Barcelona was a trip to remember! First of all, it was our first time flying with the dreaded RyanAir! Luckily for us everything went smoothly.. the captain was great, the flights were AHEAD of schedule for once (we got there almost a half our early both ways!) and the airports were easy to maneuver. As far as traveling went everything on this trip went great! We arrived in Barcelona on Thursday at around 9:30PM, we were greeted by our friends from Clemson (Heather and Megan) who are studying there for this semester. Our group total staying at the hostel was 13 kids from the CUBC (Clemson University Brussels Center) program! The hostel was called Kabul, and it was really great! They offered free breakfast and had a really cool location in a small square off the main street of Barcelona (Las Ramblas):
However, it was obviously hard to all stick together throughout the weekend. The first night we went to see Heather's apartment and then went out to a fancy-shmantzy night club which turned into an issue because none of our guy friends were allowed in because they were wearing sneakers! We found out pretty quick that Barcelona is very fashionable and the bouncers are not so friendly.
Day 2:
Walking Tour, the Beach, Gelato, Fresh Market
The tour started off at the Barcelona Cathedral (Catedral de Barcelona). This Cathedral is dedicated to the 13-year-old Patron Saint of Barcelona. It was absolutely beautiful and I got a chance to sit and pray for a little while – so far I’ve been privileged enough to pray in the Prague Castle Cathedral, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Barcelona Cathedral, the Brussels Cathedral (Basilica de Kokelburg) and the Old Church in Amsterdam (kind of a cool thing to be able to say!).
At the beginning of the tour we learned more about the 13-year-old Saint of Barcelona, Saint Eulàlia. During the time when Barcelona was under Roman rule in 300AD the citizens were forced to denounce their catholic faith. This thirteen year old girl Eulàlia refused and was tortured for it. Where our tour guide took us was the hill where some of the torture occurred.. it was a huge hill where she was placed in a barrel with broken glass and nails in it and rolled down thirteen times. She was finally crucified in the middle of summer, and as the story goes when they placed her naked body on the cross a huge snowstorm blew through and covered her in a snow dress. After explaining this story to us and showing us the hill and where she was crucified we were taken into her church where there is an exhibit of 13 white geese in honor of each year of her life.
Here are some pictures of the Cathedral and the Geese exhibit and a pic of me and the roommates!
As the tour went on we got to see a lot more artwork of Gaudi (famous artist associated with Barcelona) and Picasso.
Barcelona used to be a walled in city to protect them from invasions and we got to walk around and see the original entrance. Of course it’s a little worn in time but it was still amazing to see…
Also, the tour took us through the parts of the city where you can still see the influence from when the city was under Roman rule. We got to go see a museum where they still had the Roman columns!
After the three hour tour we grabbed a bite to eat (baguette pizza..yummm the bread is europe is SO much better) and then started to walk to the beach. Let me point out that Brussels is about twenty degrees colder than Barcelona so we were overjoyed at the sixty degree weather! On the way we found a small marina with a beautiful view, and we sat on a bench for about an hour listening to some man (seen in the picture) playing every American song for us that he could think of. He didn’t speak English at all but we could communicate (thanks north reading high school for the little Spanish I actually know!) and he played songs such as: Paint it Black, Message in a Bottle, Sweet Home Alabama, some Led Zeppelin and many others! It’s funny how much American culture can be found throughout Europe…especially in the music. These are pictures of the marina with the guitar man and the beach and obviously Danielle and I wanted to take pictures with the Palm Trees!
After the beach we wandered back to our hostel for dinner and then went out for Gelato (not just an Italian thing!) As you can see, we were a little excited for the ice cream as we had been walking by all the places to get it all day and developed a craving. It was delicious, although hard to decipher all the flavors in Spanish. After that we went out for the night again with all of our Clemson friends!
Day 3:
The next morning half of our friends decided they wanted to be lazy and sleep all day (cough, the boys) the other half wanted to be artsy and go see all the Gaudi museums (not exactly up my alley) so me and James decided we were going to take a half a day trip to Mount Montserrat. This is a mountain that a group of monks built a beautiful monastery on just outside of Barcelona. We had to take a train there and then a cable car to get to the top! It was beautiful and slightly eerie because of all the morning fog on the mountain. We explored the Monastery (another place I was able to pray at!) and then hiked around a bit on all these beautiful paths built into the mountain. It was amazing.
When we got back around three we met Tricia and Danielle at the Beach (with a quick stop at the open market!) and then headed up to the Prague Castle. You’re supposed to take either a cable car gondola thing or a bus to the top, however, since we are cheap college students we decided it’d be more cost efficient to just climb the HUGE hill that it sits atop. This was a hilarious hike with all of us complaining a lot but it was totally worth it once we got to the top. The castle itself was really cool with all canons and a view of all of Barcelona and the ocean.
Finally we were tuckered out of exploring and went to get dinner on Las Ramblas. Typically Spanish cuisine is “Tapas” or just assorted appetizers and you order a couple of those along with your main course. We decided we need to try all ethnic food of each place we visit so we ordered tapas along with Paella (a mixture of rice, veggies, and whatever meat you want). It was soo delicious and filling.
Then we got all dolled up and went out for the night!
Day 4: Travel
The last day was almost six hours of travel, not so fun but we made it home safe! Hope everybody had an amazing weekend and enjoyed this blog.. miss and love you all!
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