Hola Barcelona: A Weekend Away from London

This past week was the end of our first two classes followed by a lovely "holiday" in Barcelona for me and a few friends. By Thursday, our final papers and tests had been taken and it was time to get ready for our Barcelona excursion. The good thing about London is that it is not too far from European countries and so we are able to travel many different places while we are studying here. The trip to Barcelona was my first time leaving London and it came at a perfect time. The weather has been unusually hot as I've mentioned before but when we left for Spain on Friday, it was starting to rain so we were able to get away and enjoy Spain's naturally hot climate and then return to a cooled down London.

We arrived in Barcelona at about 6:30pm, it is an hour ahead of London so that makes it six hours ahead of America! We had a delicious dinner of various tapas including chorizo and risotto along with artichoke chips; those were the best thing I have ever eaten! Although it was pretty late by the time we settled into the hostel and went to eat, the restaurants were still crowded because they eat so late there. Afterwards, we went to a beach bar and were informed that people tend to stay out all night. The beach was packed with people, some swimming, some just hanging out. I had a sort of eye opening moment that night when I realized that I was in Spain and I just relished in the thought that I had never thought I would end up there. It was one of those moments that you just think about the rest of the world and all the people in it and I felt that a lot of things became clear to me. Part of the reason that I had this moment is the fact that Spain is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Each site that we visited was more beautiful than the next. London is amazing and historic, but Spain has so many amazing views and places that really make you think.

Crowded Barcelona beach at 4am.

On Saturday morning, we went to a local market near our hostel and grabbed some food for a picnic on the beach. We got to the beach and it was already pretty packed but luckily we found an umbrella and were able to enjoy our picnic. Realizing that we were in Europe quite quickly based on the fact that some women were topless and completely nonchalant about it. The ocean water is so blue that it seems almost unreal. It was funny to think that we were on that very same beach not too many hours prior and the only difference was that the sun wasn't out, there were just as many people.

The same beach as 4am, now at noon.

Gaudi Museum.

After enjoying our stay on the beach, we went to the Gaudi museum. Anyone who has seen Vicky Christina Barcelona (I watched it for the first time in preparation of my trip) would recognize the artist's remarkable work. Many buildings in Spain were designed by him and he has a distinct style of making his works look almost like they're melting. The tour of the museum starts at the very top where you can look over the city and it is amazing. It was there that the four of us decided that we never wanted to leave. That night we had a dinner of tapas once again!

Sunday was a full day for us! We started out eating an amazing brunch and then made our way to Park Montjuic, it is a mountain with a castle on top that has the most amazing view that I have ever seen. We took a cable railway, known in Barcelona as a funicular, up the mountain and were able to look out onto the city as well as the beautiful water. Every time I turned around or walked a few more feet, I had a better few than where I was before. After that, we went to the Sagrada Famila, a church designed by Gaudi. The church is still under construction, but the inside was quite impressive. The stain glass windows were nothing short of impeccable and the ceilings were so high that when I looked up, I felt like they went on forever. That night we had paella on the beach, to say that it was delicious would be an understatement. I am not a very daring person when it comes to trying new things but I am very happy that I was brave and ordered this dish!

View from Montjuic 

           

                                Left: Stained Glass Windows Inside- Right: Outside Sagrada Familia

Monday we didn't have class so we were able to walk around and go shopping at Las Ramblas where there are some international stores such as Zara but there were also local Spanish designers. Luckily, I took Spanish in high school so I was able to navigate my way around but surprisingly enough, most people were able to speak English. Monday afternoon was our flight back to London and I have to admit I was pretty happy to be coming back. It took a trip out of the country to realize that after five weeks, I am starting to think of this place as a second home. When we got back, it was nice and cool out, I've been waiting for this weather since four weeks ago when it started getting hot!

Our last night in Barcelona! Enjoying what we can of the beach, there were even fireworks!

Yesterday, we started our new classes. It is crazy to think that in a short five weeks, we will be back in the US! Today I have my first class of Food Society and Culture in Britain, yesterday was History of Modern Design. We went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and were able to look at actual pieces of work from the period we were learning about; it was a very helpful aid in fully learning what we are being taught. I look forward to what these next five weeks and two new classes will bring!

Barcelona!

After my trip in Crete, we had a quick week of only two days of class.  We started our second session for classes with two new courses, a marketing course and a trend-reporting course.  The Dublin-London group finally united with us, which means we’ve been here for five weeks already!  Time seriously flies.  So with no assignments for the weekend, the girls of my group headed off to Barcelona, Spain!  I liked the idea of going to Spain before coming here but someone else in my group suggested Barcelona as a fun place with a lot of destinations to see as well.  Since there were six of us and we were there for about 5 days, we decided to get an apartment rather than a pricy hotel or a hostel.  The apartment worked out well because we got three rooms rather than a crowed hostel with strangers as well as a stocked kitchen  and a spacious deck J.  The deck really allowed to communicate with locals and ask them about the best places to go and another other questions about the area.   Thankfully, a few of the girls were a little more fluent in Spanish than the rest of us.  I could pick up a few key words from my language course in middle school (too long ago) but I would have been great to know more.  However, I definitely started to pick up on some phrases and words because it’s a lot easier to learn a language when you have no other option!

Sagrada Familia

The next morning we stopped for crepes, which were offered in both sweet and savory options.  Sunday is a day when a lot of things are closed completely besides tourist locations and some eateries at certain times.  But it wouldn’t be a surprise to have the grocery store closed as well as most retailers for the entire day.  Many restaurants actually are only open for certain meal times.  In general for any day of the week, a restaurant may close from 4-8 then open again for dinner.  After our meal we headed off to the most well know church of Barcelona.  The famous artist, Gaudi, designed the church, Sagrada Familia.  The church, planned in 1882, is still under construction to this day and visible across the skyline.  We just spent time outside of the church because it is a highly crowed tourist destination and not actually used as a church.  

The next stop was Park Guell.  This was a quite a hike as well.  The park is also themed Gaudi with his design work featured throughout.  The park is a beautiful destination to see the whole city of Barcelona from above but getting to these heights was no simple task.  The journey began up steep streets, which actually had a few escalators and staircases for about a half-mile.  Then we reached the first stopping point where you can begin to see all the beautiful architecture and natural scenery Barcelona has to offer.  The dirt path then winds up and up until the very top where there is a cross monument placed with spiral staircases up the sides.  The view from up there is nothing but breath taking. 

Being in Barcelona, we could not help but take advantage of the beaches.  We made three visits to the beach during our trip knowing that London did not offer the same weather and scenery as Barcelona.  Barceloneta was the closet beach to us, just about 15 minutes away from our apartment with scenery such as the well-known W hotel.  We were even able to enjoy breakfast at a café on the beach.  While Barceloneta was a beautiful beach, some days were very tourist heavy so we headed off to a further beach, San Pol on another day that also had a small town right along side.  There was just a small amount of people, all locals, which was refreshing and relaxing. 

Barcelona was nothing but beautiful in so many ways.  During the day was great architecture and ocean scenery but at night the lights created their own magic.  We even went to a light and water show, the Magic Fountain of Montjuic.  It was the perfect way to bring our trip to an end.