Buenos Dias, Barcelona
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2010
1
18
20
Trip End
Apr 30, 2010
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Friday, March 26, 2010
Ok…without the accents that should be there…it says, Hello! How are you all? I am very happy to be in Barcelona. I like very much the culture of Spain, you too?
This Spanish would have been fantastic to use in Spain..one would think, however, in Barcelona, they don't speak Spanish as the main language…they use Catlian. It's all ok though, we were able to some of the Spanish that we know. It took 24 hours of training through Austria, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain to get to Barcelona. We left at 8 pm, and got there around…8 pm, if not a little later from having to ride the metro in Barcelona to get to the hostel.
The first night we got there, we checked into the hostel and immediately headed to the beach, a five or so minute walk from the hostel. The moon was bright, the breeze was crisp, yet tolerable, and the water was FREEZING. And all I did was dip my foot in, and then I couldn't walk, the water was SO COLD.
Day 1-Sunday
Our first day was Palm Sunday. The local neighborhood church was about a 15 minute walk from the hostel, and Mass was a noon. This was, apparently, the family mass. Take a look at the videos and the pictures. They don't just have palms in the back of Church to be blessed and taken…no, their style is more B.Y.O.P….bring your own palm. And boy do they bring them. Some of them bring palms with scepter looking things on them..some with scepter things and candy and bows, I mean, these things are freaking elaborate. Or, they bring in the mega-palms. These are palms that are 7 feet tall, if not taller. You'll see them in the pictures, and they certainly are a sight to see. Now, the Spanish are not a people concerned with what seat they will get at Mass, so when Mass starts at noon, they'll be there at noon, but not much sooner than that. We were 5 of maybe 15 sitting in the Church about 10 til Mass was supposed to start. But at noon, the other 10 people stood up and went outside, we figured, oh, this must be for the procession into the Church, so we walked outside, and there were HOURDS of people! All with these crazy palms. Mass started outside, and the priest blessed the palms and walked around the whole crowd before starting into the Church. It was pretty cute with these little kids bouncing up and down in front of the priest shouting "Aqui, Aqui!" which means, "Here! Here!" calling for the priest's blessing. Mass was interesting, I love being Catholic for the universality of the Church (among many other things :-)) however, I was really looking foreword to understanding some things going on, but NO, they were speaking Catalin, oh well.
The rest of the day we hung out on the beach picnic-ed and had fun. We found this fruit store on our way that sold fruit and other produce for cheap, and it was a blessing all week…not to mention fantastic! AND they had Granny Smith Apples! And strawberries! Do you realize how long it's been since we've SEEN either of these fruits, let alone been able to EAT them???? YUM! *heaven*
Day 2-Monday
On the second day, we went to Las Ramblas, which is the famous 2 mile long shopping strip in Barcelona. It's famous for its many street performers, flower stands, animal stands, tourist shops, and of course, pick pocket professionals. See the many pictures of all the street performers…some were really good, and some were…well, questionable. Lol. About half way down the Las Ramblas is St. Joseph's open market, a huge side street branch of Las Ramblas. It is a ton of fruit and produce stands, meat stands, and candy candy candy candy CANDY, it all look entirely delectable, and very very expensive. But then you could get fresh fruit smoothies for only a euro, so you just had to look for the deals. The back part of the market was all fish. We didn't go that far because Scott and Lyndsay claimed sickness at just the smell.
We ate lunch at the Hard Rock on Las Ramblas, which was amazing food, as Hard Rock normally is. We finished the day shopping still on Las Ramblas…there is a lot there! And went back exhausted to the hostel.
Day 3-Tuesday
Zoo! I found a 2 euro off flyer for the zoo at the hostel, and I thought it would be a cool thing to do, and Lyndsay had never been to a zoo, so I suggested we go, and it was a hit! It took a bit of time to get there, but we were there by noon. It was a huge zoo, it took us a good 6 hours to get through the whole thing. There were all the typical zoo animals, but there were some I'd never seen in a zoo before…and the weird thing was some of the animals weren't even caged in. The spider monkeys had a huge play ground …and a fence to keep the humans out but it certainly wouldn't suffice to keep them in. The flamingos too, they had some bushes and a few logs for a pen, but nothing else. They had dolphins as well, and when we found out we didn't have to pay extra to see the show, we booked it to the line. It was 45 minutes before the show, and the line was already a half-mile long. We were fairly worried about not getting into to see the show, but we did, just barely, and ended up having great seats. I couldn't understand everything that was being said, but I caught bits and pieces enough to piece it together. It was a really fun experience for everyone, but after a day of being on the feet all day long, we were exhausted and headed back to the hostel for another early night.
