Barcelona!

Before I left for Barcelona on Friday, friends and I celebrated Thanksgiving with our own feast. It was weird because the entire day did not feel like Thanksgiving to me- partly because I actually had to attend school but mostly because I was not with my family back home. However the dinner and the company turned out better than I expected, we even had a few Spaniards come and learn what Thanksgiving was all about. We ate dinner late, around 10 pm and ended up jamming out in rockband afterwards. It was very fun, but I did not get home until around 1, and I had yet to finish packing for my trip. Needless to say I did not crawl into bed until three or so, and we were meeting at 7:30 to catch our 8:06 train. But the advantage of taking the train is that you have a long time to sleep, which is precisely what I did while I ignored the homework I had in my bag.



Sagrada Familia



We arrived in Barcelona around one, and at the advice of Colleen bought a Barcelona Tourist Card (a must if you go to Barcelona). It was an all access pass to all of the public transportation in Barcelona. It also came with discounted entrance into the museums and other touristy stuff and even some free entrances. We made our way to the hostel where we checked into our room and met our British roommates. We chatted for a bit and then left to go to the Sagrada Family. It is a cathedral designed by Guadi, a famous architect who left his imprint all over Barcelona. The cathedral was beautiful. As we walked down the street we passed a building and suddenly BAM! There it was. It was almost a Big Ben moment where it took my breath away, but only half way. The architecture was indescribably fantastic, at night it seems as if the building is melting. As we walked around every side of the Sagrada Family I spotted a Starbucks.



We sat and enjoyed in some beverage before making our way to the port. And now, it’s story time (HRM majors? Lol) . I had bought new shoes right before my trip (an awesome pair of flats for 6 euro!) The problem is that they are kind of slippery when walking around the streets of Barcelona. I had slipped a few times during the day but never fell. We got off the metro and started looking for a map, I saw one and started heading in that direction. I was not watching where I was going and before I knew I turned my head and there the map was. I tried stopping suddenly to look at it but before I knew it I was on the ground! It must have been the most graceful fall because I don’t even remember falling, or having that panicked falling feeling. All of the sudden I was just sitting on the ground laughing hysterically. Nicole and Maggie thought I was hurt but soon enough they realized I was ok and joined me in laughter.



My chosen stop



We walked around the port a little while but then decided to do something else. Back home I have always wanted to just get into a car drive in the most random directions and see where I end up. However, that is not economically feasible and my decent sense of direction keeps me from getting thoroughly lost. So we decided to use our tram tickets in the same scenario (Being underground really throws off my sense of direction, duh). So we ventured on in our own game. Based on a grueling game of rock, paper, scissors it was determined Maggie would choose our first stop and what line to get back on (You had to choose a line with connecting trams of course). I chose next and Nicole decided our final destination. We ended up going in a circle, but we were in a completely different area than when we started. We walked, and walked, and walked through the city along one of the main streets and saw some pretty window displays in stores. We stopped for a cheap dinner at KFC. By this time it was relatively late and we were very tired from all of our walking. We failed at trying to find metro stations so we asked some boys were the nearest metro station was. We were in the middle of two, and against my instincts we backtracked to find one. When we got to the tram station to pull out my tourism card, lo and behold, it was gone= proof of why I had a bad feeling. I had to buy a ticket for the trip. All I could do was hope that the tourism office could replace it if I showed them my receipt. We finally found our way back to the hostel where I showered and went to bed completely frustrated.

On day 2, my travel partners were having trouble getting out of bed so I decided to go ahead and find a tourism office. I went back to the Sagrada Familia which seemed like the easiest one to find without losing myself in the process. While in the metro I glanced at my map to determine which direction I needed to go and a little old man came up, asked me where I was going and pointed me in the right direction (all in Spanish J) It was a pleasant treat to meet him. Immediately after he left and a woman came up to me and asked me a question in Spanish (not very well). I asked if she wanted to speak English and she seemed a bit relieved. I asked her where she was from and she told me Prescott! Someone from home! (Well not exactly but when you are halfway around the world 100 miles does not seem so far) I had no idea where she wanted to go but luckily the little old man came back and knew exactly where she was talking about. Then I continued on to the tourist office. I went and asked the guy working if I could get a replacement, and after he gave me false hope by telling me “I think so,” he asked the girl he was working with and she said no. I had to have proof that I did not have my ticket any longer. Well, please let me know if you have some way to prove that you lost something, because that concept baffled me. Frustrated and irritated even more, I bought a 2 day transportation pass and went back to the hostel.



