Post-Barcelona

I'm already back home in the States but found this unfinished post about Barcelona from the end of October and decided to publish it anyway:

I knew coming here that it wouldn't all be beds of roses and blue skies.  And now along with my mood it seems the skies have turned (quite literally, it poured today and we're to have rain for at least the next 10 days).  I think I've finally hit that wall where I start to question, and miss, and feel...feel, yes, homesick.

But let's start with the good things first and then I can continue my ranting introspection later:  Barcelona this past weekend was a blast, and I owe my newfound love for the city to a man named Antoni Gaudi.  I went with a couple MoHomies and we explored all over the city without having much of a plan in mind.  Before leaving Montpellier I was quite terrified of not speaking any Spanish besides hola, por favor, gracias, and that one ever-useful line which I don't quite know how to spell, "Donde esta mi madre?"   Thankfully one of my friends spoke Spanish and played translator for us throughout the weekend.

View out the Eurolines bus window

Things were off to a rocky start on the 5-hour bus ride as we stared through the windows and saw nothing but rain.  But as we pulled into Barcelona Norte I could feel the excitement rushing in as we rushed off the bus.  We quickly realized we had neither the phone number nor the address of our hostel written down (we were a bit preoccupied with the Vert Anglais bar and last-minute packing the night before leaving).  The information desk man was none too helpful with his shrug of the shoulders but luckily we found another bored young man at a travel agency who was willing to look up the hostel and print out directions for us.  I have to say, in general, the people in Barcelona were super friendly and helpful.

The hostel, BCN Backpackers Casanova, was very quiet and clean, a great place for a first hostel experience.  I figured we weren't huge partiers and so I thought quiet hours would be a plus.  But boy, coming back early at 11:30pm to find everyone else already snoring was still a shock.  I think next time we'll go for a hostel with "more character," as my friend put it.


On Friday, our first full day, we visited the much lauded Sagrada Familia and Park Güell.  In my eyes Sagrada Familia is not lauded enough.  I had heard other students say, "Oh, it's this cathedral that was started a hundred years ago and still won't be finished for another few decades," but this description in no way prepared me for what I was about to see.  As we stepped off the metro escalator and turned around we were hit full force with the magnitude of this masterpiece.  From a distance it looked as if the stone were melting and molding into new sculptures right before your eyes, the way wet sand does when you droop it into little clumpy towers.  The façades were highly decorated, almost over-decorated, with scenes of Nativity on one side and the Passion of Christ on the other.  I was never a religious one, but I still stood in awe of the outside for a good twenty minutes before entering.



And when we entered, I stood in awe with my jaw gaping even wider for another hour.  I can't even describe the brilliance of the colorful mosaic stained-glass windows, and the light they filtered into the cathedral.  And the columns designed to resemble tree trunks reached up so high they made me feel as though I were in a scene in Avatar.  I would love to come back in twenty years when the construction is supposed to be finished, and to hear a full choir sing from the balcony that stretches all around the perimeter of the cathedral.  That would be a hell (I mean heaven) of an experience.

A condensed list of other adventures had in Barcelona:

Park Güell

Senegalese dinner

JazzSi flamenco

Casa Batlló

Palau Musica Catalana

Castle

Ghost tour through the Gothic district

Otto Zuntz (OZ) night club