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| The infamous Ramblas |
After this, we got back on the metro and headed to the city’s main street, Ramblas. The great boulevard takes you from the rich Plaza Catalunya all the way down to the rough port. It is quite a street, and gives you a great look at the city’s lifestyle. We found the boys in line for Barcelona FC soccer game tickets… and decided to get some for ourselves so we could attend the following evening with them. Jess and I were starving, so we split from the boys, popped into Carrefour off Ramblas, and then ate some bread and cheese in the Plaza Catalunya. Then we wandered the Gothic neighborhood “Barri Gotic,” trying to find the city’s infamous cathedral. There were trendy shops, junk stores, squares, schoolyards, apartments, street musicians…it was definitely worth getting a little lost. The centerpiece of the neighborhood is the gothic cathedral – huge. We decided it was worth paying to get in, and I’m glad we did! There is a gorgeous courtyard right inside, surrounded by gated side chapels, fountains, and a pond. It also gives you a view of the enormous tower. We then went into the main cathedral, and it was breathtaking. The architecture of the vaults was quite astounding, and the stained glass windows and main alter were beautifully decorated in the gothic style. It was a wonderful contrast to the churches in Rome. Jess and I took the elevator *sketchy* to the top…and climbed the seemingly stable scaffolding on the roof to get a breathtaking view of the entire city. It was a great way to get our bearings, and helped up on our walk down to the marina that followed our cathedral visit.
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| View of Montjuic from the top of the cathedral |
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| View all the way down to the waterfront |
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| The marina |
Down at the marina was a completely different feel. I’ve never seen so many sailboats! We were getting really tired (siesta time!) so we opted not to do the Catalan museum or get drinks at a restaurant atop a boat. Just as we were heading off to the metro, we ran into Morrie (SCU, studying in Siena) who had just gotten into town. Little did we know how many random run-ins we had yet to come in this massive city - tells you how much SCU has taken over Europe. At the metro stop a few minutes later we ran into Mack (Mercer Island, SCU, studying in Barca) too! We spent some time in the hotel resting, Brittney got into town, and then of course we were hungry again!
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| Tapas! Britt and I with the little sticks |
Brittney’s living in Alicante, so she had been to Barca earlier this semester. Our friend Joseph lives in Barca, and had taken her to the best (and cheapest) tapas place in town, right by the cathedral. So, Britt took us back to it. It’s like a little buffet! You sit down and have drinks served to you, but then you go and grab as many little dishes as you want. There is a great assortment. On the table is a container that you stick the toothpicks from each tapa in, and the waiter counts them when you are finished, charging you by the number of sticks your table had.
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| There's the monitors and "menu" - clever |
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| Laura, Sophia, Me, Jess at Dow Jones |
Jess, Brittney and I then went to meet up with the rest of our JFRC friends at a place called Dow Jones Bar. It’s a really cute concept. There are Wall Street decorations, and little monitors all over the restaurant listing the drink, it’s ticker, the price it’s going for, if it went up or down, etc. etc. Once a certain drink has been ordered enough times, the stock market “crashes,” and an alarm goes off. Everyone then rushes to the bar to get the cheapest drinks available. It’s really fun. We moved on to a little place called Chupitos afterwards. It was all decorated for Halloween with black lights and cobwebs, and we ran into more people we knew there! Finally, we ended the evening at the marina. We hung out on the beach, which has a beautiful view of the whole waterfront scene, and then danced in a little cabana-like club.
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| La Boqueria |
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| Only European country that celebrates! |
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| YUM |
The following morning (Saturday), we had our complimentary breakfast again: whole-grain croissants with honey, cheese, hot tea, and oranges. I got my list back out, we grabbed coffee at Starbucks, and then we headed to La Boqueria or Mercat de Sant Josep, off the Ramblas. La Boqueria is a lively produce market. It’s bustling in the morning, and has every type of food Spain has to offer from chicken legs, bags of live snails, fresh fish, delicious fruit, coffee, eggs, chocolate, smoothies, whole piglets, the list goes on and on. We decided we’d come back after our museum trips and grab lunch there.
