Barcelona!

Barcelona- my last trip of the semester!  I have less than 3 weeks left until I come back to the U.S. and as much as I would like to see my family and friends again, I'm NOT ready to leave at all!  I absolutely love Sevilla and am going to have an extremely hard time leaving.

Anyways, we got into Barcelona Thursday afternoon and checked into our hostel.  The hostel was not the most comfortable experience because although we had an apartment to ourselves, it was absolutely freezing.  Most apartments in Spain do not have central heating and we definitely did not pack warm enough clothes.  We tried to spend the least amount of time there as possible.  It was also raining when we got there and we were afraid that we weren’t going to be able to do all of the touristy things we had planned to do.  Fortunately, it cleared up as soon as we got going.  The first thing that we did was go to el Mercado de la Boqueria, which was a market of fresh fruits, juices, smoothies, and other foods.  Everything was so cheap!  You could get a huge bowl of fresh strawberries, kiwis, and pineapple for only 1 euro.  Unfortunately we had just eaten, so I was not hungry and did not buy anything but it was still really cool to see! 

After the Mercado, we went to Palau Guell, Placa Reial, and the Cathedral.  We did not go inside any of these because everything was closed by the time we got there.  Then we went to Park Guell, which was at the top of a really high hill, which we had to take a set of extremely steep escalators to get up to the top.  Once we finally reached the top, the views were absolutely amazing.  We had actually gotten there at the perfect time too, because the sun was just setting.

After that we went to meet up with one of Rebekah’s friends (who is studying in Barcelona) and her boyfriend for tapas.  The restaurant was at the top of an old bullfighting stadium in Plaza de España that had been turned into a mall (As I mentioned before, bullfighting is now illegal in Barcelona!).  At the restaurant we ordered my favorite tapa too, which is fried eggplant covered in some sort of sweet syrup.  SOOOOOOOO good!

The next day we took a tour of Casa Battló, which is one of Gaudí's famous works.  The entrance fee includes a free audio tour, so we were able to learn a lot more about Gaudí's life and ideas.  This was one of my favorite parts about Barcelona because it was so unlike anything I had ever seen before!  Here is a picture of the outside...

After that we went to Sagrada Familia.  They have been building it for over 100 years and they still aren’t finished!  Isn’t that insane?  The detail in the building is absolutely amazing.  It is so intricate and everywhere you look there is something different going on.  It was also MASSIVE.  No wonder it is taking them so long to build!  Gaudí is also buried inside, so we were able to see his tomb!  After that we took a lift up to the top and got another gorgeous view of the city. 

Here is a picture of me at the top of Sagrada Familia...

After a long time at Sagrada Familia, we were starving and decided to get lunch at a restaurant that Rebekah's friends recommended.  The restaurant offered a "menú del día" (very common in Barcelona), which included 2 courses, a drink, and a dessert all for 9.50 euros.  Rebekah and I split a salad, pasta, chicken, and steak, with flan for dessert.  I was stuffed after that!

Then we took the metro to the beach, planning on laying out in the sun for a couple hours.  It ended up being extremely windy, so we just walked along the beach and then got some hot chocolate to warm up.

After that we went to Parc de la Ciutadella and saw the Arc de Triumph.  For dinner we went to a restaurant along the beach and had vegetable paella (not as good as the paella our señora makes, but still good!).  Here is a picture of me by the Arc de Triumph....

That night we did not get a hostel because our flight was at 5:55 AM.  We decided to pull an all-nighter to save money and went to a beach club instead of sleeping (hahah typical college students).  We left for the airport around 3:00 AM  and by the time we finally got back to Sevilla it was 9:00 AM.  We were pretty much zombies by then!  We were exhausted and slept until lunch time.

It was amazing how extremely different Barcelona is from Sevilla.  We heard more people speaking English than Spanish and the locals speak Catalan.  Catalan is so different from Spanish, we couldn't understand a word of it!

I'm excited to stay in Sevilla now until I leave.  There is so much I still want to do in the city!  La Feria de Abril is also this week, which is a huge festival with a lot of dancing, eating, and drinking.  It should be a lot of fun!