Barcelona

Wow. What a weekend. I left Pamplona at 8 Friday morning via bus, headed for Barcelona. The trip took 5 hours and I slept the whole way. I woke up just in time, right when we were going through the toll into the city. My first impression-this place is huge. Most parts of Pamplona are quaint, old European, with a touch of modern, but this place is truly metropolitan. If I could say anywhere it reminded me of, I would say a cross between New York and New Orleans. Those are two of my favorite places, so needless to say I loved Barcelona. I got there right around lunch, hopped on the subway and found my hostel pretty easily. As I was turning the corner, I recognized one of Jill's friends from Facebook and immediately started running, knowing Jill was not far behind. I was really happy to see Jill and to get to hang out in such an awesome place together. Jill and I have had some pretty cool trips together, from New York, Chicago, Greece, and now Barcelona. We talked about how lucky we've been to do so many things, and especially to enjoy that with a friend. Jill, her three friends Victoria, Elizabeth, and Juli, and I went to lunch and had traditional Barcelona fare with sangria. Food there is more seafood based due to its location on the Mediterranean, so I was also excited to try new food. After lunch we met up with Santi, Victoria's friend from Knoxville, TN, who is studying this semester is Barcelona. He showed us around some famous places and was a great host the whole weekend. Friday night we went to a club one block from our hostel and danced until 5 am. That may seem extreme, but no one goes out until 1 am, so things are just very different. You can take a nap before you go out so you have the energy to stay awake. On Saturday we got up and had a day full of sightseeing. We went took the cable cars up to Montjuic, the mountain overlooking the city with a fortress at the top. The view was really impressive, and the furthest sight in the distance was La Sagrada Familia, which is the artist/architect Gaudi's masterpiece, however it's unfinished. If you don't know what this huge cathedral looks like, you need to look it up. From Montjuic we went to La Sagrada Familia, and when I saw it I teared up. Honestly, it was the most amazing, breathtaking thing I have ever seen in my entire life. We girls stared with mouths agape for five minutes before moving or speaking. From there we went to Gaudi's next accomplishment, Guell Park, which is the most outstanding park I've ever seen. I'm telling you, Gaudi was a complete genius and pretty much dominated the city when he was alive. I could write a whole post on my new obsession with him and his work. Saturday night we saw the beach and the port. I had no idea, but the beach in Barcelona is man made, and was created solely for the Olympic Games in 1992, and every year they import sand from Egypt. We then roamed the city in search of a sushi restaurant, which turned out to be well worth the walking. After dinner, we went to a small bar called Chupitos with fun drink names like "Monica Lewinsky" and "Teletubby." We went back to our hostel (which, by the way, was awesome and fun. Very impressed with my first hostel experience...a hostel is like a hotel but cheaper and with public rooms with bunk beds) to meet up with our new friends and then we went to the club Razzmatazz, which is a giant club with 5 clubs inside, all with different music at each one. We danced again until 6am, and had a blast. Going to Barcelona and not doing the nightlife scene is a mistake, because so much more goes on in the early morning hours. Even older people go out to the clubs...it's just the way of life. Sunday we took it easy and just chilled out at the hostel. Not a lot is open on Sundays, as I've mentioned before. One of our new hostel friends had rented a motorcycle for the weekend, and I got to ride up to Montjuic, the mountain, to see the panoramic view of the city. Overall, the city was fabulous and fun, and it was really a weekend I will never forget. Sorry to drag on so much, I just don't know how to cut short such a great time!