I finished up with midterms the last week of March (and yes, I actually did study!) and on Thursday got on a plane to Barcelona. Anne and I got in around midnight and waited for Dani, Kaitlin, and Lena, who was visiting Kaitlin, to come guide us to the apartment we had rented for the weekend. Standing on a corner in the middle of Barcelona, Anne and I were soon greeted by 3 girls running down the street with baguettes in hand. After a lovely spontaneous baguette fight, we headed to our apartment to settle in. A few bottles of wine later, we headed to bed.
The four of us + Shaniqua
On Friday we all slept in a bit and had a perfectly relaxing morning. We made a breakfast feast of eggs, avocado, tomatoes, cheese, and toast and ate it outside in the sun on our very own rooftop terrace. We spent most of Friday exploring the city–the beach, Barcalonetta, La Rambla (the main drag), fresh food markets, jewelry stands, the Catedral de Barcelona and the Gothic district.
breakfast feast #1
LOVE fresh food markets!
YUM!
The Catedral
Geese in the Catedral!
We have decided that Chaco should definitely sponsor us
Getting on the metro that day I almost got my wallet stolen right out of my purse! Luckily this really nice man saw the would-be robbers and warned me before they got my stuff. Later that day it almost happened again, but this time I noticed and they luckily didn’t get anything. It made me so mad!!! I felt vindicated, though, when I saw another tourist almost get robbed and I yelled for him to be careful before the guy got away with his wallet.
Friday night dinner was another amazing feast. The idea was that we each bring one tapas dish to the table and make a meal out it. We ate like queens: brie and honey, fresh pear and cheese ravioli, tomato and mozzarella, lemon chicken and LOTS of sangria. After hanging out for a bit in the apartment one of our Gonzaga friends who is studying in Barcelona took us out to a popular shot bar where you can get all sorts of creative shots. Personal favorite: the Boy Scout shot (roast your marshmallow on a flaming drink!).
Saturday morning we decided that a big breakfast was in order again, so we took our time enjoying our meal on the terrace again. After we finished we made our way across town to Gaudí’s church-in-progress, Sagrada Familia (which was dubbed Sangria Familia in honor of our Spanish weekend). I had heard a lot about this church, but seeing it in person was unlike anything I had expected. This church has been in progress since 1892 and is still far from being finished. I really can’t do it justice, but suffice it to say that it is by far the most interesting church I have seen thus far. There is color, symbolism and intricate detail everywhere you look and no surface is left untouched (but no in a gaudy, Barroc way). Since Gaudí died before the church was finished, there are many parts that have been designed by other artists. It’s really interesting to see the difference between the front façade (not designed by Gaudí) and the back (Gaudí).
Four beautiful girls!
Sagrada Familia
View from a distance
The front
The back
The inside of Sagrada Familia-it's meant to look like a forest canopy
Later that afternoon we headed over to see more of Gaudí’s work–the apartments he designed. Also very interesting, also very unique.
Gaudí
For dinner, of course, we had another feast. This time it was pasta with fresh shrimp, tomatoes and spinach. That night was much more low-key–some wine, catch phrase and bed.
Sunday April 5 was Palm Sunday so we decided to head to the Catedral and watch part of the mass. The palms that everyone had were insanely big and detailed (although a bit tacky). We lucked into getting to the church right in time for the mass to start and it was definitely a bit overwhelming. For a non-Catholic, being dropped in the middle of Palm Sunday in one of the most Catholic countries in Europe is no small matter [just wait for my entry on Semana Santa in Granada].
Our first tourist item on our list for Sunday was to go see Parc Güell, a park designed by Gaudí. We decide that since it was a sunny day we would take the metro only as far as we had to and walk the rest of the way. About an hour and half later we made it to the park. Long story short, we climbed up and down 2 steep hills before we finally got it right. The park was beautiful–there was a great view of the city, awesome tiled benched, and some cool Gaudí architecture.
After hike to the top of hill #1
After the hike up to hill #2 (false victory poses)
We finally made it! We rewarded ourselves w/ ice cream.
That afternoon was the first Sunday of the month and so the Picasso Museum was free. I really liked that museum because it was not so overwhelming, as many museums can be. It only had one artist’s work and was organized in a chronological fashion in order to show the development of Picasso’s style.
Since we had saved so much money on food that whole weekend by cooking for ourselves, we decided to splurge on a paella dinner. We got three paella plates to split between the 5 of us (plenty!) and it was delicious! My personal favorite was the seafood dish.
Early Monday morning Dani, Katilin, and Lena had to go back to Paris so Anne and I spent the rest of the day on our own. Our friend recommended that we go up to Monjuïc and it ended up being the perfect activity for the day. Montjuïc is basically a hill with tons of awesome gardens, a castle and beautiful views of the city. After a relaxing afternoon we headed back down into the city and toward the bus station to get on our bus to San Sebastian.
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