I woke up bright and early Sunday morning to shower, finalize my packing (passport....check!) and then dash out of my house to meet Allison and wait for Lucas, whose Mom graciously offered to drive us all to the airport and save us the trouble of a bus or taxi. We made it onto our plane with no problems and in just under two hours, around 2:30 we were stepping down onto the tarmac in Barcelona. The first order of business was to eat so we headed to La Rambla, one of the most famous streets in Barca full of shops and a great view, to grab a bite to eat. Then we headed to our hostel, HostelOne, if you ever stay in Barcelona I highly recommend staying here. I was a little nervous to stay in a hostel because I was afraid it would be dirty or sketchy but it blew my expectations out of the water, it was clean and the staff were fun and helpful. I stayed in a six person room with Emily, Allison and Allyson (three girls from my program here) and John and Mike two of Allyson's friends from home who are studying in Manchester. I was glad that our room was full of just people we knew, it made things like one giant sleepover and we had a balcony!
Our gigantic backpacks.
It was a long morning at the airport...
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| Our slightly lived in (read: messy) hostel room.
After quickly dropping our stuff off at the hostel we left once again to meet up with Alberto and María, Alberto is a friend of Lucas' and María is his girlfriend who lives in Barcelona. He was visiting her the same time that we were there and she offered to show us around. She is so nice and is crazy good at Spanish and English even though neither of them are her first language, she speaks Catalan which is a mixture of underdeveloped Spanish and French. She took us to see the Gaudí houses, the 4Cats bar where Picasso, Gaudí and Miro hung out and drank absinthe, and some of her favorite places in Barcelona including a very cool skater bar.
4Cats bar where Picasso, Miro and Gaudí used hang out.
"Skater" bar with a really unique atmosphere.
One of Gaudí's houses.
That night we all went out for traditional Barcelona tapas. I had a really delicious salad and Emily and I split a questionable sausage and mushroom dish, it was mostly good but I'm pretty sure it involved blood sausage. After dinner Allyson, John, Mike and I went to an Irish bar of all things where one of her friends from home who is studying abroad in Barcelona works. He got us a free drink and told us about some of his favorite things to do in Barcelona, we stayed there for a while but ultimately went home pretty early because the next day we had plans to go hiking. |
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Me and Allyson.
Study Abroad amigos :)
Despite our best efforts to get up early we all slept in until about 11:30, after a heavenly shower (there was finally enough hot water and water pressure) we headed out to meet María and Alberto who were going to be our guides for the hike. We all bought some food at the grocery store for lunch and stocked up on water before we headed up Montserrat. To get to the bottom of the mountain we took the metro, I'd never been on the metro before and I was SO excited. Everyone else made fun of me because they had all taken it before and didn't understand why I hadn't or why I was so excited, in retrospect it was a bit of a let down but it's another mode of transportation I can cross off my list. We climbed halfway up the mountain, had a picnic on a scenic overlook and then continued up the mountain to partake in the unobstructed views of Barca that the mountain offered.
Maria struggling to get up the mountain and Alberto helping while Lucas laughed and documented it all.
 
View of Barca.
  
Mike, John, Me, Allyson and Allison taking in the view.
Las chicas, minus Maria.
After our hike on the mountain María and Alberto left us and we decided to tour La Sagrada Familia. It was breath-taking. Gaudí started building it and didn't complete it before his death, now they work on it little by little as they get enough money from donations. The astonishing attention to detail and obvious plan for every little bit of this monstrous cathedral is astounding.
    
