I will start of my story in Barcelona as I really enjoyed this city. I had booked one of those fast Renfe trains from Madrid to Barcelona (4 hours, $96) and discovered that the church brothers were at a conference in Cordoba along with brothers from other parts of Spain like Malaga, Sevilla, and Madrid. I wish I had consulted with the brothers in the church in Madrid first before buying the Barcelona ticket as I would have gone to Cordoba or visit the brothers in Porto, Portugal. I did pray to the Lord that He would make the Barcelona trip profitable and He did not disappoint.
I ended up having to stay at a youth hostel (Garden House Barcelona booked through hostels.com) in a quiet part of Barcelona in the outskirts. It was there that I met a young college student. Michael was wearing that famous orange Illinois t-shirt so I asked him if he knew so and so at the University of Illinois. He did not know any one of the names I mentioned and asked me how I knew these students. I said that my church has a Saturday night fellowship and dinner for these students when they were in high school in Chicago and I would see them every Saturday. Michael asked me where the church was and I gave him the location as he is from the Chicagoland area. It turns out that he has seen the church building before and has been inside the church bookstore as part of a class assignment! What a small world! He had favorable things to say about the bookstore and bought some books for his family.
Coming from a Catholic background, Michael was surprised when I told him that all members in my church could get up from their seat on Sunday and release what they enjoyed of Christ over the microphone to everyone. I told him that everyone in the church can tell out the virtues of Him since they are part of the royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), that God desires a kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:6), and that the priesthood in the Old Testament was degraded and fallen. Originally, all the Israelites were priests but when they started to worship idols, then only the tribe of Levi could be priests but they fell also, and even the household of Aaron within the tribe of Levi started to worship idols when they were designated priests by the Lord. The Lord setup an emergency provision that whenever a man or a woman voluntarily consecrates and separates himself to the Lord to serve Him, he or she is taking the vow of the Nazarite (Numbers 6:2).
Michael and I had been in the hostel for 2 nights but we did not have a reservation for the third night so we had to come early that Friday morning to see if beds were available. There were no beds available so we decided to leave our luggage in their closet while we looked for another hostel or hotel. After doing a lot of touring and walking around the city and going inside a hotel whenever we saw one, we came to the sad conclusion that everything was booked for this Friday night. We had gone to 20 or so hotels and hostels. As we walked around the city for many hours that day, we noticed that there were not a lot of tall buildings in Barcelona which explains why there is a scarcity of rooms given that Barcelona has become a very popular city after it hosted the Summer Olympics in 1992. We noticed this with the huge crowds at the long Las Ramblas street and the British invasion of Brits moving to Barcelona to live and work. Michael Jackson is still very popular even with a mime performing as him with a large crowd of people watching on Las Ramblas street.
At around 2 AM, Michael and I decided it was useless trying to search for a hotel. We decided to go to the beach to sleep! Strolling along the beach, we noticed that there were people sleeping on the sand with their huge backpacks. A couple was sleeping on an inflated queen mattress. We decided that the best place to sleep was not the sand but this pier that extended out to the Mediterranean Sea. We figured that no one would see us from the sand and bother us if we slept at the end of the pier. We were also hoping that no one would rob us and throw our bodies into the Mediterranean.
Earlier in the day as Michael and I explored the city by foot, we received some free stuff from a TDK Blue Ray Disc demonstration booth. At the pier, Michael and I put on the free TDK t-shirt over our t-shirts because it was cold that night, used the free brochures with the TDK bag wrapped around them as our pillow, and tried to go to sleep close to each other to minimize heat loss from our body because of the cold wind from the Mediterranean Sea. As I looked at the very low skyline of the city and the traffic (we still saw a significant number of people at 1 AM in Barcelona. People in Spain eat very late and party late.), I thought about the apostles sleeping under the stars and Jesus as their rest (Matthew 11:28).
I thought I was going to have a hard time sleeping because I was sleeping on hard cement and I could feel my back chilled by the cement. I had to pull my arms into the t-shirt so that they would not be exposed to the cold wind. It was 30 minutes and I still could not sleep. At around 6 AM, Michael was yelling and pushing me to wake up. He told me that I had been dead asleep and that it took him a long time to wake me up. I am usually a light sleeper but I must have been very tired.
