Allie in Spain (and Ireland): Barcelona: Another Side of Spain (or should I say Cataluña?)

Barcelona was one of my top destinations for this semester. I've always heard that's it's beautiful, and being so close, I of course had to go. Especially because of the rivalry between the 2 cities for being the greatest in Spain, I wanted to check it out for myself. I saved this trip until the end of the semester because I was hoping for good weather. This was a total fail. Although the weather ended up being better than what I expected (there was forecasted rain all weekend), it was certainly not beach weather. The idea of saving it for my last trip wasn't so great either, because by now, I am completely out of money. That being said, rather than flying my friend Kelly and I decided to take an overnight bus to save some cash. It was a long weekend in Madrid for the 2 de Mayo holiday, so flights were very expensive since so many people travel. The bus was only 60 euros, and we figured we would sleep on the way and it would be alright.

You can already see the flaws in my plans revealing themselves here.

No, I was not very successful in sleeping on the overnight bus thanks to the dude in front of me who decided it was okay to lean all the way back in his seat despite me asking him, very politely, in perfect Spanish, to move up a little bit, several times. Seriously, people don't understand the concept of being tall here! We arrived in Barcelona around 7 in the morning and like zombies, found our way to the hostel. The hostel was very clean and well-kept, but it also quickly became clear that it was that way because they were the most uptight hostel owners ever. I mean I appreciate the promotion of cleanliness and safety, but this is a backpacker's hostel we're talking about here. What college students traveling around Europe do you know who go to sleep at 11pm (the enforced lights-out and quiet hours of the hostel)? Nevertheless, it was in a pretty good location and it was clean so it was satisfactory.

Ok, so before I get into the dirty details of everything, let me give a little background on Barcelona. Barcelonians don't consider themselves Spaniards. I found the anti-Spanish sentiment to be much stronger here than in Basque Country. Everything, first and foremost, is in Catalan, then Spanish, and then English if you're lucky. I really think that pure English speakers would have some trouble getting around there. We could understand some Catalan with our knowledge of Spanish, but it's a fusion of Spanish and French so some stuff we were lost on. In the major tourist areas, everything is in multiple languages, but when you get into other parts of the city, it's all just Catalan. Maybe this is culturally insensitive of me, but I just don't get it. It's a dying language. News-flash Barcelona, YOU LOST. Madrid is the capital, and Spanish is the 3rd most spoken language in the world. GIVE IT UP, YOU ARE SPANISH. You have been part of the Spanish Kingdom since Ferdinand and Isabel, over 500 years ago. The people are ethnically the same, the cultures are very similar, the food is the same, why don't they just accept it? I don't know.

Anyway, back to the trip, despite our tiredness, we only 3 days in Barcelona and wanted to make the most of them so after getting settled in we headed off the the Ramblas - Barcelona's main drag. We sat down for some coffee and a chocolate croissant, and quickly realized that Barcelona doesn't actually have that many sites. Yes, it's full of Gaudi architecture and has a wide variety of museums, plazas etc. but in terms of actual MUST-DO things, there's not a lot. At this point, it was raining, so we were a little bit discouraged about how the next 3 days would play out. We began our walk down the Ramblas at the Plaza de Cataluña, where out of the complete blue, we ran into Michelle, the girl we met at our hostel in Rome. So crazy! We stopped and chatted with her for a bit and made plans to try and meet up later. SUCH a small world.

So we continued our walk down the Ramblas, and stopped off at all the sites - the Baroque Cathedral, the Opera House, the Monument to Columbus, the Placa Reial (Catalan for Royal Plaza) and the like. The Ramblas is a crazy place. I mean it's clearly a tourist trap, but it's very busy, fun and full of people and cute shops and restaurants. There are a street performers who act like statues. It's kind of creepy. I will shamelessly admit that we also stopped at Dunkin Donuts - I miss iced coffee in my life. As I was reading through my guide book, I realized that we had completely missed the Boqueria, which was supposed to be some giant marketplace off the Ramblas. I thought it was really strange that we could've missed something so large, so we wandered back and when we finally found it, we realized that it was really strange that we missed it. It was huge and amazing. Seriously one of the coolest places I have seen in my life, if only for my unhealthy love of food. It's just full of every type of food you could every possibly want from fresh fish and meet, to desserts, to tapas bars, to fresh fruit and SMOOTHIES. We got a strawberry coconut smoothie and it was SO GOOD. Amazing. We bought some delicious chocolate as a wholesome midmorning snack, and made a note to come back for lunch.

