Barcelona

The travel group got changed up a little bit the next weekend as Elise was traveling around with her sister. Robert and I found ourselves with a great opportunity to travel east to the Mediterranean coast to Barcelona.

Barcelona hosted the 1992 summer Olympics and reminds me of the Chicago to Madrid's New York. I'm not sure how accurate that is (and frankly, I've never been to Chicago), but it does seem to be Spain's second city. Not wanting to waste much time (or money), Bob and I went to the bus station in Madrid at midnight and took an 8-hour, overnight bus to Barcelona. I slept more than I thought (probably about 5 hours or so), but I was still antsy by the time we pulled up to the station. Another city brought us to yet another language (I know, me too. I thought everyone in Spain spoke Spanish...but Barcelona is in a region that speaks Catalan). Yet again, it sounded nothing like Spanish, but that was also sort of refreshing after only hearing Spanish for several weeks.

Significantly cooler than the mid-70s temperatures that we've had in Madrid, Barcelona looks pretty similar to the capital city that we've been living in. Getting off the Metro, we walked down Las Ramblas (a tree-lined street that seems to be Barcelona's Main Street) toward our hostel. We dropped our bags there, headed for breakfast and to see the Cathedral. Fortunately, it was a gorgeous cathedral, but unfortunately, I had hit a point that many European travelers hit -- Toomanycathedralsintoolittletime-osis. On our walk from there, we passed Barcelona's Arc de Triomphe and went to the Picasso Museum. I don't know much about Picasso other than he's famous for cubism, so it was fun to see his earlier works and his development over the years. Bob and I ate lunch at one of the piers (Barcelona is right on the sea...gorgeous beach) and then headed for a walk in the sand. The weather had warmed up, so we took full advantage of some sun on our shoulders and the opportunity to get some sand between our toes. After a nap at the hostel, we then hiked up a hill to a castle that overlooks the city. Gorgeous view followed by some Turkish food and a solid conversation and it was soon bedtime.

Saturday morning, we woke up to breakfast in the hostel and immediately headed to the sole reason I wanted to visit Barcelona -- La Sagrada Familia (Church of the Sacred Family). Designed by Antonin Gaudi, construction begun in the late 1800s and it is nowhere near being finished. It is the most bizarre building I have ever seen, but also has a very unique beauty to it. The tallest tower is just being begun, there are two facades done (the Passion and the Nativity), the inside is designed to look like you are seated in the shade of a forest. It is a marvel of design, architecture, and engineering. One of the coolest things I've ever seen...if you ever have the chance, do it! From there, we went on a long uphill walk to more of Gaudi's crazy architecture...we found another great overlook of the city and what looked like a Disney-inspired funpark by Gaudi. Crazy, but very cool. After that, we went to see a several hundred year-old church and walked in on a wedding! Check out the picture, but as soon as we walked up to the door of the church, it swung open and out popped the bride and groom. I shouted and cheered for them as I was busy snapping pictures and being pelted with rice and flowers from the wedding crowd (I had to dump rice out of my shoes afterwards!). From there, we hung out one more time around the yachts on the water (I've realized this semester how much I love being near water...lakes, ponds, oceans, fountains...it all works) and then headed to a Pakistani dinner to remind Robert of where he spent his summer and everything he ate.

Early to bed for a very early flight back to Madrid, then airport, and right on back to our beds for a much-needed nap! It was a blast to go to Barcelona (and I'd highly recommend it if you're in Europe), but I think I picked the right Spanish city for this semester!

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