Thursday, Day 1
Getting to Barcelona was actually pretty easy. As Ricki and Kerstin were already en Espana on tour with the team, I traveled down on Thursday night by myself. I got to the hostel (called Kabul, right off of Placa Reial, which is off Las Ramblas) at about 11:30. I had every intention of going to Subway, getting a sandwich, coming back and passing out. Well, I was in line at Subway and a group of about 8 English boys out for a bachelor party weekend were there. Naturally, I had to start talking to them, because that's what I do. It turns out they know Rachel from my rugby team, so they insisted I join them for a beer (or five, as it was). It was good fun, we played some amusing drinking games, talked sports and politics.
Friday, Day 2
Ricki and Kerstin arrived in from Calella by about 1:30 in the afternoon. I had spent the morning recovering and taking a short walk up and down Las Ramblas. The girls wer very tired from being on tour, so we had a pretty easy afternoon. We started out at Mercat de la Boqueria for some food and chocolate. Markets are potentially my favorite things about new cities because they tend to be places where locals actually hang out - and you get to see local food and local atmosphere that is often missed during tourist trips. We had some seafood paella, and I had some gelato in the sunshine. We walked over to the Barcelona Cathedral, but opted not to go in because the girls were dead on their feet and we didn't feel like paying the 5 Euro to get in. Instead, we wandered down to the Museu Picasso, which was very cool. I enjoyed the architecture of the building (the basement was like a crypt a la Christ Church in Dublin), and now I can say with confidence that I prefer his blue period and my favorite piece was the Portrait of Jacqueline. We were all very much in need of a nap so we headed back to the hostel for several hours. Later that night we met up with a friend of Ricki's who is studying abroad in Barcelona. We had some mediocre Mexican food but called it an early night.
Saturday, Day 3
Saturday we set off on a modernist architectural adventure. We started out at La Pedrera, which is the apartment building designed by Gaudi. Every room in the building has natural light! That's what I need to get me through the winter! The thing we found most remarkable about the building is that it was designed in the early 20th century, a time when art was changing but society was still so traditional. I can't even imagine how crazy those kind of designs looked to people back then! The roof terrace at La Pedrera was really interesting - unlike anything I had ever seen!
After La Pedrera we took the Metro over to the Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family = the ongoing saga of building a modernist cathedral). Seriously, the pictures do not do it justice - it is really unbelievable. It has the same frame as a traditional cathedral, but its design elements are geometric and, er, well, modern! I really liked the stained glass but was disappointed that we weren't able to get to much of the completed stained glass due to ongoing construction.
After La Sagrada Familia we went up to a neighborhood a little north of central Barcelona called Gracia, which had boutique shops, street artists and a feeling that we were separate from the traditional tourist areas. We shopped a little bit and had some ice cream as we wandered around.
Ricki had to head off to Florence on Saturday evening so Kerstin and I stuck around together for the rest of the weekend. That evening we hung around the hostel chatting to some Aussies, Canadians and a Kiwi. Hilarity. I have some very amusing drawings in my journal of being taught about Australia and teaching others about the geography of America (my drunken map includes ALL FIFTY states - I hope you are impressed, I am). A couple of the guys were so sweet, as we told them it was Kerstin's birthday on Sunday (and therefore her birthday at midnight), they scoured Barcelona for a cake but instead made a makeshift one with a couple of chocolate donuts and a twix bar and a gigantic candle. We went out to a bar called the Queen Vic where we met up with some crazy Irishmen (also on a stag do, which seemed to be a theme for men I met this weekend).
Sunday, Day 4
Shockingly, we awoke with minimal hangovers on Sunday and headed off to Parc Montjuic, which is the home to several Barcelona museums, a few parks, and right next to the 1992 Olympic Park. We took a FUNICULAR (which is still one of my favorite words of all time) up to the top. We were unpleasantly surprised to find out that the museums closed at 2:30 on Sundays and were not going to be open on Mondays at all so we were victims of our own poor planning. We did, however, get to mozey through the Fundacio Joan Miro, which we both really enjoyed. Very cool stuff, and some beautiful views of the city. We took a leisurely stroll up to the Castel Militar that sits atop Montjuic, where we took in the view of the ocean and had some food. We took a very long walk that took us through Olympic Park and past a few of the other museums. It was a beautiful sunny day so we really enjoyed just being outside.
That night we were going to take it easy when we ran into J.P., another LSE student who is in Kerstin's program at school. He was really cool and fun, so we decided to have another night out (and to continue the celebration of Kerstin's birthday, of course!). We ran into the same Aussies from the night before who were, in a word - battered. There was a sign on the table that said "ashtray" and Jason picks it up and exclaims, "AUSTRALIA! This is our table!"... Classic. We went back to the Queen Vic, where we chatted to the bartender (who looks eerily like a certain Mr Lovejoy) and perhaps went a little hard considering it was a Sunday night. I think we ended up back at the hostel at about 4am. (Are you starting to understand why it's 1:15pm and I am still in my pajamas today?!)
Monday, Day 5
HAAAAANGOVER. That was the word of the day for Kerstin and I. We managed to get out of the hostel at a reasonable hour (read: before 11am), and make it up to Parc Guell, an area with more Gaudi designs and the mosaic lizard that seems to be quite famous. After a hilarious run in with an angry Spaniard (ARE YOU CRAZY?! WHAT ARE YOU DOOOING?! ARE YOU CRAZY!?), we walked around the park nursing our hangovers. It wasn't that sunny or warm so we opted to go back to central Barcelona for the remainder of the day. I was interested in seeing more Modernist buildings so we headed to Casa Batllo, but it costs THIRTEEN EURO to get in - that's more than the Picasso Museum and La Sagrada Familia combined! After what had already been an absurdly expensive weekend, we opted out. Instead, we had tapas and did what all classy ladies do, and we went to the Erotic Museum which was down the street from our hostel. Hilarity. I think that proves that we were tired and ready to come back to London town...
We had some snacks with JP before I headed off to the airport. Remember, now, how anxious I am to get back to London and to my own bed. Kerstin and I had been calling for a teleportation device since about noon. I take the 90 minute bus ride to Girona, get there 90 minutes before my flight - perfect. The queue to check in was about 20 people long (good start) but it took FORTY FIVE MINUTES to get through it. Then, once I get through security I find out my plane is delayed an hour. Awesome, considering I wasn't due into Stansted until the lovely hour of 11:30 to begin with. I get into Stansted at midnight, and then wait another hour to get through Immigration. Awesome. I run down to the train only to be told that it doesn't run 24 hours. Awesome. I find a bus that will take me to London, but it was going to take 90 minutes!! That was going to put me at Victoria station at 2:30am. I basically RUN to the first cab I see (I was NOT about to deal with night buses at this point), get him to stop at a cash point for me, and I arrived back in my room at 2:59am.
So yeah. Good times. But it's good to be home.
No comments:
Post a Comment