Parc Guell overlooking the city



We decided to start our day off with the Parc Guell which is also where the Gaudi museum is located. We travelled to the closest metro stop which actually was not close at all. However we were able to find it easy and do some souvenir shopping on the way. The park is fabulous and quite extravagant. I can’t put the wonderment in the words so just make sure you look at those pictures. We then found out the bus would be the quickest way to where we wanted to go. So we hopped on and took in the sights from above ground. Looking at the map we got off the bus where we thought the Harley store was, which was in a very expensive shopping area. We realized later, that what we thought was the Harley shop was another point of interest we had circled on the map, needless to say, we did not find it. However we headed to a place near the port to meet up with our British friends to watch some rugby.



Mirador de Colom



We had some time and free passes so we ventured up into the Mirador de Colom, which gave us some amazing views of the city. However, I started to panic when I realized we were very high, and the tower swayed a little. There was a tiny elevator that took us to the top but then there was only enough walking room for single file around the top. Anxiety kicked in and after I snapped pictures of every angle I really needed to get down! We had to wait though, of course so I tried to breathe and remember that the structure was secure. When we exited the elevator I had never been more relieved to step on solid ground.



Our British friends



We were supposed to meet the guys outside of the metro entrance but we did not see them. So we decided to walk down la rambla and somehow found a girl who was promoting the Irish bar the boys were going to. We found the bar and watched a rugby game, England vs. South Africa. Andy was explaining the rules but I was so incredibly exhausted I could not pay attention. But I did learn a try is worth 5 points and the England team actually sucks for a team that really loves the sport. We left the bar in time to get lost again before the Flamenco show. We were looking for the Cathedral of Barcelona and ended up finding a smaller cathedral. Discombobulated, we decided to just try and find a metro station. In the process we actually found the Cathedral of Barcelona. It was stunning; but they had fake candles in place of the real colorful candles they had in the smaller cathedral. After we left the cathedral we asked a lady, who turned out to be very nice, where the nearest metro was. She gave us excellent directions and in no time we found the place where our dinner show was (we actually decided to do this Friday, but did not know where it was. When we were lost the prior night we walked right by it, so we were very excited that we knew where it was.)  The show was very entertaining and the paella and Sangria were delicious. Overall it was an excellent experience.

Charlie!

And then there was Charlie. Charlie was the, well I guess you would call him the MC of the night. He was entertaining and cute. At the end of the dinner, Nicole wanted to get a picture of us near the stage. We asked one of the gentlemen working and he was glad to humor us, we even asked Charlie to get in our picture. He said we were going to be “men in black” but Maggie said we were more like Charlie’s angels, hence the name Charlie. We snapped our picture and as we were leaving he says “Goodbye Angels” to which our reply was “goodbye Charlie.” It was amusing and had us giggling the whole night long.



What a view!





Pretending :)



Day three we got up for breakfast and packed our bags. Nicole stayed at the hostel to work on her mountain of homework while Maggie and I explored more. Again we ventured out to find the Harley store. We found it easily once we determined the little m’s on the map were metro stations and the big M’s were museums. LOL, this greatly contributed to us being so lost the prior 2 days! Of course it was Sunday and the store was closed. Sad. From there we went to the Botanical Gardens, which we never actually made it to, but in the general area are tons of parks. We explored for a while, took awesome pictures, and saw some amazing views of the city. Then we found a bus stop, hopped on and headed back to the metro station. We hopped on and off of the metro to see the Arc de Triomf before heading to the music museum! The music museum was pretty awesome. They had some awesome instruments that I had never seen before and at the end we even got to play some! I was thinking the whole time how John and Dawn would have loved this museum! It was also cool because Maggie and I were literally the only people in the museum! After the museum we worked our way back to the hostel where we picked up our luggage and Nicole and headed to the train station. Once we got there we were hungry for lunch so we decided to go traditional and eat McDonalds! If you want to yell at me for eating American food while I was here let me tell you this: it was fast and cheap, and besides Starbucks, Barcelona is the only place I have eaten in an American restaurant



My triumphant pose!



Sorry for the length of the post but I loved Barcelona and did not want to leave anything out! I hope you enjoyed! Much Love!