Where you going? Barcelona!

kelly & I at La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family)
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Hello again, Wanted to share some pictures and of course stories from my trip to Barcelona last weekend... Before I get too far behind in my travels and blogging...

Barcelona is a huge city, and we had heard horror stories about bad parts of town, pickpocketing etc etc... But we had also heard marvelous stories of the art and architecture that makes up the city. We went on the whim we would experience the marvelous and not the nightmares. We were right.

We went on the whim we would experience the marvelous and not the nightmares. We were right.

Me on the roof in Casa Batllo
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I went with one other girl from my program, Kelly, who also goes to Western! :) She and I met this trip and have become fast friends, sharing memories and things we miss about Bellingham and campus all too often.

We left for Barcelona late friday night, and after a scare about the times the airport shuttles came through town to get us, we made it to the lovely Granada airport way too early for our flight... The Granada airport has all of 4 gates. No. Not 4 terminals. Not 4 wings. 4 gates. And they are all in a line. There is one waiting area, and only one plane can be out at a time in front of the entrance. It was absolutely hilarious... So that means the airport isn’t too huge, and we didn’t find a lot to do... We got to Barcelona around 10:15, waited to find the right train to the right metro, and then to walk to our hostel. We took a wrong turn when we got out of the metro at around midnight, and walked into some street full of sex shops and x-rated movie theaters. (Kelly had a mini heartattack about where i booked this hostel...) Thank god it was the wrong way! We checked in and had quite the experience. Everyone spoke english! We walked in, and there was a bar in the lobby. I’m not kidding. There were ping pong and pool tables, and a bar. tons of couches, tvs... it was essentially a frat. A clean frat, but a frat! We got our keys, and they resembled watches. Literally. You put it on your wrist like a watch, and touch the face to any door you want opened (including your room door), and your safe in the room. We stayed in a 4 person dorm, and it was quite the experience. Our shared bathroom was never scarce of a girl throwing up, or someone blowdrying or straightening their hair. It brought back memories of the dorms... haha.

Barcelona Waterfront, and really cool pedestrian bridge.
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Alright. Now for Barcelona, despite our strange experience with the hostel, we had a fabulous time. We took it slow, didn’t rush, and wanted it to be a more relaxed trip, where we saw all we wanted to see, and enjoyed each thing to the fullest extent, resting if we wanted, and even, god forbid, sleeping in a bit.... We started Saturday Morning at La Sagrada Familia, which is the HUGE cathedral that is STILL being built (over 100 years later) and was designed back in 1882? by Gaudi. The design is just fabulous it is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. We learned about his inspirations of nature and how his architecture is known for never using straight lines, or corners... They project the cathedral will finally be finished in the year 2010... we’re already planning our return trip to see the finished product! haha. Next we headed around to do some walking, we hit the big row of Gaudi works, La Passeig de Gracia, the street which contains building after building of Gaudi’s work.... We paid a pretty penny to go in one, but ohhh was it worth it. Casa Batllo. It was a huge old Cataluyan house that Gaudi was comissioned to remodel and he did it all based off the sea, and underwater. Oh man was it intense! I fell in love with Gaudi’s architecture right then and there if I hadn’t already... We dodged some downpour by grabbing a bite to eat, and then continued down the main tourist drag “Las Ramblas” which lead straight into the waterfront! Another beach, in another corner of spain! You know me, I just had to touch the water. We watched the sun set and then grabbed a metro back to our hostel where we accidentally took a small nap... After all this was supposed to be our last big trip and we promised we would relax and not rush ourselves...

BEACH!
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Sunday morning, we let ourselves sleep in a little bit, and then headed out to Parc Guell. Gaudi’s Park. I’m not kidding this park was not only huge, but absolutely fabulous. It was designed by Gaudi and there were buildings of strange architecture, and fun benches and artwork everywhere. Just all sorts of little things that made it Gaudi. We had a fun little picnic there, jamon & chorizo, gouda, crackers, and juice. It was so tasty. OH and if anyone watches America’s Next Top Model? The Barcelona episode, their runway show was filmed in Parc Guell. How fabulous! We pretended to be model’s and were just amazed that Tyra had been there! How fun! Our next stop was Montjuic, the “mountain” that overlooks the whole city of Barcelona. You take a funicular to get there, from the Metro station, and it just takes you up and drops you off, right where you are able to catch the cable cars that float all over the mountain. On top of this mountain, most importantly there are the old Olympic Stadiums from the Barcelona Olympics years and years ago... and there was an old castle too. We wandered and wandered up there, saw tons of gardens, and the old olympic stuff, including the dive pool and the very majestic buildings, and got a litttttle lost. We ended up walking off the mountain instead of finding our metro stop home, and ended up at the Plaza de Toros, cool view, but way far from our Hostel. We essentially walked right by it up on top of the mountain! hah. Ooops! But it was still way fun. We didn’t fly out until early early Monday morning, so we were going to kill time at a bar or two, and grab some coffee and head to the airport, but the two of us were just so ridiculously exhausted, we got some dinner... Someone had told me about this bar that served 1 euro meals at 8:00pm... and then we grabbed some cafe, hung out until about 11:30pm, after which we headed straight for the airport. We both “slept” incredibly uncomfortably in the terrible chairs on the check in side of the airport, because it was way to early for us to be able to check in.... and finally got to board our plane at almost 7am. I got back to my house at about 10:00am, and went straight to sleep, thinking I would wake up around 12:00pm or 12:30pm when my madre came to the house to make lunch (since the kitchen is right next to my room...) But no. I didn’t wake up until 2:30pm when everyone was sitting down to lunch. It was some of the best sleep I think I’ve ever had!

Me in Parc Guell
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What a whirlwind. But nothing bad happened, we stuck together, we were smart... no pickpocket encounters, no dirty sex district hostels.. all in all the weekend went quite well, and we had a grand time. It was relaxing enough, yet we got to see everything that we wanted to, and enjoy ourselves with every step....

I have some fun pictures from the Gaudi architecture, I hope you enjoy them! Be sure to click View more pictures... :) Missing you all!