After touring the Sagrada Familia we stopped in at a grocery store and picked up supplies to make tacos at the hostel that night for dinner. It was fun to cook all together and it was nice to have a home-cooked meal after eating out so much while we were traveling. We also met an Australian guy Has who was traveling alone and we pretty much adopted him into our group and he hung out with us for the rest of the weekend. That night after dinner we went out to a bar call Chupitos or shots. They had over 200 different kinds of themed shots that were on fire, had funny flavors and a million other things. Lucas did one called pulp fiction and they shot it into his mouth with a syringe, he was so surprised by that, and talked about it for the rest of the weekend.
Marki, Allison and Lucas cooking.
Our delicious dinner.
Shot of the whole group.
Me, Mike and our Australian friend Has.
Silly Midwest girls.
List of all the chupitos.
Study abroad amigos + Australian friend.
S'mores, chupitos en fuego!
The next morning we woke up bright and early and went to the cutest little breakfast place across the street, it was real authentic Spanish food and the cook was the sweetest old lady who we made friends with. I had a delicious egg, cheese and tomato breakfast sandwich. After breakfast we braved the rain for a free walking tour of Barcelona. It was such an amazing tour. It really gave me some insight into why the people of Barcelona, many of whom consider themselves Catalan and not Spanish, have such strong negative feelings towards the rest of Spain. They have been maltreated by pretty much every regime to come into power.
Saint Eulalia is the patron saint of Barcelona. She was a young girl who was tortured and persecuted by the Romans for believing in God. She suffered thirteen tortures including being stripped naked in front of a crowd to humiliate her but the legend has it that when her clothes were removed a snow storm started over just her and covered her from sight. Angered by this the Romans put her in a barrel, filled with knives and rolled her down the hill, but she didn't die. She was subsequently decapitated, upon which a dove flew from her neck, this was grounds for sainthood.
Shrine to Saint Eulalia.
This old church and square was a site of many terrible war crimes and deaths during the Spanish civil war. It was here that Mussolini bombed the citizens of Barcelona with no intended military target to weaken the moral of the people. It was also the location of many executions ordered by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who was angry because the people of Barcelona refused to assimilate with the rest of Spain. Speaking Catalan was banned and any expression of Catalan culture could result in execution.
Many of the holes in the wall are from shrapnel and bullets from the many bombings and shootings that took place here.
The door to the church.
Plaque in the square.
Art is a really big part of the culture in Barcelona and it is home to many artists. Some famous artists that lived there in the past are Pablo Picasso, Juan Miro and Antoni Gaudí. With so many artists in one place feuds were bound to happen. There is one story about Picasso and Miro, years ago in the 4Cats Picasso was drinking and heard everyone talking about how great Miro was. This made Picasso angry so he took a pencil and drew on the table cloth his interpretation of a Miro, one patron saved it. Miro found out and was so angry that he did his own interpretation of a Picasso in retaliation. These drawings are now the artwork on the outside of one of the art museums in Barcelona.
 
Miro doing a Picasso.
Street art is also a big deal in Barca. This reads: the freedom of expression is on the walls.
We also saw the Cathedral of Barcelona. It is no where near as impressive as the Cathedral of Sevilla but it has a lot of cool history that almost makes up for its appearance.
Old roman part of the cathedral.
Cathedral of Barcelona.
The arch below was built to connect the cathedral with the legislative building of Barcelona so that when the Bishop has to sign off on laws he can just walk across the bridge instead of having to go outside and all the way around the building to the front entrance. I thought this was so interesting because it shows how intertwined the church and the laws are. It is also said that if you walk backwards under the arch and make a wish it will come true. I tried it but don't ask me what I wished for, I can't tell you, if I do it won't come true.
Secret pathway.
During the time of the Black Plague there were so many bodies and the Bishop didn't want to risk catching it that he ordered all the bodies to be piled up in front of his balcony where he would reach out a hand and do a mass blessing of all of the bodies before they were taken away to be dumped into the sea.
Skull under the arch to represent all the lost souls from the plague.
Hard to see but in the corner is the Bishops finger.
The Jewish people were also mistreated in Barcelona and at one point to get enough materials to build a castle the Jewish gravestones were dug up and used as stones in the wall.
We also learned about Wilfred the Harry who is supposed to have delivered Barcelona from the control of an evil dragon who was eating all of the towns virgins in the 9th century. However, because Wilfred the Hairy wasn't an appropriate person to be the savior of the city because of his name and appearance the people transferred the legend onto Saint George, and he is known as the one who saved the city from the evil dragon.
St. George and Wilfred the Hairy fighting dragons.
There were also many cool sculptures in Barcelona. One to represent the human castle building contests that happen often in Barca, building human castles that are up to four stories high, and one to commemorate George Orwell, for his support during the Spanish Civil War.
This is supposed to be a castle somehow, I don't really see it.
 
This sign is up in one of the worst barrios (at night) in Barcelona, where all the drug addicts hang out. It says "we want a respectable neighborhood".
Former Red-light district in Barcelona, that was cleaned up and moved when the Olympics came to Barcelona in 1992. The art school that Picasso attended was right next to the Red-light district, it is believed that his friendships with the women who worked there shaped a lot of his early work and attitude towards women.
  
Picasso's art school.
I thought the tour of the city was well worth the three hours it took, I learned so much and I never knew that Barcelona had such rich history. I loved my time in Barcelona, it was a truly beautiful city and so much fun, however, it still pales in comparison to my Sevilla, I still haven't found a city that I love as much.
Finally, if you made it to the bottom of this post, congratulations, I feel like this was a long one. If anyone is wondering the significance of como-like, it's something my friend Allison says all the time, like is how people incorrectly translate como into English and now whenever we are at a loss for words or need time to pause we throw como-like into the equation. Much like middle school girls use like back in the states :)
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