Spring Break I: Barcelona, Spain

At the buttcrack of dawn on Friday morning Kate and I began our voyage to Spain, which was fascinating simply because we utilized basically every form of public transportation: taxi to shuttle to plane to bus to metro; we spent a good 6 hours travelling between 4am and noon. But we got there fine, and were glad to take off our coats and enjoy some nice, warmer weather.

We found and checked into our hostel, which wasn't quite as scary as I had imagined hostels to be- in fact, it was actually pretty nice. It had a lively common room with foosball, pool, chess, internet and a bar. We were placed in an 8-person room where we met two girls we know from school and a few new friends as well.

the hostel common room

our room, I was bed D!

After settling in, we went exploring around the city. We were surrounded by activity of street performers, colorful stores, palm trees, the smell of the sea and good food.

barcelona street band- kinda like Squirrel Nut Zippers
VIDEO!

gondola at the harbor (we took the ride on monday!)

the beach

an odd little building

toes in the Mediterranean

mister colombus

For dinner we ate at a small restaurant off of Las Ramblas, I had calamari, bread with tomato and awesome sangria :) mmm!

On Saturday we went to Sagrada Familia church by Gaudí- it was beautiful, but we couldn't explore the inside too much since it was under construction. But we did wait for an hour to take an elevator to the top, which offered a great view of Barcelona.

looking down the tower

sagrada familia stairs of doom

At night we relaxed at the hostel for a while, got some reeally really good lamb kebab sandwiches for dinner, and ventured out for a bit to see what the nightlife in spain was really all about! Oh, and we saw this:

hugest vending machine ever... it sold cameras! (in a metro station)

On Sunday we went with some new friends from the hostel to Gaudí's Park Güell and walked around for a while- the park also had a great view of the city. But apparently I'll have to go back someday, because we managed to miss one of the famous areas of the park where there are some really famous mosaics! Bummer! But it was still incredible.

first we had to get up the intense hill

cool graffiti and cactus


a valid question!

some cool stone stuff

After the park, we went shopping for a bit, got some good lunch at Maoz vegetarian restaurant, and relaxed in the hostel- at night we went to a cool bar called "The Black Sheep" and had some sangria, and on the way back, some great pastries!

my lunch at Maoz... what was in it?
i couldn't really tell you, but it was good!

On Monday we were hoping to check out the Picasso museum but it turns out that it was closed, so instead we went and took a gondola ride over the harbor. It took a while to find it, and when we got there it wasn't really thaaat cool, but something to do nonetheless.

we found this on the way!
(me with the 2 mikes we met)

gondola

there's my boat!

huge sculpture near the ocean

the end of las ramblas- the street our hostel was off of

fisherman's nets

the mediterranean beach

At the top of the gondola, there was a neat little park and cafe. Oh, and a dude carrying his pug around.

After the gondola ride we went shopping on Las Ramblas, had pizza for lunch, found a cool food market, went shopping some more, and decided we were craving sushi (actually, I've been dying for it ever since I left NJ!), so we looked up a good place and had a great dinner.

dragonfruit at the market- i had to get one!

and some coconut milk :)

for dinner mike and i split some spicy tuna rolls- sooo good

I really loved Barcelona and the things I experienced there. I would love to go back someday, and also see the rest of Spain. We met good people and definitely felt the essence of this colorful, vibrant city.

me with mike and kasia- friends we shared our hostel room with