I fell in love... with Barcelona.

I am back in London and would just like to say how much I love it. Barcelona was absolutely beautiful in so many ways and I’m so happy I went there, but there’s just a certain sense of comfort that London offers. It just feels good to be back. :)

We left for Barcelona after class on Thursday. There were five of us who went - Me, Mel, Kenny, MacKenzie, and Tara. I was kind of anxious/nervous about the whole trip because I had never done anything like that before – fly to a different country for a weekend with only a backpack. But nevertheless, we were on our way. We had a few minor problems leading up to our arrival at London Gatwick Airport, but the biggest problem happened once we got there. The bus we took there dropped us off at the North Terminal, which didn’t seem to be an issue at the time, but just wait…

We had all checked in online, so we went straight to security, where they checked our passports and scanned our tickets. We got through without any problems and decided to get a little lunch before our flight at 2:30 PM. We kept looking at the screen to see which gate our plane was going to leave from and couldn’t find our flight number. So MacKenzie and I went to the information desk and asked what was going on. Apparently, having the number 5 in your flight code means SOUTH Terminal and not North Terminal at Gatwick. Oh my gosh. So yeah, we had to be escorted back through security, catch a tram to the South Terminal, run a little, get new tickets since the other ones had already been scanned, go through security again, and run a little more. We finally made it to our gate with a little time to spare, but that whole situation was absolutely crazy. I still don’t know how our tickets scanned and we made it through security in the WRONG terminal. Whatever. It was crazy and I hope I never have to go through that again.

But anyway, the actual flight was not bad and it didn’t take long until we arrived in beautiful Barcelona. We took a train from the Aeroport to our hostel (for about 10 seconds we thought we were on the wrong train, but then everything turned out okay). We found our hostel without any huge problems, and it actually ended up being very nice for a hostel. We stayed in a room with six bed, and since there were five of us, there was only one other random person who we hardly ever saw. That first night we didn’t do too much – ate dinner at a restaurant that we stumbled across and just walked up and down our street for a little while. I would say our street was similar to Michigan Avenue in Chicago or Oxford Street in London – tons of designer shops. But because we stayed at a hostel, we didn’t have to pay a huge amount of money.

The next day (Friday) was packed with things to do. We were only there for two days, so I definitely wanted to make sure I got to see everything I wanted to. The first place we went that morning was to Sagrada Familia – the huge, famous church that has been under constructions for at least 120 years. It still isn’t completely done yet, but whenever that happens it’ll be beautiful. I’ve really never seen anything like it in my entire life. It puts the London cathedrals to shame. Definitely worth the walk to that side of Barcelona.

After that, we made our way to La Rambla, which is kind of a touristy street – lots of shops, restaurants, and street performers. Along the way, we passed a bullfighting arena and several memorials. On La Rambla, there were lots of shops selling pets (kind of different), flowers, and art. Just off the street is a famous food market, called Mercat la Boqueria. This place was absolutely AMAZING!! There were stands selling every kind of food you could possibly think off – chocolate, dried fruit, fresh fruit, nuts, mushrooms, fish, shrimp, eel, ham, chicken, vegetables, juice, gelato – I could go on and on! It was seriously awesome.

After that, we walked further down La Rambla until we arrived at Port Vell. Right by the port is the Christopher Columbus Monument, which I thought was kind of funny because it’s not like he was the best explorer ever, but bless his heart, at least he tried. Port Vell was so incredibly beautiful. There were tons of sailboats – which really, I would just like to know what kind of job I need to have in order to afford one of those. The weather was unbelievably amazing that day, which only added to the beauty of Barcelona.

We kept walking along the port because we wanted to go to the actual beach area so that we could walk in the sand. The beach was lovely too – I’ve never seen water so blue! I about took a tumble in the sand trying to escape a wave, but luckily Kenny was there to catch me. I still basically got sand all over myself, so that was a fun time. After the beach, we walked up a street called Via Laietana towards the Cathedral de Barcelona. Unfortunately, it was completely under construction, so we couldn’t see very much of it. But along the way, we saw a lot of Gotic architecture, which was really cool.

We finally made it back to the hostel just in time to go on their “Tapas Tour” we had signed up for earlier that day. We ate tapas (which are like little appetizers – the ones we had were slices of a baguette with different cheeses, meats, and vegetables on them), drank sangria, and watched a flamenco show. After that, we were so exhausted that we just crashed. I wore my pedometer that day, and we ended up walking 37,000 steps and 11 miles. WOW.

The next day wasn’t quite as intense as the first one, but we still did a lot. In the morning we went to the Picasso Museum. I’m not a huge art fanatic, but it was good to see the museum since I was in Barcelona and all. Most of the art that Picasso is famous for is really abstract, but when he was just beginning, he actually painted realistic images, which look nothing like his later work. I don’t know how someone can change their style so much, but maybe that’s why he’s so famous.

After that, we wanted to ride these cable cars over in the Montjuic area. It was quite the journey just to get to that side of Barcelona. Then we had to hike up a small mountain to get to where the cable cars were. And we did all of this with our backpacks. Quite the adventure. Once we reached the top, the cable cars weren’t even running because of the “weather conditions”. What, was there too much sun or something? But regardless, we still saw some beautiful views of Barcelona, so I think it was worth the hike.

After that, we just went back to La Rambla and went to a few shops. We took a train back to the Aeroport, checked like 15 times to make sure we were in the right terminal and at the correct gate, and flew back to London. It was definitely a quick, whirlwind trip, but I am so happy that I went. I learned a lot about myself and that three years of high school Spanish actually IS useful. I didn’t know too much about Barcelona before I went, so it was definitely way more than I ever expected it to be. Next time, it’d just be nice to stay more than two days. :)

Until next time,
Rachel