A happy heart but a sad wallet. That about sums up Barcelona. I spent more money than I’m even willing to admit to myself, but it was completely worth it! I had the best time seeing new things and catching up with friends. If I got to do it over, I would spend it all again!
Barcelona is a really awesome city. My traveling partner Lea (a friend from both PC and Trinity) and I did so much in just two days that it’s making my feet hurt just thinking about it. I’ve got a lot to share with you, so get comfy. This is going to be a long one.
Before I jump into story time I want to take a minute to clear something up that I know is very confusing for everyone – 20:00 military time is actually 8:00 regular time, not 10:00. I know. Lea and I made the same mistake (Scott, you should pay attention to this). We were racking our brains trying to figure out why we had a six hour flight to Spain and a two hour flight home. Could it be air currents? The time difference? Nope. Just faulty math. We realized our mistake when the captain of the plane ever so elegantly announced “Ooooookay folks iiit’s about 7:45. Weeeee will be landing in about fifffffffteen minutes. Pleeeeeease remain seated during our descent. ThankyoufortravlingRyanairwehopeyouenjoyedyourflight”. Light bulb! We had been preparing ourselves for a mad midnight dash across Barcelona in order to make it out with our friends, but instead we arrived in plenty of time. A happy mistake!
After finding our way to the hostel and getting settled we ventured across the city to meet up with our other PC comrades, all the while congratulating ourselves on figuring out how to use the metro. Yup, the same metro that 11-year-olds and illiterate people also know how to use. We were so proud. Our Barcelonian friars took us to a bar where four of us shared a humungous vat of Sangria. Yes. A vat. With spigots. I’ve never seen such a beautiful thing. We then stumbled, I mean walked, over to this cool club called Catwalk where we danced the rest of the night away (and a good portion of the morning).
The next day we met with our friends for breakfast (two poached eggs over spinach on some kind of wonderful bread with Hollandaise sauce .. heaven) and toured around the city a bit. We went to a beautiful park (name unknown) with a really cool labyrinth in the center which, after a thousand wrong turns and a few frustrated curse words, we totally conquered. Then we headed down to the beach where we sat in an outdoor restaurant/bar by the water and shared calamari and €12 mojitos. I actually heard my wallet growl at me. Then we got dinner (very fancy “smashed” eggs with potatoes and chorizo .. muy deliscioso) where our very fluent friend helped us order while I gave the waiter a blank stare and managed an “Uhhhhhhh gracias”. Unfortunately, all of our friends had midterms this week, so while they slouched off to study Lea and I headed back down to the water and went to the Ice Bar. It’s a bar made completely out of ice – everything from the walls to the sculptures to the glasses. They give you a huge parka and gloves to wear while you sip your drink in what is basically a tricked out igloo. It was great …. for about a half hour. Then we couldn’t feel our fingers and were nearly falling asleep in our parkas, so we called it a night and headed back to the hostel.
The next day Lea and I were on our own while our friends had class, but our friend Christine was nice enough to plan out the whole day for us. What a pal! We started off visiting Park Guell. It was designed by Antoni Gaudi to be a residential area for Barcelona’s richest. No one actually wanted to live there because of its distance from the city and its location on top of an enormous hill, so it was turned into a park. The tile work on all of the monuments and fixtures was unbelievably beautiful. It makes you stop and appreciate not only the beauty of the work itself, but the incredible mind that was able to craft such a brilliant thing. Beautiful feels like an understatement. The rest of our day was filled with more Gaudi genius. We saw the Sagrada Familia, an enormous church that was started in the late 1800’s and is still being built today. Construction is predicted to be complete in 2026. It was absolutely breathtaking. After the Sagrada Familia we went to see two of the Gaudi houses: the House of Bones and Casa Mila. I had learned about these houses in my Civ class, which is why I can’t remember a damn thing about them. Postmodernism … flowing natural forms .. that’s all I got. All that unnecessary information leaves your head as soon as you leave class. Every single lyrics to ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’, that’s that stuff that stays. When I was looking up at the slides of these houses in class I never thought that a year later I’d be standing in front of them in person. So wild! We ended our ‘tour de Barcelona’ with a stop at La Boqueria – a huge food market that’s famous in Spain. There was an incredible amount of food and everything looked so amazing and fresh. We got some fruit and sangria and took it down to the water where we snacked and rested our weary feet while enjoying the view.
Later that night we met up with friends for dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall food place (aren’t those always the best?) where we had mind-blowingly delicious Spanish food. The kind of food that makes you want to moan with joy while you eat it. We had patatas bravas - fried potato wedges covered in four different kinds of mouth watering sauce, followed by grinders with freshly cooked chicken, homemade bread, fresh veggies, and an assortment of sauces. Oh, the gut busting joy! After dinner we headed to a bar called Chupitos which means shots in Spanish. This bar has hundreds of different shots, all with one main ingredient: fire. Yes, you read that right. Pretty much any shot you order gets lit on fire. We had a boy scout shot, where you roast marshmallows over the flaming bar, take a shot that tastes like a Somoa cookie, and then chase with the roasted marshmallow. I know. We also did a Harry Potter which consisted of an orange slice covered in sugar on top of a fruity tasting shot, all lit on fire. I’m not exactly sure what the Harry Potter part of that was, but it was awesome. Afterwards we headed over to a cool club that had an open bar for an hour (Wooooo Barcelona!!!) and then headed back to the hostel to get a little sleep before venturing home on Monday.
So that was Barcelona! Vibrant, lively, and beautiful. I even got a little color on my face from the sun! That concept doesn’t exist in Ireland. My bank account is currently not on speaking terms with me, but it was money well spent! You can see all the pictures here! Lea also has a ton of photos, so I’ll make sure to swipe some from her and post another album once they go up.
Now that I’ve taken up a substantial amount of your time, I have to finish an essay before my Mom comes tomorrow morning! Any bets on how many pints it’ll take before I have her on stage singing with the band? I’m going with four. (Just kidding, Mom! Pack some advil!)
Sionara, amigos!
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