A short blurb about Barcelona: our trip here was the weekend before finals (followed by our amazing 10-day vacation in Italy). I’m currently typing this on a train to Milan, but don’t want to put this off any longer.
Hannah, Monica and I took an over night bus that left Burgos at 11:45 on Thursday night and arrived in Barcelona at 8:00 the next morning. We lugged our bags through the streets of Barcelona, until we made it to our hostel right in the middle of all of the Barcelona wonderfulness. The main street in Barcelona is La Rambla, large sidewalks full of street vendors, wonderful shopping and thousands of tourists. Our hostel was a block away from the action, so after setting down our belongings, we ventured out to La Rambla with no real destination in mind. First, we visited La Boqueria, a GIANT market full of fresh fruit, veggies, seafood, meats, nuts, anything you could imagine.
The colors and smells were wonderful (minus the fish), and we perused the entire place while drinking the freshest of fresh fruit smoothies. We left the market and walked aimlessly some more, before coming upon Gaudi’s Casa Battlo! (DREAM COME TRUE!) There’s not a straight line in the entire house and has elements inspired by the ocean and the human body. There are mosaics everywhere, inside, on the patio, on the rooftop. It’s BEAUTIFUL. We spent the rest of the day exploring the city, walking along the Mediterranean Sea.
The next day, we woke up early to go visit the Sagrada Familia, another Gaudi masterpiece. The line seemed long, but it went fast. The cathedral is huge, and open and bright, very different than the majority of the cathedrals in Spain. There are stained glass windows EVERYWHERE that change the entire feel of the church as the sun moves.
We even took an elevator to the top of one of the towers where you could see the entire city. After the cathedral, we made our way to the beach (rated one of the top 5 beaches in the world by the Discovery Channel). Hannah is a little mermaid, and spent hours in the water like a little girl. Monica and I layed out on the beach and made our way in when necessary. The water is sparkly, like someone throws a fresh batch of glitter in it every morning. When you leave the water, your skin has gold flecks all over it. After our afternoon at the beach, we walked down the entrance to a cable car that takes you to the top of Mountjuic (literally... Jew Mountain), where there’s a really old castle and the buildings where the 1992 Olympics were held. The cable car line was hot and sweaty, but it was well worth the amazing views. When we were waiting in line, we started talking to the girls behind us; fellow Midwesterners who now live in NYC and San Francisco. We rode the cable car up the mountain, only to realize that you had to pay for another cable car to get you ALL OF THE WAY up the hill. We said, “screw that” and began trekking up the mountain with our new friends. At the top, we taught them about “canas con limon”, Spain’s version of the summer shandy, and watched the sunset and had hours of conversation with these amazing girls! Afterwards, we found a metro train that took us back down to the main part of the city and turned in for the night.
The next day, we explored more Gaudi-ness: Casa Mila and Parc Guell. Casa Mila was kind of a disappointment after Casa Battlo because they wouldn’t let you see a lot of it. We caught a bus up to Parc Guell and spent hours exploring the Gaudi designed park that incorporated beautiful views, nature and amazing architecture. After spending the better part of an afternoon in the park, we headed back to the beach for an hour or two. Our last stop before heading home was the Picasso Museum. It’s free on Sundays, and the line reflected the price. It was well worth the wait though. We got to see the early works of Picasso as well as his many interpretations of Velazquez’s Las Meninas. We grabbed a quick dinner and headed to the bus station for an overnight bus home. We got back to Burgos at 6:45 on Monday morning and like good little students, made it to class right on time at 9:00.
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