Spainish Adventures: Barcelonaaaa

Hola los chicos y las chicas!!!

I know haven't exactly explained my week-long excursion to Espana, so I thought tonight I'd elaborate a little. After 2 weeks of preparation of planning, frustration with booking planes and buses and hostels and what-not, Aimee (Louisiana), Gretel (WI), and I set out at 10pm Friday night, the 19th for Spain. We took an overnight bus from Aix centre to Barcelona Norte...Barcelona North for those non-spanish speakers out there. We knew it'd be a rough one, but let me tell you, glad we're young because we didn't sleep on the bus really and arrived at 6am to Barcelona...here we were, 3 American girls, trying to navigate the calles (streets) of Barcelona at 6am in the morning on our walk to the hostel. 30 minutes later after trying to navigate the not-so-well-marked streets that are typical in Europe, we found ourselves at our hostel. We lucked out because the guy working the front desk let us check in AND sleep...even though we hadn't paid for the night before and weren't supposed to check in until that afternoon. But after a much needed nap and shower, we set out to see the sights of Barcelona. The first day, we started our day out with an also much-needed Starbucks fix, oh how I miss coffee to go!!! (it's like a sin in France to not sit down for coffee), and toured the Barcelona cathedral...which was breathtaking!!! We also stayed for a mass, which was interesting because Gretel knows quite a bit of Spanish, I know some, Amy knows none, so it was kinda funny I'm sure for those Spanish people to see 3 girls that clearly didn't belong there standing next to them. In addition, we toured over them and were the only 3 young people in the whole church! Part of the mass was in Catalon, the Spanish dialect of the Catalon province in which Barcelona resides. It is comparable to Canada's Quebec as that is preserved as the main language there and they require to have everything written in both Catalon AND spanish on everything. That part of the mass, I obviously had no clue about...but interestingly enough, Aimee who has spoken French for more than 10 years, insists that she could read it better than Spanish, as it but be an ancient mix of French and Spanish together (Barcelona being so close to the French border). After mass, we got on the metro and went to take pics of some of the famous Gaudi buildings, a very famous art-nouveau architect from Barcelona. His buildings were AMAZING!! :) so freely drawn, almost like they can't be real! :) I took many pics of them, as you can see. We then set-out to see Sagrada Familia (Gaudi's famous HUGEEEEEEEEEEEEE church). It was IMMENSE I can't even explain! It was nice to see such a staple of that city. The next stop on the Metro was the famous Placa de Toros (Place of the Bulls), bullring in Barcelona, where we took pics in front of...unfortunately it wasn't open. By now, it was getting darker, so we headed back towards our hostel and La Rambla, the famous and CRAZZZZZZZZY street in Barcelona. It was especially CRAZY that night because it was Carnaval there, basically an insane version of Halloween! Everyone dresses up and gets crazy on the street...music, dancing, you name it! Then our friend Daniel (Mexico), met up with us and let us know about this Magic Fountain show over by the palace that was going on, so we trudged through the crowds/rain/metro and arrived at the show. I took pics but they didn't turn out that well since it was raining and dark out, but you can imagine a water/light-show set to loud, classical music :) It was AMAZING! We then climbed the stairs of the palace to take pics overlooking the city and that was also cool, minus the pouring rain. We were starving by this time, and booked it to get something to eat...well, so we thought. We wandered around for an hour in the rain trying to find a "cheap" Tapas place (tapas are sort-of appetizer dishes famous in Spain that are delicious...but definately a hit or miss type of thing, as well). So we sat down for dinner and then headed back to the hostel to call it a night. Sunday we got up and right away hit the Parc Guell because it was nice out. This park, designed also by Gaudi, was made for the royal family and is truly indescribable. It is soooo unique and sooooo beautiful!!! :) I took many pics of its crazy, free-flowing buildings and mosaic tiles, the magic of it being more in the architecture of it all, rather than the actual greenery aspect of a typical park. If anyone thinks they want to go to Barcelona, I say this park is a MUST MUST MUST doooo!!!!! though, not for the faint of heart as it was QUITE the climb to get up there... :/ Later that afternoon we headed down to the port, ate some helado (gelato/ice cream), and walked around the path overlooking the Mediterranean sea...ughhhh I loveeeee the coast :) so beautiful! saw awe-inspiring yachts and cruise-ships, the statue of Christopher Columbus that overlooks the marina and the Meritime museum and shopped in the market for a bit as well. By this time, we jogged it over to the Picasso museum because it was free 2 hours before closing time. It gave me a new respect for him, as I am not a fan of his cubism for which he's been made famous. Here they had such beautiful art that he did starting from a teenager up through his later life. I have to say, he really could to it all: portraits, ceramics, sculptures, and even the crazy (my opinion) cubism stuff. It was great to see him in a new light other than what everyone usually talks about. Since it was Valentine's Day, we treated ourselves to a good Spanish meal and some Sangria (famous in Spain, of course) and called it a night. The next day we got up and Aimee and I quickly ran over to the Palacio de la Musica (Music Palace) and snapped a few pics before checking out of our hostel. But before we were on our way to the bus to go to the Girona airport, we caught a few pics of the Arc de Triompf, which we luckily literally stumbled upon. By this time, it had seemed like we had been traveling for weeks...but it was just the BEGINNING of our trip...next, to MADRID! :D