My FGC Adventures

Title Explanation: Usually I always take the Metro everywhere, which is the underground network provided by the city of Barcelona, and stays within Zone 1 of the city. But to get to Collserola I needed to take the FGC out to the very edge of Zone 1, so I did. It lead to these many adventures:

I took the FGC to the main office for Parc de Collserola, where I discovered a mini-museum devoted to the park, and how it helps with the environment and provides leisure area for Barcelona, and all the small cities around the mountain chain. All of it was in Catalan, so I couldn't read a lot of it, but I ended up asking the worker at the desk if she had a map, and she answered me in Spanish, and then gave me a Spanish map and walking guide, and also an English guide. She could just automatically tell from my non-Spanish accent. Oh well, at least I try and use Spanish and not revert to English! I then headed out and tried a trail to the dam.

The first hike ended up being a miserable failure of trying to stick to the path, so I gave up, and caught the local bus del barri to the train station again. From there I went out to see the "Fountain" trail, which consisted of a bunch of places where headwaters were contained for purity and you could drink out of them. Pretty cool. It also had a little bit of history, and a strange slab garden, which was very ominous and reflective.

I also learned at the park center that they manage the forests via burning, which is very interesting, and explains the strange single trees that are taller then the rest with only crowns. I hiked around to the town of Vallvidrera, where I caught a funicular down to the FGC. Yet, instead of taking the FGC all the way back, I transferred to a line that goes up Tibidabo. From the FGC L9 I took the nostalgic "Tramvia Blau" up to the top, where I descended into a park again to chill out for a bit.

After collecting my thoughts for a bit, I moved on, to home. I had some ideas during the day, and thought long and hard about many deep subjects in life. It was that kind of day. I wondered what the role of the city was, what the role of the country was, where the middle was, and the circumstances that have created this huge, beautiful, terrifying experience. In the end I was a significant part of a huge whole, but a huge whole with many small delightful parts. So the question is now... Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts, or are the sum of the parts greater than the whole? I guess it depends on who you ask.

-Nick Ford