Barcelona!

Hola a todos!

Get ready for one long entry! One of the major upsides of studying abroad in Europe is the wealth of opportunities we have to travel. Almost every weekend we're all off doing something. And all the flights are so cheap! In America, in order to go anywhere interesting (or so I think) you need to pay at least $400. I bought my ticket to Barcelona with my friends for 40 euros. Because we booked it so last minute (literally the week before) we didn't have much of a plan, but we had so much fun anyway. I knew what I wanted to see... Gaudí! But besides that, we didn't really have any idea. The first day there we had half a day to explore, and we stumbled upon a free exhibit in Casa Milá, one of Gaudí's buildings.

When we went, we were lucky to see an exhibition of Javier Mariscal's work. Whoa, baby, they like their modern cubism in Barcelona, don't they? He literally covered every medium. We walked into a room and all the walls were covered in his sketches, ranging from as mundane as a city scape, to a satorial on the custom of bull fighting (where the bull was chasing the matador with a pitch fork). Another room had sculptures, another furniture, another a movie, a moving figurine telling a story, he really did everything. And he designed the mascot for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics! I wish I could have taken pictures, but they weren't allowed in the exhibit. But here's one in the foyer!

We had a late lunch that day in (what we thought was) a small sidewalk cafe, but travellers beware!, it's a 20% charge to sit outside. So we decided to trudge into the small, dark interior, which actually ended up being a cavern with skylights. It was huge! It just kept going and going, with rooms and floors in all directions. Apparently a lot of restaurants in Barcelona are like this. They look like a mom and pop place from outside, where they seat the tourists who want to eat outside, and then all the Spaniards sit inside in a luxurious interior. Another thing that helps is when you're traveling with a group of girls, is you end up getting a lot of free stuff. All we ordered were drinks and our main meal. What we got was drinks, pan con tomate, ensalada, our main meal, and when he asked if we wanted desert and we declined, he smiles, nods, and puts down a tray of ice creams on our table. We all stared at each other as if waiting for the people from Punk'd to jump out of the bushes. This just doesn't happen in Europe. We were very skeptical when we received the bill, but nope! Everything was free!

The next day we went to Las Ramblas and el Bari Gotic (the gothic neighborhood). I'm not going to lie, I really didn't like Las Ramblas. As in REALLY didn't like it. So many people, everything was so expensive, all these street performers are creepy, there are pickpocketers crawling up the wall, and they have these awful pet stalls where they keep baby animals in cages so that fat tourists can poke their chubby fingers in the cage and scare the shit out of them with their cameras. Yes, as you can tell, I was not a fan. We turned right into market that was absolutely lleno de people. It was ridiculous. I subconsciously grabbed my purse and just about stuffed it down my shirt. Turns out my instinct was right, apparently the market is notorious for thieves. In the beginning, we were all oohing and ahhing at all the brightly colored fruit, some of which we'd never seen before, nuts, candy, and bread. Then we reached the fish section. Ok, still cool even if a little stinky. And then we reached the meat section. Oh. My. God. I left the market immediately, let's just leave it at that.

I liked the Gothic neighborhood so much more. It was all windy roads and alleys, ancient buildings, and churches popping out in the most random places. At one point we reached a sign that said that in that exact spot was where the ancient Roman wall had once said. Way more down my alley. The shopping was much more reasonable (I got a little caftan for 3 euros!), and we got to see some beautiful churches! There was even a little cheese market in a square we turned into (no, papi, I did not get you any cheese. It stunk too bad).

Our last day we made our Gaudí day. All Gaudí all the time. We started off going to La Sagrada Familia, the famous church everyone thinks of when they think of Barcelona.

It was pretty cool, but the lines were ridiculous to get in, so we consoled ourselves with lots of pictures, and then moved onto Parque Güell, which looks as though Willy Wonka designed it.

The weather was beautiful, so despite all the tourists, we still really enjoyed ourselves. I stood in the exact spot where they filmed Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and then spent the next hour tourist watching, which is very amusing. Oh well, I have to tell myself there's a reason so many tourists go to one particular place, it must be because it's worth it.

So much more to tell, but my fingers are falling off, so I think I'll leave that for another entry!