Barcelona

Saturday

I got on the metro when it opened at 6am as people were coming home from partying the night before. Renee and I were worried about finding each other at the airport since we were already crushed for time, but we ended up running into each other on the way on the metro! Our flight was RyainAir, so we had to fly into Girona, a little over an hour outside of Barcelona, so it was a metro, flight, and then bus ride to a city just a few hours away by car. We arrived around noon and found our hostel which was perfectly located and really nice- spiral marble staircase?! We decided the first thing to do was explore and found 2 of Gaudi's buildings plus his La Sagrada Familia. We only saw them from the outside, and they were incredible. Also went to my first Subway in Spain... the bread/Subway smell reminded me of home haha. We decided the day was too perfect not to be at the beach, so we went to the closest beach, Barceloneta, and squeezed in between piles of people. The beach was dirty with slabs of rock (not nice smooth rocks, like jagged pieces of ancient ruins) and trash :( There were people selling you either beer, slices of coconut, or massages and yelling as they passed by every second. It was really annoying, except for the guy who was balancing a HUGE tray of donuts on his head dancing around the beach blankets. The sun went in, and so we walked up La Rambla- the main street with vendors (including pigeon sellers. ew) and stopped into the huge outdoor market, La Boqueria. I knew Id love it. We got a smootie and a wrap, the perfect ending to a beach-day. After going back to the hostel, we met up with out friends from Gtown and Comillas (Amy, Victor, Tony, and Erica) to go out for the night. We went to the famous Chupitos bar famous for their creative shots, and I got the PopRocks, which not surprisingly involved a chaser of PopRocks. yum. We went to the clubs on the beach, but since it was so late, a lot were closing and we ended up hanging out on the beach.

Sunday

Renee and I were dead set on a full beach day so at 9am, we dragged ourselved out of bed and got ready. We were halfway through breakfast when we looked outside and noticed the rain!!! It was only 9:30, so we hoped it would clear up-- it didnt :( We said goodbye to Amy and went to see the inside of the Gaudi building, Casa Batllo. I was skeptical with the 14 euro entrance fee, but it was incredible. Here are come pictures. My friend described it as a mixture of Alice in Wonderland and Dr. Seuss. We headed to a Japanese restaurant for lunch- my failed sushi attempt number 2 and Ive decided they make the rice sweet, which is what makes it taste weird... cant wait for Asia Express! We bought an umbrella from the hostel and walked in the rain to Guell Park, a park designed by Gaudi, originally only for the upper class turned public park by the city. It was so cool too. Really good views of the city and the closest Ive felt to wandering candyland (minus the candy). We met up with Erica, Tony, and Victor in the "grotto" part of the park and hung out until they had to catch their flight home. After they left, Renee and I picked up some McDonalds (weirdest McD's trip: a coffee AND donut is 20 cents less than just a coffee, and Id been waiting all semester for them to start serving gazpacho, so I finally asked when theyd start serving and they said theyve always had it (its NOT on the menu), so I tried it and its a popular Spain brand, not a McD original...probably for the best) We took our picnic and rented a blanket from the hostel to Mountjuic to see the "magic fountain show". Every night the big fountain on the top of the mountain has a show with water formations timed to music and light effects. It was neat. That night, we were determined to go out even though it was a Sunday night. We wandered for 2 hours before finding out the other location of Chupitos was closed for a national holiday that was on Thursday! (of Spain and your ridiculous number of holidays)

Monday

We checked out of the hostel, ready to finally head to the beach for the day. We stopped by La Boqueria to get some fruit to snack on on the beach. Remembering how bad the beach from Saturday was, we decided to take the risk to go to a random metro stop by the sea in hopes it would be better. We decided the "lacuna" stop sounded like laguna and thus would be a great beach. Preppared for disappointment, the beach turned out to be wonderful.- it was big, clean, with only about 15 locals on the whole beachfront, and no roaming vendors. The sun even stayed out the whole time. perfection. We walked to the Born neighborhood for lunch and took out friends' suggestion for a pizzeria for lunch. It was deliciousssss. Our plan was to go back to the beach for an hour before we had to head to the airport, but there was no time, so we went to the hostel, got our stuff, and made it to the bus station just in time. Once at the Girona airport, there was a great sunny terrace outside, and we prepared for our flight home and planned the few days we have left in Madrid.

Verdict: Barcelona is such a beach city with people from all over, it doesn't really feel like Spain. But some things its got, that Madrid is lacking: beach and Gaudi's touch.

Aftermath: Today Renee and I were still craving sun, so we spent all day in Retiro Park with friends.