This walk took up the most of our morning, and it had stopped raining for a while, so we decided to walk down and at least check out the beach for a minute. This quickly devolved into us being in a harbor and having no idea where the beach was. Barcelona is not as walkable as a lot of other cities I've been to and the beach wasn't even on the map so I don't know what we were thinking trying to find it. We sat down on a bench near the harbor when I spotted a cable car going over the city. Now I don't know why, but for some reason I have some sort of obsession with cable cars/funiculars. I just really like the views and I think it's a cool way to see the city. So I made it my mission to figure out how to get on that cable car. Kelly very patiently allowed me to go on this mission. So I consulted my travel guide and discovered that there was a funicular taking you up to Montjuic, which is the Jewish quarter of Barcelona. So we took the funicular up, which was totally lame because it was under a tunnel. I was quite disappointed. BUT, when we got to the top we discovered that there was indeed a cable car that took you up through the park and to some castle. Awesome. It wasn't the same one I had seen down by the harbor (I never did figure that out), but it was a cable car with awesome views nonetheless. The castle up there was pretty cool - it was really more of a fortress/prison, but it was only built in the 17th century, so pretty young by Spain standards. It was a really nice, unexpected excursion and the views were AMAZING. You could see very clearly the Sagrada Familia and the most awkward building ever, which is for the Barcelona water company (google it, I don't care to elaborate). There is supposed to be a lot more to do in Montjuic, like an old Olympic Stadium and the National Art Museum of Cataluña, but we already had plans to go to the Picasso museum later, and by this time we were starving for lunch.

We headed back down to the Ramblas to hit up the Boqueria for lunch. It was delicious. We went around to different tapas bars, sampling croquettes, patatas bravas, empanadas etc. We also got a fresh fruit bowl with grapes, oranges, dragon fruit, coconut, pineapple and honeydew. So yummy. We also, of course, picked up some chocolate treats.

So after that feast, it was after 4, and so we figured it was time to head over to the Picasso Museum. We were both exhausted, not ideal museum going mode, but you have to do what you have to do. Finding the museum was nearly impossible. I don't know why, but Barcelona is pretty horrible about its tourist infrastructure. Not to mention all the street signs are in Catalan. Ugh. We found it eventually, but not without a good deal of frustration and back-tracking.

The museum was pretty impressive. Barcelona was Picasso's home in his early years as an artist, so they have one of the most extensive collections of his work, especially his early work. We were exhausted, but the museum is fairly small and very well-organized so we easily made our way through everything. What was really amazing to me, that most of what was there he did before he was 20 (what have I accomplished?!?!).

On our way back to the hostel, we stopped at the famous Barcelona Cathedral. As you all know by now, I've pretty much had it with Cathedrals, so we just stopped in briefly and checked it out. Yet another beautiful Gothic Cathedral in Spain (CATALUÑA?). My disillusionment with beautiful architectural works is a bit depressing (until I went to the Sagrada Familia, at least). We headed back to the hostel and made friends with some Brazilians staying in our room. They invited us out with them, and with all the infinite wisdom of college students, we decided to nap for an hour and deem that sufficient rest to go. I don't really have much to say about the evening other than that the Barcelona night life is pretty comparable to that of Madrid. I wasn't too impressed.

The next day, there was obviously no way we were waking up early. Fortunately, we had knocked out a lot of the major sites in the first day (go us), so we weren't in any rush. We woke up around 11, and headed to Parc Guell, Gaudi's famous park. When he originally designed it, it was a gated community for the wealthy, but unfortunately it was ahead of it's time. It's a bit far from the city center, and in the early 1900s all the fashionable, fabulously wealthy women wanted to be close to the most bustling areas. So it failed as a community and became a park. It's full of Gaudi's strange, psychedelic sculptures and architecture as well as some of his engineering ingenuities. For example, the water drains off the terrace to fuel the fountains below. And the benches on the terrace are "ergonomically designed to fit your body." Cool. The view from up there was amazing as well. We also visited the little museum that was formerly Gaudi's House, where he lived from 1906 until his death in 1926, except for the time which he spent living on site at the Sagrada Familia (now that's dedication). It's interesting, but skippable, if anyone's ever there. It does provide some nice background for his other works like Casa Mila and the Sagrada Familia.

So, after wandering around there for a while, we hopped back on the bus down the hill to continue or expedition of Gaudi's Barcelona. First, we stopped for a quick lunch and then ducked into Farga, a very old famous chocolate shop in Barcelona. We got a a few treats which were quite delicious. Then we headed on over to Casa Mila. Casa Mila was built by Gaudi from 1905-1910, after being commissioned by a wealthy family. Yes, people actually lived there. The outside is very unique looking, and it's full of overt religious symbols, such as the rosary being written on the cornice, as most of Gaudi's works are. When the city tried to get rid of his plans to build a Mary statue because it is exceeded the city's building code for height, he almost abandoned the project until his priest convinced him not to. He was pretty hardcore. Unfortunately we did not get to go inside, because 1) it was getting late and we wanted to have enough time for the Sagrada Familia and 2) it was 14 euros. Yuck. So we passed by, got our tourist photos and continued onward.

