Spain celebrated two holidays this past week - Monday was Día de la Constitución, similar to our Independence Day, and Wednesday was Festividad de la Inmaculada Concepción, patron saint of Spain (i.e. more of a reason to take a day off than anything that is really celebrated). I got to take advantage of the long weekend by spending five days in Barcelona! It was the first time that I've visited the city, and I had so much fun. It definitely feels more like Madrid: walking the streets, it could have been a big, cosmopolitan city like any in western Europe. Of course, there's a reason why it's a major tourist destination, and there are plenty of things that make it unique. Way more things than I could see during my short visit!
I first set my sights on Barcelona in tenth grade, when I did a project in Spanish class on Antoni Gaudí, an architect whose buildings and designs can be seen all over the city. Perhaps his best-known work is Parc Güell (see photo below), a park full of mosaic-decorated benches, colorful buildings, and twisting bridges... none of which seem to contain any right angles. I finally got to see the objects whose pictures I had studied so long in textbooks! For me, that's one of the best parts of traveling - when things that, before, you could only imagine suddenly become real and concrete. Another famous Gaudí structure is the Sagrada Familia, a modern cathedral (sadly, eternally under construction, because of some strange financing complication) that kind of looks like it's made of tours like candles with the wax dripping down the sides. We went at night when it was illuminated, so it was very dramatic, and we listened to a mass in a smaller chapel beside the main nave of the cathedral.
We didn't enter very many museums or buildings, but instead, we walked around different areas and spent lots of time outside. We were lucky with the weather; the last two days, it got up to 70˚ (I love the Mediterranean!). We walked through Montjüic, a big park just next to the city center, full of gardens and nice walkways. That's also where the 1992 Olympic stadium is located, and we were able to enter and walk around a little. We also went up to Tibidabo, a huge hill just north of the city, which makes for an excellent view of Barcelona and the sea. On our last morning we walked around Barceloneta, the port area. In the last few years the city has started to fix up the beaches and to make them more friendly for tourists, and now there's a wide boardwalk with lots of little cafés and shops along the beach. Barcelona also has lots of wide avenues that are perfect for strolling, window shopping, and people watching. Since it's Christmastime, the streets were decorated with lights, but not like American cities that string Christmas lights around windows and in tree branches. In Spain, cities suspend lit-up stars and other festive designs above the middle of the street, which seems fitting because streets with wide pedestrian walkways down the center are more conducive to the culture of spending time in the street and out and about. There were also Christmas markets all over the city with stands selling crafts, clothes, food, jewelry, beléns (a Spanish traditional Christmas manger scene), and more.
One day we took a day trip to Girona, a smaller city just an hour's train ride outside of Barcelona. Girona was a beautiful and enchanting town, and I loved just wandering the picturesque streets. The best part was walking along the muralla antigua, a part of the ancient wall that used to surround the city. From there we had an excellent view of the city and the mountains that surround it, as well as the old historic part of the city. We also had some excellent food in Girona. Well, all weekend, we ate excellent food.... and a lot of it. Probably one of the best parts of travelling is having an excuse to try lots of foods and to eat a lot :)
And thus conclude my travels, for now. I get to go home for Christmas, and I can't wait!! It's not so much that I miss the US, but rather, I miss the people there. So as sad as I am that I only have a short time at home, I will be excited to come back to Spain in January and to enjoy the remaining six months and all the adventures that they promise!
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