Alhamdulillah, i was granted some times to visit this great city of Catalan, Barcelona. A city with a long......history, including during the occupation of the Morrs in Spain and the crusaders. I'm not interested to talk about the history but rather my own personal experience in this great city with great peoples that I met during my 3 days and 3 nights trip to this city. Very few of them are younger than me which make it wonderful as they come here just to chill and enjoy the city rather than trying to visit every little possible places that they can think of. Plus, some of them had traveled a lot including Malaysia which make it easier to choose the topic of conversation.


Here is my journey. Hopefully you guys enjoy reading it.

I arrived at around 8.30pm and it was still very much like 5pm in Malaysia on a bright sunny day. Because i was quite tired, i decided to take a taxi to the hostel. It is called Be Hostel Sound. Actually it was part of the Be Hostel chains around this city. 2 other hostel called Be Hostel Marr and Be hostel Rambla located 5 to 7 minutes away from this hostel. I was greeted (immediately fallen in love) by Kasha at the reception counter. She was very helpful and nice enough to answer all the unnecessary invented little detail that I can think of. Haha.

Anyhow, she is also very understanding as well when i asked her about praying inside the hostel. Seems like she is pretty familiar with Islam when she offered me some small spaces that i could use for praying. Very nice of her indeed. The hostel is very nice i have to say. Although u'll share a room with 7 or 10 more people, you don't need to worry about the security because everyone has electronic locker which is quite big that it can fit your 80 liters travelling bag inside. No curfew plus only electronic cardholder can get access into the hostel. The only downside is that if you live in room 001, you'll have to share the in-suite bathroom with you roomies of both sexes and i find it rather unpleasant. Need not to worry, if you live on other room, the bathroom is separated by gender only that it was outside your room. After finished praying jama' taakhir of zohor and asar, i decided to stroll around the neighboring area as planned.


A big Cat Statue at Rambla del Raval

My aim was actually to find the Tariq bin Ziyad mosque that search beforehand on google map before i started my journey back in Dublin. Lucky enough, it was only 10 minutes from the hostel and i prayed  Maghrib and Isyak (Jama') over there. This mosque situated at Rambla del Raval which is fulled with halal shops along the street although some of them do sell beers etc. If you guys want to stay in Barcelona, i strongly suggest this area because it is easy to find halal stuff to cook (if allowed by the hostel) and lots of Muslim population around. Although this neighborhood is quite dodgy, i would say that in term of safety, it is at least 8/10. No part of Barcelona is safe enough when it comes to the residential area. Lots of burglars and prostitutes around to be honest. I never seen such an area over the past 4 years that i took to travel in Europe, including Amsterdam! Plus, this area is very close the popular La Rambla and lots of metro that is available for the use to visit other places such as Sagrada Familia without the need to change the metro line. ^__^




A: Hostel Be Sound
Tariq bin Ziyad Mosque: Carrer de Sant Rafael
Be Hostel Marr: Carrer de Sant Pau

Later that night after I had my dinner in one of the shop at Rambla del Raval, i met a few people from the hostel and we decided to go out and enjoy Barcelona at night. I wont go into detail but suffice for me to say that it was a good night out. Just imagine 6 guys on a night out and just trying to enjoy themself. No wonder only 2 people get to the beach and fast asleep on the beach until early morning. The rest? Distracted by cute french ladies. LOL. is it not what happened Akal? :P

P/s:
1. Akal is one of the guy from India that i met, he might not read this but i think it will be very funny if he sees this. Unfortunately, i don't have everyone email to add them on FB. These law students somehow left their Sikh at home and enjoy Barcelona to the fullest!
2. I'll continue on a day to day basis of my 3 days trip at Barcelona.

Bye...