Barcelona!!!!
23/07/10 - Our first day in Barcelona! The hostel was advertising a free Gaudi walking tour that started at 11, so we got up and made our way to the square where they meet. The square itself had great architecture and even included, as we found out later, Gaudi designed lamp-posts. After we found that out, it made total sense. They weren't your ordinary lamp-posts. I never thought that something so simple could be so interesting. It was a good start to the tour, that's for sure.
Our guide led us to the first sight. It wasn't too far away, but it was under construction. The Palau Guell, our first major sight that Gaudi laid his hands on. It was fairly obvious once you got in front of it, the entrance was exquisite. But the chimneys were amazing as well.
Our adventure led us to the Metro for the first time. It's not the most exciting thing except you had to be VERY aware of who was around you, because it was a picked-pocket waiting to happen. I relaxed once we were far away from the Metro, and at our next stop, the Casa Batllo. There were a ton of amazing buildings on that block including this building and the building next to the Casa Batllo. I was taking so many pictures, and though I had a legitimate excuse of being a tourist, I still felt odd. It was surreal to see these buildings that made Barcelona, Barcelona. We moved to the Casa Mila. It was supposed to look like the Casa Batllo, but Gaudi did what Gaudi did best - totally disregarded the agreement with the investor and made what he wanted to make. The owner and Gaudi didn't get along, so there were a bunch of hidden taunts towards the owner in the metal work. While I don't remember the stories behind the bird and mask, they weren't nice. Our last stop was the one I was really excited to see, possibly the most famous sight in Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia. Immediately after getting off the Metro, we were met with this spectacular sight. It was truly amazing. There is so much detail in the front of this building, I didn't know how it was still upright. Granted, it's not going to be finished for at least 30 years, the whole thing was still enormous. I felt so insignificant, I can't imagine how I'd feel if it was done.
We were all slowly dying from a long night and a lot of walking, so we went to a small cafe where they only spoke Catalan (different from Spanish). Thankfully we were able to figure out something to eat. Slowly fading, we tried to figure out what to do next.
In an attempt to stay awake, we made our way to another famous landmark (that was also touched by Gaudi) Parc Guell. The trek up the hill to the park was enough to sway us, but some how we made it! We got separated, but Becky, Kristina and I kept climbing to the very top. We got a 360 degree view of Barcelona, the ocean and it's surroundings. Talk about beautiful! Thinking that we should try and find the others, we kept walking, following the path until we found what made the park famous. Of course, we had to walk around and see everything!
For dinner, our hostel called an Italian restuarant and said that "7 beautiful women" wanted a table, and we ended up getting free champagne! The resturaunt was so much fun and the food was fantastic! It was the first time that I tried sangria, and it was pretty darn delicious!
It was truly an amazing first day in Barcelona!
24/07/10 - After finally getting an acceptable amount of sleep, we wanted to relax, make this a REAL vacation (mother, I'm talking to you!). We were headed to the beach! In common form, our hostel suggested we take a short train to a small town outside of Barcelona, called Siget. The beaches were supposed to be much more beautiful than the Barcelona beach. It cost us 3 euros for a one-way ticket to Siget (I realized how excited I was to go back to US dollars after buying this ticket).
A short ride later, we arrived in the coastal town of Siget. Not knowing which way led us to the beach, we followed the crowd. Turns out, we could have turned right at about any time in our little walk and found the beach. It was beautiful white sand and the water looked so inviting! Not to mention that the architecture of the buildings... it looked like a true Mediterranean village. To lie in the sand was so relaxing. It was incredibly hot, but it didn't matter, because a quick run to the water cooled you off instantly. Thankfully, the water wasn't freezing, but a perfect temperature to just float and talk to friends.
Successfully fried from our hours outside, we got hungry. It was fairly obvious what we wanted: seafood and paella. When in Spain, do as Spainards do! The food was incredibly intense, with Meg befriending a shrimp that was in her dish. After dinner, the seven full, fried, and exhausted London ladies made our way back to the train station to head back to the hostel and Barcelona.
25 /07/10 - Our last day in Barcelona, we wanted to go to the market and see the Picasso muesum. Unfortunately, the market was closed, so we satisfied our shopping hunger with the daily market on Las Ramblas. No one got pick-pocketed (everyone went to bed thanking God they didn't get robbed, and counting the days they had to still get their pockets picked), one vendor shooed away a suspicious person, obviously a pick-pocketer, when I was near.
After we were done at the market, we headed to the muesum. I'm not a huge art person, but even this museum kept me interested. I learned so much about Piccaso and his work, as the museum was organized so that it went in chronological order. It was extremely interesting, and I would definitely call it a success.
That night, we decided to head to a fort where we could see Barcelona during the sunset. It was an amazing sight to see. Walking down the mountain, we were looking for a huge water show that only happened on the weekends. It seemed like a perfect end to our days in Barcelona. Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties so they had to stop. We waited a while, but ended up leaving. It wasn't a perfect ending to the trip, but we all had a ton of fun!
Until next time.
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