I like to think that I adjusted adequately and quickly to life here in Barcelona. There were a few bumps in the road, but it all went pretty smoothly. This following journal will tell the story of a not-so-great experience.
It was start of the second weekend here in Barcelona. My friend Juliet, whom I had met on the first night, asked if I would like to go out to dinner. Eager to explore the city and all that good stuff, I complied. She suggested that we go somewhere near Sagrada Familia, because she heard there were some good spots out there. Passive as usual, I agreed. We were still new to the city, so we met outside the CEA building and made our way to Sagrada. I told her I was interested in drinking some Sangria with my dinner, so we began looking for places that looked good and also served Sangria. We walked around for a while, but I couldn’t decide where I wanted to eat. I was on a rather tight budget, so spending 15 euro for dinner wasn’t really something I wanted to do.
After about 25 minutes of walking and rejecting every restaurant we saw, a man holding menu’s asked if we would like to eat at his place. It wasn’t too crowded, so we had a seat outside and looked at the menu. Conveniently, they had menus in all different languages. I didn’t realize at the time that this was something I should try to avoid. We got the Sangria, and also some tapas. I thought because the tapas were priced rather high, that there would be a good amount to share; but this was not the case.
The Sangria tasted like sugar-water, the tapas didn’t taste fresh, and they ended up charging us for the bread that they brought without us asking for it. The bill came to 42 euros. It was then that I realized I had been sucked into a tourist trap. Menus in English and people trying to pull you off the street to come into their restaurant are definite signs. If the food is good, they shouldn’t need to stand outside and beg you. I was very disappointed in myself for getting sucked into paying so much for this bad food, but there was not much I could do not. At least I learned a good lesson that night, and would never eat at a tourist trap restaurant again.