This past Easter/Passover weekend my friends and I went to Barcelona, Spain. Maddy and Lauren had a good friend of theirs there who they stayed with and I stayed in the Barcelona Dream hostel with our mutual friend Danielle who's in our program. We met up with Maddy and Lauren often, but that was our somewhat confusing staying arrangement.
Our flight on Friday was right in the middle of the afternoon and was a bit pricey considering how touristy Barcelona is during Easter weekend, but it was well worth it. By the time we got to Barcelona, took the AeroBus from the airport into the city and took the underground from there to our hostel, it was somewhat late. We got acquainted with our temporary roommates and explored the beach, which was only 10 minutes from our hostel. Our first glimpse of Barcelona was already beautiful. We did our best to get acclimated to Spanish culture and ate a late dinner.
Spain is never a country I could live in because of their very different culture. I applaud them for having it all figured out as theirs probably makes more sense than ours does, but it was weird to me. It's Spanish culture to nap or relax, called siesta, from about 2-4 in the afternoon after having their biggest meal of the day. Therefore, none of the restaurants for dinner open until 9:00 PM, at the earliest! The nightlife in Spain is insane, not that I took much advantage of it, so the Spanish stay up all night drinking and socializing and the whole thing starts over again. It is a very interesting culture that was cool to take part in, but nothing I could do forever.
On Saturday, Danielle and I did our own thing and met up with the other girls later. We decided to take advantage of a free tour the hostel offers at noon, so we awoke early (for Spain) and immediately went to find the Museo Picasso, which is a huge attraction in Barcelona featuring a huge amount of Picasso's work. It was pretty cool. A little overpriced (6 euro for students), but it was cool to see all of his older stuff besides just the cubism stuff. The line was super long since we were there right when the museum opened and people were lined up for it.
We then took a walking tour, which started at the sketchy Travel Bar in Barcelona, which was basically for American tourists. The tour was actually pretty good for being free. The lady showed us the main cathedral in Barcelona, but also a lot of older stuff that was hidden that I don't think I would have gotten to on my own. She even outlined the history of the Jews in Barcelona (who were kicked out or forced to convert for some reason) during Columbus' time. Youth hostels and tours like these try to be very inclusive in trying for get people to know one another, which me and my friends aren't too big on, but there were a lot of other American students like us who were nice.
We had our first taste of tapas on the boardwalk near the beach and they were delicious. The best calamari I've had so far (although this was only the second time I'd ever had it). Tapas are little appetizers that are delicious. I could eat them all the time. We sat outside and enjoyed the sunlight before it started drizzling on and off for the afternoon.
Everyone describes Barcelona as having the nicest weather all the time. They say it never rains there. They lied. It rained off and on all day Saturday and Sunday, but more on Sunday. Monday was beautiful, but the rain was a bit frustrating over the weekend.
We walked up and down Las Ramblas which is a huge market street. There is also a food market there that has every single type of food you could think of. The market was really cool. I could have bought more than a few postcards and cheap pair of earrings, but I settled on just those items.
Barcelona was a really beautiful city because, like Paris, wherever you go is another piece of beautiful architecture or cool building that you have to take a picture of. Everything was just so pretty despite the relentless rain or gloom of the day.
After Las Ramblas, we explored a Gaudi (a Spanish artist whose art is all over the city--in the parks, on buildings, on streets, everywhere) Museum, which was really cool. We then met up with Maddy, Lauren and their friend Catherine who took us to the "magic fountain."
We weren't sure what the Magic Fountain was, but it really was magical. It's basically this huge series of fountains that lead up to the huge Catalonia art museum. On Friday and Saturday nights they have a water and light show for free, so we hung around there and watched the show. We also walked up to Olympic Park, which was right near there. The Olympics were in Barcelona in 1992 and apparently really put Barcelona on the map as a tourist destination because of all the renovation done and showcase that Barcelona was.
We then ate a very traditional Catalonian meal--Catalonia is where Barcelona is. Locals will refer to Barcelona as in Catalonia before they refer to it as in Spain. It's just a section in Northwest Spain, with a rich history in itself. Our Spanish meal consisted of sangria (which was good, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would) and paella. Paella is basically rice with seafood and some sort of sauce. I'm not huge on seafood, so I ate around that part, but the dish was delicious. I was happy that Catherine knew where many local, traditional Spanish restaurants were, since I often feel caught in a tourist trap while eating in European cities.