Day 4-Wednesday
Wednesday had a slow start because we were waiting on a friend to join us at the hostel we were staying at so he could check in and get settled before we headed out for the day. Scott and I took advantage of the waiting time and headed to the beach, it was a beautiful day outside…in the 60's and perfect for a walk on the beach. We walked to the pier and stuck our feet over the edge and hung out and talked for about an hour, watching the sailboats go by, and being mesmerized by the sparkling water. When Michael checked in, we headed out to the main square in Barcelona and walked for a bit to see some famous building in the area, one built to look like a dragon who was defeated by St. Michael and saved the town from ruin, and another that has wavy floors. Then we walked to a local wine maker and bought some sweet "black" wine (it was a very very sweet red wine) for pretty cheap. 1.20 euro/L. Then we walked up to Olympic Park, which was AWESOME. They really out did themselves for the '92 Olympics…though, I suppose you kinda have to when you host the Olympics. To get there you have to walk through the Art Institute of Barcelona. It's the building in the pictures that looks like it should be a Cathedral, but isn't. It is a magnificent building and over looks the entire city…mmm, beautiful!
That night we got on the guest list for an exclusive club in Barcelona (Barcelona is known for the night life) called the Bikini Club. We got all dressed up and made the long trip on the Metro to get to the club…only to be rejected because Michael's shoes weren't formal enough. It probably turned out for the best though, because there were 6 bouncers outside, and we were guessing each drink cost 8-10 euros…it was pretty late by this point, so we just decided to go back to the hostel and sleep. We are big fans of sleeping!
Day 5-Thursday
Thursday was a quiet, lazy day. It was supposed to be our designated beach day, but the weather was cloudy, cold and windy. We hung around the hostel for a good part of the day (they had a TV and a Wii room, which the boys were all over) and then went to explore some of the side streets of Las Ramblas…and that's pretty much all we did on Thursday.
Day 6- Good Friday
Good Friday Service was at noon, instead of at night. Again, it was a bit hard to follow because of the language barrier, but we still were able to keep up with what was going on, and the service was beautiful in it's own right, even when you don't understand what is said.
We spent Friday on the beach…we made Michael into a Mermaid and Lyndsay had a bucket-list event to complete "swimming in the Mediterranean." I stayed on shore with the towel for the moment she came running out of the freezing water, which happened. Friday night we had a date with the Magic Fountain. It's a HUGE, famous, fountain in Barcelona, near the Olympic Park and in front of the Art Institute. It does a type of water dance with music and lights, and it is a ball of fun to watch. In the 'winter' season it has shows ever thirty minutes but only until 9pm. Be sure to check out the pictures and the videos. If you EVER come to Barcelona, this is a must see. It's worth going back just to see again. The pictures and video don't even do it the slightest justice.
After the show, we went to see Sagrada Familia, the famous, incomplete Church in Barcelona. It's taken over 100 years to build and it's still not done. It was the brain-child of the famous architect Gaudi, who also built the dragon house, the building with the wavy floors. It's quite the Church to take in, but you have to pay to get inside, since it's not finished yet, and all it's masses are held outside. We wondered around this area for a bit, stopped for ice cream, and settled at a cocktail bar, and then headed back to the hostel.
Day 7-Saturday
Saturday we headed to Park Gruell, which was also built by the guy who built Sagrada Familia. It too is an incomplete work. It was supposed to be an upscale neighborhood, but only 2 houses were ever built, and then it was turned into a park. It's famous for its fanatical mosaic creatures that line the paths and the hangout areas. Saturday turned out to be pretty hot in the city, so everyone decided to go back to the beach instead of hanging at the park. Scott and I branched off and spent the afternoon at Las Ramblas wandering the side streets and going into interesting looking shops.
The Saturday Vigil was at 9:30, and it was a rather small service. Our guess is that the family mass was on Sunday. They didn't have any catecuminates, our guess for that one is that they have them all gather at the Cathedral (we didn't go there because it costs 9 euro to ride up the mountain that it sits on). It was pretty short too. Although, I must tell you, the Spanish have an interesting way of leading the congregation in song. This happened for every song, but the Litany of the Saints was the most…sorry if this offends anyone, but funny. The deacon was leading the names of the Saints on one side and conducting the parish, completely off beat and out of tune, and on the other side of the Church, the cantor was also conducting the congregation in the responses, on a completely different off-beat and out of tune manner…it was a rather interesting phenomenon to witness. The mass only lasted about an hour and a half..and then we went back to the hostel to pack..we had to make the 5:50 am bus to the air port…
Day 8--Sunday.
36 hours of traveling back to Gaming...From bus to metro to broken bus to new bus to airport to security to flying to waiting in airport for 6 hours to bus to train station to overnight train to train to train to train to hitching a ride to the Kartause. Ahhh, the joys of traveling in Europe.
Adios!
-jess
Comments
great city
Should you be heading to Barcelona, let me recommend you staying at hostels barcelona nest for a cheap and central accomodotation to start your sightseeings from!