Happy Spring Break to me! My spring break is only a week long but split into three different parts. The first part of my break was in the wonderful city of Barcelona, Spain. No where in Spain was on my original list of places I wanted to visit but I am glad I made my way to Barcelona. It was such a pleasant surprise, the food, people, architecture, and ocean were amazing.
This post is a tad longer, so feel free to scroll down to the pictures!
We began our journey Friday evening at the Venice Marco Polo airport, then took a plane to the beautiful Barcelona. After we landed we had to take a shuttle to the city center then find our hostel for the night. We eventually made it and checked in. I highly recommend this hostel, Hostel 360. The staff was so helpful and nice. We only stayed here one night (we rented an apartment for the other nights) but they still answered every question about Barcelona that we could think of.
Friday, March 14 is a very special day, it is my Mom's birthday! It is also the birthday of one of the girls I was traveling with! So after settling into our room we went out! We had a pretty tame night for Barcelona standards, but we had a good time. We then went back and fell asleep. Jenni, the birthday girl, actually left us then next morning to go to Valencia to meet with a friend. We then ventured out to move into our apartment then explore the city. On the way we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts!!! We were shocked to see them all over Barcelona. The coffee tasted American and the donuts were delicious.
We found our apartment and it was on the Main Street of Barcelona, La Rambla. We couldn't be happier with the location. We then went for lunch and ate tapas, paella, and drank sangria. This meal was a contender for my favorite foods in Europe. After we were full of Spanish food we headed to Port Vell. We walked along the pier and then eventually to the beach. The beach was fantastic, I can't imagine how crazy it is in the summertime. I have a suspicion that coming from a land locked state makes me fascinated by the ocean. We spent a few hours on the sand, looking for shells and soaking up the sun.
We then decided to head back in order to see a fountain. We took a pit stop at our apartment and took the metro all the way to the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc. This fountain was gorgeous it featured lights and water synchronized with popular music (some new pop music and classical music). I'll include some pictures. After that we stopped for kebab and went back to our apartment.
Our plan for this evening was to go to a beach club called Opium and stay up until sunrise, the true Barcelona way. We didn't go out until 12:30-1 but we spent the time before drinking wine and watching music videos! The tv in our apartment had a channel of only music videos and we loved it. We did stay out until the sunrise on the beach at 7AM and it was beautiful. I had a fantastic time with my friends that night. We then went home and fell immediately asleep.
That day we woke up around noon and started to get ready for the soccer game! My friend who I was traveling with, Emily, played soccer throughout high school and is a fan of FC Barcelona. She convinced me to go to a soccer game with her and I was excited to see what a soccer game in Europe is like. On our way we stopped at a shop to buy some FC Barcelona swag. I was only planning on buying sometime cheap, but I was convinced to buy a Messi jersey for 30€! We then stopped for food and were on our way to the stadium on the subway. We didn't know exactly where we were going, but we thought we would follow then crowd. We ended up making our way to Camp Nou among all of the FC Barcelona fans.
We both wore our Messi jerseys to the game and had a fantastic time. We had some nosebleed seats, but the day was beautiful and it was awesome to be able to see the entire field and enjoy the warmth of the sun. FC Barcelona won by a landslide, but the game was interesting because Messi beat the record number of goals scored by an FC Barcelona player! He scored his 370th goal with FC Barcelona and the crowd went wild! It was very cool to see.
After the game we headed back to the apartment and after eating out (more paella!) we spent the night in. We were so pooped from our nighttime festivities from the night before. On Monday we woke up and went straight to the market for breakfast. The market of Barcelona is wonderful. All fresh fruits, meats, fish, and vegetables fill the market that both locals and tourists frequent. We were enthralled with the fruits and fruit smoothies. For only a Euro you could buy a fruit smoothie with all sorts of exotic fresh fruit. I tasted two of them, I believe one was a strawberry papaya, and the other was some sort of mango concoction.
The market had more than just fruit, we stopped at a stand selling burritos, tacos, nachos and salads. Emily and I each bought a burrito. I had a sausage, egg and fries burrito. It was fantastic hot breakfast food. That is a rarity in Europe, hot breakfast. I cannot wait to have eggs, bacon, and pancakes back in the US. After our burrito we headed to the Sagrada Familia. Sangrada Familia is a famous church in Barcelona that is unfinished. Gaudi, the architect, designed the structure in a very interesting way and died mid-way through. It is still under construction years later. I unfortunately did not go inside because the line was much too long, but the outside was amazing. I find that most Gaudis work resembles something out of a Dr Suess book, including this church.
After viewing the Sagrada Familia we headed to Park Güell. Park Güell is a huge park with a lot of gardens and architectural structures. Gaudi also designed this park. Originally it was built at the turn of the 20th century to be a new housing development for upper class members of the barcelona community. However, Gaudi left the project to begin work on Sagrada Familia. The facility changed to a park and is another tribute to Gaudi. We walked a long while around the park then paid to get into the area of Gaudi's work. It looked like a Dr Suess world. All the mosaics were beautiful and I had a fantastic time wandering around viewing all the beautiful scenery.
After Park Güell we siesta-ed then walked through the gothic quarter to a sandwich place that was highly recommended. The sandwich place is called Bo de B, and it was very delicious. The line was a bit long but worth it. I had a tuna sandwich with all these Spanish fixings and it was very flavorful. The sandwich didn't change my life but it was amazingly delicious. After sandwiches at the port, we went on a search for churros and hot chocolate.
We eventually found a churro and hot chocolate place! The hot chocolate in Barcelona (as in Italy) is basically melted chocolate, which is too rich for me to drink plain. However, we dipped our churros in the chocolate and it was unbelievably delicious.
We then met up with Jenni who came back from Valencia and headed off to a bar crawl! The bar crawl was a lot of fun. Some highlights include, meeting new people from around the world, us 4 American girls beating some German boys in beer pong, and of course Emily's birthday!
When the bar crawl was over Jenni and I headed back to the apartment and attempted an hour of sleep until we had to leave for the airport to Rome for our next leg of the journey.
I wish I could have stayed in Barcelona longer. The people, atmosphere, food and scenery has me wanting to go back as soon as possible.
Here are a few pictures!
This cool arch we found on the way to our apartment
Me and my dunkin donuts coffee!
One of our delicious meals! We love paella :)
Emily and Me with our Sangria!
Me, Emily and Danielle at the sunrise
At the FC Barcelona game!
All of the fruit smoothies at the market
The Sagrada Familia! I recommend just googling a picture because I am a terrible photographer
A lookout over Barcelona in Park Güell
Mosaic lizard fountain in the park
All of us at the bar crawl Monday night!
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for my next blog post on Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii!!
Adios!
Carolyn
