While speaking in Spanish was one highlight of the trip, I also enjoyed the city so much! Barcelona is an amazing place, though it is very touristy. We left late on Friday night (10:30pm) and took and over night, 8 hour bus to Barcelona. Since I unfortunately have a hard time falling asleep in cars/buses/planes it made for a long night and next day. We got to Barcelona around 6:30am and didn't quite know what to do, since in Spain nothing opens before 9am. We sat around in the bus station until the sun came up, found a map and then walked over to our hostel. We spent most of our first day wandering through Las Ramblas, a really long street full of vendors and stores. We went to Barcelona's famous market called "Mercat de Boqueria". I tried marzipan for the first time, and I'm not much of a fan. After that we continued down Las Ramblas towards port, stopping to see a monument to Christopher Columbus and the plaza on the way. We got to port and started walking down the bridge/board walk thing. Ever since I got there I had been keeping my eyes open just in case I spotted my roommate and friend from MU, Sarah. I knew she was going to be there but didn't expect to run into each other since Barcelona is a huge city. However, as we were walking across the bridge, we walked right past each other. After freaking out a little bit about running into each other, and catching up quickly we went our separate ways! Even though we only caught up for ten minutes, it was so nice to see Sarah, since I hadn't seen here since the end of last semester. Alexis, Alyssa and I continued on our way by visiting the cathedral, the beach and grabbing dinner. We went to bed super early since we were all worn out from a day of walking around after getting little sleep.
Sunday, day two, we got up and headed over to La Sagrada Familia, a basilica built and designed by Gaudí. Though it was expensive to enter, 13 euro, we decided we couldn't not go inside. I am so glad we did! The inside of this basilica was like nothing I had ever seen before! It was absolutely breathtaking. We got to take and elevator up to the top of the Cathedral also. The views were spectacular. It's hard to believe that construction on the Basilica began in 1882 and isn't scheduled to be completed until 2026! It's truly a piece of artwork! After that we wandered back towards historic Barcelona, coming across a beautiful park along the way. After eating our bocadillos (sandwiches) we just had to stop off at the chocolate museum! After that we hit up the Picasso Museum and then the Gothic Quarters. We decided that we wanted to make our way out to see the 1992 summer Olympic Stadium, so that's what we did. It was cool to be standing in the place where such a world wide event had happened.
Since we were taking yet another night bus home, we had some time to waste before we had to go to the bus station. We wandered down a street near our hotel, and it ended up being the street with two more buildings designed by Gaudi on it. It also was the street where all the ritzy stores like Chanel were located. After dinner, we grabbed our things, walked to the bus station and headed home. We arrived back in Madrid at 5:45am. I had it lucky though since the metro stop where the bus station was, was the metro closest to my piso. All I had to do was walk home and crash while the other girls had to wait for the metro and travel home.
Overall, it was a great last weekend trip of my semester here in Spain! I'm getting really excited to show my Dad around Spain in a week, and for Christmas (all the decorations are now up in Madrid)! I come home three weeks from tomorrow, and I'm not sure if I'm ready yet. I love Madrid. However, during these next three weeks I have at least one paper and one test (on top of daily homework) in every single one of my classes so I can't wait for that part to be over! I'll see you all so soon!
Port in Barcelona!
La Sagrada Familia
Inside La Sagrada Familia
More architecture by Gaudi
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