Going to Barcelona was definitely eye-opening! I had never been to a country (besides Canada- but that doesn't really count) where English is not a primary language and I think that was the major difference. In Ireland the cultural differences are subtle. The accents are different, they have a few unique words (like "craic") and many signs are written in Irish. But for the most part I feel very comfortable here and it is not too drastically different from home (although you can't get dairy milk chocolates at home and they do drive on the wrong side of the road here). Spain, however is different in so many ways. They speak Spanish and Catalan (neither of which I speak AT ALL) and because of that the culture seems so foreign. Also, the style of architecture is very different. It is hard to describe, but being in Barcelona I realized how awesome of an experience I am having this semester and how lucky I am to have this opportunity. I now have two countries' stamps in my little baby passport and cant wait to get more!!!
Now, for a rundown of our trip. Nicole (my roommate), Julia and I left Ireland on Wednesday morning and took a bus to the Dublin Airport (the bus took about 3 hours but wasn't bad because they had wifi and I had brought my iPod touch). We got to the airport with tons of time to spare and got some lunch before going through security and waiting for Laura and her friend Kelly (who is studying in Limerick) to meet us. At around 6 we boarded our (first) RyanAir flight. Now I had been a little wary about flying on this (very cheap) airline, but it turned out to not be bad at all. It reminded me a lot of JetBlue (without the tv's) or Airtran in the states. Our flight was about 2 hours and we arrived at the Girona airport and took an hour and a half bus to Barcelona and then took a taxi to our Hostel. We stayed at the Centric Point hostel on Passeig de Gràcia which is a main road in the city. It was in a great location right down the road from Casa Batlló which is a famous building designed by Antoni Gaudí a famous Spanish architect who designed many famous buildings in Barcelona.
After settling into our hostel, two of Julia's friends from school came and met us and we all went out to a club called Broadbar that was close to the center of the city. It was a lot of fun and despite our long day of traveling we danced the night away and all had a great time. A major difference between the clubs in Barcelona and in Ireland (or the US for that matter) is that they have no laws against smoking inside. It wasn't really that bad while we were there, but when we got home our clothing all smelled of cigarette smoke. Makes me glad that those laws are in place in most countries! I am glad, however that I did not choose to study in Barcelona because they stay out so late!! We didn't even go to the club until 2am and got home at around 6am. For those of you that know me well, you know that I do NOT function well on that schedule. I was fine for 3 days but could not imagine doing that all semester!!
The next day we got up for breakfast in the hostel and met Julia's friends for some sight seeing. We walked from our hostel to Las Ramblas which is a famous street in the city. There were all sorts of vendors selling everything from live turtles, chicks, ducks, turkeys etc. to flowers and postcards. While there we stopped in a market called La Boqueria that had booths with fresh fruit juices, veggies, meats, fish and more. I got some yummy strawberry coconut juice-- SO GOOD! From there we continued walking down Las Ramblas (in the rain) and just looking around. Las Ramblas is known for pick-pocketing but luckily none of us got pick-pocketed while we were there.
From Las Ramblas, we continued walking in the direction of the ocean. We saw the port where Christopher Columbus sailed from (there is a big statue of him there), the main Harbor and the Mediterranean Sea!!! That was pretty cool. After that we continued walking around the city with Julia's friends (Rachel and Sarah) as our tour guides. They have been there for about a month so they really know their way around at this point. We walked away from the coast and ended up further downtown at the Catedral de Barcelona which was a beautiful old church with a courtyard in the middle of it. It was fun walking around the city (even though it was raining) because the architecture is so different from in American cities and is all so unique. After the Cathedral, we went to the famous Gaudi designed Sagrada Família which is a beautiful Roman Catholic church that has been under construction since 1882 (they do not expect it to be finished until at least 2026 due to lack of funding). It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in all of Spain due to its incredibly ornate and detailed design. We paid the money and went to the top of one of the towers which was pretty cool. Despite the poor weather, we were able to see a lot of the city.
After the Sagrada Família, we took the subway (all by ourselves!) back to our hostel, ate a (very) late lunch/early dinner nearby and had a siesta. Post siesta we got ready to go out for our second night. We went and met Rachel and Sarah at their dorms and went to their friend's apartment to hang out before going to the club. That night we went to a really cool club on the water called Opium which was probably one of the coolest clubs I've seen. It had multiple levels with bars, places to sit, a big dance floor and even a patio on the beach. It was a lot of fun. There was an electric violin player there too, which was cool. I actually ran into a couple people from F&M (who were studying abroad in Barcelona) as well which was quite coincidental.
