Our flight from Paris to Barcelona left at 6:30 in the evening on a Thursday. When we booked the flight, we figured it was best to travel the night before so you'd be fully refreshed the next day. Luckily, it worked out exactly like that. We arrived in Barcelona and took a bus to the city center. From there, we walked along La Rambla, or the main pedestrian street, to find our hostel for the first night. The first night wasn't too eventful. We checked into our hostel, set up our beds, went exploring in the city and bought some snacks, and then went back to the hostel to sleep.
The next morning we woke up fully refreshed and ready for day 1: beach day! We put on our swimsuits under our clothes, locked up our luggage, and headed out. First we grabbed some donuts and fruit for breakfast and then we bought sandwiches for lunch that we stored in our beach bags for later. We bought the fruit at a covered market right off of La Rambla; the pineapple was absolutely incredible. So we walked down the rest of the street and eventually made it to Port Valle, the main port full of massive ships. It was while we were walking along the Mediterranean that Courtney and I received the first of many cat calls in Barcelona. "Hey baby! Yummy, yummy!" We're not exactly sure what they meant by that but 3 months of training in Paris has taught us how to ignore strange men very well.
After the port, at last we stumbled upon the beach. We couldn't have asked for a better day: 75 degree weather with a slight breeze. We were on the beach for approximately 6 hours. I applied spf 30 sunscreen twice; unfortunately I missed a few spots and ended up looking diseased on my leg and ankles. Courtney on the other hand, turned into a ripe tomato; she may of may not have forgotten to put on any sunscreen before falling asleep on her towel. But it wasn't until much later that we realized we were any burnt at all. We met up with our friend Bret and his roommates on the beach, he gave us directions to his apartment, and we went to get our stuff from the hostel, grab some gelato on the way, and then meet up with them at his apartment after.
Outside Bret's apartment, we went to the grocery store to buy some dinner, sandwich materials for the weekend, and sangria for that night. Everything was so cheap! We certainly weren't in Paris anymore. After making ourselves dinner, everyone started getting ready to go out to the clubs at about 11. No one even had a taste of sangria until about midnight. You see, in Barcelona they are nocturnal; the lifestyle is completely backwards where they stay up all night partying, get home at the crack of dawn, sleep half the day and then do it all over again. It's clearly a viscous cycle.
So we headed out to "Ocean" at about 2:30 AM. Because a friend of mine knew the promoter, Cooper, Courtney, and I were invited into the VIP section and given a bottle of champagne! It was clearly going to be a fun night. We had a great time with everyone, dancing and enjoying the music. We finally made it home around 6:30, popped a pizza in the oven, sat up for a little while longer and then went to bed.
Now, Courtney and I had an agenda. There were many things we wanted to see while in Barcelona so we truly couldn't spend the whole day sleeping. We were up by noon and out the door by 12:30 ready to explore Barcelona. Our first stop, Sangrada Familia. Sangrada Familia is a Basilica designed by Gaudi that is supposed to feel like a forest on the inside. I was incredibly impressed by the basilica. From looking at pictures, I could tell that the building is very artistic and unusual and I didn't think I was going to like it at all. However, the outside was incredible and the inside was even better. It was massive and intricate. My photos don't do it justice but I will always remember what it was like to be inside. The basilica is still being built today. The interior was finished in 2010 and Pope Benedict XVI offered mass to dedicate the basilica at that time. The exterior, which began production in 1890 is projected to be finished in 2025 I believe. The most interesting aspects of the basilica was the decorative elements used to make the basilica feel like a forest. There were many spirals, leaves, fruit, animals, and trees incorporated into the decorations, but all these things were incorporated amongst statues depicting the lord's passion or other bible stories. It really was incredible.
After visiting Sangrada, we went to see Casa Batllo, another building by Gaudi, and there we accidentally ran into Rachel and Kelly! The 4 of us left together and went to see Gaudi's Parc Guell; this park is incredibly large and filled with colorful mosaics all over the walls and benches of the park. It was truly beautiful and the park also overlooked the city so we took pictures of some amazing views. After the park, we went and saw one of the coolest things I saw all weekend: the magic fountain! It was a huge circular fountain with many streams of water that shoot and spray water to a Disney medley for 15 minutes. It was perfectly in time with the music and made me feel like I was sitting in a Disney theme park.
After the fountain, we went back to Bret's, went to mass at 8, took a quick nap, and got ready to go out again. Again, the sangria came out around midnight and we all hung out at Bret's before heading to "Catwalk" around 2:30. By saying the name "Kike" at the door, we all got in without paying cover and ended up staying at the club dancing until about 5:30 in the morning. We had planned on staying up to watch the sun rise but instead we went home, made eggs and fell asleep around 6:30.
We didn't wake up till about 1:30 the next day. This is precisely why I don't like the Barcelona lifestyle; you're awake all night and then sleep half your day away. It's not my cup of tea. But after we got up and got ready, we took a train to a suburb and hiked around park Collerosa for a few hours enjoying the nature. After heading home and showering, we met up with our friend Jamie for Spanish Tapas for dinner. I ordered quid and didn't realize I would literally be served a full squid to cut up and eat myself. We also had chorizo, croquettes, and potatoes with hot sauce. From there we took a metro back to La Ramblas and saw a Flamenco show! It was very intense and the dancers were insanely fierce. It was a very cool and different sort of dancing but I really like it. By then, it was already 11 so we went back to Bret's and made the boys crepes as a thank you for letting us stay there. Then we packed up and headed to bed around 1:30 just to get up at 6:30 to catch our flight back to Paris.
It took awhile to get home but I was happy to make it back. Barcelona was an amazing place to visit but I certainly couldn't keep up with the lifestyle for an entire semester. Before I knew it, it was 2 days later and my mom and aunt were arriving in Europe! More to come about our adventures soon.
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