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| Morning (Starbucks in hand) - Plaza Catalunya |
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| Back in Barri Gotic |
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| Dali Museum |
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| Dali himself |
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| A fabulous display in the Museum |
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| Another Dali display |
We then hit the Dali museum, again close to the cathedral. It was really cool. We saw lots of extremely famous pieces. Dali actually designed the museum himself for his works to be displayed to his liking. When we left we saw a little place called “Happy Pills.” It’s this cute concept for a candy store where you buy a container and fill it with the “pills” or the gummy candy of your liking. Then you choose which “prescription” or sticker fits your needs for the candy – really fun and tasty.
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| "Happy Pills," gummy candy |
Our next excursion was to find the Picasso museum. It took us down towards the water, but once we got there the line was too long for how much time we had left in our day, so we decided we’d go back Sunday. We called the boys who were staying in an apartment off the Ramblas, and told them to meet us at La Boqueria. It was a bit of a struggle meeting up with them, but after that we hit the market, got our bread, cheese and olives, and headed up to Plaza Catalunya to eat everything.
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| Lunch in Plaza Catalunya - Sam, Me, Britt, Jess, Andy |
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| Gaudi's Park Guell |
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| Andy, Jess, Sam, Me at the park |
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| Note the wacky structures |
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| The boys taking a rest on our park walk |
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| View of the city from Guell |
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| Gaudi's "gingerbread" house! |
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| Panoramic view |
It was getting late, but we wanted to squeeze in the Gaudi park, Park Guell. The park is kind of a trek on the metro, then you take a thousand escalators up to it, but once on top, there is an absolutely worth it view of the city. Also, Gaudi’s design of the buildings is pretty wacky, so that is a sight to see in itself. One building looked like a gingerbread house! The structures are built into the hill, and are something out of a fairytale. After that, we were ready to head back to the hotel. I was beat. But once at the hotel, we did not have much time to rest. We all ran through the shower, and then got ready for the Barcelona FC game versus Sevilla.
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| Metro to the game |
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| 5 - 0 |
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| Rowdy after a goal |
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| Barcaaaaaa |
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| Britt and I in our scarves |
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| View from our seats |
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| Halloween at Elephant Bar - Santa Clara took over |
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| Morrie, Me, Katie, Britt - Elephant Bar |
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| Finally saw Will! |
We met the boys at their apartment, grabbed food on the go (I had a falafel), and then boarded the metro to the Stadium. Britt and I had bought Barca team scarves earlier so we fit in with the spirited crowd. The stadium was SOLD OUT. Unlike any other sporting event I’d ever been too! So rowdy, enthusiastic, and fun! We got really into the game, but it went by so fast! Barca won 5-0, so we know who to root for. Afterwards, we had a really hard time getting on the metro…the stadium just funneled into all the stops (even the ones farther away that we went to thinking we were being so sneaky). Britt and I wanted to meet up with Katie (she’s studying in Barca). So we broke-off from the main group and headed to this 20’s themed place called “Elephant Bar” and found her…along with the majority of Santa Clarans visiting the city. We stayed out probably later then I have in my entire life. Spain never sleeps! Dinner is not until 11pm, and then people stay out until 7am! We eventually made it to the hotel, but needless to say we slept in a little later than normal.
