Barcelona

Other than my flight mishaps, Barcelona was amazing and wonderful and absolutely great!

We got in Thursday evening and adjusted to the Spanish way of living--places weren't open for dinner until 9! Our hostel was really interesting, it very much reminded me of a dorm: bright, colorful, and filled with kids. We walked into our room to find four beds--bunk beds. We didn't get any other roommates while we were there, and we found out that the top bunks folded up into the wall. We went to a nearby restaurant and tried Spanish sangria with our meal, it was delicious!

Up and at em early Friday morning, we left the hostel after breakfast and took the metro to Las Ramblas. We strolled up and down the big boulevard (I thought it was bigger back in the day, go figure) and watched the street performers, peeked into stores, and didn't get pick pocketed this time. We found a market on Las Ramblas called Mercat de Sant Josep and we strolled through it. It was a big open aired market filled with fresh food and full of people! The Spanish candy stands were the most fun to look at with the marscapone fruits and figures, they were too pretty to eat! But there was everything you could ever want in that market from fish right out of the sea, meats, vegetables and fruits, nuts, etc. I have to live in a place that has that kind of market, it's so full of the culture! I seriously could've spent all day there people watching and strolling up and down those aisles. But Sam was itching to get to the beach, so we kept going down Las Ramblas and walked straight into Port Vell. We watched the giant fish below the boats weaving around, there was a retractable bridge that we were waiting to cross to make it to the other side of the port and we picked out boats we liked and didn't liked (I was a big fan of the pirate looking ones or ones with dogs on them...Sam was picking them out for more sailor-ish reasons like the sails or their potential speed). We wound up on the other edge of the bridge and in a shopping mall where Sam was looking at soccer jerseys (really expensive) and where we could warm up. In the center of the mall was a giant defecating Santa, and I was shocked and confused. How sick were the Catalyonians? Sam explained to me that they have a fascination with that stuff for Christmas, and we walked around this 20-foot Christmas decoration looking for an English or Spanish explanation. Turns out, it's supposed to be a symbol of new life and that it works as a fertilizer and is supposed to bring the Spanish a bountiful new year. Well that's nice and all, but it's still pretty unusual.

We continued strolling along the port and we going to embark on a walk suggested by the guidebook Sam brought. We were by the aquarium, walked past a church called Maria di Pi, Mary of the Pine, and admired the Gothic architecture. We stopped in a place for lunch were I got my paella fixing and Sam sampled some calamari. It was a beautiful weekend in Barcelona, but not beautiful enough to leave our coats at home, so we ran back to the hostel to grab jackets, and then walked to the beach from our hostel along another tree-lined Ramblas (which I think just means Avenue or Boulevard) to the beach for sunset. We made it to La Sagrada Familia, the crazy church that's been under construction for over 150 years, just before the sun finally went down, and I explained to Sam that there were four different architects for the church, each who designed a different side of the facade, including Gaudi. The pope recently consecrated Sagrada Familia, about a month ago Anna called Hannah and I in to watch it on TV with her. But the church still looks like it's under some major construction! From 4-7, the city takes a major siesta, so we went back to the hostel to siesta too since everything was closed down.


Saturday morning started off with a bang like Friday, and we began our morning at Park Guell, Gaudi's park. We spent a significant amount of time hiking around, and saw every nook and cranny in the park. Before when I'd been to Barcelona, we'd spent maybe a total of an hour there both times and saw the same things, but I saw and discovered parts of the park I never knew existed! We toured the one house that was built by Gaudi (it's pink! I never knew that was a possibility!) and it was like something out of Toon Town at Disneyland, very funky. We climbed to the top of a tall hill, the tallest part of the park, and admired the view of the city and port from where we were. After walking and talking and enjoy each others' company, we made our way through the park, heading to the Museum of Catalyan History, which was on the opposite end of the very big city. But we wanted to walk and see what we would see along the way. We stopped in a small local cafe for lunch where we sampled different tapas and chorizo bocadillas--delicious. We walked down a beautiful promenade (another Rambla!) for a while, until we spotted the Spanish version of the Arc di Triomf (how they spell it in Catalyan). Straight down past the pretty palm-tree lined Rambla was the Barri Gotic where the "Castle Park" was, which is home to many things, including the Barcelonaean zoo! Walking through the park, we watched the local university students perform magic tricks, teach yoga, play hoola hoop all on the grassy areas of the park. I really liked the park, and Sam and I enjoyed the sunshine in the late afternoon for a while there. We kept trekking on, and wound up at the beach for sunset again! This time we were near a more commercial area, where someone at our hostel said all the clubs are lit up at night, rather than the residential area we were in yesterday. We watched the sunset and the people walking dogs on the beach.

We did find that the language spoken was Catalonyan, not Spanish, but Sam and I's high school Spanish got us by (ok, so really his high school Spanish got us by and my slow recollection of high school Spanish helped just a little). We returned to the hostel and cleaned up for dinner, and sampled empenadas and meat tart cookie of some sort (Sam thought it was a strawberry jam when he ordered it, not a meat...but it was yummy in a really unique way) and dulce de leche cookies packed with delicious carmel.

Sunday's check out time was 10:30, so after a quick breakfast and clean up, we checked out but locked our luggage in storage units provided by the hostel, and spent the morning walking around the area of the city by our hostel. We headed towards this large office building that lights up at night, walked around the shopping center there (nothing was open even though it was after 11), meandered by a peewee league soccer game and watched the really intense 6 year old soccer players (they were really good!), discovered some Roman-looking ruins (I could totally be making that up, but it definitely looked like a Roman aqueduct), and sampled some pastries from a local cafe. After spending a leisurely morning out and about, we grabbed our things, hopped on the metro towards the airport, and waited patiently for our flights. We said our last goodbyes for the semester, and wished each other good luck on finals. 

I'm so lucky I had Sam to travel with all semester, he was such a great travel companion and our adventures and time together just keeps getting better and better! Talk about continued adventures!