Next stop was the Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia was what Gaudi spent most of his life working on. Construction began in 1883, and continued until his death in 1926. During his life, the only part of it which was fully completed was the Nativity Facade and the beginning of the spires of the Passion Facade. When asked to speed the construction, Gaudi was quoted as saying "My client (aka God) is in no hurry". He was very devout, obviously. He had full plans for the building, and never actually intended it to be a Cathedral. After he died, however, plans changed and others took over the project. Although they tried to follow his plans, many of his blue prints were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, so we'll probably never really know what it was supposed to look like. One thing that is certain is that it is absolutely impressive. Just in sheer size, it's pretty incredible. And the design is unlike anything I've ever seen, let alone any cathedral I've ever seen. Many of the windows are stained glass, and eventually they all will be, each reflecting beautiful colors into the nave. The original design calls for 18 spires to represent the 12 apostles, the 4 evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and the largest, Jesus, which will be 550 feet tall. Only 10 have been constructed as of yet. The Nativity and Passion Facades are complete, but the largest to come, the Glory Facade has barely even begun construction. We took the elevator up the Nativity Facade to see the views and it was incredible. You could see all the construction work being done on the top and it was a very cool feeling, to be in a cathedral that is still being worked on. When we think about some of the world's most famous Cathedrals, Notre Dame for example, we think oh yeah it was constructed from 1163-1345, like it's nothing. THAT'S ALMOST 200 YEARS! This one won't be finished for at least another 30 years. Think of how many lives went it to it. It's crazy. It's by far the most impressed I've ever been with a Cathedral, and as you know by now from reading this blog, I've seen a lot of them. I hope that I can go back and see when it's all finished because I'm sure that it will be amazing.

So after that cathartic experience, we headed back to the Ramblas area for some food, which resulted in us eating Chocolate con Churros for dinner. So healthy. Happy with the knowledge that we had satisfied all of our must do sites in only 2 days, we rewarded ourselves by going out again that night. Oh college.

The next morning, we slept in, and woke up, not quite sure what to do. After some debate, we decided to get out of the city and take a day trip to Montserrat. Monteserrat is a mountain which is part of the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range, with the main peaks being Sant Jeroni at 4,055

feet. It is famous because it houses a 13th century monastery and the Virgin of Montserrat, the patroness of Catalonia. It is considered to be the most important religious retreat of Catalonia. It was also considered a a place of refuge for scholars and artists during the Franco years. So, like any sacred, naturally beautiful space, it has now been completely exploited for tourism. Don't get me wrong, it was absolutely beautiful and I enjoyed it a lot, but it was another big tourist trap.

After you get to the train stop, you take a cable car up, which was pretty awesome, but pretty terrifying at the same time. It takes you up every high, and the ascending views are spectacular. We did not wait in line to get inside the Basilica to see the Virgin, because it was very long and we were more interested in getting up into the mountains and doing some hiking. So, we took yet another funicular, even higher up, and we walked the beautiful mountain trail to the St. Joan Chapel, which is pretty much just ruins at this point, but the views were great. Supposedly, on a clear day you can see the Mediterranean, but we had no such luck. We then took the trail back down to the monastery instead of the funicular. It was about an hour hike down and it was very nice. By now, it was after 5, so we decided to head back into Barcelona.

After the hour long train ride, we walked down to the water to get some dinner. My friend who studied there this semester recommended this tapas bar that was supposed to be really fun and cheap. Finding it turned into a nightmare. This is just another perfect anecdote about how Spain makes no sense. So after realizing that it wasn't right off the metro station like the website had said, we went into a grocery store to ask directions. Now I don't know about you, but when someone asks me directions, if I don't know where it is, I say so, and if I do, then I'm very specific. Walk x amount of time, take this street, turn in y direction here, past ___ big landmark, etc. The guys directions were "walk straight for 15 minutes." Ok then. We tried that, and nothing. So went into a hotel an asked directions. He said to walk down the street, cross the plaza and it would be across from a hotel. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PLAZAS THERE ARE IN BARCELONA? Do you know how many hotels there are by the water in Barcelona?!?! So, after that also didn't work, we went into ANOTHER hotel and asked directions. He said to walk down, cross the big street, and it would be on our left. A bit more descriptive, but unfortunately still not accurate. We never found it. We stopped at one of the many other restaurants there and has some delicious paella. I was a bit disappointed about not finding the place, but what can you do?

So this is pretty much where the trip ends. Our overnight bus back to Madrid left at 11, so after dinner we headed back to the hostel to get our stuff and went to the bus station. Overall, I really liked Barcelona. I found it to be very similar to Madrid, but a bit younger and more modern, and with an ocean, which is hard to beat. I would love to go back in the summer when you can go to the beach and really enjoy the ocean. My photos didn't turn out too well, but here are a few of the better ones: