barcelona was amazing! i am officially obsessed. i assume most of spain should be similar to barcelona. it is like america, but the people speak spanish, or catalan in barcelona, which is a dialect of spanish that is mixed with french i think.
we got to barcelona at like midnight on thursday and we stayed in some apartments right by the sagrada familia that we rented for the weekend. this is definitely the way to go because you get your own space, kitchen, bathroom, living room. there were 5 of us staying in a 2 bedroom (2 stayed on the pull out couch) for 88 euro for 3 nights. definitely worth it.
view from our apartment balcony
on friday we took the metro to starbucks for breakfast. there was a dunkin' donuts in the metro station! that was our first indication that barcelona was the bomb. i am really impressed with barcelona's metro system. it's extremely clean and really reliable. it has a good amount of lines too that can take you most anywhere. but beware of the professional pick pocketers! seriously, they warn you over the loud speakers while you're waiting on your train. but the spanish are really nice. we always had older men warning us where the professional pick pocketers worked. but breakfast at starbucks was amazing - duh - and i got myself a starbucks barcelona mug to match my paris one!
crazy for donuts
on the metro
starbucks! i have missed you
after breakfast we had signed up for a fat tire bike tour. yes, this is connected to the fat tire beer. our guides told us that the man who started the tour company started the beer company. i don't think he was lying. but i highly recommend doing this because it was so so fun!! all 19 of us did it, so it was 18 euro each. they have tours in barcelona, paris, london, and berlin. but i don't think i would want to go on a bike tour during the summer because i would probably hit a pedestrian.
biiiikes
we saw a bunch of different things, so im posting the highlights. first thing i was really interested in was the palau de la mùsica catalana. it is a music hall designed by the catalan architect lluís domènech i montaner. i was pretty sad because all of the tours were sold out so i didn't get to see the interior. but google it because it's incredible.
palau de la mùsica catalana
beautiful
crew
next cool thing was the arc de triomf of barcelona. our tour guide told us that there are several arc de triomfs throughout europe. i didn't realize that there were multiple ones. but barcelona's is really cool. i like the brick.
perez and i burnin' some rubber
next up: the parc de la ciutadella. this is a fountain that was actually built by gaudi. it doesn't look like his designs because he didn't initially design it. josep fontsére was the one who began the design process and gaudi finished it while he was still an unknown architecture student. it is supposed to resemble the trevi fountain in rome. there are zoos and museums all around this fountain and a very large, green park.
parc de la ciutadella
the group with one of our guides named dave
fountains
finally we made it to the bull fighting arena. our tour guide gave us a lot of information on bull fighting. he said that these bulls are bred for fighting. families treat their bull better then themselves. they grow up in great pastures, with anything and everything, and are fed incredible meals. they're then brought in to fight and before the fight they are stabbed in the spine to lower their horns to chest level. the matador then shows their control over the bull, and a good matador will eventually kill the bull in one stab. then the meat is taken off of the bull and given to the orphanages. but ive heard that bull fights are not as happy as the tour guide made them sound and that they're really gruesome and some people actually get sick watching. i wouldn't know because bull fighting starts april 25 so i didn't get to see one. i don't know if i would be able to stomach it, even if what our tour guide said was true.
bull fighting arena
bull fighting
after the bull fighting arena was the beach!! barcelona has the longest stretch of beach in europe, measuring 4km long. it's completely man-made, but still beautiful. also, the w hotel was recently built on the beach and it's a 6 star hotel, second nicest to the w hotel in dubai. we ate lunch on the beach and had some sangria with our tour guides.
fish
lunch on the beach
restaurant
once we had soaked up the sun, we headed back to the fat tire store. we spent the rest of the day shopping and then headed out for dinner in search of mexican. we ate dinner at a restaurant called margarita blue, which was spanish-mexican. i had a burrito and a blue margarita! it was delicious.
on saturday we started the day off at starbucks again, then the sagrada familia. we waited in line to get in and then waited in another line to go up the tower. it was pretty cool seeing the cathedral from the top.
here's some background on the sagrada familia (all of this was from our guides, but they have to train for this so i think it's legit): gaudi had created these blueprints and sketches for a church that he wanted to build. he was well known at this point in his career, so he went in search for support. he asked the pope to fund his cathedral, but was refused. so he ended up selling all of his assets to pay for the construction of this idea. he lived in the basement of the sagrada familia because he didn't have a home. after not much time, he was walking one day and was hit by a bus. he laid in the street for a couple days before he was found by a random man who recognized him as gaudi. he took him immediately to a poor hospital where he was basically neglected. once the city caught wind of his condition, they offered to move him to a better hospital for more extensive treatment. he refused saying that if this is how the people of barcelona are treated, this is how he wants to be treated. he ended up dying.
years later some architects wanted to finish the sagrada familia. they started building, but in the spanish civil war the blueprints were burnt. so then they didn't know what to do. so they dug up gaudi's body and there in his arms were the blueprints to the cathedral. construction still isn't finished and they project it to be done in 2026. gaudi said that he believed it would take over 200 years to build this church, and he might be right. they think the interior of the church will be finished within the next 6 months. i dont know though....
back of sagrada familia
door
so pretty
above the door
waiting to go up the elevator
in the tower of the sagrada familia
i love mosaics!
above the front doors
looks like a drip sand castle
interior of sagrada familia
bbbeeeaaauuutttiiiffffuuullll
sagrada familia took us a while to explore, but after we wanted to go see the gaudi apartments. it's an apartment building built by gaudi. it's incredible. the building looks like it's literally moving. i love love love it.
gaudi apartments
so cool
next on the itinerary was the gaudi park. we took the long metro ride out to the stop, then walked up the largest hill/mountain i have ever seen. they actually have escalators up to the park!! SEVEN escalators, to be exact. just imagine how far that is.
when we bought the tickets to the sagrada familia we got the package that let us in to gaudi's house, which is in the park. he had some really cool furniture.
gaudi's house
some amazing furniture
we made it through the house and decided to explore the park. i love this place. it's so interesting. there was a live band playing while we were there and they were selling their cd's. we bought one, duh.
pick up your dog's crap
i think of jurassic park
mananers
famous benches
gaudi park
after the park we just went to eat some paella and then to the picasso museum. that was pretty cool and i suggest doing that if you're in barcelona. im upset we didn't make it to the dali museum, but we heard it was an hour outside of barcelona.
i have a story! beware of pick pocketers in barcelona! apparently spain is known to be the worst country for this, so we were all on guard the entire weekend. but there was a time when we were getting on the metro where perez came close to losing her wallet. we were all standing together when the metro doors opened, but then were separated because apparently some men were purposely blocking heather from getting on to the metro. they were making it difficult for her so that they could distract her from her purse. so she was pushing and not holding her bag when she suddenly looked down and her purse was unzipped and a man's hand was on the zipper. thankfully she looked down when she did because she swatted his hand away to save her stuff. she told us immediately because he was standing right next to us. it was obvious that he knew we knew because he got off on the next stop. so never let your attention wander from your belongings! close call.
chillin'
but other than that barcelona was the best. it was probably one of my favorite trips the entire semester. it was gorgeous, hot, and so much fun. all of the gaudi architecture is unbelievable. something you should see before you die!
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