The next day was my favorite day of the trip. We woke up and it was BEAUTIFUL out. The sun was shining and it was warm enough to walk around with just a t-shirt on. We got up and got some lunch and then headed over to Park Güell which is this huge park on top of a hill in Barcelona. It was my favorite part of the trip. We took the metro over there and then had to walk up a really steep hill (so steep that parts of it had escalators and stairs that you had to climb) to the top of a hill where the park started. The view was spectacular. You can see Sagrada Família and the Mediteranean Sea and the entire city from the top. Park Güell is basically like a big national park with lots of paths and places you can hike and walk around. In the middle of it though is this huge patio-like place with benches all around the edge. The benches all have unique mosaics on them that were really cool. We hung out there for a while. There were people selling jewelry and sunglasses and crafts that were laid out on little sheets throughout the big patio area (we all got bracelets and I bought a new pair of sunglasses). There was a guy with a big bubble making contraption that was pretty cool (it was basically ropes that he stuck in bubble solution and then held up to the wind) and all sorts of other cool stuff. We stayed there for a while and then walked around the rest of the paths and saw some amazing views. Even the paths have columns and stone-work with amazing carvings and details. After, we discovered that the patio is actually more of a balcony and that underneath was this huge area with columns and mosaic-ed ceilings and such. Past the columns is a huge mosaic lizard sculpture designed by Gaudi which is the most well known symbol of the park (and Barcelona). Past the lizard were two Gaudi designed buildings. The majority of the architecture of the park as well as the mosaics were all designed by Gaudi. He really had such a major influence on the city.
From Park Güell we went to the Picasso Museum. I had always thought of Picasso's work as being only of the cubist style, but the majority of the work in this museum was more traditional portraits (which was mostly his early work). It wasn't until the end that they showed his famous cubist work. My favorite part was a series he did of pigeons on the balcony of his home. Now as my parents can attest, I usually am not a huge museum person. In fact my dad (half) jokingly asked when I told him we went to the museum "why? so you could take a nap?" because he knows that museums (and fabric stores) make me sleepy. And it's true, unless it is something I am really interested in, the atmosphere of museums just makes me immediately tired. This museum was kinda like that (although it was at the end of a long day when I hadn't slept much the night before) but there were definitely cool parts and I did learn a lot. I, for instance, had no idea that Picasso was so tied to/inspired by Barcelona or that the majority of his work was not cubist or that he made ceramics or that he had kids with like 4 or 5 different women. So, I did learn a lot and it wasn't all completely boring. I actually really enjoyed the pieces at the end (because they were the cubist ones).
So after the Picasso museum we went home, regrouped and changed and then went out to a Tapas restaurant which was so fun! It was called Taller de Tapas. We ordered a pitcher of sangria (so yummy!) and many tapas (including croquettes which are very very good). Everyone else got sea food Paellea which came in a huge skillet (I did not partake of any since I don't like sea food). It was fun to go out and treat ourselves to a nice dinner. The restaurant was really nice (we found out later that a scene of Vicki Christina Barcelona was filmed on their patio). We had a pretty late dinner so afterwards we went and met Julia's friends at a bar nearby for a relaxed night.
The next day we got up, grabbed some breakfast and started our long journey back to Galway.
As you can probably see, it was a jam-packed few days that did not include much sleep and a lot of walking around. It was an absolutely amazing trip!! Being in a country whose language you don't speak is something everyone should experience. We were lucky because Nicole and Julia speak a little spanish and Julia's friends were able to show us around, but it was very interesting trying to order food or buy tickets to things and such. It made me want to go to France so I can try out my (very rusty) french skills. It was funny because I found myself responding to people in French absentmindedly sometimes. I guess I thought well they don't know english so my brain just went to the next language that it knew. Made me feel pretty silly though!! It was an absolutely amazing experience and I can only hope that the rest of my trips are as awesome as this one was!!!
Okay. That is the end of this very long, book-like post. I do not have my camera cord at the moment, but check back soon and I will try to post a few pictures of the places I described above. I will also be posting them all on facebook so check there soon, too!!
Thanks for reading! and Happy Superbowl Sunday, everyone!!!
SOunds Great!! I my dear cousin remember when clubs/bars here in America did allow smoking. While it sucked to come home smelling like it, it also was the sign of a good night! lol
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see pictures!!