Michael and I walked to a breakfast place and we decided that we were not going immediately to the hostel where we left our backpacks. I was leaving for Paris on an evening flight and Michael had to stay another night in Barcelona but he had no hotel reservations. We explored the hill site of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics (the main stadium has been converted into a soccer field. It looks small compared to what was on TV.). Later, we went to the tourism office to see if they could help Michael find a hotel for his last night. Luckily, they did and we went back to the hostel to retrieve our backpacks. I spent an hour at Michael's hotel before boarding the plane to Paris that evening.
I arrived in the city of Beauvais, France (1 hour and 30 minutes away from Paris by shuttle bus) because I flew on budget airline RyanAir which keeps it costs down by using obscure airports. Earlier in the day, I had booked a hotel reservation in Beauvais because I did not want to have another homeless experience. After the public bus dropped me off at the hotel at around 10 PM, I noticed that the reception room was dark and empty and locked. There was this device box next to the entrance for customers to enter the confirmation number they received online and the device box would spit out a key card for you to gain access to your hotel room.
I entered the confirmation number I received online but the device box said invalid number. I did it again; the same result. The other option was your last name so I tried that also but it said no such name. I did it again but the same result. I was getting frustrated and started to curse the French for their laziness or their inferior technology. Why not have someone at the reception desk very late at night like US hotels do?
There was a nearby hotel but it was the same setup. I was on the outskirts of Beauvais so I knew I was far away from places. Looks like I will have to go homeless again. I locked my backpack to a pole with my cable lock and used some of my clothes as a pillow. I was pretty tired and figured that if I had no difficulty in sleeping on the rocky pier the other night in Barcelona, I would be able to sleep on the concrete.
About 30 minutes into my sleep, I was awakened by this security guard. I showed him my reservation for the hotel. He put a key in the device box and swung the box open. Inside were many key cards and receipts and one of them was mine. The guard did not speak English so I could not complain to him. The key card was already programmed and had been rubber banded with other cards of people arriving late.
The bathroom was the smallest bathroom I have ever seen in my life, everything inside it was plastic. They saved space by having the bed on top of a sofa. When I woke up the next morning, I hit my head against the ceiling. I started cursing the French again.
My opinion of the French changed as I was captivated by the beauty and grandeur of the architecture of Paris and the exquisite French cuisine. I was in Paris for 1 day before heading off to Stockholm, Sweden. That night I met a young Canadian man in a hostel. He told me that he searched everywhere in Barcelona for lodging the night before. He told me he ended up sleeping on the beach in Barcelona. I smiled and said, "I know exactly how you feel."
Which is the better temple: the famous Barcelona Temple of the Sacred Family or Us?
Besides the homeless experience in Barcelona with Michael, I remembered Barcelona for its wealth of unique, eccentric, and artistic buildings that set it apart from other European cities that I have visited. One of my favorites is the Temple of the Sacred Family or Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia by Antonio Gaudi. During the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, they kept showing the Sagrada Familia again and again that I associated Barcelona with the Sagrada Familia. I cannot describe it in words as it is so vastly different from the other churches and cathedrals in Europe.
On one side of the Sagrada Familia, you have a depiction of the birth of Christ. All the figures or statues are somewhat carved in a boxy style. On the other side of the Sagrada Familia, you have a depiction of the passion or death of Christ. Above the crucified Christ statue is a dove ascending into heaven. I know that the dove is supposed to portray that "the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." (1 Corinthians 15:45). There is no way to physically portray the Spirit. Furthermore, the life-giving Spirit has a purpose and that is to come into man. Romans 8:11 says, "And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you." It would be hard to depict this in a sculpture or painting.
In my honest opinion, I think the Sagrada Familia is the second best temple I have ever seen with my eyes. The best temple ever is man and God created him in His image. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"
The Mad Hostel, Marijuana Making, and Google
I had no fellowship with the brothers in the church in Madrid for my first 4 days in Madrid as I was still waiting for a contact person in my email. I stayed at the Mad Hostel (very clean and technology driven hostel which I booked through hostels.com) and met some interesting people, 2 of whom are disregarding their body as the temple of God.
