Las Aventuras de Colleen: Barcelona

I have heard all of my life that Barcelona is a crazy city...but living it was a whole new experience. Up until about a month ago, I didn't have any plans to go to Barcelona and was really hoping that somehow I would end up there; because how could I live in Spain and not visit (arguably) it's most popular city.

Luckily fate was on my side with this one. My roommate Maggie had plans to meet her parents in Barcelona this past weekend. As luck would have it, my best friend from home was also going to be in Barcelona the same weekend as part of a 10 day spring break trip she was taking. My only problem was that I didn't want to impose on Maggie and her parents, and Alyssa didn't know which hostel she was staying at. And this is where luck was once again on my side. I asked my friend Kasey, who is studying in Madrid, if she would possibly want to come to Barcelona as well so that I would have someone to stay with. Needless to say, I ended up in Barcelona with two of my best friends from home and my roommate and her awesome parents...and what a weekend I was in for.

We left Sevilla on Thursday night after taking our first literature exam, and Maggie and I were both pumped. Obviously Maggie was very excited to see her parents, but we were also excited to visit the city that we had heard so much about from everyone on our program. We arrived in Barcelona and headed to meet Maggie's parents at the main plaza in the city. We went and dropped our stuff off at the apartment her parents were staying at, and we headed to dinner. After dinner we walked around the main street in Barcelona, which is called La Rambla. This street was one of my favorite parts of the city. Maggie's parents' apartment was right on La Rambla, and the hostel that I stayed at the rest of the weekend was as well. This street is ALWAYS bustling with people and stretches all the way from the main plaza of the city to the pier, where you will find people laying out by the water or sailing on their boats. The middle of the road is set up for people to walk on, and there are all kinds of street vendors and performers lining this sidewalk as you walk through. Anything you could ever need is on this road, and it has such a sense of community to it. After walking around for a long time and getting to know Maggie's parents, we went back to their apartment and called it a night.

Kasey got into Barcelona at 7:30 AM the next morning, and although I was tired from the late night we had before, I was up and ready to go when she called me. After getting a little (a lot) lost on the way to our hostel, I finally found her. We had barely hugged and dropped our bags before we were out the door on our mission to find Alyssa. Since Alyssa is studying in Italy, her cell phone wouldn't work in Spain, and we had to just hope that knowing her hostel address in Barcelona would be enough to find her. As luck would have it, we hadn't even walked 5 minutes from our hostel's front door before hearing "COLLEEN! KASEY!" and turning around to find her.

La Sagrada Familia

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city and hitting some of the main tourist attractions. First on our list was La Sagrada Familia, which is probably one of the most famous Catholic churches in the world. The main designer of this church is Antoni Gaudi, whose name you will be hearing A LOT, as he designed just about everything famous in Barcelona. Even though construction of La Sagrada Familia began in 1882, it is still not completed, and is not projected to be completed until 2030! Gaudi died in 1926 when only a quarter of his masterpiece had been finished. I don't even know how to describe this church other than saying that it is unlike anything you have ever seen. Part of the church reminds me of a drippy castle that you made on the beach when you were a little kid, but then you look up and see gigantic hanging fruits that are perched on the different levels of the church. We didn't go inside because the line was ridiculously long, but I've heard that the inside of the church is just as odd and psychedelic looking as the outside was.

The only bad part about La Sagrada Familia for me was pulling out my camera to realize that it was dead. Luckily for me, Kasey hates taking pictures and was more than happy to lend me her camera for the weekend so that she didn't have to take the pictures herself. I can't imagine what I would have done without being able to capture any of Barcelona on film!

The cable cars!

After La Sagrada Familia, we took a tip from one of my friends and caught a bus up to Mount Juic. Mount Juic is basically a giant hill in Barcelona, and the bus was a great (cheap) way to see the city without having to walk all the way up this enormous hill. When we got about halfway up, we got off and did one of my favorite things of the weekend, which was ride the cable cars. They reminded me of sealed in ski lifts, and they rode all the way up to the very top of Mount Juic. The view from the cable car was incredible, and it was so fun to ride in it. When we got to the top we hopped off and toured an army fort that is located on top of Mount Juic. We decided that we could handle walking back down the hill, and stopped at the Olympic Stadium on our way down. Barcelona hosted the 1992 Olympics, and it is free to walk around the stadium.

Alyssa, Kasey and I at the pier

Our next stop after making it back to La Rambla was my favorite part of the entire city: La Boqueria. La Boqueria is a huge, open air market, with tons of vendors who have fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, fresh fish, meat, etc. I was like a kid in a candy shop, and I just got more and more amazed by this market as I went through it. I have never seen such fresh produce for so cheap. The people who live in Barcelona just don't know how great they have it! We grabbed some fruit juice and fruit platters in La Boqueria and headed out to the pier to hang out by the water. The pier is a long stretch that is full of people, and it was really relaxing to hang out by the water and get to catch up with my friends from home.

