Spring Break: Barcelona

Stop #4: Barcelona

Arrived at the Airport on Sunday evening. I took the train to Arc de Triompf and my friend Marshall picked me up there. I would be staying with him until Thursday. It was great to see Marshall – he’s the only other guy from my fraternity at Michigan studying in Europe. We walked around a really cool market right when I got there (I didn’t end up getting there until around 9) and went back to Marshall’s dorm. He lives in a private dorm that is half American abroad students and half Spanish students. They don’t really interact, which is too bad. Marshall spoke great Spanish, helping me out a lot with ordering and interacting with the locals, etc. We went to a bar that night called The George Payne. It was an Irish bar with Karaoke. We were both pretty tired so we went to bed on the earlier side.


Monday:
The next morning, Marshall didn’t have class so he gave me a tour of Barcelona. We went to Park Guell first, a Gaudi designed park. Gaudi is this amazing architect from Barcelona who designed a bunch of apartment buildings, this park, and a church in the 1920s. He died before the Church could be completed and the plans for the church were lost in the Spanish Civil War. It’s still unfinished today, but I’ll get into that a little later.

Park Guell was like a fantasy world. There were crazy caves, colorful rooftops, mosaics, windy paths lined with exotic trees, and tons of tourists. The Park was commissioned by a rich family (Guell) in a nice area for the citizens of Barcelona – or at least the rich ones. It was so much fun to walk around and there was a great view of the whole city. We went from there to Las Ramblas, the main shopping area of Barcelona. Las Ramblas had tons of street performers, little shops, and La Boqueria. That was the meat market, and they usually have crazy meats hanging all over: whole heads, whole pigs, pigs feets, pigs tongues, weird stuff. For some reason, they didn’t have much that day, but we got some great smoothies. After that, Marshall had class so I went to my friend Lauren and Becky’s apartment. We hung out there, catching up and talking about abroad for a while until Marshall was done. I’d been traveling a lot and so had Marshall so we decided to cook dinner in his dorm. A 2-week spring break does wonders to your wallet.

They go out REALLY late in Barcelona and sleep in late too. We woke up around 11 and that was pretty early. Most kids don’t have class until around 4 or 5 pm. Then they go to bars and clubs around 2 am. We went to a bar called Broad Bar on Monday night – I saw so many people I knew. Everyone from Michigan and Chicago was there. It was pretty fun but then the club got shut down by the police because they weren’t supposed to be open after 3 am. Oh well, we went home and got some sleep.

Tuesday:
In the morning, Marshall, his 2 friends from Florida, and I went to Park Cituadella. It was the old Citadel of Barcelona and a great park. There was a pond with row boats, and enormous fountain, and rolling mounds of grass. We ate sandwiches and hung out in the sun for an hour or so. The weather was amazing – about 75 and sunny! After that, Marshall and I went to the Picasso Museum. Picasso lived in Barcelona for a while. This was my third Picasso museum of abroad: the special exhibition in Paris and the Picasso Museum in Paris being the other ones. It was pretty small but really cool – he changed a lot from the beginning of his career to the end.

After that, we went to the Palau de Musica (the Opera House). It is a beautiful building with mosaics all around the outside and the theatre is supposed to be stunning. They were sold out of tours for the day and the next day! So I wouldn’t be able to see the inside. I’ll have to go back. Marshall had class at 5:45 so while he was in class, I went to one of the Gaudi apartments. It was called La Pedrara. I bought the audio guide and wandered around the apartment, the attic and the trippy roof! Gaudi was nuts but really fun and inventive. Every single room in the apartment building (which had about 20 apartments) had natural light. There were courtyards in the middle. The roof had these crazy chimneys and you were walking up and down these funny stairs. I had a great time in there. I met Marshall back at his apartment later and talked with my parents on the phone for the first time in a week or so! Usually we just use Skype but I didn’t have access to a computer over spring break. And I had been really really busy sightseeing.

We met our friends from Michigan for dinner at this place called Cerveceria Catalanya. It was a great tapas restaurant. We had amazing calamari, steak, chicken, Spanish tortillas, and of course, sangria! It was a really fun dinner and it was good to see people from Michigan. I went to dinner with Lauren Ringel, Jenna Carpel and Becky Klein. After dinner, we walked back to Marshall’s apartment. Before the bar, we went to another girl’s apartment and hung out there for a while. We went to a bar called Shoko that night – Japanese themed, on the beach. It was really cool. I saw people from Highland Park and Michigan – of course.

Wednesday:
Marshall had class almost all day so I met up with 2 friends from Paris! The three of us were all visiting Barcelona and all of our friends had class. Emily Haymer, Caitlin Goldberg and I explored Barcelona on our own for a while. We went to the Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi Church. It is enormous and so intricate. There are crazy statues everywhere on the building. We walked around there for a while and had a 3 hour, tapas lunch at an outdoor café looking at the Sagrada Familia. It was perfect. From there, we went to Park Cituadella and then to my friend Jenna's apartment. We all met back up with Marshall and our other friends and went to the FC Barcelona soccer match! We didn't have tickets but scalped some when we got there - 40 euro. The game was incredible! The stadium is huge, the fans are so into it, and the quality of soccer is top notch. FC Barcelona was playing Seville, a regional rival but no match on the field. They won 4 - 0. After the game, we went back to Marshall's apartment and went to a club called Duvet. Again, I had a great night.

Thursday morning:
Somehow, I made it out of bed and got to the bus station at 9:00 am to board the bus to Avignon. I had decided to stop somewhere in France on my way back to Paris because I really wanted to see smaller towns in France, so I pretty randomly selected Avignon. It took 7 hours on the bus to get there but I slept almost the whole way.

Barcelona was great. Fun vibe, beautiful architecture, lots to do. I would love to go back there and definitely recommend it to anyone traveling in Europe.