When I first met Mark and Peter, they were telling me that their names are like the Mark and Peter who were the disciples of Jesus. They are young men from Slovenia who are studying in Spain. They look normal on the outside: clean shaven, very muscular, funny personalities, good English speaking, and very social. They were surprised that I knew the capital of Slovenia as well as some other facts and that I knew one person from Slovenia who worked at my former workplace. Mark and Peter asked me to help them roll this pile of brownish stuff into a cylinder using a piece of transparent paper. One of them was telling the other as he failed to do the rolling, "You got to have steady hands to do this."
They asked me to help and I asked them what that stuff was. They told me it was marijuana nonchalantly and that they got it from the streets of Madrid. They told me that police do not look at this seriously. I was telling them that this stuff is illegal in the US and I kind of threw my body in front of the marijuana to block the view from the door.
I told Mark and Peter, "I don't do this stuff. I am a Christian and this is against my values." They told me that they do not drink or smoke and that they are doing well in school. They were telling me that marijuana is not that dangerous and that they were going to Morocco after Madrid to buy some hash in the desert (if you are caught with hash in a Moroccan airport, you will be put in jail and maybe death.) These two guys also experimented with spraying vinegar on their bodies in the shower and said that vinegar keeps them dry throughout the day. The amount of amazing trash you find on the Internet.
I told Mark and Peter to be careful when they left Madrid for Morocco. They left me a present and it was not marijuana. It was a big wooden capital G that reached up to my waist. They were at a Google seminar on mapping and Google gave them nice big radio controlled helicopters and at the end of the seminar, some of the participants took home the letters from the "Google" sign.
I used the big G for hanging my clothes, for sitting while I read, and for weightlifting. I thought about taking it with me over Europe but realized that I would look goofy so I threw it away. I realize that Mark and Peter must have some questions about life and were searching for things to satisfy them. Apparently they are very smart to have been invited by Google but their searches to satisfy their thirst in life have led them to some dangerous stuff. I pray that they will search the Scriptures instead to find what it is that they are thirsting for.
The church in Madrid
My search for contacts of brothers in Madrid finally ended when I received an email. I spoke with the brother but he only spoke Spanish. Luckily, the Spanish I learned in South America helped me communicate with him. When I was searching for the building of the church in Madrid, I got lost because the streets in Madrid are not in a grid pattern. I ran into an Internet café and used Google Earth which has detailed maps of Madrid. I had a nice conversation with the owner who was Indian.
When I got to the church building, I was wondering which door it was as the church in Madrid does not fellowship in a grand looking cathedral. I was able to figure out which door when I heard the brothers and sisters calling on the name of the Lord, "Oh, Lord Jesus!" really loud (1 Corinthians 1:2).
Over the next and last 3 days in Madrid, I had a chance to know these brothers and sisters through praying with them, watching brothers give messages at conferences on TV, Bible studies, meals at restaurants and coffee shop, and spending a lot of time at the home of the Cruz family where I got a chance to know the children well. The majority of the brothers and sisters in the church in Madrid that I met on the Lord's Table (there were about 25-30) are from South American countries like Colombia and Peru and some from Mexico and Puerto Rico. There was one sister from Taiwan who was getting her masters degree in Spanish at a local university. You see a lot of immigrants from Spain's former colonies in the metro train stations and a lot of them work in restaurants, hotels, and other manual labor intensive jobs. The Mad Hostel where I stayed was near a lot of shops owned by Chinese immigrants and a lot of different ethnic restaurants.
One of the brothers I met was born in Colombia but has lived in the US for a long time also that he speaks perfect English. Brother Francisco moved to Madrid and started work cleaning different houses. He asked the Lord why He gave him such a lowly position. It was his typical attitude but one day, he realized that he should have an attitude of caring for what is on God's heart and not what he wants. He changed his attitude and decided to serve the Lord. Mark 10:45 says, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many."
Eventually, one of Francisco's clients told him about a position in a Madrid company that does marketing to South American consumers. Brother Francisco got the position and will be staying much longer in Spain.
