Ciao Italy, hola Spain...Ole! My weekend in Barcelona!

Right now I am exhausted, but it’s completely worth it because I got to spend the weekend in Barcelona, Spain!  I went to Barcelona with my family when I was 13 and had incredible memories of it.  So when Megan suggested it for this past weekend I was totally on board.  Fortunately, my experiences this weekend not only lived up to, but also surpassed my memories and expectations.  I remembered the city as full of life, and culture, and essentially similar to a large piece of artwork and my memories did not disappoint.  It was amazing.

We started by leaving at 6 am Friday morning to begin our 7 “legs” of the trip (taxi, train, bus, shuttle, plane, bus, metro).  It was a lot of traveling but absolutely worth it.  The only bad part of the trip was when we saw a flasher on the Metro!!  EWWW.  I guess there are perverts in Spain just like there are in the United States.

The first night we were there we mad our way over to La Rambla.  La Rambla is the most famous (and largest) street in Barcelona and all down it is vendors selling everything imaginable, artists, and street performers.  Our favorite performer was a Edward Scissorhands look alike!  (check out the pictures, Megan was terrified)  The street performers are fantastic, they are all “statues” that move when you give them some euro.  It’s really amusing but you have to be careful.  Because La Rambla attracts so many tourists, and everyone is so distracted by the very talent performers, pick pocketing is extremely common.  Fortunately none of us got pick pocketed, but Jamie almost did!  Thank goodness she noticed and tracked him down before he would make away with her stuff.  We had a lovely dinner of tapas, paella, and sangria while sitting outside people watching and enjoying tradition Spanish foods and the fact that we were actually there.

The next day we got up early to make the most of our day.  Our first stop was Starbucks!  While many of you may think we are ridiculous for getting a Starbucks fix, you have to understand.  It was GLORIOUS to have a coffee (or in my case caramel macchiato) like we have at home.  It just gave us a nice kick and put us in great moods to start the day.  Also we don’t have one in Perugia, so it’s not like it’s readily available to us.

From there we went to a bar our hostel told us about that gives FREE walking tours!  It was definitely one of the best parts of our trip.  Because the tour guide was working solely for tips, she was fantastic.  We walked all over the city for about 2 and a half hours, seeing lot’s of hidden gems.  The focus of the tour was the history of Barcelona as opposed to seeing the main “touristy” spots.  We saw Gaudi’s first public piece or artwork, Picasso’s dad’s art school (and where Picasso lost his virginity!), Plaza George Orwell (which is nicknamed Plaza Trippy because that’s where a lot of drug addicts hang out).  We also the church that Gaudi frequented, Isabella and Ferdinand’s castle/cathedral, and saw the first synagogue (I don’t remember if it was in Spain or Europe, but still cool either way).  A few other interesting things we saw were a plaza that was blown up during WWII, destroying a daycare center (they left the walls that had chips blown out of them the same as a reminder), the first piece of wood Christopher Columbus brought over the from the United States, and where San Eulalia was tortured and eventually killed (one of the Saints of Barcelona).

Aside from the walking tour we also went to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s gothic cathedral.  It was under construction but still incredible to see.  We attempted going to Gaudi’s park but it was unfortunately closed because of really bad storms the week before that knocked down a lot of trees.  I was pretty disappointed we didn’t get to see it, I remember it being my favorite part of my last Barcelona trip.  But we still saw so many amazing things; I have no right to complain!  That night we also went to the very first “ice bar.”  An ice bar, for those of you who don’t know (*cough*Mom*cough*) is a bar literally made entirely of ice.  The bar itself, the chairs, the cups, everything!  It’s a very cool (Haha, get it?!  Cool?!  Haha, good one Ash) thing to do and see, but we only stayed for 1 drink.  They keep the bar at -5 degrees so they have to give you special thermal jackets, hats and gloves to wear.

The next day we made sure to get up early again and this time headed down to see the beach.  It was so beautiful, and a really wonderful way to start the day.  We wanted to see the Picasso museum, but unfortunately the lines were way to long and we didn’t have a ton of time left before we had to get to the airport.  It was fate that we didn’t get to go though.  The entire weekend we looked for churros and couldn’t find them!  (Weird, right?) But then after deciding to leave the Picasso museum, turning the corner to go to the metro, what do we see?  A churro place!!  It was definitely destiny.

Then we began out 7 “legs” to go back.  Myself, Megan, Jamie and Jenna had an amazing time.  They were a fantastic group to travel with.  We plan on traveling to Amsterdam and Greece together and I can’t wait for those adventures.  That night we went to a bar and watched the Superbowl.  Not a bad way to end the weekend, huh?  Now I’m planning this weekend because Brian is flying in!  I’ll be picking him up in Rome, spending a few days there, then bringing him back to Perugia to show him around here.  I’m sure Rome will be an interesting weekend, since it will be both of our first times there.  I’ll be sure to blog all about our adventures next week!