Barcelona weekend

I love Barcelona! It's such a beautiful city with so much culture and I did not get robbed, yet all my euros I brought are gone...well a girl has to enjoy her time in Spain. I definitely like Barcelona more than Madrid, it's also a huge city but it's just so beautiful with its unique architecture and Gaudi basically designed the whole city, plus the places we visited absolutely blew my mind. The only thing is I would not want to study abroad in Barcelona or go there to improve and practice Spanish, because EVERYONE speaks English. When you talk to someone in Spanish they will reply in English, it's kind of sad, but it's just because there are so so many tourists. The first night we just walked around and down Las Ramblas a little bit which is just this street where there are a lot of street vendors and shops. Watch your stuff though, on Saturday when Brittany and I went back to look at things, I can't be sure, but I think this girl tried to steal my stuff because she came up to me and touched my purse, Brittany was about to push her away, and when I looked at her she pointed at my shopping bag and asked where that store was. It was really fishy so I just pointed in a direction and we walked away. Anyways, food is definitely my weakness, there was this ice cream that looked SO delicious! I ended up getting some the next day, one scoop of pistachio and one scoop of Ferrero Rocher (it tasted exactly like you were eating Ferrero Rocher chocolate!). Yum!

The next day we went on a giant tour of Barcelona condensed into something like 4 hours. I had turned off my phone I got here on the plane and realized later I need my pin number to get back into my phone and Brittany's phone alarm has been off and on so we asked for a wake-up call that morning. Well, there was a mix-up and we definitely did not get a wake-up call until our director Andrea called us and told us it was 9:30 (our meeting time). Ah! So we had to get ready in 10 minutes and miss breakfast, booo. We walked around the city for a while, and to be honest, I don't even remember what a lot of the things we saw were called or their significance. Perhaps I'll Google it. One of the coolest things was actually this outdoor market, which was named the best market in the world, "La Boqueria", and I know my parents would have loved it! There was a lot of fresh fish, other seafood (lobsters, crabs, shrimp...), meat, fruits, vegetables, spices, nuts, etc. Haha too bad a fresh fish wouldn't last another month for a souvenir.

We saw a fountain in which if you drink from it you're supposed to come back to Barcelona, gothic styled neighborhood/buildings, this monastery (I think) where we weren't allowed in because we were wearing shorts but inside there are 13 geese to honor this daughter who passed away when she was 13, and a bunch of buildings Gaudi designed including the cathedral. The cathedral is still not finished even though Gaudi left instructions on how to finish it after he died and his students were trained to do it. Our guide told us that the people in Barcelona say it will never be finished, and also that the city was going to implement a train system that runs under the cathedral, which as you can imagine will be very dangerous for the stability of the cathedral. So she says you have to say hello and goodbye because we don't think it's going to be here when 400 trains are running under it a day, commenting on how the official is an idiot. We then visited the park called Parque Guell...they know how to make parks in Spain. The park is so enormous that you can keep going back and see a different part each day for quite some time. It is absolutely beautiful and designed, of course, by Gaudi. There was this lane of columns that are supposed to be in the form of trees that was definitely the runway for one of the seasons of America's Next Top Model haha, as well as beautiful gardens and sculptures and the view of the Barcelona skyline. I would go there all the time if I could. If and when I come back to Barcelona I would be able to spend a whole day just exploring the park.

After the tour we went back to the market. At the market I got a fresh kiwi-orange smoothie, so good! Then us four girls (other Rachel, Katelyn, Brittany and I) went shopping, and Brittany and I continued shopping after Rachel and Katelyn went back to the hotel. After getting back we got changed and went to take the metro to Plaza Espanyol to see Barcelona's Magic Fountain of Montjuic. When we were waiting in the lobby for Rachel and Katelyn this old lady came up to us and asked us if we were staying in Barcelona longer and gave us what was left on her metro ticket! It's small things that the kindness of strangers brings that makes some of the greatest impacts on my life. It also just reminds me how some people really dismiss you while others try to be as helpful as they can. I also talked to Kristina today who is studying abroad in London, and in a country that speaks the same language she even told me how people do not "hide their disdain for Americans". But both her in London and I in Spain both just want to fit in, even though it's pretty blatant that we don't. I never put much thought into how I treated foreigners before, mostly because I don't live in a very touristy area, but after this trip I definitely have a new outlook and am going to try my best to be welcoming and helpful if I'm put in the opposing situation of being the local.
Sidetracked, anyway: The Magic Fountain of Monjuic is this fountain that changes colors and which of its spouts is turned on/how high the water goes to the beat of music that plays. It was one of the best experiences of my life, better than the ones in Vegas in my opinion. Brittany and I got right up the edge of the fountain and took a seat. I could have stayed there all night. Plus there were so so so many people, the energy was amazing! A song about Barcelona played as the changing colors of the fountain danced to the music, followed by more pop songs.

Then we went to this restaurant called Divinus for dinner, which was an OK restaurant, but kind of expensive. We didn't realize how late it was because when we finished dinner it was already 1 AM! Brittany for sure thought her phone was wrong and told us to check, and sure enough, it was 1 in the morning. We were so tired we just went back to the hotel and called it a night, but still quite a success.

