Bouncing around Barcelona

            Before I talk about Barcelona, about Sicily, about London, about the beautiful sunshine in Bologna and about the fact that I have just about a week before I leave forever, let me just say—with all the joy in the world—that I AM DONE WITH EXAMS. When I explain how my exam week went, the usage of all-caps will be completely understandable. Now, however, I want to take a break from thinking about medieval history and go back to thinking about the colorful days and late nights of Barcelona.

            So there was a bit of confusion when we first got to Barcelona. We originally thought we had rented an apartment to ourselves for twelve people (you heard me right: TWELVE) but it turned out that the place where we stayed was a sort of mix between a hostel and an apartment, just on the edge of the city center. This meant that we had three rooms in this large apartment, sharing a common room and two bathrooms with the other people in the apartment. Also, the apartment owner thought that there were only eight of us, so we had to be a little sneaky while he was there (not to mention doubling-up to get everyone a bed). The reason we had so many people was because aside from the ECCO Bologna gang (Me, Lily, Sami, Krystal, Skyla, Megan and Raquel), there were also five of Lily’s friends who had been studying abroad in France and Spain. The most exciting part of these new faces joining us? BOYS. How strange is it to say that? And yet, sadly, so true. There are no guys in our program and being with American guys for a few days reminded me of why I often have difficulty making friends with Italian guys here, who typically are just trying to flirt with you.

            We spent the three days we had in Barcelona mainly just walking around and enjoying each other’s company. Lily’s friends were great and we had a lot of fun with them—especially since the Spain kids helped us through any interactions we had with native speakers. Sadly, the eight and a half years of Spanish that I’ve taken has seemingly completely disappeared from my head, although I’m sure when I’m not under a constant influx of Italian, I might remember a little bit more. I also felt better about the fact that I didn’t understand everything people were saying because Catalan is spoken extensively through Barcelona, which is not Spanish. At all.

            Barcelona was a wonder of architecture. With Antoni Gaudí having designed and built multiple buildings throughout the city, in addition to the famous Sagrada Família church, most of the entertainment was simply walking down the streets. There were just so many unique buildings! The city was much more modern and very different from anything I’ve seen thus far—in Europe or otherwise.

Eyeball building?

Sagrada Família

            We spent the nights eating tapas and drinking sangria; the most popular tapas were the patatas bravas: potatoes fried and covered in a sauce made of olive oil, red pepper, paprika, chili, tomato and vinegar. And even though we stayed out late, Megan, Raquel and I forced ourselves to wake up early in the morning to explore more of the city. We went on a tour of Barcelona’s Cathedral, which on the inside was very dark and gothic, but had a spectacular view of the city from the roof. It also had a beautiful courtyard that was a mix of shadows under ancient arches and sunshine dancing on the surface of green pools, disturbed only by the paddling of geese. It was so quiet in there—a nice change from the bustling streets near Las Ramblas. That little courtyard became one of my favorite places I’ve ever visited.

The Cathedral

            We also explored the famous food market, which was amazing. There were o many colors and smells and smoothies and different types of chorizo! We got paella there and it was some of the best I’ve ever had.

Las Ramblas

FRUIT AND SMOOTHIES: please come to Italy

Accurate

            We found the time to go to the Palau Musical, which was a choir house back in the early 1900’s. It too had the unique and mesmerizing architecture that so much of Barcelona seems to embody and its most amazing quality was definitely its use of natural light. There was an entire ceiling piece that was made to look like the sun, that when illuminated appeared to be a chandelier but was in fact just allowing as much natural light into the space as possible.

            At the end of the tour, our guide informed us that the hall was still used today and that, in fact, there would be a flamenco show performed there that very night. The other girls wanted to go along with the group’s plan for the night, but this was my only trip in Spain, so I bought myself a ticket, got dressed up that evening, and went to the flamenco show by myself. Such a good decision. The show was amazing and it was a lot of fun, having to navigate taxi rides in Spanish by myself.

            As a group, we climbed up to Parc Güell one afternoon to have a picnic. This ended up being sort of difficult, as it was less of a park and more of an extreme tourist attraction with very little grass to camp out on. That’s what you get for expecting to picnic in yet another one of Gaudí’s famous creations. Regardless, the park was amazing and definitely worth the hike.

            The weather was perfect throughout the time there. Our last night was beautiful in its simplicity: we searched out a tapas bar that was in a much more local area. We knew it would be authentic food based on the stares we got when walking in and sticking out like…well, like a crowd of ten Americans. But it was worth it. The meal at that last tapas bar was some of the best food I’ve had in my entire time in Europe. I loved sitting out in the warm air, laughing and joking around with new friends and an endless supply of patatas bravas and chorizo and sangria, trading stories about our respective countries and making plans to see each other when we were all back home in America. It’s strange. At the time, making those plans to see each other seemed so far off—as if this wonderland of travel and adventure was our current reality, and that of home was just a dream, a distant idea that we had forgotten. But now, with just a week left in Italy, it is Spain that seems like the dream, as the prospect of returning to America looms ever closer. And that makes me a little sad…if only because I really miss the chorizo. 

© Copyright Danielle DeSimone. 2013.