We had seen most of the cites that Saturday, so Sunday we decided to fill in the gaps. We were not sure what to expect since it was Easter and we were told numerous times by Catherine that the city tends to completely "shut down" on most Sundays. However, to our pleasant surprise, many restaurants were open and most museums were open in the mornings, so we, and Catherine, were surprised by this unexpected day.
Anyway, we started by looking at Sagrada Familia, which is a HUGE cathedral that's just massive with some pretty parts. We then were brave and took the long, uphill hike to Parc Guell, which is the most unique, coolest park I've ever been to. It showcases much of Guadi's mosaics, but in general is a park like no other. It had palm trees and another type of haunting trees all around. I really can't even attempt to explain the architecture of the rest, but I will post Facebook pictures soon with the park and what it looks like. It was definitely a highlight of the trip.
We found a little restaurant that kind of looked and felt like an American diner with very authentic, cheap and delicious Spanish food. I had a ham sandwich (Spain has the best ham I've ever had) with tortilla Espana, which was a favorite tapas of mine before coming to Spain and still is. It's basically a mix of egg and potatoes with a few onions, but doesn't really taste like that, but I love it. I think had to have a traditional Spanish dessert--flan. It, however, was not what I expected. It didn't look or taste like flan I had eaten in America, but was served more like bread pudding, and was delicious and filling nonetheless.
We walked, again, to Passeig de Gracia, which is not only a very fancy shopping street (Chanel, Valentino, Gucci, you name it, it was there), but also had Guadi's famous apartment buildings. We looked at both of them from the outside, but didn't go in because of the long lines and rain. There were beautiful. They're kind of a landmark in Barcelona and they were breathtaking and gorgeous.
Then then met up with Maddy, Lauren and Catherine and went to a cafe for dinner near Catherine's flat before heading back to the hostel.
We were relieved to wake up to a bright and sunny Monday. Everyone was still off from work and school and some things were still closed, so it was still holiday for us. Danielle and I started by going to another, slightly less exciting park in the morning. The Arc de Triomf was there too. I know, that's in Paris! But Arc de Triomphs seem to be copied in a lot of European cities I've been to, including Barcelona. Anyway, we walked around the park, which was much more traditional that Parc Guell, but had beautiful buildings and blooming flowers.
We met the rest of the group after that to go a tapas place that Catherine loved. It could not have been more perfect--it was off a side street in an older-looking plaza where we sat outside. Catherine and I got the "brunch." Since everything was just in Spanish at most places (and my high school Spanish failed me the majority of the time) we got used to just pointing to things that we only half knew what they were and most of the time ended up loving it. It worked out rather nicely. I figured I liked breakfast food, so what could go wrong? It was great. It was a spread of food items--bread, ham, some other meat, two types of cheeses, fresh Spanish fruit and condiments in the form of butter and jam. All sandwiches in Spain come with some sort of tomato spread on them. In England, butter is automatically put on all sandwiches, tomatoes in Spain, so every place is different! The spread also came with a side of potatas bravas, which is by far my favorite tapas dish--spicy potatoes with tomato sauce and mayonnaise. I know it sounds gross, but it's really delicious once you mix it all together.
In other words, I'm officially a fan of Spanish food.
We then walked down Las Ramblas to the port and beach area. I've never seen so many boats at one time. You could tell that the beach was touristy and was packed. Although we had none of the right clothes, we found a cozy spot on the sand and pulled out our books and enjoyed every moment of the beautiful day and water. We walked down the beach and saw so many beautiful views. I even managed to get a little sun. It was a great afternoon.
By then the day was nearly over and we went back to Catherine's apartment and watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona just because now we could name all the sights we saw in the film, much to our great pleasure. We went back to the place from an early evening where I picked another tapas dish I didn't know anything about--ham crouquettes. They were pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of not knowing what you're ordering, but it worked for me in Spain.
Today was a sad day. An especially warm day in Barcelona when we packed our bags in the morning and left for our tedious journey back to London. Although we booked our plane through British Airways, we were on an Iberian flight, which did not give any food or beverage. The flight was also delayed because of waiting for food that you have to pay for. We had never had a flight delayed before, so we weren't happy. We made it back to London where border control seems to be getting stricter every time we get back from another trip.
Now back in London with only two weeks left in Europe now. I'm glad to not be going anywhere these last weeks as I've prepared my final list of stuff to do, buy and eat in London. Class and work are also finishing soon and I will be sad to say goodbye to my coworkers. Hope everyone else had a good holiday weekend. Be blogging more soon!