The next day we had from noon until 7 to explore the city so we all walked from our hotel towards the Picasso museum. When we got there, there was a really long line and we thought the museum closed at 3 and we were planning to go to a chocolate museum that also closed at 3 (and Brittany and I wanted to go to the Palau Musica Catalana tour at 3 ahh), so the other three decided to see the chocolate museum. Brittany and I decided to stay in line at the Picasso museum and it only ended up taking about 20 minutes to get in. Picasso spent a lot of his life in Barcelona and the museum displayed his earlier work. People had said they were disappointed by it, but I thought it was really interesting and cool to see, especially the last exhibit with his interpretation of Velazquez's "Las Meninas". There was a whole series of these paintings and they all brought out something new from the original painting, while more or less still preserving it. The really early stuff was not stunning, but just interesting to think about that Picasso was not always this abstract painter and he was skilled at traditional art. There were also sketches and what seemed like doodles. There was this one called "Two Figures and a Cat" and it was a doodle of a man eating out a woman with a cat watching on the bed...like it was ripped out of his teenage journal or something. Hey Rita, maybe when you're famous people will put the drawings you put in the margins of your notes in a museum?

So afterwards we bumped into the rest of our group and they found out that the Picasso museum closed at 7 or 7:30 pm so they were headed there. It was almost 2:30 PM so Brittany and I decided to check out the chocolate museum because Katelyn said the ticket was a bar of chocolate mmmm. We ended up going inside and quickly looking at everything in about 15 minutes, but it was definitely sufficient but I'm glad we went. There were all these sculptures and scenes made out of chocolate. It. Was. Beautiful. I'm not quite sure how long they keep them there though...

Anyways it was about 2:45 PM and there was supposed to be an English tour of the music hall at 3 PM so we decided to try to get there. Surprisingly we didn't get lost at all and made it directly there right at 3 PM but there was only a tour in Spanish at 3:30 PM. We decided just to go for it, and it actually worked out pretty well because I think I enjoyed it better in Spanish because our tour guide was awesome and she spoke slowly with a lot of hand gestures and I understood almost everything. I love the Spanish language! We also got the last tour of the hall and I'm so glad we went on it because it was the best experience of the day. It was one of most beautiful buildings I have ever seen.  I definitely want to see a concert here. There were sculptures of muses on the stage that all had different dresses and instruments, thus welcoming all different types of music from around the world. There were also Pegasuses in the upper section which were supposed to be the horses that brought the muses to the hall. The hall was completed in only 3 years, how this was accomplished I couldn't completely understand but they built the hall the same way they built the Eiffel Tower and I think the guide said that the artists and construction was done simultaneously (in parallel). We got a "mini concert" on our tour with the organ, which at one point was not functioning but thanks to wealthy patrons who donated (and their names are now on the backs of the chairs) the organ is working again. That little taste was enough for me to want to experience the full effect because it was just magical being there and listening. The hall is made out of all different kinds of materials and a lot of crystal, which isn't good for acoustics so there are a lot of other materials such as the marble to absorb the vibrations. The hall had a lot of history because it made it through the civil war in Spain and was designed by Montaner, who also had a political agenda. There were a lot of roses because it's the symbol of the Socialist party. Something that was such a creative idea was how he arranged the lighting on the upper balcony which were almost like a bunch of chandeliers where the lights are arranged in a circle, and they were all on a tilt. In the middle there's stained glass with the faces of women who are angels and bright yellow in the middle that represents both how Barcelona was the first (or one of the first) places where women were allowed to sing and the sun. This part of the building allows natural light from the daylight to come in. The way the lights lean are supposed to be flowers or trees and how they always grow towards the light. There were also names of famous composers along the ceiling, it was just breathtaking.

Well after that and some souvenir shopping it was already around 5 and Rachel called me just as we ended our tour/shopping and we hadn't eaten lunch yet so we met back up at the hotel to go out again for lunch. We ended up going to Taller de Tapas where I ordered the food item that fit my budget since I had about 7 euros in change left. Then we just headed back to get ready for our flight back. Since it was late and a Sunday we had to take a taxi home and when we were in our neighborhood the taxi driver asked us to tell him when we were at our house. Brittany was sitting in the front seat but didn't really know but I kind of recognized where we walk to the metro everyday so I just screamed out aqui! aqui! (here! here!) when we were over there haha and luckily it was right. Our host parents had dinner waiting for us and it was so delicious, we're so spoiled :D. For dessert we had these peaches soaked in wine, so so good, I need to learn how to make all these delicious foods (today we had this delicious rice with vegetables and chicken plus gazpacho)!
Our host parents asked us if we were had class still and we did but I told them they should write us a doctor's note and our host mom said oh yeah, you guys are sick. When we got home later that day she told us how she was surprised that she went downstairs and we were gone, meaning we went to class jaja...well considering we have about 5 days of class left, probably should just go.

We went to the beach yesterday even though it was cloudly (it was sunny earlier :\) and the waves were huge. The flag was yellow (which means caution) and we just got pummeled by the waves and sand was EVERYWHERE. I'm actually quite impressed with myself on how well I got it off. The flag turned to red after we got out, they probably saw us dying in the waves and thought it was too dangerous. There was a little girl just basically sitting there taking on the waves. I was saying how I thought we would see her and then there'd be a wave and next thing we know, she'd be gone. She's a trooper. Today I am a little sore from fighting the waves. There were also a lot of surfers out further so it was nice and relaxing just sitting on the beach and watching that. I wish I could learn how to surf...

Finally, today we went to the bus station to buy tickets to Vitoria to visit our Spanish professor Carla who told us about this program. We waited in this huge line only to figure out it wasn't the right company, but luckily the other line was really short. The woman at the counter though was very flustered because about 10 people were trying to get tickets for a bus that was leaving in like a minute and she had to do that and then we were next. I was telling her in Spanish that I needed a ticket for Saturday, saying "sabado" and she didn't understand, but I'm pretty sure I was pronouncing it correctly so when she said I don't understand I just said in Spanish "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, SATURDAY" and then she was like "Oh, sabado"...yes that is what I said. OK somehow it's already almost midnight, so bedtime! Buenas noches!