute teacher Veronica, hugged them all and wished them well. I hugged them too, Hanna, Tarsilla, and Pedro, because I will really miss them in class. We always had a lot of fun trying to joke around in Spanish. Tarsilla even friended me on Facebook. The class will be totally different without so many Brazilians although we do still have two left. I was talking about this with Eva who is attending the Don Quixote school until November. She said people are always coming and going and sometimes it is very sad. She was friendly with a young man from France and he is leaving this week too. My roommate has finished her crash course in Spanish and I imagine she will leave tomorrow. Keys are due by noon at the checkout point downtown and I can't imagine she would hang around for Easter in Spain.
As usual I took a walk this afternoon. I almost wished I did not wear my jacket! I really didn't need it, but at this point it is kind of a security blanket covering my purse. I was in the main plaza and it was really hopping with tourists everywhere, people getting on the express buses for the airport and people getting off to begin their stay in Barcelona. The crowds were more than I was willing to bear today and since I actually got tired of walking I caught the metro back to my neighborhood. I exited at Las Arenas to finally get phone service for Spain. The plan lasts a month which should cover the time I need it. The young man in the store sold me a sim and helped me get it set up. I now have a local phone number for emergency contact and for my library and travelling companion contacts plus a small data plan. I will make the number known so people can get me if they need to.
It is hard to believe that I have been here for four full weeks, but I still have more than four weeks before I return home. In two weeks my husband will arrive and my solo time will be over. What an experience this has been.
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