So I went to Barcelona this weekend with my roommate Jenny and my housemate Jess. We left after classes on Thursday and began the adventure. We flew on Ryanair which flyes in and out of a very inconvenient airport. First we had to walk to the Piazzale Roma, the bus station, which is like a 20 minute hike. Then we had an hour and ten minute bus ride to the airport. At the airport I was randomly selected to have my bag searched which is alway fun. But otherwise the airport and the flight went well. For some reason Europeans seem to not like the first row in planes and we got the bulkhead for both flights which was lovely. After arriving in Spain we had another hour and 10 minute bus ride to Barcelona. And once in Barcelona we had to navigate the metro system...which went very well, I was very impressed with their system.
We found our hotel quite easily, once you spot the prostitutes it's pretty easy to find. Apparently the street corner near our hotel is the hotspot for picking up a hooker. But it was never a problem as the three of us were hardly their target audience. The hotel itself was a pretty typical one star hotel. It was actually cheaper than staying a hostel and we got our sheet included (you ususally have to rent them or bring your own at hostels) fresh towels, our room cleaned and such.
So after a very long day we finally made it out to dinner...unfortunately it was a little late and we couldn't get paella which i was really craving. We had a nice dinner anyway. During the dinner Jenny began to feel sick and started to think about leaving.
After dinner we went back to the hotel to get some rest before a busy day. Unfortunately Jenny didn't get much sleep and felt even worse in the morning. In the morning we wandered around a bit and grabbed some coffee. Then we stumbled in to a huge market which the most delicous looking fruit (among other things).
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After getting some fruit we headed over to the Cathedral. It was nice to just walk around and take some pictures. We also went up to the top for one of our first beautiful views of the city.
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After the Cathedral we headed over to the Picasso museum. I've never been big into Picasso or modern art for that matter. But I figured, I was in Barcelona, it seemed like the thing to do. So I paid my 5 euro for the temp and perm. exhibits and I really tried to appreciate the works but I really still don't have an appreciate of modern art. I actually really liked some of his earlier pieces but not the more modern stuff. But still glad that I did it.
Jenny however didn't go into the museum. She called her mom and spoke to her until she ran out of euro's on her phone (which is really easy to do when you're outside of italy). She felt worse after the conversation so we went over to an internet cafe. Jenny email her mom and then started looking for flights back to Venice. She found a flight for that evening and we went back to the hotel and got Jenny's stuff and took her to the bus station.
After dropping Jenny off Jess and I just wandered around Barcelona. Everything was on sale and there were some lovely sales. I bought a 212euro pair of boots for 80 euros. We wandered around until about 7 probably? We were going to go out and get tapas or dinner or drinks or something at about 8:30, but we never got the chance...Jenny called...her flight had been cancelled! Poor girl had no telephone and had to borrow someone else's phone. We grabbed a quick drink and tapas while we waited for her bus and then picked her up from the bus stop.
After picking Jenny up we grabbed some dinner...our first paella and sangria...delicous!
We made an early night of it. We were all exhausted and had a long day, especially Jenny and had more planned for tomorrow so a good night sleep was in order.
Saturday morning we woke up and went back to the market and bought some fruit for breakfast. Then we took the metro out to Park Guell. Park Guell was supposed to a be gated community designed all by Guadi. Unfortuantely it ran out of money after only 2 houses were built. It's a fantastic park though. We walked around for hours and saw the Gaudi's house which is now a museum. There was a lot to see and a very long walk.
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After the hike around the park we hiked to the metro stop. We took the metro stop back near downtown Barcelona and went to Casa Mia. It was an apartment building Gaudi had designed and now had a mocked apartment, a museum and a fantastic terrace. From the terrace there was the second fantastic view of Barcelona and we could see our next stop, La Sagrada Familia.
After Casa Mia we grabbed a quick lunch at what seemed to be a very local spot...it was the first place we went to were they didn't have an english menu. We suffered through it though. I think it may have been actually harder knowing some italian. We tried to combine some italian, spanish and english and it got confusing.
After lunch we went to Sagrada Familia. This unfinished Cathedral, also originally designed by Gaudi is fantastic. I loved the spiral staircases inside and the ceiling and stained glass. The fascades were definately interesting.
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We went up to the top of Sagrada Familia, the third and best view of the trip. I don't actually have any pictures from that view though because i was terrified! I was so excited to go up because I was sure it would be great, and it was. I also knew i was going to be terrified going back down...and guess what, I was! The staircases were narrow and sprialed down...with no handrail. At one point there was someone standing in one of the narrow windows that overlooked a long drop down the cathedral. I was really scared I was going to witness something tragic...fortunately I did not. And I was able to stop in some of the windows and get some good pictures.
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I really think Sagrada Familia was my favorite site of the trip. Although I loved anything having to do with Guadi.
After Sagrada Familia we went to the biggest shopping mall i've ever seen. At every floor I thought it was the top floor and there was always one more. I think in total it was something like 12 floors. I went in for a very specific purpose. Everything in Venice is so expensive, but everything in Barcelona was on sale. I needed (!) a pillow and towel. Both of which the house i live in provides for us but neither are very comfortable.
We walked around until I felt like i was going to drop. The combination of the hike around the park and the trek back down Sagrada Familia was definately a good workout. So we went back and relaxed for a little bit until we decided to go find dinner. We had another lovely dinner of sangria and paella.
After dinner I got in touch with my friend Luke. We hadn't seen each other in a very long time, but I happened to know he was spending the semester in Barcelona. We went over to his apartment and hungout with some friends/roommates for bit. Afterwards we went to a local bar which was a lot of fun. We met a bunch of Luke's friends and they were all really nice and really fun.
We found our way back to the hotel eventually and got a goodnight's sleep. Actually the beds in the hotel were more comfortable than the ones in our house (they're hard as rocks!).
This morning we wandered around a bit for some food and coffee and killed time until we had to check out of the hotel. At noon we checked out and made our way back to the bus station. Our adventure started at noon and we finally made it back to Venice by 7ish I think? Definately a long day. We made i back to the house, walked about 5 steps in, dropped our bags and went to a local restaurant for dinner. I have literally no food left in the house. (a box of pasta, olive oil, wine, milk and rasins)
All in all a very good weekend.
The Good: Barcelona...loved it, especially everything having to do with Gaudi
The Bad: Poor jenny! she had a rough weekend but I'm glad she toughed it out and we ended up having a lot of fun I think
The Costly: Everything! I didn't realize how many extra costs there would be. First I paid for the hotel and the flight, but then i had to buy tickets for both buses, food of course and actually the museum visits added up and got expensive (even with the student discount).
I'm pretty much exhausted right now which is why it says "picture" in a few places instead of actually showing you pictures. But I hope to have them up tomorrow.
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