So my journey began on Friday at 1PM. I took a bus from Madrid and after eight long hours (and a really good Nicholas Sparks novel), I arrived in Barcelona. Nara and Qin had arrived earlier that morning. The hostel was really easy to find from the bus station, so that was nice. The hostel itself was really great. I’d never stayed in a hostel before and always pictured it being 45986408 people sleeping on the floor in a dark dingy room with half a bathroom. But no, Alberg Pere Tarres was quite the opposite. We were able to book a female-only room with four bunk beds in them and two bathrooms. The rooms and bathrooms were very clean and they provided lockers for your valuables. Breakfast was included every morning and it wasn’t the greatest but, hey, TWAS FO FREE. So it was a really nice experience for my first hostel and definitely made everything easier.
DAY ONE - Saturday
Montserrat: Today we decided to go to Montserrat, which is a mountain about an hour’s train ride (plus a cable car) from Barcelona. One of the girls that Nara and Qin met in the hostel, Angela, decided to join us on today’s adventures and I am so very glad she did. So we took the metro and train and cable car and were finally on top of this MOUNTAIN. The view was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. You could see for miles and miles and it was just breathtaking. We’d read that there was a monastery on top of the mountain, so we climbed a little further up to explore.
Not only was there the monastery, but a whole little town with museums and restaurants and gift shops and info centers. We found the Santa María de Montserrat monastery and went inside. There was a long line for something that looked like it could be interesting, so we waited. And waited. And passed through some chapels. And waited. And we weren’t even really sure what we were waiting for. We then found out that at the end of the line was the Virgin of Montserrat, a sculpture from the late 12th century and one of the black Madonnas of Europe. Going in and touching the figure and saying a little prayer was quite a humbling experience. We emerged from the monastery at last and went to the bar nearby for patatas bravas (YUM) and cañas. And then back down we went.
La Rambla: Once we made the grand descent back down to Barcelona, we made our way to La Rambla. La Rambla is the street market in the city that has all kinds of vendors, artists, performers and even a produce/meat market. It was fun to poke around there and see the street performers and go into the market (it was even more fun with a few Estrella Damms). I might’ve even bought a few gifts ;). I wanted to buy all of the fresh, interesting new fruits and eat them all. Alas. The end of La Rambla brought us to the waterfront of Port Vell and the giant monument of Christopher Columbus. Yay Mediterranean!
Tapas, por supuesto: After we walked down by the waterfront for a bit, we decided we were getting a little bit hungry...TAPAS TIME! Nara asked around for where the best (and cheapest) tapas were and we finally ended up at a place called Sagardi. This was another one of those places where you could choose your tapas and they charged you per toothpick. I tried a lot of yummy ones, including one with fried stuffed red pepper and classics such as tortilla and jamón. But oh. The best one BY FAR was the cheesecake one (see above! I had at least three).
So after that adventure, we headed back to the hostel. Every night I came back ABSOLUTELY BEAT. Which is the best way to do things, I guess. Go to bed completely exhausted and wake up early the next morning to do it all over again.
DAY TWO - Sunday
So today was pretty much Gaudí day. Who is Gaudí, you ask? Well. Gaudí was clearly a big deal in Barcelona. He was a famous Catalan architect who designed and created these crazy buildings with mosaics and other really neat shapes. He was really into geometry and nature and his style reflected this. You could clearly identify his work everywhere you went. He was the man, so to say.
La Sagrada Família: This, my friends, was basically the highlight of my time in Barcelona. You may have noticed me mentioning the several cathedrals I’ve been to here in Spain. Big, old, beautiful. I hate to say it, but they kind of all start to look the same. Who would’ve thought I’d get bored with European cathedrals? Shame on me. Oh but THIS. La Sagrada Família. One of the works of our good friend Gaudí, which means it’s a bit more modern than the other cathedrals I’ve seen. Hence, it was totally different than anything I’d seen prior and it was just so interesting. The architecture, the details, the shapes, the stained glass. And it’s still being built! It was even cooler to be there on Palm Sunday. The place was PACKED because services were about to start (which I definitely regret not attending) and everyone was holding palm fronds.
And not just the plain dried palm fronds they hand out at services back in the US. They were folded origami-style into the coolest and most intricate designs and sculptures. I stopped a few people on the street to ask to take a picture of them because I thought they were so neat. But yes. I plan on getting married in La Sagrada Família, so everyone plan accordingly.
La Pedrera: Another one of Gaudí’s bulidings. Really interesting-looking from the outside. We were taken to the roof first, which was a maze of sculptures. As we made our way back downstairs, there was a museum that explained a lot of Gaudí’s works throughout Barcelona and one of the apartments was showcased as well. The very bottom floor had an art exhibition about food which made us super hungry.
Zoo: Yes. We went to the zoo. Haha no but it was cool, hadn’t been to a zoo in a while. Had your typical animal exhibits. Saw a dolphin show! I was able to understand most of it since the trainers were addressing the audience under the assumption that most of them were small children. Perfect level for me! After the zoo, we met up with Sam, who had just arrived from Madrid. Yay!
Park Güell: Oh hey, more Gaudí! This was a huge park/garden complex which featured a lot of Gaudí’s architectural elements. Aka. Really cool mosaics, footpaths, and buildings. It got dark by the time we got there (you wouldn’t believe the hill we had to climb to get there), but we were able to see the entire city at night from the main terrace and it was gorgeous. We also met some German guys here and they were really funny.
DAY THREE- Monday
Montjüic: A giant hill (Smaller than Montserrat, clearly. Still needed a cable car, though) where we spent most of the morning. There was a castle/fortress on the tip top and from it you could see all of the city and the ports next to it. Didn’t find it very interesting other than that. AM I BECOMING A CASTLE SNOB TOO?? Oh, and another friend from out hostel, Gissel, was able to join us on today's adventures! She is from Mexico and is studying in the UK.
Olympic Stadium: That’s correct, folks. We were able to visit the stadium which housed the 1992 Summer Olympic Games! I just thought it was really cool to say that I was able to be there in the stadium. Got me thinking about how cool it would be to actually go to the Olympic Games someday. London 2012, anyone?
Aaaaaand we went back to La Rambla and down by the waterfront again. Also made it back to Park Güell to explore during the day time. There were a lot more people/tourists there then and a lot of people selling jewelry. Again, more gifts may have been purchased ;)
DAY FOUR – Tuesday
Tuesday was a day to myself, since I would be on a bus for half of it. Nara, Qin, and Sam all left really early for their adventures in Munich. I made my way down to the beach and hung out there for a while, even though it was quite chilly. And then it was time to get back on the bus for another 8 hours back to my beloved Madrid. And so ends my Barcelonian adventures! It really was a last minute decision to go (thanks for Nara, Qin, and Sam for letting me tag along!) and I'm really glad I did. I bought a postcard there that had pictures of all of the key places to hit up in Barcelona and I am happy to say that yes, indeed, we did it all. Stay tuned for Semana Santa Phase Two: SICILY!
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