We headed back to our hostels to get cleaned up and take a little siesta before dinner. The landlord who rented Maggie's parents their apartment had given them a great restaurant suggestion before I met up with my friends, and we were all excited to try it. One of my favorite things to do in Europe has been to ask local people where the best restaurants are, because we always end up in a hole in the wall place that has amazing and authentic food. This restaurant was about the size of a walk in closet, but it was the best food I have had in a long time. We were told to order the "Frijoles" plate, which came with black beans, rice, a fried egg, and a fried banana. Although that may sound like a random combination, it was delicious. The waiters were all little old Spanish men and they were so nice and helpful to us.

The entrance to La Boqueria

Full and happy, we started back down La Rambla towards our hostels to figure out what we wanted to do that night. Once again, fate was on our side. Our original plan had been to go to some bars and clubs that Alyssa's tour group had suggested, but they all seemed very far from each other and very touristy (which equates to very crowded and expensive). This plan did a complete 180 about five minutes after leaving the restaurant when we ran into an Irish guy trying to get people to join a pub crawl. He told us that the pub crawl would take us to 4 different pubs right around there and end in a club right near our hostel. We all agreed that this would definitely be the best option because we wouldn't have to use a map (which for us means get lost) or walk too far from our hostel. He had us sold, and we went into the first pub to hang out before starting the pub crawl.

Our fellow pub-crawlers ended up consisting of a random work group of 40 year olds who were in Barcelona for business, and a bachelor party full of British men. I'm not sure that I would have traded either. In Europe, bachelor parties require that the man who is getting married must dress up in a ridiculous costume. The man in this party was wearing a pair of compression shorts, some suspenders, and not much else. The pub crawl and the club we ended up at were so much fun. True to what I've always heard about Barcelona, the night life goes veryyyyy late. I always thought that it was absurd to hear that people stayed out until 6 in the morning, but after visiting Barcelona, I now understand. Before we even knew what had happened it was 6:30 AM and we had been awake for almost 24 hours. Going back to America is sure going to be a transition.

Casa Battlo

We woke up the next day and grabbed some lunch before going to hit the rest of our tourist stops, which consisted of Gaudi's work around the city (told you he'd come up again). Gaudi designed several houses in Barcelona, and they are just about the craziest looking things you will ever see. I think I now know where the term "gaudy"comes from. The first house we went to was called Casa Mila, or La Pedrera, and is almost more of a sculpture than a piece of architecture. The second house we saw was called Casa Battlo, and was also incredible looking. It is even more odd to see these houses because they are stuck in between other normal looking apartment buildings.

After checking out the houses, we headed to Park Guell, which is one of the most famous attractions in Barcelona. The park was designed by Gaudi as well, and is a garden that houses several different structures built by Gaudi. The park bench, which is the longest continuous bench in the world, is covered in mosaic and overlooks these tiny gingerbread looking houses that Gaudi built. I truly felt like I was in Willy Wonka.

La Pedrera

After Park Guell, we headed back La Boqueria to once again grab some cheap and delicious fruit, and then decided that we were all craving some American food. I had seen a place with cheeseburgers earlier, and we set out again to find it. It was really nice to sit down and enjoy a nice cold Diet Coke, because our feet were killing us after so much walking. We sat at this restaurant for a long time, and before we knew it we saw another group of men walk in with one of them dressed in a ridiculous outfit. Little did we know that we were about to join our second bachelor party of the weekend. This bachelor was dressed as a "woman" which included a skirt, bright blue leggings, makeup, and a wig. We hung out with the bachelor party before they had to go to their "dinner" which included a stripper. We decided that was a good time to call our bachelor partying quits; at least for the weekend. Now that I've been a part of a bachelor party, I want to go to all of my friends' bachelor parties some day. If Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson can take up wedding crashing, then I don't see why I can't become a bachelor party crasher.

Bachelor party number 2

We were all super tired from the weekend as a whole, but went to hang out at the hostel until my flight left. My flight home was originally supposed to be at 6:05 AM on Sunday. The prospect of such an early morning already seemed horrifying, but then I realized about a week before going to Barcelona that this was also the day when the rest of the world does daylights savings time...

Needless to say, it was must easier to just not go to sleep at all. I caught a bus to the airport at about 2:30 AM and by the time I got through security and boarded the plane, I was seriously dragging. I got home to Sevilla at about 8:30 and headed straight to bed. Barcelona is definitely one of my favorite cities I have ever been to and it was made even better by the people I spent time with while I was there! It has such an international feel and it is cool to walk around and here about 6 different languages being spoken around you. Alyssa, Kasey, and I have already decided that we're keeping the tradition alive and hosting our bachelorette parties in Barcelona, because one weekend just wasn't enough.