Barcelona, SPAIN! (Don't tell the Catalunyans though)

Barcelona was one of the coolest cities I have ever been to. Definitely one of my favorite spots this semester, the city was just so rich with art and the hustle and bustle, yet still had a lot of green space and nature to enjoy. I had no idea how patriotic the Catalunyans are, who honestly believe that Barcelona is located in Catalunya, not Spain. They reminded me a bit of Texas, still kinda convinced they are independent. There is a big drama because they want to fly the Cataluynan flag higher than the Spanish flag, which they cannot do. They have their own language, and all the street signs are in Catalan. It is a mix of French and Spanish, and is so hard to understand. They don't speak Spanish, and have their own recognized nationality and futbol team (FC Barcelona). Every year on Catalunya Independence day (September 11) they march through the city and celebrate. In 2014 they will once again vote on their independence (not likely). Once again, I was impressed with all of the English spoken, so much more than in Andalucia.

As we hopped off the train, we came across not only Gaudí´s work on the ground we were walking on, but sporadically placed throughout the city. His work was so progressive, seeing as he died around the year 1900. This is the house he built, which is now a museum. I also really liked several other buildings, which he no doubt played a role in designing as well. The zebra building is one of my favorites. When we got to the hostal, we checked in, but because three of us has reserved the hostals separately, we weren´t in the same room. My hostal roommates ended up beign so cool, one was from Switzerland and the other from Basque Country in Northern Spain. It was great talking to them and they were so nice. I love hostals so much, all these great experiences for around 15 euro a night! We even got free breakfast and unlimited hot chocolate and coffee! Satruday night they even put out tapas that we could have.

Anyway, after the hotal, we made our way to one of Barca´s most famous monuments. La Sagrada Familia. Started in 1876, this building remains still in contstruction because Gaudí died before it was completed. They are working off his blueprints, but the blueprints are not finished and everyone wants it to be constructed the way Gaudí envisioned it. This makes things a bit more complicated. They hope to have it completed by 2026 to celebrate his 200 year anniversary, but honestly, we´ll see if that ends up happening.

The back of the building was done by a different architect, but now they ditched him and are still trying to get Gaudí´s vision down.

Luckily, we bought tickets ahead of time, the line was a 2 hour wait to get in, and since we had tickets, we just skipped the line entirely. By far the COOLEST building I have ever entered. The pillars and the ceiling are supposed to look like trees in a forest, and the stain glass reflected all over the building creating so many colors against the white washed wallls. The only downfall of the Sagrada Familia was that my friend Corey´s wallet got stolen while she was taking a picture. Talk about Sac-religious! Then again, Barcelona is one of the pickpocketing capitals of the world.

Moving on, we made it to Parc Guell, which I really wish we could have gone into. It is a park designed by Gaudí but as of a month ago, they now charge for entrance. 8 euro! That´s like 10 dollars! It´s a park!
But we still got some really cool views of the city as we did the nature walk portion of the area.

After that, we just got tapas at a restaurant, which were so good. I had  plate of what they called mushroom and calamari lasgana. Nothing like lasagna but still really good, it was like sliced portabella mushrooms with shrimp and calamari on toasted bread with a lemon olive oil. I got some other tapas, but that one was my favorite.

Of course, later that night we went out, to a club called, Nick Havanna, but didn´t stay long because we knew we had a big day ahead of us.