Wednesday, March 25, 2009

barcelona

I went to Barcelona the weekend of March 6th... I know, I suck at this whole updating thing lately. It´s a lot harder when you have a broken computer and the internet is iffy at your study center. but ANYWAYS- Barcelona was the first outside of CIEE trip that I planned. I went with Chrisy, Jessica, and Jillian. We woke up BEFORE the crack of dawn to catch the bus to the airport. Our flight was at 7 in the morning, I´m not a good flyer to begin with, so this next time I have an early flight I´ll need to get a lot more sleep. We decided when we landed to take a taxi to our hostal, because the trains and buses were further away. We stayed at Gothic Point Hostal (in the Gothic neighborhood of Barcelona), which caters to students travellers. We had to store our stuff for awhile because we got there so early that we couldn´t check in yet. After eating FREE breakfast and storing our things, we went to the Picasso Museum! It was really close to our hostal, so it was the perfect way to spend a few horus before checking in. The museum was amazing! It took you through a cronological tour of Picasso´s works. At the young age of 16, Picasso was already creating these amazing pieces of art. Made me feel like maybe I should do something productive with my life (like you always say mom about tennis players ¨look she´s only 18 and has won a tournament, what are you doing with your life?¨haha) We obviously weren´t allowed to take pictures, which is understandable, but I wish I could have documented the museum trip!
Finally we were able to check into the hostal. We went into our room and all just laughed. It was a summer camp style mixed dorm bunk bed set up. We got our things together and headed out for some sightseeing! We walked down Las Ramblas, which I must admit I was quite disappointed with (I guess it was too talked up.) La Sagrada Familia (a catedral designed by Antoni Gaudi) was our next stop. It´s amazing to see because it is still under construction (and probably will be for years and years to come!) The museum was so interesting because it explained how Gaudi was inspired by nature.
We went back to the hostal to get ready for dinner and a night out. After dinner, we went to a bar close to our hostal, but I was sick when we were in Barcelona. So, unfortunately, I decided that going to bed at two in the morning versus five in the morning was a good idea, so that I wouldn´t be holding back the group the next day.
In the morning, we took the metro to Park Güell, which is a park on top of a hill (that we climbed) with different artwork of Gaudi (benches, walkways, etc.) and also his house. It was gorgeous! The mosaic benches were overlooking an incredible view of the city and the sea in the background (YES! the Mediterranean!) After hours of wandering around, we realized how starving we were and decided we had better go get some lunch. We went on a quick walk along the beach, and then went back to get ready for the night. We ate at a Japanese restaurant, which was soo good (Cath, I ate sushi! Woohoo!)
After a night out, an early morning Sunday wake up is not exactly what anyone wanted to do. I woke up to people´s alarms (who didn´t wake up for them.) Let´s just say that waking them up was an adventure in itself... but finally the got up. We took a taxi back to the airport and flew home to Sevilla!
It seemed as if the weekend trip was more like a week long trip at least! Yet again, I am so happy to be studying in Sevilla! Catalan, the crazy language in Barcelona, is a mix between Spanish and French and all of the signs were in Catalan. So, it was weird being in Spain, but not really understanding the language!
More to come (slowly, but surely!)
Franny

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