Casual Weekend in Barcelona

This week's travel destination was sunny Barcelona, Spain! And it was, of course, fantastic.

On Thursday of last week, I got out of my class at 3:30 and rushed back to the apartment as quick as I could. My roommate Caitlin and I had a 5:20 flight to Barcelona, and for some reason that neither of us can recall, we thought we had all the time in the world. We were at the train station by 3:50 to catch our ride to the airport when with immense dread and panic we realized that the trains were delayed and the next one wouldn't be coming until 4:20. It takes about 25 minutes to get to the airport by train and our gate closed at 4:50.

We considered getting a taxi, but as it was rush hour traffic, we didn't think that would be too wise an idea either, so we chanced it with the train. It arrived at 4:20 as promised and at 4:47 we arrived at the airport. We literally sprinted to security and scrambled to tell someone that we had to get through as soon as possible. I kid you not, within 12 minutes, we had gotten from the train platform across the airport to our gate...and then realized there was a 20 minute delay and they hadn't even started boarding yet. It was a tremendous feat, and I will remain both proud and embarrassed of it for years to come.

After a good night's rest in our hostel, we woke up Friday morning and headed to the city center via one of the eleven metro lines. We were joining a walking tour at 11 nearby, so we figured we'd stop for some breakfast once we figured out where the heck we were. Right outside the Liceu (pronounced "Lith-ay-oo") metro stop in the city center, we happened upon a GIANT open air food market, El Mercado de la Bouqeria. It was rows upon rows of delicious looking fruit, chocolate, fish, empanadas, vegetables and cafes. I've never seen a more amazing market. For those who have been to Seattle, picture Pike Place market with even more fish and fruit, and about 5 times as huge.

 There were tons of fruit stand like this that had individually 

portioned salads and smoothies for prospective customers

 Hanging dried peppers

There was a whole fish section with prawns, live lobster and crab, 

HUGE fish, urchins, clams and mussels

 Octopus, anyone?

 We went around 8 on Saturday night, and as everyone was closing up, some of the fruit stands were giving away their little portions for free. I snagged this mango and it was literally the sweetest, most delicious, melt-in-your-mouth mango I've ever tasted (and not just because it was free!).

After getting a fruit cup at the market (complete with fresh coconut and passionfruit), we headed to Placa Reial where the tour met. There were two tours happening with this company, so we chose the less crowded Gaudi tour. For those who don't know, Antoni Gaudi was a famous Spanish/Catalan architect most known for his modernist approach and avoidance of right angles. The tour took us to famous buildings that he designed throughout Barcelona, a few of them pictured below.

An apartment building

 La Sagrada Familia

(sorry about the sun)

The Sagrada Familia is a church that Gaudi took over the design of in 1883 that was originally set to be completed in 9 years. At the point of Gaudi's death in 1923, the project was less than one quarter complete. Fortunately, Gaudi left his full design plans for the church so architects today are still working on it and the new estimated completion is in 2026, which from what I saw and heard of the design plans, seems a bit soon. Gaudi was obviously a bit excessive...

After the tour, we enjoyed our first round of tapas: Spanish-style "small plates" dishes. We usually ordered four between the two of us so it was a good way to taste a lot of the Spanish cuisine--which is by NO MEANS the same as Mexican cuisine. 

One of our tapas: mussels with peppers, onion, and spices

They bring out the tapas one after the other, so I found that I only had 

patience to take a picture of the first plate before I began enjoying the food!

From the restaurant, we took a metro or two to Montjuic Hill (not quite sure how to pronounce that one). The metro stop brought us to the end of an amazing entryway to the National Museum of Modern Art. We walked up the steps to the museum, saw the site of the 1992 Olympic Stadiums, and them took a bus to the Montjuic Castle at the top of the hill.

The Magic Fountain

It does lights shows at night apparently

 The Grand Entrance

 View of Barcelona from the National Museum

Communications Tower in the Olympic Park

Outside the Olympic Stadium Sports Hall

Surprisingly not super pretty to look at

Castell de Montjuic

View of Barceloneta from atop the Castle

After the castle, we headed back to the hostel for a pit stop before dinner. We set out towards the Barceloneta Pier with seafood on the brain. We ended up at this pretty touristy place (though it was one that one of the receptionists at our hostel suggested) right on the pier called El Rey de Gamba. We ordered white wine, a couple tapas and I got the grilled salmon. Despite the touristy look of the joint, the food was AMAZING. I suppose being that close to the sea makes it difficult to mess up seafood...but it was the best salmon I've had in I don't know how long.

On Saturday, we got up and took a metro to the Gothic Quarter where we met for a biking tour around the city. The tour was amazing--we saw the Ciutadella Park (site of the 1929 World Fair), the New Town Barcelona (looked a lot like Miami), biked along the Barceloneta Boardwalk, and headed back into the Old Town El Born region of Barcelona.

 La Cascada Waterfall Fountain

Designed from Trevi Fountain in Rome

The World Fair Entrance

The Former Bull-Fighting Arena

Bull fighting is now illegal in Catalan 

(can't remember why but I know it wasn't because of animal cruelty)

 Torre Agbar Building

A bit phallic perhaps, but the most eco-friendly building in Spain

 Barceloneta Beach

 

The bike tour was fantastic. We saw so much of the city in a short amount of time, we really felt like we knew how to get to where we wanted after that. Plus it was a gorgeous day and it was nice to be riding a bike in March!

After the tour, we got some quick tapas and then went back to Barceloneta beach to take in the gorgeous views another time. After that, we took the metro to Park Guell to see a house and church completely designed by Galdi. We ended up just walking around the park for an hour or so. It cost 15 euro to see the houses and while I'm sure it was neat, I wasn't feeling like dropping the extra cash.

Seaside at Barceloneta

 Some Cool Bridge Thing in Park Guell

We went back to the hostel once again and set out for dinner around 8. I should mention, the people of Spain don't eat dinner until about 10:30-11:30pm! If we arrived at a restaurant at 9:30, we were the only ones there! After walking around for a few hours and getting hungrier and angrier by the minute, we decided to stop at a place near Placa Reial called Les Quince Nits. We ordered a salad and I got grilled baby squid as my entree. I don't believe there was a meal that I didn't have seafood at, and I don't regret it at all. It was delicious!

The Aforementioned Squid

Our flight didn't leave until 8:45 on Sunday night, so we had most of the day to wander around the city some more. We went on another walking tour that took us through the Barcelona Old Town neighborhoods--the Gothic Quarter and the Jewish Ghetto. It was a series of narrow, winding streets with beautiful squares, buildings and churches. Afterwards, we got a big lunch to tide us over for the rest of the day. Another thing to mention, they don't actually speak Spanish in Barcelona. This confused me very much at first because I thought my 5 years of Spanish classes would finally come in handy, but the language that most people speak is Catalan, the region of Spain in which Barcelona is located. In fact, Catalan culture is wider celebrated in Barcelona than Spanish culture, and there have been recent debates from the Catalans to succeed from Spain.

Anyway...Overall, it was a really great weekend. I feel like we saw all the must-sees of the city and more, and I definitely became a master of the metro by the time we left. The trip started off a bit shakey, but was truly an awesome experience. 

Things to look forward to this week: Spring Break Trip to Ireland begins on Friday! A roommate and I will be touring the cities of Galway, Cork and Dublin. Because of this week of travel, do not expect a blog update until March 22 at least!

Thanks for reading,

Kasey Ann