Barcelona

I spent last Friday through Monday in Barcelona, Spain as an excursion with my whole group! The bus ride started at 6:30 am and we arrived in Barca at around 4:00 pm.  We found our hotel right away and it was wonderful! It was in a very good location right on Las Ramblas, which is one of the most famous streets. It included great shopping, McDonalds, Starbucks, a lot of restaurants, an outdoor food market and tons of street performers. It was cool because we could watch some of the street performers from our balcony in our hotel room. I saw a magician, some really good break dancers and about 300 drummers (was not able to take a nap during that one!) Our hotel was awesome because it had a 24 hour buffet, which included pastas, cereal, fruit, ice cream, coffee, beer, wine and tons of other goodies. Us poor college students definitely took full advantage of that perk. The rooms at the hotel were all PINK! It was perfect for Valentine’s weekend! There were pink walls, beds, curtains …everything! I was in a 4 person room with Dana, Libby and Anna.

After settling in, we wandered around Las Ramblas for a while. We went into H and M, which is so much better than the ones in Minnesota. There were 4 floors of women’s clothes. After that, we just strolled and looked at all of the outside stands that lined the streets. They had food, clothes, sweets, flowers, touristy things and tons of other fun stuff. There were also people painting, people painted as statues trying to scare others walking by, some tap dancers and some fun outdoor tapas places. It was great to just walk around and enjoy the atmostphere with all the liveliness! When we got back to the hotel we got ready to go out. That night we went to a bar and then to a discoteca that was right on the beach. At the discoteca I literally ran into someone that turned out to be Sarah Friedmans roommate from last year. Even weirder…she was hanging out with a guy from my group because they went to high school together! Such a small world! The night was soo much fun! I got very little sleep that night… we left the hotel at 9:30 the next morning to do some tours!

We went to La Catedral de Barcelona (A beautiful church), the Gothic Quarter, where there were artifacts from the middle ages and even some ruins from the third century. We also went to la Iglesia de Santa María del Mar, which was another gorgeous church. The tours were done pretty early, so some of us girls wanted to get to the beach! We were thinking it was going to be warm enough to take a little nap under the rays…however it was very windy and I was shivering in my coat and jeans. A little disappointed, but it was still a beautiful day. On the way to the beach we stopped at a gelato place and I got some very nummy chocolate, brownie, fudge, caramel creation!

(Gothic Church)

(Gelato)

Later that night, a group of girls took the metro to a fountain show. We got there right when it was ending, but it was still really cool! It reminded me of the one in Las Vegas, with all the different lights. After that we were planning on getting Sushi. We had mapped out a place that looked like it was close to the fountain, but the map was very deceiving. After walking for a half hour and not even being halfway there we decided to take the metro back to our hotel and find something near there.  We asked the concierge for recommendations of a sushi place close by and after more twists and turns and getting a little lost we finnaly made it!! …only to find out we needed a reservation. So we ended up just making a reservation for Sunday night. We were starving and found this place called Pita Inn, that had warm pitas and you get to fill it with whatever you wanted. It was cheap and good! J

After showering and playing some cards, we went to the chupito (shots) bar. It was so incredibly croweded that we had to wait in a line to get inside. They have over 100 different flavors and it was fun to watch all the different kinds people were ordering. There was everything from shots on fire, to candied shots with gummies, to people roasting marshmallows on top. Don’t worry mom I only had one. It was called straws and it came with a bunch of little colorful straws that you sipped from. After, we went to another discoteca on the beach and I ran into Molly Lavin from Edina, it was really weird!!

The next day we went to La Sagrada Familia, which is a very famous unfinished church desgined by Gaudi. It was so detailed and incredibly beautiful…I cant even explain it! We had an audio tour that taught us all about the construction of the building and the significance of all the details.  People have been working on it forever!

After that we went to Parc Guell, which is a big park with more Gaudi arquitecture. We climbed to the top of a hill that overlooked Barcelona and had a cross on it. We stayed there for about two hours and just hung out. In the middle of the park there was a big open area where tons of people were selling little trinkets and things. we were sitting and people watching when all of a sudden all of the sellers packed up there stuff and started sprintinging towards the hills. It all happened in less than a minute and it was hilarious! I am pretty sure what they were doing was illegal and someone spotted the police and the word spread very quickly. When we got back we rested up a bit and hung out in the hotel. Later that night we finally made it to sushi and then after Dana and I split this waffle that is sold all over the streets that we had been eyeing since we arrived. It was covered in caramel and chocolate and then we were creative enough to bring it back to the hotel and add our own ice cream on top!! We spent the rest of the night playing cards and hanging out in the lobby area of the hotel. It was very chill and we were able to go to bed pretty early. One negative thing about the weekend was that I lost my phone. ..so when I got back to Segovia I had to buy a new one and buy more minutes…Very frustrating but its solved now. On Monday we didn’t leave Barcelona until around 11, so I woke up early with a few girls to run to the outdoor market. I bought a very colorful fruit smoothie and we walked around again and looked at all the food.  I spent Valentine’s day on a 9 hour bus ride back to Segovia! It wasn’t too bad though and I slept a little.

When I arrived back at home Marta and Jorge had this huge box of sushi to eat and I was sooo excited! I was actually able to eat it until I got full, which usually doesn’t happen when I eat sushi! On the way home I had stopped and got a few little dessert cakes for the family, so we had those for Valentine’s day dessert!

It was a great weekend in Barcelona, but I definitely want to go back when it is beach weatherJ

Besos,

Morgan 
ps- more pictures to come..they were taking to long to load.