HOLA BARCELONA!

I went to Barcelona for our long weekend. I left Wednesday night and got back Sunday morning. We took the night train from Madrid to Barcelona Wednesday night. I had never ridden a night train before, and let me tell you...it was quite the experience. Maddie and I bought the cheapest tickets they had, and we were expecting to be staying in a bed, but we were assigned to a closet that sat 8 people. Each person had their own seat, but we were right on top of each other. About 4 hours into the ride we discovered that there were bed bugs in our cabin! They were crawling everywhere! It was disgusting. The worker on the train moved us to "first class" but we were still in chairs, although they did recline a little further. It was a LONG night! We arrived in Barcelona at 8:15 Thursday morning. We then headed to our hostel.


Our hostel was literally right on the beach! It was absolutely beautiful! Maddie and I were put into a mixed 5 dorm. There were two other girls, Meredith and Megan, that were in our room too. Who was our 5th roommate? A Vietnamese guy from France who was visiting Barcelona for a few days. He was nice but tended to follow us around. After we checked in we went to the beach. It was a perfect day for it. All Spain beaches are considered "nude" or "topless" so I saw a few people. After the beach we went on a free tour around Barcelona that was free through our hostel. It was a 2 ½ hour walking “Gothic” tour. We looked around several areas in Barcelona, where to eat, and a few famous places. We saw a Catholic church called Santa Maria del Mar which was founded for the poor people of Barcelona, the fishermen. It was beautiful inside. Probably one of the most beautiful churches I have seen. It wasn’t too big like some cathedrals are. You could see the whole church in one room, it wasn’t broken up. After the tour Maddie and I ate on the beach, at a restaurant that was on the beach. It was such a pretty day and sight to have dinner. We were so exhausted from the night before that decided to go to bed early that night and not go out.

Now it’s Friday in Barcelona. Another gorgeous day full of sun and heat! Although the temperatures were in the mid 70’s it feels so much hotter because there is really high humidity. We took another free tour called “Gaudí” We went to several places all over Barcelona to look at building designed by Gaudi. Each one of them is so unique. We saw Casa Bastiló, La Pedrera, and La Sagrada Familia. They were all amazing. I could have stood and stared at them for hours. We didn’t go inside any of them because they cost money. The next day we went inside La Sagrada Familia so I will talk about that later. After the tour Maddie and I went shopping! There have so many cool stores with cute clothes. Although I didn’t buy anything I was tempted to, but I decided I needed to save money to buy gifts from friends and family. After shopping, we made our way to Parc Güell, which was a park designed by Gaudí. It was quite a hike because it was on the outside of Barcelona on a big hill. We could see all of Barcelona. It was beautiful. The Park was originally built for wealthy people of Barcelona, but because it was located so far from the city it turned into a park. After our major workout up and down the hill we returned out our hostel. That night we went out at 11:30 for the “pub crawl” with other people from hostels. That night we went to two bars and then went to a dance club. It was the best dance club I have ever been too! They had two dance rooms FULL of people, played good songs, and had an awesome dance floors. I didn’t get back to my hostel until 4:15 that night. Boy was I exhausted!

Saturday we had to check by 10, so I didn’t get much sleep that night. Maddie and I first went to the bus station to drop off our stuff and figure out the train situation. We ended up getting refunded 44 Euros for the train ride on the way there and then we upgraded to first class for 11 extra Euros. So overall, our roundtrip cost only 37 Euros (versus 70). But we had to sit with bedbugs for a few hours!! After we went to see WONDERFUL La Sagrada Familia! There are three facades of the building which were all unique. One focused on the passion of Christ, one the birth of Jesus, and one on the communion. They have been doing construction since the late 1800’s and it isn’t supposed to be done until 2026, the centennial of the death of Gaudí. The inside was incredible. Truly a work of art, I took tons of pictures.

Saturday afternoon I went to two museums. One was free (Dhub) because only one exhibition was open, but it has fashion from Pedro Rodriguez for Maria Brillas, a fashion icon of Spain. There were beautiful dresses on display. Next up was the Picasso Musuem. I was so excited to see this museum because I really like Picasso. It definitely exceeded my expections and there were some great pieces of art. I didn’t realize that Picasso painted “Las Meninas” painted first by Velazquez. It was really cool to see Picasso put a cubist spin on it. Maddie and I were exhausted that we walked a park to take a nap. It felt good to lie in the grass and rest in another beautiful park in Barcelona. After a long day we walked down Las Ramblas and headed for the train station. The train ride was better than the ride to Barcelona, but still hard to sleep considering we sat in chairs. Sunday morning we finally made it back to our home in Segovia. Overall it was an awesome trip to Barcelona and I think it is my favorite city in Spain that I have been! I hope I can visit again in the future.

Beach

Casa Mila

Parc Guell

La Sagrada Familia