Barcelona: Scratch one from my bucket list
BARCELONA: While I have travelled abroad extensively, however I have never been to Spain and it has been one in my bucket list to visit Spain. Finally we made it yesterday. But honestly, this is not really a serious visit to Spain, rather thanks to my kidney transplant (I will be on my 10th month tomorrow, Sept. 8) last Nov. 8, my siblings decided that it was time for the family to go on a Mediterranean cruise. It just happens that the Royal Princess cruise liner would be picking up its passengers in Barcelona. Call it a wonderful opportunity.
Actually together with my wife and daughter we left Cebu late afternoon last Monday on board an Emirates Airline Boeing 777-300ER. Call it a coincidence that my son, 2nd Officer Jesus Valeriano Avila is part of the crew on board a similar aircraft flying for Philippine Airlines (PAL) to the US. However it turned out that the Emirates aircraft would do a stopover at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport. So I asked the purser where the Emirates aircraft came from and he told me that they came from Dubai International Airport, landed in Mactan, then to Clark and back to Dubai.
No wonder when we boarded the plane in Mactan Cebu International Airport (MICA) the plane was already nearly full of mostly overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) many of whom deplaned in Clark. But the new passengers who boarded our plane on our way to Dubai were another set of OFWs. This proves that Middle Eastern airlines like Qatar, Etihad or Emirates are doing brisk business ferrying OFWs to and from their place of work.
One thing great about taking Emirates (although I pointed out that their ground crew were just too strict on baggage passing their maximum weight limit) is that their entertainment system even for economy class was even better than most major airlines. They had a hundred plus movies to watch, which you surely cannot even finish two or three shows during the seven-hour flight to Dubai. What I didn’t like was the seven-hour layover in Dubai International while wafting for our connecting flight to Barcelona. Seven hours is just too long a layover.
Here’s an interesting note. When we got into Dubai International, it is only then you will realize that perhaps 90 percent of the passengers are OFWs. Yes, aside from Filipino passengers, you will hear Cebuano or Tagalog being spoken by store clerks, or baristas making coffee because a great number of Filipinos work in Dubai. A few years back when I last visited Dubai, I noticed that the majority of the customers at the Carre Four Supermarket were Filipinos and the clerks and staff including the check out counter employees were mostly Filipinos.
In short the Arabs are a minority in their own country. I guess this is the advantage of Dubai International Airport if you are a Filipino because you are never alone. Filipinos are always ready and willing to help their kababayans when they need something. But on our flight from Dubai to Barcelona, there were fewer Filipinos flying with us.
Incidentally, Emirates Airlines used an A-380 double decker airline to ferry the passengers to Barcelona. I guess Emirates used this humongous airline because the plane was filled to the rafters with passengers. Yet it was only last August 17 or 20 days ago when a young Jihadist drove his van into the pedestrian walk on La Rambla, one of Barcelona’s famous tourist destinations killing 13 people and wounding 130 others. Nine hours later five men drove their vehicle in nearby Cambrils, killing a woman and wounding six others.
Naturally when my friends heard that we were going to Barcelona, many of them warned me to stay safe because of terror attacks. Since the apartment that we rented was a very short walk to La Rambla, this was the first place I visited in Barcelona yesterday. For sure the place was crawling with green-jacketed motorcycle and foot policemen. I asked one policeman where exactly did that terror attack occur in La Rambla… he answered me, “You are standing on it!”
What really surprised me was that La Rambla was still teeming with tourists; you couldn’t walk a straight line without bumping another person. Perhaps they have the same attitude that I’m taking… that since that terror attack was just 20 days ago, for sure security in the area would be tight and indeed it was. Why do tourists still flock to Barcelona even with a real terror threat still very much around?
My only conclusion is once you’ve tasted Jamon Serrano or Jamon Iberico, nothing will stop you from coming back to Barcelona for their food and tourist sites. No, we haven’t had the chance to visit the iconic creation of Antoni Gaudi, the Sagrada Familia due to time constraints. We had to check in first and by the time we got into our apartment, we were already so tired because of the long travel time… especially the waiting time.