The next morning, I was up too early to catch a train from Madrid to Barcelona. Luckily, this was one of the very few trains I took with my Eurail pass that didn't charge me extra fees. One would think that after paying quite a some of money to actually get a Eurail pass trains would be free, however this is not the case. So I boarded around 7 and got to Barcelona around 10 or so. It was actually pretty difficult finding the hostel because the name of the street, Sant Pau, is actually also a metro stop... on the other side of the city. Well, of course, I took the metro from the train station to the completely wrong side of town. Obviously, I eventually found the hostel with the help of an old man who only spoke Spanish pointing to places on my map.
I can tell everyone this now that I am safe and sound in Grenoble, but the hostel was on the most dangerous, sketchy street I have ever discovered. In the first place I went, to a small store down the street, the man at the counter told me we were in a bad area and that I needed to watch my bag. Also, prostitutes, women in barely there skirts, fishnet hose, and dramatic makeup, liked to hang out on our street. Classy. Way before I discover all of this, when I first make it to the hostel, I find that it is in fact very nice with a kitchen, Internet area, lots of tables, continental breakfast, and a lounge. The internet was obviously my first stop.
Kate showed up soon after huffing and puffing and so glad to see me. She has almost missed her flight and had forgotten to submit her finance assignment that had been due that day. She had to call one of our friends in Grenoble, have him get the assignment from her computer at her apartment, and had him email it to us. Needless to say, she was pretty stressed and in much need of a Barcelona vacation!
After Internet time and email sending, we headed off to explore! Barcelona was absolutely gorgeous that day. It is made for tourists in that everything is super colorful, the shopping is amazing, and almost everyone speaks English. We first went to the Parc de la Cuitadella which was absolutely stunning. Obviously, not nearly as big as the one in Madrid but just as gorgeous.
We then just followed the large path to the Arc de Triomf, similar in name to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris yet very different, obviously.
We walked around, enjoyed the sun, discovered lots of shops where we planned to return, and then sat by the beach. Yes, Barcelona has a wonderful, man-made beach that is lined with very up-scale restaurants. We always make a joke that we're actually in Europe, not to learn, but to discover where we want to travel and what we want to do when each of us have more money than we know what to do with. So, one of my things is to go to these up-scale restaurants, that I traveled to on my yacht, and drink sangria on their beautiful white couches.
At the beach, we had a man ask up if this was the Mediterranean, of course we replied that it was. He asked where we were from given that we spoke English with American accents. We told him and, funny, he actually went to UT, was a MBA student there, and his dad was a high school football coach at a Knoxville high school for many years. Small world!
We had the most amazing dinner at a Greek restaurant. Homemade pasta, homemade olive oil, tomatoes, cheese, wine... amazing. It was actually for a good price too!
So how could I forget! We went to the Sagrada Familia that day as well. This is, hands down, the most magnificent cathedral anyone will ever see. It was designed by Antonio Gaudi (more on him later) who basically designed Barcelona when he was a famous architect in the early 1900s. He has so many of his designs in Barcelona that we thoroughly enjoyed visiting the next couple of days, but his Sagrada Familia is the masterpiece. This cathedral was started around 1890 and still not completed. It is scheduled to be completed around 2025, but by looking at the construction, I bet it will be longer. They still have a long way to go, but the main chapel is built and it is miraculous. The whole building is so unique and different from any other type of cathedral I have ever seen, and it is so deeply religious in that everything has a deep, religious meaning and a connection with nature, God, and the environment. The stained glass is the most colorful thing in the world and perfectly designed to light up the massive space. The massive columns are of Gaudi's original design (everything is really) but the columns are extremely unique and designed to look like a perfect tree trunk. You really feel like you're in a magical, fairy, heaven, jungle village in this massive space (that didn't make sense but oh well).
Words cannot possibly describe this place and pictures won't either, but it's worth a try.
I really like the description that was given for some of the sculptures on the exterior. Read the picture above and you'll see how much thought and how much symbolism went into designing the exterior. The amount of meaning, the symbols, and the beauty of this place was simply unreal. It was really magical.
Tuesday
After a breakfast in the hostel of tea and toast with Nutella, we walked up the big hill overlooking Barcelona called Montjuic. This hill has tons of little botanical gardens all the way around it and through it. It was a little confusing finding it at first, but it's everything in Europe. The gardens were beautiful... Some of the flora were really odd and interesting. Like this first flower; it was some sort of cactus apparently.
We eventually made it up the the tope to see the Castle of Montjuic. It is an ancient fortress and had lots of space and gardens. The castle itself wasn't that big, but the grounds and the actual fortress was. It even had old canons, and that day a school group was doing some sort of scavenger hunt so kids were runny around everywhere. Annoying, actually.
Above is the image of the bay (yes, it's the Mediterranean, you Americans) from the big hill/mountain. Next stop was the Olympic complex. It was really nice and everything was still kept pretty up to date.
We then met Kate's friend Leah who is studying abroad in Barcelona. It was really great to hear her perspective on studying abroad in Spain. For example, Barcelona is really part of Catalonia and they speak Catalan, not Spanish. So the language is slightly different, and the Catalan people don't consider themselves as part of Spain. They would actually prefer to separate from Spain. Leah, Kate's friend, doesn't feel like she's living in Spain, she feels like she is studying in Catalonia and is part of a very different culture apart from mainland Spain.
She took us to a great place for lunch that is apparently frequented quite often by Americans and Anglophones. In fact, just standing in line, the most common language was most certainly English with many families sporting Hollister, American Eagle, Polo, etc. which only true American tourists would. Anyway, they had huge, brilliant sandwiches for super cheap, and we even ate then on the pier. Mine was loaded up with feta cheese, pesto, and black olives as usual.
We then walked more around Barcelona looking at some Gaudi... Fun Fact: Antonio Gaudi died by getting hit by a tram, so trams are officially banned in Barcelona.
The Afternoon Agenda: Shopping! The Gothic area was brilliant for shopping. It is a bunch of small, cobblestone streets lined with colorful, cheap shops full of all sorts of things. Kate bought gorgeous, colorful blankets from Indonesia that feel amazing; she also bought some rings, bracelets, and earrings as gifts and such. My fantastic buy for the day was a pair of TOMS!!! Yes, I had become a good person and have considered a company's social responsibility in deciding to buy their product. In case you don't know, TOMS is shoe-manufacturing company that has historically designed shoes to look like the cheap, slipper like shoes from Argentina. They have now branched out into all sorts of colors, designs, and are really big on American college campuses for girls and guys. For each pair of shoes that is sold, a very sturdy, classic pair goes to a child in Africa. Brilliant idea, great shoes that are super comfortable, and a great cause. Mine are the new kind that has only been released in Europe, cute little gray ones with laces. Don't ask how much I paid...
Dinner: Falafel, great day!
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