Brother Francisco has a vision of how important the country of Spain is on the Lord's heart. He was telling the brothers and sisters that the apostle Paul desired in Romans 15:24 to go to Spain but he never make it. Paul might have considered Spain to be the uttermost part of the earth at that time. Brother Francisco feels that the Lord needs to move to the uttermost part of the earth too and that Christians can help with that move and eventually, hasten the Lord's return. Brother Francisco loves to point out that Spain along with a few select countries are the only ones mentioned in the Bible.
Brother Francisco was the one I talked about in my email about Switzerland. He invited me to go to Lausanne, Switzerland with him and I decided on the whim to go there with him.
Should you go to Spain and bull fights?
Whether you go to Spain because the Bible mentions the country or you go there to learn Spanish and take in the culture and sights, I believe you will enjoy the visit. You may want to learn some Spanish as I found the majority of Spaniards did not speak English. Furthermore, the people in Barcelona and the Catalonia region speak Catalan which sounded like a cross between Spanish and French. Spain is also a very diverse country in terms of geography as I found out when I took the train from Madrid to Barcelona.
One event that I enjoyed in Madrid is bull fighting in the Las Ventas bullring stadium. Bull fighting is not for everyone though, especially those who like animals. The bull dies a very slow and painful death. It comes out into the ring with much rigor, so much that when its horns slam against the walls of the ring, you heard this loud thunderous noise above the noise of the crowd. Immediately, the bull is attacked by this man (picador) with 2 long spears riding on a horse. If you ask me, I think the horses are the stars of the ring. They can evade the charging bull by running sideways sometimes and they will do this trick where the horse dances around in a 360 degree turn while running away from the bull. After the rider plunges the 2 long spears into the neck of the bull, he goes out of the ring to get more. These horseless matadors then come in with their big colorful red sheets and seduce the bull to run at the red sheet. Blood continues to come out of the bull's neck. After the matador is done, the picador in the horse comes back into the ring with more spears. After 6-8 spears in the bull's neck, you can tell the bull is about to die pretty soon. The picador gets off his horse, about 4-5 matadors all surround the bull, and the picador gets very close to the head of the bull and finally, plunges a dagger into the head. The 3 different horses used by the picador come back into the ring and pull away the dead bull which has a chain hooked to a neck bracelet. A man holds a sign with some info about the bull. I imagine that bull is going to be turned into someone's dinner that night. There have been deaths of men in the past. The stadium air was filled with the gasps of the audience that evening but no man suffered death or injury.
If bull fighting turns you off, watching soccer might be a better option. A lot of restaurants have TVs. Order a plate of olives to look like you are one of the locals and top it off with a sandwich made of jamon (ham), chorizos (spicy pork), morcilla (black pudding), or others. I found out that these sandwiches almost always include fries as a side. Cheer for your favorite soccer team and don't be surprised to see a lot of people smoking. What really surprised me was the amount of napkins thrown on the floor and never picked up. People must be too focused on the game.
If sports is not your thing and you prefer something calmer like me, try the Museo del Prado and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia where Picasso's famous Guernica painting is located. These two art museums are free on certain days so it will help you lessen the pain of the dollar losing its value against the euro. I find Spain and Germany to be 2 of the cheaper countries in western Europe. I took an art history class at Northwestern University and it was unbelievable to see so many paintings I have learned about all in these 2 museums.
The other places that I enjoyed and recommend include the Parque del Retiro (Retiro Park) and the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). The Retiro is a gigantic park that hosts numerous events such as the 200+ book stalls at the book fair in early June. It also has a large lake with canoes to rent. The Royal Palace was like any other palace in Europe except that I was blown away by the Real Ameria (Royal Amory) adjacent to it. The Royal Amory was the biggest collection of medieval weapons and amour I have ever seen. No wonder the Spanish conquistadores conquered so much land in the Americas and elsewhere.
If you want your own sword or amour, your best bet is to take a high speed train to the town of Toledo which is 70 km away from Madrid. The train trip took about 40 minutes. The town sits on a bluff above a river and is walled. This town was made famous by a gloomy painting by El Greco who lived here for a while. Toledo used to be the capital of the Visigoths who were the ones to sack Rome when Rome was besieged by barbarians. This town produced some of the finest swords and amour in Europe back in the Medieval Age and you can buy yourself one in the many shops. I discovered the alleyway streets of this town to be steep and winding and paved with cobblestone but easy to navigate even without a map.
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