Bailando en Barcelona

The only word I have to say for Barcelona is... AMAZING! 

The city was AMAZING!

The people were AMAZING!

The architecture was AMAZING!

The Mediterranean beaches were AMAZING!

Friday night, about 14 of us hopped on an overnight bus to Barcelona. We left at 9:00, spent the entire night attempting to sleep, and then arrived in Barcelona at 7:45 in the morning. With a little bit of excitement involving pickpockets (nothing, thankfully, was stolen... we learned a very tough lesson without actually losing anything) and buying train tickets instead of metro tickets, we all made it to our hostel.

Erica, Laurel, Maryn and Helena in the Urbany Hostel

Monday morning sunrise... view from our room in our hostel... 

It was called the Urbany Hostel and it was so nice. I mean, it was a youth hostel so it wasn't as wonderful as a hotel, but everybody said it was the nicest hostel they've ever stayed in. I'd never stayed in a hostel, but this was a wonderful first experience. I will probably be spoiled from now on. I stayed with Helena, Maryn, and Kelsey in a room with just the four of us. We had a full bathroom (toilet, shower, sink) and we each got a locker.

When we got to the hostel, we freshened up (I quickly rinsed off because I felt so gross from sitting on a bus for so long) and then we started our day!

day 1

Some of the girls decided that they wanted to go on a sight seeing bus tour of the city. It was a little expensive, so a few of us decided to kinda do our own thing and tour around on foot/metro. Six of us girls headed over to the Sagrada Familia which is a cathedral designed by Gaudi. It is still under construction and is projected to be finished around 2030. We were talking about doing a reunion trip to Barcelona when it is finished! It is a little offsetting to see all the big orange cranes next to a cathedral that is supposed to be so beautiful, but when you think about the fact that you are standing there while this amazing thing is being built, it is actually kinda cool.

La Sagrada Familia

In the basement of the cathedral there is a museum that has information about how the cathedral was built, Gaudi's life, and where he got his artistic influence from. At first I wasn't a huge fan of his designs, but the museum completely changed my mind. He took much of his influence from nature like trees, bees, flowers, plants, etc. He also had very cool influence from mathematic patterns and such. Very cool.

By the end of our time in the Sagrada Familia, we were super hungry so we headed down and grabbed lunch at a restaurant that had a bunch of different options. We split two pitchers of sangria between the six of us (which turned out to only be two cups each) and I ate pizza and paella. The paella was delicious.

Helena, Erica, Kelsey, Maryn, me, and Laurel drinking Sangria at lunch

We all look tired because we hadn't really slept in over 24 hours!

After lunch, since we were still so inspired by the Sagrada Familia, we decided to head up to Güell Park which was designed by Gaudi. We spent the rest of the afternoon admiring all the cool architecture, the views, and the gardens. Since we decided to purchase the more expensive combination tickets at the Sagrada Familia, we were also able to tour Gaudi's house which is located at the park. It was interesting but not all together amazing. I was more a fan of the walk up to the park (a HUGE hill which had a combination of stairs and outdoor escalators), the view from the top, and the architecture of the houses he designed. 

 Me and a wonderful view of Barcelona! 

Buildings designed by Gaudi 

Gaudi's bathroom... (we went in his house)

 View of Barcelona from the top of the world

the girls in the park

 Güell Park designed by Gaudi

By the end of our time in the park, we were pretty exhausted so we headed back to the hostel and took naps. The boys made us spaghetti for dinner (they transported it to us in cereal bag... I was a little skeptical at first, but it turned out okay), and then we headed out to see if we could find a bar or a club that would be fun. We didn't end up finding anything, but we had fun hanging out and we got back to the hostel around 2:30 in the morning which allowed us to sleep more than we had expected.

day 2

On day two we woke up with a plan. We grabbed our free breakfast at the hostel, and then headed out.

The six of us girls took the subway and got off next to the Arc de Triomf. We took pictures there, wandered down the beautiful pathway in front of the arc, and listened to some awesome trumpet street music. We then made the most amazing stop of the day… THE CHOCOLATE MUSEUM!

 From the instant we stepped into the museum, the experience was wonderful. Our entrance passes were chocolate bars! We toured through the museum and learned about chocolate’s history, influence in art, and uses. It was super cool. Afterwards, we took a little break at their café and ordered hot chocolate, café con leche, chocolate croissants, chocolate milk, and other delicious treats. 

Our chocolate bar tickets

Me and the three cooks :)

Inspiration through chocolate... I can see why!!

From the chocolate museum, we made our way down towards the Mediterranean Sea. We stumbled upon the cathedral where there was some live music and dancing. Helena watched for a little bit and then joined in one of the circles and danced along with them! It was pretty cool.

 Helena dancing in front of the cathedral (blue shirt)

We walked down some alleyways on the way to Las Ramblas which is a very popular street in Barcelona. We took pictures with a giant lobster, met some cute bici-boys, and strolled down the pier. Finally we made it to the Mediterranean Sea! We put our feet in the water, but didn’t spend that much time there because we were so hungry! We ate a delicious lunch on the patio of a cute little restaurant with a wonderful view of the ocean.

Girls eating lunch with a view of the beautiful Mediterranean Sea 

 Me and my giant lobster friend

 Putting my feet in the Mediterranean. Beautiful water :)

After that, we split up and some of us went up to Camp Nou which is the largest stadium in Europe. It is were the Barcelona futbol team plays their games. Unfortunately it was closed so I only got pictures of the outside. It would have been cool to go inside. I guess I’ll have to make my way back to Barcelona at some point so that I can go inside! Shame ;)

Me with my sad face outside the closed stadium. Why have a poster that says "join us" when I can't even get inside?? :(

another lame view of the outside of the stadium

That night we made pasta again because it was so much cheaper than going out for dinner. We decided to go out with the hostel so we got in free to a dance club. We met some pretty cool (and cute) guys from Australia and Germany. We had fun dancing hanging out until 4 in the morning. We only got three hours of sleep, got up, and hopped back on the bus for the 10 hour ride home.

I wish I had at least 4 more days in Barcelona so that I could have time to do everything else there was to do in that wonderful, beautiful city. If you ever have a chance to go to Barcelona, I highly recommend it.