¡Estamos En Barcelona! (Written on Saturday)

Man oh man. What a Day!!!!! We left Segovia yesterday at around 6:30, took another poorly air-conditioned bus ride to Madrid, waited for our 10:30 bus to leave, ate some bocadillos, and talked for awhile. Through the course of the past two days, this small, independent group that I’m with has developed quite a personality. I guess that’s what happens when you spend a lot of time with one another.
Eight hours after we left Madrid, we arrived in Barcelona. In comparison to Madrid, this town is a lot different. For instance, they speak a different language here; Catalan, which is a combination of French and Español. The temperature here is a full 10 degrees cooler than it has been the duration of the trip in Segovia, and the city is perched ever so perfectly on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. I never thought that I would be able to say that I’ve been to the Mediterranean, but here I am, 20 years old, and I just spent a good 3 hours walking the beach, sticking my feet in the water, and taking several pictures.
A quick Metro ride after our arrival at the bus station, and we were at our hostel; a very nice, very spiffed-up former college dorm building. Each room has AC (about time), its own bathroom where you can take as long of a shower as you desire, two beds, and were only paying 34 Euros a person to stay here.
We each took showers after we were all checked in because, needless to say, the bus made us uncomfortably gross feeling. Nate commented that he felt greasier than a McDonald’s hamburger. After showers, we rested for a few moments, then headed back out to do some sight-seeing.
Cameras in tow, we took the metro to perhaps the most famous building in Barcelona. La Segrada Familia; a church so immense and intricate that even after 130 years of construction is still incomplete. I had seen pictures of this building and marveled at mear screen shots, but nothing even comes close to the real thing. Our group was so taken by the outside of the building that we just had to get inside to take more pictures, so that is exactly what we did. La Segrada Familia seemed even more massive from the inside with all of its sudo-flying buttresses and rotundas and other architectural terms that I either can’t think of or don’t exist because the architect, Antoní Gaudí, invented them. The design of the building, despite being drawn out over 130 years ago, is way ahead of its time. Gaudí was a genius. I’ll have some pictures up on my facebook as soon as I have the time and the internet to post them.
After La Segrada Familia, we went searching for another one of Gaudí’s masterpieces, the Parc Güell. Hunger struck us before we could find it though, so we stopped at a place called Pan y Sabor, which was a quaint little Spanish panadería. The woman behind the counter gave us a sample of their pan con queso, and that was enough to hook us. I got two empanadas, one with carne and one with pollo, and a Fanta naranja. The soft drinks here are so much better than they are back in the states. They use actual sugar. None of that artificial sweetener crap. After we all ordered “para llegar”, or to-go, we took our food to a park bench and chowed down. We then lay down in the grass for a little while, and I think that’s when we all realized how tired we really were, but we still wanted to see the other Gaudí work. We decided that we would take a nap once we returned from seeing the “Parc.”
We took another Metro ride, walked up a very steep hill, and came down the other side to find the Parc, an absolutely beautiful and immediately recognizable architectural wonder. After telling everyone and their cousins that this Parc was in Tony Hawk’s Underground 2, I set out to take several artsy photos with my newfound interest in photography thanks to my new friend Nate.
So as I said earlier, we were really tired before we went to the Parc, so obviously after the fact, we weren’t any better. We promptly returned to the hostel for some afternoon z’s.
When we awoke from our naps, I had no idea what day it was, and where I was. All I knew was that I needed another shower and that I was incredibly hungry. After another shower, the group reunited and we decided that we had a taste for some pizza. We went to a place down the street called Telepizza, got two large pizzas for practically nothing para llegar, and took them to the beach. There we ate and enjoyed the indescribable scenery. I feel like I’m currently on a mini-vacation. This is one of the nicest cities that I have ever been to, and I still cannot believe that I get to be in a place like this for the chump change that I paid to get here. What a great deal!
I wish I could fully express how much I am enjoying our visit to Barcelona, but I am having the toughest time coming up with the right words. Perhaps sometimes that’s all you need in order to know that you are having a tremendous time. I should go now. We have aspirations of watching the sunrise over the Mediterranean tomorrow morning. Hope everything is great at home. ¡Adios!