This past weekend, I went to Barcelona with 4 of my friends from my study abroad program. It was the first trip that we planned all on our own, and it went really well! We went for the Festival de la Merce, that celebrates the end of summer and the beginning of fall.
We took a bus to Barcelona that left Madrid at 11:30 (it ran late so actually at 12:00 midnight) on Thursday night so we would arrive in the morning and have all of Friday in Barcelona. Riding a bus at night didn't seem like a bad idea, but after stopping three times, switching bus drivers, and having quite a lot of rowdy Americans on my bus, I don't think I will try it again. Once we arrived, we lugged our bags to our hostel, getting very lost along the way, but we finally made it, and in time for breakfast! We couldn't check in to our rooms until the afternoon, so we stowed our bags in their luggage room and went off to explore. We ended up seeing a cathedral, though I couldn't go inside because I didn't have my shoulders covered. Then we strolled up and down Las Ramblas, the main street in Barcelona. We saw street performers, and stopped in at the big market, La Boqueria. It was really cool to recognize places that I saw when I was in Barcelona 6 years ago, and remember visiting them and taking pictures. We then decided to visit Palau Guell, one of Gaudi's many architectural beauties. It was built for the family Guell, in collaboration with Eusebi Guell, one of Gaudi's close friends.
After we checked into our hotel, we went to the beach for the afternoon. The water was really clear, not Caribbean blue, but in chest-deep water I could see my toes. Me and my friend Alex swam out to a rock jetty and enjoyed the view of the coast and the city. Then everyone took a nap on the beach. We met up with my friend Ana, who lived on my floor freshman year of college, and she took us to a really great sandwich/salad place for dinner. Then we went to a little bar called Jet Lag, and chatted over some drinks until we met up with Ana again to go to a discoteca where you could walk straight out onto the beach. We got to meet a lot of Ana's friends, who all go to UMD, and it turns out that another girl from our floor freshman year, Abby, is in Barcelona this semester too, so I got to see her. We had a really great night, and got back to our hostel around 3 or 4 am.
Saturday, it rained all day. So a lot of the festival activities were cancelled or postponed. So we decided to go to La Sagrada Familia and hope that the rain let up for the festivities in the evening. However, my friend Q cannot enter churches, because it is against her religion, and since I had already been inside, we decided to wander around the city. Then we met back up with our other friends for a very delicious buffet lunch. In the afternoon, we went to Park Guell, another one of Gaudi's masterpieces. It was originally supposed to be a residential park, but the idea was abandoned, and it became a public park. We walked around the whole park, and toured Gaudi's residence, which is on the premises. After a dinner of tapas, we went to a concert. It was an Italian band, and it included drums, clarinet, accordion, guitar, tamborine, and a couple other instruments I recognized but can't name. It was really cool, especially since there were a lot of Italians around who danced.
Sunday was a beautiful day like Friday had been. We wandered around the city in the morning, after we checked out of our hostel. Then we watched troupes building colles, or human towers in English. It was a really incredible sight to see, especially since we were really close to two of the troupes. I even got a few videos of the building process. After that, we went back to the sandwich/salad place for lunch with Ana, after which we said our goodbyes. Our last visit was to El Parque de la Ciutadella, the largest and pretty much only park in Barcelona. There were a lot of activities for children going on, in honor of the festival. We just wandered around and took some pictures, and then headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and catch our bus.
We got back to Madrid a little after 1 am on Monday morning, but it was definitely worth the sleep deficit. I had a really great time. I can't wait to go back with my mom when she comes to visit in November, and see even more of the city. Even though I didn't want to study there, I still love the city of Barcelona, particularly all of Gaudi's amazing work.
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