After all the tests and “important stuff” were out of the way we could finally get down to business: Spring Break in Barcelona! We made the flight over to Spain on Saturday morning, bright and early, and got checked in at our hostel on La Rambla, a historically great street in Barcelona. There were a lot of different sites to visit and things to experience, but after the stressful week we had, our first day was filled with sleep and enjoying the amazing night life of Barcelona. Now, the German people are fine and the language hasn’t been too much of a barrier so far, but something about the atmosphere in Barcelona and the attitude there was just too good to be true. Also, the few years of Spanish classes I had in America actually facilitated a good number of exchanges, though ironically I had a tendency to switch to German for common phrases like “thank you” and “excuse me”. The weekend was probably the most fun and simultaneously relaxing that I’ve had this whole semester.
The first bit of actual ‘touristing’ I did was going to see the beautifully designed Parc Guell. The trip was uphill, and the area was swarmed with people taking pictures, but even those factors couldn’t put a damper on the park. It was amazing to stand up on these artful platforms and lookout over the crafted walls at the entire city. The structure was designed by Antoni Gaudi who lived up there for a few years in a home that can still be visited today. In the same day we had a nice little metro ride over to Gaudi’s greatest creation, La Sagrada Familia. Construction on the towering cathedral began in 1882 and is continued to this day with a projected completion date in 2025. The building is made with cement, I believe, but has sort of a fluid appearance. The tops of the spires probably are the prettiest external part. On this day I only got to take a look at the outside of the building, but there would be a return.
The next interesting place I got to visit was the Picasso museum, which was a mix of appreciation and slight disappointment. I knew a bit about Picasso going into the experience so of course I had high expectations, but seeing some of the parts of his development that I hadn’t known about was really interesting. However, there were a few of Picasso’s more notable works which are not housed in Barcelona, most importantly Guernica. Regardless, I consider it a privilege to have seen his works at all. Around this time we also made a couple of trips to the gorgeous beach and once played soccer against people from different parts of the world. I’d say that’s living the dream. There was no swimming involved, because the water was still a bit chilly, but the sunshine was perfect especially after dealing with the ever-overcast skies of Germany for weeks.
This brought us to the midpoint of the week, and at this point we checked into a new hostel down the street, which was a bit smaller, but nice and still had a kitchen for the awesome meals we cooked. This included pasta a few times, chicken once, and cereal more times than not. The food in the city was generally very good, though I’m sure it would have been a bit better if we had thicker wallets. If one were to be in the same position my greatest recommendation is to go to a fancier restaurant with a small group of friends and order the wonderful tapas they have available and split them amongst one
another. We did this once with a couple of American students studying there and I have to say it was absolutely the best meal I had over the eight days. For afterward there’s no beating the dessert waffles with a scoop of ice cream on top.
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