Ciao Tutti,
A week or so ago, my ISC (Italian Student Companion), Silvio, had about ten of his friends over for dinner. I am happy to report that I was actually able to carry a conversation with them and understand the general ideas of what they were talking to each other about. We even played the Italian version of the game, Mafia. This was quite a challenge, but a great and fun experience!
Changing topics completely, last weekend I went to Barcelona. I arrived late on a Thursday night and took a train from the airport into the city center. By the time I got into the city center, the metro had stopped running (after midnight) so I had to take a taxi to my hostel. My hostel had a 91% review on HostelWorld.com, but I was immensely disappointed. I did not realize that the hostel only had a common bathroom in the hallway of every floor. I am so used to staying in hostels that have a bathroom in each room that this took a bit of getting used to.
On Friday, I took a free walking tour to see the architecture of one of Barcelona’s most famous architects – Gaudi. His buildings made me feel like I was in Whoville and a world of Dr. Seuss, but they were really cool from the outside. It cost upwards of 18 euros to go in, so I decided that the views from the outside were good enough for me. We also saw a church that he designed over around 85 years ago that is still being built. It is a very complex church and they say it will not be done for at least another 25-30 years! That one complex building!
One of the houses Gaudi desgined
Another one of the houses Gaudi desgined
One of the three facades of Gaudi’s church – the Sagrada Famiglia. Only two are finished. This is the Nativity Facade.
The Passion Facade. The Glory Facade just started construction.
After my walking tour, I took a hop on-hop off bus tour to see all of Barcelona. Barcelona is such a spread out city that the bus company had two different lines. It took me 6 hours to complete both lines, but I was happy I did it.
On Saturday, it poured the whole day. By this point, I had become a pro on navigating Barcelona’s metro and decided to go to the Picasso Museum. The Picasso Museum was a homage to Picasso’s older, lesser known works. All I knew about Picasso before this was that he painted “Scream,” but was very intrigued by his life story. He moved around a lot and changed his artistic style about once or twice a year.
After the Picasso Museum, I decided to go to a restaurant to have typical Catalonian food – tapas. They are basically a bunch of small samples, so you order two or three and try a bit of everything. I had ham & cheese croquets and something very similar to sesame chicken. It was really, really good.
Then, even though it was raining, I embarked on my voyage to find Barceloneta Beach. By this point my map was useless because it was raining so hard, so I decided to follow the signs to the beach – big mistake. I wound up 3 kilometers out of my way and had to backtrack to see it. I was happy when I finally got there, though. It looked like a scene out of 2012, the waves were about four feet high (pretty high for the Mediterranean Sea and I saw the cliché surfboarder walking away from the sea. It was a beautiful beach, though.
The Beach
After this, I decided to walk and catch a metro back to my hostel. After an hour rest, I went to the only bar in Barcelona that was showing the Penn State v. Michigan State game for the Big Ten Semifinals. I think I managed to find the only empty bar in Barcelona, but a combination of a Penn State win and some nostalgic food like quesadillas and chicken tenders was enough to make my day.
Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day. I loved it! I woke up early in the morning to walk the “La Rambla”, a very famous tourist promenade where artists and cafes line the streets. I decided to grab a seat and order “Churros and Chocolate” and people watch. They were so good.
La Rambla
Chocolate & Churros
After that, I took another walking tour of Barcelona. This one was a tour of Barcelona’s historical center. It was beautiful and reminded me a lot of Rome. I gained some insight into the history of Barcelona that was absolutely fascinating like the fact that Barcelona used to be occupied by the Romans when it was a walled city (hence why it reminded me of historical Rome). Also, I learned that the people of Barcelona actually consider themselves to be Catalonian, not Spanish. They speak Catalonian and Spanish and are constantly protesting the Spanish government for their independence. I also got to see where the King of Catalonia greeted Christopher Columbus after discovering the New World. The final piece of trivia I learned was that Barcelona could have built the Eifel Tower instead of Paris, but the government thought it was too weird looking and built an arch instead – big mistake!
The steps that Christopher Columbus was welcomed back on
After the walking tour, I took the metro to Park Gϋell – another one of Gaudi’s projects. It was declared a World Heritage Site a few years ago, so I figured a trip to Barcelona would not be complete without seeing it. Getting there was a difficult task. After taking the metro, it was a kilometer walk to a series of eight escalators to take you to the top of a mountain. At the top of this mountain, you had to walk down hill about a half of a kilometer to get to the park. By this point, I was exhausted. It was so worth it, though. I saw the longest bench I have ever seen and a bunch of other cool looking houses, sculptures, and architecture!
View from the Park
I think Dr. Seuss used to live here…..
An overhang at the park.
The other park entrance.
On my way back to the hostel to grab my bag, I found a Dunkin Coffee (they don’t call them Dunkin Donuts over there) and splurged on the biggest ice coffee I have ever had. In Italy, I can only get an espresso – they really do not have American coffee. It was probably the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had (probably because I haven’t had one in so long). I topped it off with a ham & cheese panini and a chocolate frosted donut with sprinkles – the icing on the cake.
After grabbing my bag at my hostel, I went to the airport and came back to Rome. In my next blog post (very soon, probably later today), I’ll bring you up to date with everything I did this week and weekend, post a few pictures from the past month, and post the bucket list I made of things I need to do while I’m in Rome.
Ciao,
Mike
Location: Barcelona, Spain