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| Montjuic |
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| Unreal views of Barca |
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| Me, Britt, Jess |
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| Gardens |
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| By our lunch spot - Montjuic |
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| In front on Montjuic's Catalunyan museum |
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| Musical, colored fountain |
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| Old bull-fighting arena |
We missed breakfast that day, but we’re out the door by 11am. Jess, Britt, and I headed to Montjuïc or “Mount of the Jews,” a hill overlooking Barcelona’s port. The public’s eye was turned onto it when the 1992 Olympic Games hit the city. The hill has gorgeous parks and gardens, fabulous Catalan museums, the famous music/color-coordinated fountain, and the best views in town! After exploring around up there, we grabbed an over-priced lunch because it had a gorgeous view, and walked a different way back down the hill. This way took us to a metro stop in the plaza where the Olympics were focused around. It also was near the old bull-fighting arena, which is no longer in use since bull fighting has been banned from the region. We took the metro back into town, and decided it was finally time to see the Picasso Museum.
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| Picasso Museum |
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| Getting tired of standing in line |
The line for the Picasso Museum was a MILE long, but it was free to get in on Sunday so we were happy. It is far and away the best collection of Picasso’s work in Spain. The museum has his earliest sketches and paintings, taking you on a timeline-based tour of the exhibits. This allows you to really see how he evolved over time, and his brilliance from such an early age. He was a master when he was just a teenager. You follow his development through his Blue phase all the way into his Cubism. There was a little noodle place close to Picasso that we had been craving, so I got my Yaki Soba fix (a weekly menu item back in the States). Then, we ran a few errands and headed back to the room for our first real siesta. We needed to rest up because it was Halloween!
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| Mexican dinner on Halloween - Katie, Britt, Jess, Me |
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| Gypsy and jailbird |
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| It'd been too long... |
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| The beach! |
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| Metro |
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| The waterfront |
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| #1 club in Barca for Halloween - "Opium" |
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| Caitlin! |
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| Our lovely Barcelona tour guide |
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| Dara, Me, Britt, Katie, Jess |
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| Happy Halloween! |
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| Oddly, we found Alex (UW) |
We all got in our costumes - our friends from Rome (Sarah, Sophia and Laura) were in a room down the hall so we got ready with them. We had to make due with whatever we had, so they may not have been the best ideas, but they were certainly creative! I was an “American Apparel” model, Brittney was a “Jailbird,” and Jessica was Snooki from MTV’s “Jersey Shore.” We’d made plans with Katie to meet her downtown for dinner, so we took the metro, and met up with her (nearby to the Picasso museum actually). Katie is a big Chipotle fan, so she has found the best Mexican restaurant in Spain to satisfy her craving. We went there and had a blast. They didn’t have room to seat us, so we stood at a table in the bar. We were cracking jokes and people watching all dinner. I’m pretty sure we were the only ones in the entire restaurant in costume…Anyways, Katie got nachos, I got a veggie burrito, Britt got a chicken burrito, and Jess got enchiladas. We were all on cloud nine!
Katie then took us down to the beach – that’s where all the clubs are. We sat down on the water for a couple hours talking, then went to get in line at the #1 club in town for Halloween night! The cover charge was 20-euro, but of course Katie got us all in for free. It was an absolute blast inside. All the Santa Clara, UW, and Rome kids were there! Sam, Dara, Alex, Will, Andy, Sophia, Caitlin, Georgia, Ryan, Caroline… you name it! It’s right on the water, so the tables outside have a gorgeous view! The club itself is a sight to see – the décor is awesome. Jess and I met up at 3:30am to cab it back to our hotel since our flight left at 6:45am. All went pretty smoothly, and we arrived at the airport just fine.
I was SO TIRED. That may have been my first all-nighter. Barcelona is truly a fun, wild city that siestas instead of sleeping. Katie was an amazing tour guide, and I can’t think of many places better to spend Halloween (except for Newport Shores of course!). Moral of the story – expect to be exhausted and delirious for a week after visiting Spain. Especially if you plan to sightsee all day! It was well worth it though, and Spain was everything I’d hoped it would be. Now I need to turn-off my Spanish and turn back on my Italian!
I’m in Rome this weekend, survived all my midterms and papers this week to boot! Then, it’s off to Paris next weekend - so exciting!
Adéu (1 of 3 Catalan words I know)
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