Barcelona, Spain

 

Barcelona. What a wonderful, unexpected weekend. 

Bree, Mike, Pedro, Rob, Kat, Grant, and I left our field trip on Friday (Aug 8) from Aix-en-Provence at 1:30 via Eurolines bus. (By the way, I do not recommend. The driver smelled like weed and was entirely too brake happy the whole way; we were all very car sick.) 

We arrived in Barcelona around 9 pm, and with much thanks to Pedro, who speaks Spanish, made it to our apartment by 9:30. Shortly after, another group of friends arrived via airplane, and after freshening up, we decided to grab some dinner. 

After the best food I've ever eaten, we split up and my group eventually found ourselves on the beach, laying under the stars with our feet in the Mediterranean. We continued to walk around the area and danced in the sand without a care in the world; finally ended up returning home around 3 or 4 am. 

Dia Uno

 

 

 

Exhausted from the night before. However, this usually turned into sleep deprivation, and thus, a lot of laughter. Sanity is always worth giving up for memories like these.

 

Street art in Barcelona was as abundant as it was beautiful.

 

Outside a Gaudi building. 

 

 

 Sorry Mom! xoxox 

 

Dia Dos 

 

 

 

 

Outside our little apartment we had a little patio, probably one arms length in size. It was a simple, yet effective way to separate from the group momentarily, and appreciate Barcelona's use of color theory. 

 

Sagrada Familia, a beautiful basilica that has been under construction for over the past 100 years.. the expected finish date is 2030. We took the Metro to see it, and upon walking up the stairs from the underground system, the towers of the church soared above, almost as far as you could see up. It was absolutely incredible.

 

Our second and last day in Barcelona was spent primarily being lost. Mike, Charlytte, and I attempted to find a Taco Bell (you're welcome, Mike). The location was at a place called La Maquinista, which was essentially a shopping center at the foot of the mountains on the north side of the city. We were successful in finding food and had plans to meet up with some other friends at the beach. However, finding a taxi was impossible, and we became restless. Somehow, I managed to remember some Spanish from high school (actually a surprising amount) and I flagged down a few people to find out taxis really don't run on Sundays. Well good for us, right? 

We finally found a driver who took us back to the company's office, trusted us with his car for about 10 minutes, and delivered us to the beach. We all but ran to the shoreline, wishing the entire day was spent there. However, the hour and a half spent at the beach made up for the entire day. We had refreshing drinks and took naps before heading back to the apartment to clean up.