We arrived in Barcelona around 9 am on Friday(the 2nd to last Friday in September). It was a short and easy flight. We hopped on a bus from the airport to Placa Espanya (no tildes) which is a beautiful plaza. We decided to take a walk around and take some pictures before hopping on the metro there to find our way to Sagrada Familia, a famous cathedral designed by the architect Gaudi. It has been under construction since the late 1800s! Gaudi died in ~1927 and his work was so detailed and constantly changing that it took so long to build (he was a perfectionist and architects are trying to decipher his plans for the cathedral). It's estimated completion date is somewhere around 2026!! Holy moly! Once we left Sagrada Familia, we took the metro to our hostel ("albergue" is the word for youth hostel in Spanish). The "concierge" showed us how to get to the beach and we went up to our room, changed, and were on our way! The beach was magnificent! I think we were on the Balearic Sea. The water was very blue and VERY clear, although a little cold. It was crowded, yet still relaxing.
Once it finally started getting late, we packed up and got gelato on the way home. Regi and I got a flaver called Kinder, which is made from a cholocate Kinder egg (I've never heard of it, but Reg was really excited, and it was delish)! On our way back there were also lots of vendors, so we shopped and took pictures for another hour or so until we headed back to the hostel.
For dinner we knew we wanted the following criteria: something cheap, something close by, and something traditional to Barcelona. When we asked the concierge if he could recommend such a restaurant to us, he joked that we were asking for a miracle. But he was very nice and suggested a GREAT restaurant called El Glop. Sounds kind of gross, right? Nope! Regi, Ash, and I split dinner: 1 house Glod salad, 1 sausage, 1 large piece of toast with cheese and something else melted on top, and for dessert, chocolate mousse. It was a delectable and filling meal!!
Afterwards, we didn't know what to do, because it was after midnight, so we decided to follow the hoardes (sp?) of young people on the metro to wherever they were going. I forgot to mention that we unknowingly picked one of the best weekends to visit Barca because it was the festival de la Merce (maybe an end of summer festival, I'm not entirely sure). Anyways, Barcelona was full of tourists and young people and there were concerts in the plaza and dances and artisan tents, etc. etc. The city was alive! Anyways, we found ourselves at a really cool techno/electronic music concert called Barcelona Accio Musical (BAM)! It was quite the experience, and the music was really fun!
The next day we went to Park Guell, which is a park designed by Gaudi. We didn't stay for too long, but it was pretty cool. Next we ate at this adorable cafe where they made fresh stone-oven pizza. Yum! After lunch, we headed to an area called La Rambla (it's basically a street with a bunch of shops and cool tourist stuff). It is in a very nice part of Barcelona, and it was beautiful! In that same area we also saw one of the houses designed by Gaudi, called a casa batllo. It was neatoooo!
Later that night we went to see the FC Barcelona stadium and we all bought matching socks to remember our time in Barca (hehe). After venturing out to teh statium, we went to see the fountain light show at a fountain called La Fuente Mágica de Montjuic. It was AMAZING!!! So glad we got to see it! Definitely worth seeing! And then we got to see a fireworks show! Barcelona was our first amazing adventure on our own and was most definitely a success!
Here are some pics:
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