Rachel Natalie Cassandra Barcelona

So it seems that in my unfortunate boredom and continual studying during the months of January and February, my desire to get out of Bologna wound up with me making a lot of travel plans, and these travels have begun.  Meaning I am pretty much going to be in transit every week for the next three months.  I obviously know how to fill my planner...talk about wanderlust to the extreme.

So last weekend began my 3-month whirlwind tour, when I went to Barcelona with Natalie and Cassandra.  This was kind of the trip that started it all - in the winter misery, we somehow landed on booking the flight to Spain.  I was so excited to go I think I could have run there last Friday.  And yes, this happens every time I go somewhere new, but this time I really mean it - I LOVE BARCELONA.

This place is fantastic.  It is on the ocean but has the mountains behind it - what more could you ask for? I can see how in about 3 weeks or so it could get way too hot to travel there and do the tourist thing (you might just want to lie on the beach).  But our weather was amazing - 65+ degrees every day, always sunny, tiny bit of ocean breeze.  Who knew spring actually starts in March?  So here goes the cliff notes version...recommended viewing with pictures (already on Flickr).

Sights:  

-GAUDI GAUDI GAUDI (an architect you should look up if you don't recognize his name).  We saw Palau Guell, Casa Mila, Casa Battlo, La Sagrada Familia, and Park Guell

-Barri Gothic and the Cathedral of Barcelona (the old section of the city)

-La Rambla - the famous street in Barcelona that leads right down to the sea

-El Mercat - a gigantic food market, totally packed with Spaniards and tourists galore, and yet people seem to actually do real grocery shopping there

-Port Vell, and a lot of sailboats

-the Arc de Triumf and connecting parks

-a Roy Lichtenstein sculpture of a gigantic head...so goofy.

-I could actually go on forever.  We walked ALL DAY on both Saturday and Sunday, so this list doesn't even cover the fact that I saw so much of the city just walking through it.

The Big Bummer:

This city is so well curated, and offers so many amazing activities (the biggest aquarium in Europe!  All of the Gaudi houses and tons of other examples of the moderisme style!).  However, they all cost un sacco di soldi - literally, a sack of money.  Each Gaudi house was something like 15 euros just to see inside.  Student budgets do not allow for such costs.  Obviously this is a reason for me to go back ASAP.

Food (duh):

-At the market, you can buy 1/2 a pineapple pre-sliced and with a little fork for 1 euro.  Pineapple being one of my favorite fruits, this experience was obviously repeated more than once.

-PAELLA!!!  Sunday night we took the recommendation from our hostel and searched for a restaurant called Salamanca.  It was one of those things where it was sort of in the boonies, in a quiet neighborhood and we were sort of unsure that we had followed the right streets, and then out of nowhere pops this little local joint in which you are the only tourists and the food is absolutely incredible.  I have never had such fresh clams, mussels, shrimp...and the crema catalana wasn't too bad either!

"Come mai!?" (And how!?):

-Do as the Spaniards do?  We took a nap on Saturday night at around 9 pm so we could go out "on time" for a drink...in Spain, "on time" for going out is around 12:30 or 1 at the earliest.  Some places don't even open until 1.  We made it out for drinks...and lasted until 3:30...but really, I don't know how they do it.  They must be awesome power-nappers.

Souvenirs:

-1 red spanish fan, so I can dance flamenco

-1 mosaic tile of the letter "R"

-cut-out postcard, from which I can build my own Casa Batllo

-a serious desire to learn Spanish and/or Catalan

And tomorrow, I'm off to Dublin to have a very Irish St. Patrick's Day with my friends from Watervale.  This should be a riot.