The ability to simply purchase a bus ticket one day and arrive in a different country the next is undeniably one of the greatest perks of studying abroad in western Europe. This afternoon I am writing this blog post from my bedroom in France, but the past two days, I woke up in Spain! This entire trip was very last minute – my friend Jenny and I bought our Eurolines tickets after class last week and boarded the overnight bus to Barcelona on Friday night (after a glass of wine with some friends, of course). Eight hours later, we arrived at Barcelone Sants station a bit northeast of the city center. We ate a picnic breakfast (consisting primarily of baguette and brie) on the benches in the main terminal while waiting for the metro line that would take us to our hostel. The sun was just about to rise and the station was fairly empty; the only noises were the rolling wheels of suitcases, the soft music on the radio, and the near-constant clicking of the times and destinations changing on the Arrivals/Departures board.
I’ll include the briefest of introductions to the city in which we found ourselves that morning: Barcelona is a clean seaside city on the eastern coast of Spain, with a well-organized metro system and incredible architecture. Spanish and Catalan are the co-official languages - the city strikes a perfect balance of well-preserved culture and modern worldliness. Barcelona is accessible, and the fact that the Catalan culture remains perfectly intact despite the volume of international business conducted there is wonderful.
So, after checking into our hostel – which was slightly out of the way, but very clean and within our budget (for those of you who are wondering how much a trip like this costs, we spent about 75 euro for the bus tickets and 20 euro for the hostel) – we headed navigated to the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. Despite the drizzly, dreary weather, the church was awe-inspiring. It is so unique, it’s almost disorienting the first time you see it – the organic shapes, the colors – it’s unlike any cathedral I had seen before. The facades, the stained glass windows, the interior, the geometry – and the most mind-boggling aspect of all: the church has been under construction since 1882! And the project is far from complete, with the anticipated completion date being 2026. The architect was the renowned Antoni Gaudi, whose masterpieces can be found throughout the city. I wish I could recall what it had looked like when I first toured the cathedral back in spring 2007, while on vacation with my sister, mother, and grandmother. In any case, Jenny and I spent two hours there following a tour in my Rick Steves’ Best of Europe guidebook. From the Basilica, Rick suggested a public bus and a scenic walk to the Parc Guell, which we happily followed. At the Parc, we saw Antoni Gaudi's house and his inspired ideas for a gated community – plans which were eventually abandoned and the site was turned into a park. Below, I am seated at the vibrantly tiled (and ergonomically designed) benches that line one of the park's terraces.
Below is a picture of Rick and me at Parc Guell - inside the guidebook are two drawings I bought from an artist there that were too intricate and beautiful to pass up.
An hour of wandering the Parc Guell was about all that we had energy for after our busy morning, so around one o’clock we went to our hostel to formally check in and eat lunch on the rooftop terrace there. The sun had finally emerged and we enjoyed a long picnic lunch of tomatoes, chicken sandwiches, and white wine.
It was late afternoon by the time we left our hostel for a stroll down Las Ramblas, starting at the Colombus monument near the port and ending at the Plaça de Cataluyna at the top. We found a Starbucks several blocks from Le Meridien, where I stayed back in 2006. The barista thought my name was Lila, or maybe he just preferred that name for me. I grabbed a quick, rejuvenating vanilla latte and we headed back out into the fray of street performers and tourists. We watched several acts (wary of pickpockets, as per Rick’s advice) before heading down to the cathedral of Barcelona in the Barre Gotic. The walk was scenic and there were talented acoustic guitar players scattered throughout the streets. We arrived just as a mass began, and the hymns sand by the choir added a great ambiance to our self-guided tour. For dinner, we rendez-vous-ed with two of our friends from the CEA program in France – the engaged couple Caitlin and Adam. The four of us enjoyed tapas and sangria on the port. During dinner we were solicited to join a pub crawl later, which we debated but ultimately tossed the idea aside because it started to pour! We dashed into the subway (and by dashed, I mean that we wandered lost for twenty minutes) and went back to our hostel. Our feet were aching and we were exhausted. By midnight we were fast sleep.
The next day was the first Sunday of the month, and so several popular museums were free for the day. The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), housed in the National Palace of Barcelona, was our first stop. It was AMAZING. A series of outdoor escalators carried us to the top of the steps, where musicians were playing outside of the museum’s terrace café. We happily gave up our backpacks in the bag check and explored the MNAC for an hour and a half. I instantly fell in love with their art collections: we only had time to explore the Gothic, Baroque, and Modern art, but that was more than enough. I was confused as to why none of our other friends who had visited Barcelona previously had made their way to this museum; it was incredible. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone going to Barcelona.
From the Museum, we headed down towards the Barre Gotic, with the intention of seeing the Picasso museum for free. Unfortunately, the line was obscenely long, so we bought two beers and settled down on the beach. I passed the time collecting sea glass in a variety of colors – blue, green, purple, clear. There were plenty of beggars and hecklers trolling the beach for gullible tourists, but they were turned away easily enough and we were able to enjoy the siesta hours relaxing there. From the beach, we headed to the church of Santa Maria del Mar. I have pictures of my sister, Amanda, and I standing there from our trip in 2007, so I recreated those photos for fun! Afterwards, we took the Metro to the Block of Discord. I’ll just mention that the Metro is very impressive: it is clean, not a single spray of graffiti, and it runs quickly and efficiently. There were even music videos playing on board!
The "Block of Discord" comprises several houses on the Passeig de Gracia, where rich families competed to have the most creative facades on their houses. Below is a picture of Casa Amatller (left) and Casa Battlò (right, designed by Gaudì, my favorite). The designs are visually stunning, just delightful to look at. By the time we had finished admiring them, we needed to find a place and have some dinner (red wine and fresh seafood) before catching our overnight bus back to Aix at 10pm.
Jenny and I both enjoyed our weekend in Barcelona so much, and it just blows my mind that I could arrive in this city in eight hours. That’s about the same amount of time it would take me to drive from my home in the Philadelphia suburbs to Montreal, Quebec. Maybe I’ll try it once I’m back in the states, since this trip was such a success. Thank you Barcelona, thank you Rick Steves, thank you for reading my blog, and good night!
