I love Barcelona!! I never had any intention of going to Spain, but I found some cheap tickets, so Jess and I decided to go…it was fantastic! We left early Saturday morning (and I mean EARLY- I woke up at 1:30 am-earlier than my normal bedtime!), flew out of Bergamo airport. While we were waiting to board our flight, we met a nice guy from Milan named Alex. We told him that we are headed to Dublin next week, and wouldn’t stop talking about all the things we should do there! We also met another guy named Maurizio on the plane, who lived in Barcelona for two years. Luckily he was able to help us find a bus to Barcelona (we flew into Girona) and helped us find the metro once we got into the city. The drive in (at least what I saw of it) was beautiful, as is the entire city.
Jess and I headed over to our hostel right away (Alberg Barcelona Parre Terres) which was really nice-new and clean and friendly staff. We then found a little restaurant down the street to have lunch-delicious! We then went downtown to wander around, starting on La Rambla, Barcelona’s main drag. There were tons of little shops and street performers. We stopped to watch some guys doing gymnastics/human pyramid stunts (which apparently Barcelona is famous for) –they were quite impressive. After awhile, they started trying to get money from the crowd, so we left and wandered down to the port. There is a huge statue of Christopher Columbus next to the beautiful yellow port house, right off of a palm tree-lined street. We continued on to a little bridge thing along the harbor, where there were a bunch of shops and restaurants. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, so we sat out on the bridge for awhile to people watch. We started to get a bit hungry, so we headed back to La Rambla to find a snack at El Mercado La Boqueria- so cool! It was like a huge farmer’s market-there were stalls with fruit, some with meat, some with fish, others with chocolate-all set up in a way that made them look like works of art, not food vendors. We saw every kind of meat, fish and fruit imaginable. In the end, we bought some fresh strawberries, a seven euro chocolate (so delicious-worth every penny!), and a cactus flower fruit (very pretty, but didn’t taste so good-mush with and aftertaste of green peppers). We took our food and ate it in a little plaza in the sun. We then decided to find the chocolate museum, stopping on the way to see the Arc de Trionf. The Arc was quite impressive, and there was a little plaza behind it surrounded by beautiful buildings and palm trees. After resting there for a bit, we continued on to the chocolate museum, which was actually quite disappointing. I thought there would be samples, but instead it was sculptures people had made out of chocolate. Some of them were quite intricate and kind of impressive, but it seemed like a waste to me to be using all that chocolate for something other than eating!
After being outside all day-and having gotten up at 1:30 am!- Jess and I were quite exhausted by this point, so we headed back to the hostel for a nap-it was quite possibly the best nap I have ever taken! We got up around 9 and set off-yet again- in search of some food. We tried to find a place that one of my friends had recommended, but instead wandered around lost in the beautiful, but confusing, maze of streets that is La Ribera area. Eventually, our hunger won out, and we stopped at a random tapas restaurant-it ended up being the best meal we had in Barcelona! We had 5 cold tapas and 5 hot tapas-all delicious. The cold ones were boquerones in vinegar (white anchovies-I was nervous to try them, but loved them!), tuna in a tomato, potatoes in some sort of delicious vinegary sauce, ham, and a summer salad. The hot ones were a Spanish omelet, two kinds of delicious Catalan sausage, a meat/veggie kebab, and something fried with cheese (best one by far, but we don’t know what it was! Jess calls it the mystery nug!). At about 12:30 we finished eating and wandered through the little cobblestone streets back to our hostel for some much needed sleep.
When we were getting breakfast the next morning, I ran into my friend Sarah! I knew she was going to be in Barcelona, but I had no idea she was at the same hostel! We talked for awhile, and then split up to go explore the city. Jess and I started our day by going to La Sagrada Familia, a huge cathedral designed by Gaudí that was started in the late 1800’s, is still under construction, and not scheduled to be finished until 2026. It was ridiculously impressive-it reminded me of a sandcastle. The façade that Gaudí worked on (the nativity scene) was so intricate and ornate, I just had to sit and stare at it for awhile. After admiring the cathedral, we decided to see some more Gaudí work and headed over to see La Casa Mila, which is an apartment building inspired by the sea. All of the walls are wavy and the balconies look like seaweed. We continued on to La Manzana, which is a street that has three clashing architectural styles right next to each other. One of the buildings is a Gaudí building, with lots of curves and colors and mosaics. The one next to it is Moorish, but was under construction, so we couldn’t see it. I don’t actually remember what the third one looked like….must not have been too impressive!
We then took a funicular up the side of a hill on the outskirts of the city, and then got in a cable car which took up to Castell de Montjuic on the top of the hill. The castle itself wasn’t took impressive, but the views were spectacular! We could see the Mediterranean and all of Barcelona (which is much bigger than I thought!) The castle was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. We sat on the wall of the castle for awhile and just looked out over the city, and then rode the cable car back down. We then sat in Parc de la Ciutadella for awhile, where there were a lot of cool trees and flowers and buildings-and lots of interesting people to watch! Then we went to the Picasso museum, where they have a lot of Picasso’s early works. It was interesting to see his planning process and how he evolved from an incredibly talented realist painter into the surrealist painter that he is famous for being. The special exhibit at the museum was Picasso’s private art collection, which included works by Cezanne, Renoir, Degas, and many other famous artists, and many of the works were personally addressed to Picasso. We had a quick bite to eat (delicious veal and pear stew for me!) and then headed back to see La Sagrada Familia at night. When we got back to the hostel, Sarah and her friends were there, so we sat and talked to them for awhile (we always have trouble getting together at home, but we got to hang out in Barcelona!) and then went to sleep so we could catch our 6 am Monday morning flight to be back in Milan in time for classes.
Sorry this has been so long, but I absolutely loved Barcelona-and the pictures I put up just don’t do it justice! The city had a different vibe than Milan- there was color, and funky art, and more relaxed people. We had some trouble communicating-the official language is Catalan, which seems to be a mix of Spanish and French, but most people also speak Spanish. Unfortunately, my eight years of Spanish seem to have been a waste, as I could not remember how to say a single thing-Italian kept popping into my head! I wasn’t too upset by this though, because it means that I am finally really learning Italian!!
