We started off on Friday evening, at 10:30 pm. Meg, Marissa, and I loaded ourselves and our backpacks that we just as big as ourselves onto the bus, that in just eight hours transported us to Barcelona. Barcelona is located in the southern part of Spain, relatively close to the border of France and Spain. Therefore, they all speak Catalan, which is the red-headed child of the French and Spanish languages.
We began the day at the beach, trying to get some idea of the sunrise of Barcelona. However the sun does not rise in the direction we were hoping, so we passed the time eating a breakfast we had packed for ourselves. Then we headed to the hostel, dropped our stuff off in the luggage room, and headed to La Sagrada Familia.
Now, I am not going to speak for everybody, but La Sagrada Familia (this is that ultra-modern cathedral in Barcelona that you may have seen on one of the cycles of ANTM) was one of the most thrilling experiences I have had. We took the elevators to the rooftop and looked at the skyline and then the cathedral itself, and it was absolutely gorgeous. It is quite hard to put into words, as is the case for experiences like this, but to say the least, I will be floating on a cloud for a long time after going to La Sagrada Familia.
After our tour, we headed off towards our hostel, stopping in a park for a bit of lunch, that yes, we had packed as well. After freshening up at the hostel, we headed to the Picasso Museum, which was also wonderful. The museum itself was beautiful and things were well framed. In addition, all of the works were explained in a logical context, which is nice for science minded folks like Meg and me.
We hit up Las Ramblas and the boardwalk after that for a bit of a respite. Keep in mind we had been hittin it since like 7:30 on Friday morning, when we had to head to Friday classes.
As the sun set, we walked over to the Magic Fountain, which, I will say with a raised nose, is not as good as the Bellagio Hotel fountain. Yes, it was gorgeous, and probably the setting for the fountain itself was superior. However, the fountain mechanics themselves were not as good as the fountains at Bellagio. After that, we grabbed dinner and (tried) to find a little discoteca to dance at for a bit. However, Barcelona does not have the nightlife that we so take for granted here in Madrid. Things seem to die there. As our senora told us, nights in Barcelona are "just sad." I would have to agree with her on that.
We headed back to our hostel, Centric Point, relatively early for Spain. Although we were staying at a hostel, all of us got an amazing night's rest. Everybody in the hostel was extremely respectful of one another, and I would definitely return if I ever go back to Barcelona and can't afford a hotel. It was clean, nice, friendly, and actually very cool.
Sunday morning, after a breakfast at the hostel (which was provided, holla!), we walked to Park Guell, designed completely by Antoni Gaudi. I have a question for you all: Have you ever heard of Antoni Gaudi? No? Well, you definitely need to Google him or wiki him or whatever else you would do to look somebody up. He is an incredible, incredible architect and designer, basically laying the design based foundations of Barcelona. La Sagrada Familia, all of the modern architecture throughout Barcelona, and Park Guell, on top of heaps more of things were designed by this man. Though I am no architect, I definitely can appreciate his work and design.
I've left out a number of details, I'm sure, but I really want to write the next blog for Galicia. hasta pronto, chicos.
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