Ciao again!
So, usually I wouldn’t do rushed back-to-back posts like
this – but I am running out of time considering we are leaving for another
country tomorrow! But I am dying to tell you guys about our trip to Barcelona
this past weekend. Since my parents
visited Barcelona this summer and told me how incredible it is, I have been so
excited to visit. But Barcelona
far surpassed my expectations. I
absolutely LOVED this city. The
people, the food, the culture, the architecture, the nightlife and the beach
all come together to create this vibrant, young, and modern city with so many
different places to explore. The
fact that it was 65 degrees and sunny the whole time we were there was just an
added bonus.
Although we were slightly overwhelmed at first considering
every single person I have ever met in my entire life was in Barcelona this
weekend for Abroadfest (a big techno concert on Thursday night that almost
every student I know studying abroad this semester came to), it turned out to
be a lot of fun! I don’t think we walked 5 steps the entire weekend without
running into someone we knew. But
it ended up being really fun to see all of my worlds colliding with my school
friends, camp friends, and even some home friends in one place!
Even though a lot of Barcelona is about the nightlife (we
were very concerned that we wouldn’t survive since they stay out until the
sunrise here, but we somehow lived to tell the tale!!), there is still so much
to see during the day. On Friday
morning, Staci and I headed over to La Boqueria food Market – just a quick walk
from our hotel on La Rambla – and met up with our good friend from school,
Zack. He is studying in Barcelona this semester, so we were lucky enough to
have him as our personal tour guide! Zack and our other friend Kevin explored
the market with us and tried several free samples from different stands and we
each got a delicious fresh fruit smoothie. I quickly fell in love with the market (I think the markets are
going to be my favorite place no matter where we go….) and of course wanted to
try everything.
After the market, we headed over to the Gothic quarter to
see the cathedral and the old synagogue.
It was a very cool area and had some great little streets to walk around
on.
Next, Zack showed us around his favorite area called
Born. We explored some of the
streets before going to check out El Mercat del Born (another awesome
market…Zack knows his audience..) where we sat down for lunch at one of his
favorite tapas bars! The first of
many tapas this trip…my favorites were the tuna and avocado and the grilled
calamari!
After lunch we decided to make our way over to Parc Guell
(Gaudi’s famous park), which was without a doubt, the highlight of my
weekend. This was one of the
coolest things I have ever seen. I
could not believe how massive the park was, and the rocks and sculptures were
unlike anything I had ever seen before.
After exploring the park for a while, Zack hiked us all the way up to
the top of the mountain to one of his favorite spots where we had a perfect
360-degree view over the entire city.
This was the most incredible view I have ever seen. We were literally on top of the world!
Next we went to see La Sagrada Familia, a Church designed by
Gaudi that has been being built for over 100 years and STILL isn’t finished!
This was also one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The architecture of
both the outside and the inside was completely surreal - it almost looked fake!
That night, we had a big dinner with 10 of my friends from
SDT at school! We went to a great tapas place called Cerveceria Catalana. It was so much fun to be with
everybody, and we couldn’t believe that all 11 of us were actually sitting
together at a table in Barcelona!
Saturday morning, all 11 of my friends met in the lobby of
our hotel to go for lunch at a famous sandwich place called Bo De B. Everyone we know in Barcelona had been
raving about this place, and apparently you have to wait in line for at least
an hour to get a sandwich since the line is always so long. We accidentally got
there way before it opened (oops), but it turned out to be a blessing in
disguise since we ended up being the FIRST ones in line (typical)!!! And let me
tell you, this sandwich was well worth the wait. Zack told me to get a chicken sandwich with everything on
it…so that’s what I did. A
delicious chicken sandwich with avocado, every vegetable you could ever
imagine, and 4 different types of sauces all piled into a delicious baguette.
After digesting our lunches and recovering slightly from our
food comas, we headed up to Mountjuic (aka Mountain of the Jews). We got to see the national palace of
Barcelona on top of the mountain, and the Olympic stadium (that was used for
the summer Olympics in 1992) that is behind it! Thankfully we had a lot of
stairs to walk up to get to the top so we got some exercise in! I also randomly
met a women who lives in Westport on the walk up…small world! The view from the
top of the mountain was absolutely magnificent. Since the sun was shining and it was so beautiful out, we
decided to sit on the stairs and enjoy the view while listening to a guitar
player who was playing music for everyone.
After that we checked out some more of Gaudi’s architecture:
La Casa Mila (left) and La Casa Battlo (right).
These are both apartment buildings that Gaudi designed on La Passeig de
Gracia (a big street that is basically the 5th avenue of
Barcelona). Both of them were very
cool to see.
Afterwards, we all took a long walk along the Port Olimpic
all the way down to the beach to watch the sunset! The beach was beautiful, and
it was so nice to enjoy it with everyone together.
Before our last dinner, a few of us decided to go see the
light show at the Magic Fountain in front of Mountjuic. The fountains were spectacular and it
was so much fun to watch!
Aaaaand....I found PAMMY!! <3
After the light show, Staci, Jenna, and I had dinner at
Tapas 24 – one of my parents favorite restaurants from their visits this
summer! I had been hearing about
this place for months and my dad had of course already prepared me with a very
detailed list, so we knew exactly what to order. Here are some highlights:
Bikini Sandwich:
Patatas Bravas:
Everything was absolutely delicious...Dad, you have yet to steer us wrong!! The patatas bravas and bikini
sandwhich were two of the best things I have ever tasted. They were so good we had to get another
order of both! Staci and I are still dreaming about them…
For our last night out, we all went to a bar called Chupitos
that has over 100 different types of shots to choose from. Somehow we wound up trying a “boyscout”
which involved the bartender lighting the bar on fire and us roasting
marshmallows on it!
When it was time to go to the airport the next morning, we
were not ready to leave… I would have stayed another week just to lay on the
beach! I still cannot believe how quickly it went, but it was so much fun and
this was definitely my favorite weekend so far.
I wish I could keep going, but unfortunately it is already 3
am here and I am waking up in less than 4 hours to get on a plane to DUBLIN for
St. Patrick’s day weekend and STACI’S 21’ST BIRTHDAY!!!!! I had to get this
last blog post in before I left! Hopefully I will make it back alive so that I
can tell you about it…wish me luck!
Arrivaderci,
Jordan
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