Barcelona!

Our voyage for Barcelona started super early! We had to be at the bus station by 6:30 AM! My neighbor Alyssa scared the bajeebers out of me because when I came out of my casa, she was waiting with her video camera to film me, but it was dark and she was really close to the door- luckily I didn’t scream! It would have been squeaky- and all of Segovia would have rolled over in their sleep and pondered what kinds of cats were wandering the city!

The bus ride was a lovely 8 hour journey! Yuck! Although we occupied our time with markers, crayons and coloring books! It was really strange to be on a road trip in Spain because the landscape looked like it could have been somewhere in southwest US! I sometimes forgot I was in Spain- until we passed a castle or some old ruins then I snapped back into reality! J

It is always funny when we go on these excursions because our moms always pack us these bosillos- “bagged lunches” and we never know what kind of sandwiches to expect. When everyone opens their lunch it is like elementary school all over again-everyone is trading their food!

A note about Barcelona- they speak a different dialect then the Spanish I am used to. They speak Catalan, so we didn’t get to use many of our skills, because it was more likely that a given person spoke English than Castilian Spanish.

We didn’t get to Barcelona til a little later in the afternoon- but we still got to walk around this pretty park! (I can’t remember the name now, but it is a park that was designed by Gaudi! It was very lively! There were musicians playing-and other talented acts about the scenery in hopes for a few euros. It is like Europe has its own little soundtrack though, in the bigger cities there is music everywhere- I love it! My favorite part of the park were these little houses at the end that looked just like gingerbread houses! It was like a fairy tale!

The hotel that we stayed in was SOO exciting. Everything in our room was PINK! It was so Mari-like! Pink walls, beds, towels, curtains everything! So girly! Also another perk of this hotel was they had a little buffet that was opened all day! They had a lot of good food-but I ate cereal for every meal because it is amazing- I apparently miss cereal a lot J

That night we went out and checked out the nightlife of Barcelona. We went to this bar/club called the Mare magnum and it was on the Mediterranean! You had to take this bridge to get to it. The sea was all moonlit and lovely with sailboats parked by the dock! When we got there we danced around like crazy- It was girls night for the people in our group! The place we went ended up being a salsa bar- and there were a couple really talented pairs dancing! Then we met some of the locals and they showed us some of their salsa moves- It was fun! One of the guys there told me I was the “Betterest” dancer he had ever met!

On Saturday we had a pretty busy day of sight seeing! In the morning Katie, Shalane and I went on a morning walk to see the Mediterranean sea and the pier which was lovely. Later on we went to the “Gothic corner” and looked at several beautiful churches and Cathedrals. Our advisor is really good at getting places to let us in for a discount, so we had a little money in our budget that she bought us all Gelato which was amazing! Later on a couple of girls and I visited some of the shops and walked around the city. It rained all day long- which was slightly annoying! Later on that night a group of us went to Hard Rock Café which was a nice American activity. It was fun to sing along with all of the songs we know.

On Sunday we started the day off with visiting the Picasso museum. It had a collection of works from all parts of his life-it was interesting to see all of the phases he went through before becoming abstract. Then we went to the contemporary art museum where we saw a ton of the ancient artwork from the romans. Next was a castle which had an amazing view of the Mediterranean and Olympic stadium where the 1992 summer games took place! It was huge! It is said that Barcelona was a very well-received city to have the games because of its attraction to tourists and natural beauty. Then we saw La Sagrada Familia- a very detailed Cathedral that was started by Gaudi. It had many spiritual symbolisms throughout its design. Unfortunately Gaudi was hit by a trolley before being able to finish his works, and his designs were burned during the civil war. His architecture style is so unique- that it is nearly impossible for them to pick up where he left off! I think though that Julie would be the perfect person for the job- she could figure out the puzzle-but then again I think she could do anything! Then Katie and I ventured to find a church that didn’t speak Catalan, and ended up going to church at the cathedral! It was strange because they were still tourists looking around the cathedral during mass-it was so distracting! Later on that night a bunch of us girls went to the Mediterranean and ran around in the waves! Guess which person out of our group of 10 got was the most wet after all of this—yours truly! I got a little too excited and ended up about waist down soaked in sea water- which made for an interesting walk back to the hotel J It was also raining so we were pretty wet when we came back to the hotel! Then we all took hot showers and took it easy!

Monday was another long bus ride home-but this time we watched movies so it didn’t feel so long! Also we were on the bus instead of in class so we can’t complain J We were also very tired from the weekend so we all passed out for half the trip. I was excited to come back to my home-y Segovia. My host parents were so excited to see me when I came home, my mom ran down the stairs to give me kisses-I felt so loved!

So friends and family, all in all I absolutely loved Barcelona. It was such a beautiful city with its art, architecture, and nature. There are so many exciting things to see that truly highlight the culture of the city. If you find yourself in Spain you should definitely visit!