Hola, Barcelona!!!

Barcelona, Spain is a city that never sleeps.

And neither did we.


Barcelona is a throbbing city with some of the world's greatest nightlife, most unique art and architecture while being the second largest metropolis in Spain looking out over the Mediterranean Sea. I honestly didn't know what to expect coming to Spain--I had heard people rave about Barcelona but I must confess, I didn't know much about the city before coming, but now I am set on returning someday in the summertime. Spaniards are similar to Italians in that they love to have fun late, late into the night. So we 'did as the Spanish do' and now I am functioning on only a few hours of sleep over a three day span. Needless to say it was a wild time.

We toured a park called the Montjuïc with scenic views of this enormous city by taking a gondola up to a hilltop with an awesome castle on top that overlooked calm Mediterranean as the sun was setting. We visited the Sangrada Familia Church which qualifies as the weirdest looking thing I have ever seen. Seriously, Google image it. Barcelona has a Gothic Quarter with gothic architecture and it has Catalan modernisme (Art Nouveau) leaving an important artisitc legacy in Barcelona, especially through the architect, Antoni Gaudí, who did the Sangrada Familia which is still under construction today and will be complete in 2010. The city features tons and tons of cool stuff that we only scratched the surface of, including great markets and the famous Las Ramblas, one of the best pedestrian walkways in Europe. Park Güell was one of my favorite spots with its views and extensive amounts of Gaudi art, colorful mosaics, and the weirdest looking grotto thing ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_G%C3%BCell

One evening, Rita and I went to the Travel Bar, an International Bar suggested to us by our hostel, where for 23 euro, we went on a Pub crawl type thing except we got Sangeria, tappas, and entrance to a traditional Flamenco show! The music was incredible with Spanish guitar, rhythmic clapping, and Catalan singing that sounded like beautiful Arabic chanting. And the dancing of course was amazing! The stage was a small, intimate setting, and a man and a woman moved their feet in ways I didn't know was possible. The whole time I kept thinking and telling Rita, "I can't believe I'm actually in Barcelona and watching this amazing Flamenco show!" It was surreal. The night went on, we made friends who we drank Sangeria with (a sweet, fruity, Spanish drink) and later on that night we make some sweet Norwegian friends. We didn't crash in the hostel until 4:30 am! The next day was filled with more sight seeing and then we went back to the travel bar where we made new British and Australian friends who invited us over to their place for dinner. The evening was filled with more Barcelona good times. We were completely, and utterly exhausted, catching a 6:am flight back to Milano and then going to class today (Monday) morning. It was pouring rain, the 57 Cadorna was packed as usual, and our bodies felt pretty miserable today. I'm getting plenty of rest tonight in preparation for a Parisian weekend, the last trip of my European adventures.

20 days and counting until I return home!