When our plane finally touched down in Barcelona, we felt the struggle. We had not slept that whole night, and for some reason Italian flights just seem to be way more chaotic than most. We knew we needed rest, but our blood was pumping. We were in a new city…in Spain…on the beach. Sleep was not a part of the agenda. We had to take a bus into the city center, which lasted for about 30 minutes. Once we arrived in the city, we took a 10 minute metro ride to our hostel called Sant Jordi. This was definitely one of the nicest hostels I’ve ever been to. It really catered to college students traveling and had beanbag chairs in the lobby, which is always fun! We couldn’t check in until 2:00, so we kept our bags in their luggage closest. We asked for a place to get decent breakfast, and the woman at the reception desk told us about a place down the street—the best breakfast I’ve had since being in Europe! It was actually something more than just a croissant or a pastry (not to say that I am ungrateful for the multitude of pastries here in Italy). We finally had some eggs, sausage, and some delicious bacon (more like Canadian bacon but still tasty nonetheless).

The next thing on our list was a free walking tour. We had heard that Barcelona was full of them and wanted to take advantage of this. The meeting place was at bar called the Travel Bar. It was an Irish owned pub that actually served some incredible food. It took us a little longer to walk there than expected, and we showed up about 5 minutes late. Luckily, they hadn’t left yet. The tour was lead by a Greek woman who had visited a friend in Barcelona and never left. She new 4 different languages: Greek, Spanish, English, and French. Our tour group was full of people from all across the globe, but surprisingly we were the only ones from the U.S. Our tour covered the Gothic area of Barcelona. I won’t lie to you…I started to fall asleep while standing up. Not because it was uninteresting, but because we still had not received an ounce of sleep. I was happy for the tour though. We saw parts of Barcelona that we wouldn’t have checked out if we were just wandering around by ourselves. She showed us a church and school that had been bombed during the Spanish Civil War and even some ancient Roman ruins (Italy just follows me everywhere). She told us more about the history of Barcelona and it’s obsession with dragons. The most intriguing thing that I learned was about the language they speak in Barcelona: Catalan. Catalan is the official language of Barcelona—no it’s not Spanish and no do not refer to Catalan as a dialect. Catalan is best explained as a mix between Spanish and French pronounced with a Portuguese accent. Needless to say, my 7 years of fairly mediocre Spanish was no match in Barcelona. I also kept saying Ciao instead of Hola, which was quite embarrassing (that darn Italy following me everywhere again).

Later that evening, we met up with some other people in our study abroad program and had dinner. All I wanted was some traditional Spanish Paella! And I got it! Although it wasn’t the best Barcelona had to offer (apparently the best is by the beach and also 25 euro a plate), it was still delicious! Oddly enough, it’s actually difficult to find Spanish food in Barcelona because it is so touristy, so they try to appeal to tourist and have so many other ethnic foods. Of course everyone started falling asleep in between each bite, but we womaned up and decided to experience the Barcelona nightlife. I may be bias because Barcelona is one of my favorite places on this Earth, but their nightlife exceeds just about any. All of their clubs are located directly on the beach, and they have great taste in music. The Spanish don’t start to party until pretty late, so even though we showed up about 1 a.m. we were one of the first people in the club. This also meant that we got in for free because clubs were trying to quickly fill their venue. The club we got into was called Danzatoria. They had 2 levels. The first level was some pretty cool EDM music, and the second level was hip hop and house music (I was on the dance floor for a while). They also mixed in some nice Spanish music and my friend Roxana tried to teach me the salsa (I am not like Shakira…my hips do lie). That was one of the best nights I’ve had since being on my study abroad experience and of course we didn’t sleep again because we didn’t get back to our hostel until about 5 a.m.

The next morning we woke up quite earlier to head over to the Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia means “Sacred Family.” It is the most impressive church I’ve laid eyes on. It’s untraditional and far more unique than any church I’ve ever visited. The outside displays so much detail, and the inside is covered in colorful stain glass. I’ll just let the photos below do the explaining.

We even bought tickets to go to the top. Luckily, it was not like the Duomo in Florence where there were 463 steps. This church had an elevator. I repeat…this church had an elevator. My day was made!

Next, we met up with my friend Lauren who was in Europe for her spring break. We headed back to the Travel Bar but this time for a private bike tour around Barcelona. Our tour guy was this real chill guy from Australia. This tour showed me 2 things: Barcelona is amazing and after not riding a bike for a while it is not just like riding a bike. It is difficult. The tour took us by the beach first. This is where our first bike mishap occurred when my friend Ayanna accidentally ran over a whole row of sunglasses that were for sale on the street. All of this just shortly before almost running over a small child. Surprisingly, there were a lot of people on the beach. And even more surprisingly, there were nude people on the beach. Apparently, Barcelona has beaches where nudity is allowed, but there is one rule: you must where shoes. The view of the beach was gorgeous. We even stopped to take photos. We also learned about how much Barcelona actually spent on making the beach look decent and how much the people of Barcelona dislike Christopher Columbus. Barcelona was chosen a few years back for the Olympics, so they imported tons of sand from Egypt and palm tress from Hawaii so their beaches could be up to par. There is also a statue in the main circle in front of the beach. The statue is of Christopher Columbus who was hired by Queen Isabella of Spain to find a route to India. Now I have a dislike for Mr. Columbus because he killed many Native Americans, spread disease, thought he was in India (genius), and is credited for finding the Americas (which is false because the Vikings first landed in North America years before Columbus ever did). Barcelona dislikes the man because his discovery actually made Spain quite poor, and the rest of the European nations involved in the transatlantic slave trade pretty wealthy. We also stopped by this beautiful park that was right outside the Barcelona Zoo. Their zoo is famous for an albino gorilla that they used to have. They tried to copy the gorilla’s DNA many times in order to keep the albino trait alive. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been successful.

That evening, we went and watched a spectacular water color show in front of a beautiful museum. We also decided to finally catch up on some sleep and headed to bed early. Our last day was spent mainly shopping and visiting Park Güell. Barcelona’s most famous architect, Antoni Gaudi, designed Park Güell. Gaudi, who also designed the Sagrada Familia, created a whole park out of mosaics. He also designed a few unique houses that reminded me of something out of a Dr. Seuss book. His style is completely original and nothing like I’ve ever seen before. The best part was that his mosaics overlooked the ocean!

Leaving Barcelona was so bittersweet. I was happy to return back to Perugia and catch up on some sleep, but I still talk about Barcelona like I left a piece of my heart there. I get jealous when people tell me that they’re visiting for the weekend because I would do anything to go back, but I know one day I will. Just like Italy…I can’t stay away for too long.

Location: Barcelona, Spain