a NOLA girl in a Big world

Guest host ALERT. Bowen will be giving our Barcelona run down. But first, the set up …

We got into Barcelona Thursday afternoon & headed straight for Paella, Sangria & sightseeing.

Here’s Bowen: Our first full day in Barcelona consisted of a noon tour of la sagrada familia, the only non traditional Catholic Church we’ve visited and by far the most magnificent. The church was prepared by Gaudí, as well as a dozen other architects because it’s been under construction ever since it’s ground breaking in the 1800’s. When you approach you feel overwhelmed by the detail found in the facade at the entrance, what can only be described as various stories from the Bible around the nativity and the lives of Joseph and Mary. This is where we started to see how non traditional this church was. The facade was actually painted in various vibrant colors. Turns out everything Gaudí did in creating the church was intended to mimic characteristics of nature. The interior is covered in columns of different materials and has been sculpted to look like a forest. Even the stain glass has been prepared in a way to mimic nature – the glass on the side of the nativity to show blues and greens, while the passion facade on the other side of the church shows warm yellows, reds, and oranges. Unfortunately the towers were closed because the city was experiencing 30-50mph winds but the passion facade more than made up for it. I can’t adequately describe how amazing this scene was so google is your friend here… trust me.

We took the afternoon to walk through some steep trails through Park Güell filled with more amazing architecture, viewpoints, and aqua ducts before heading back to the hotel before another highlight that evening: a Barcelona game.

First warning, alcohol is NOT served at stadium. Why? Damn soccer hooligans that’s why. They ruin everything. Someone suggested we arrive an hour early, which we did. We thought it was so we could have enough time to have some beers, get food, and find out seats before kickoff. Turns out he meant we should find a bar to do all of this before going into the stadium. Being on vacation it really didn’t matter to me, I’ve been staying in full chill mode since we woke up on Apr 10. Plus I wasn’t going to let the lack of alcohol ruin a good time since we don’t really drink that much anyway. Our seats were amazing – center field, lower deck, 7 rows back. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen athletes that close on a field before. Three things of note to the players: Pique is an extreme tall individual, Messi is even shorter than you think, and the skill level of the Barcelona midfield is grossly overshadowed by the stardom of their forwards. The speed of play and ball skill were better than anything you could experience on the television. Oh, I almost forgot… kickoff is 9pm! I’m not going to go into the details of the game because it’s too much to write and everyone knows a soccer game is 80 minutes of passing and 10 minutes of excitement. Getting back was a breeze using the Barcelona metro (highly recommend, it was even better than London) but w still didn’t arrive until around midnight.

Next morning we woke up and went for a good hour jog around the city to see some landmarks we might have missed otherwise. Recommend you run before 9am and go down to the harbor to catch a sunrise, no crowds, and billion dollar sailboats and yachts. Sunday mass in Spanish, no I didn’t understand any of it. Followed by walking to great great heights. I think we covered 10 miles and a couple thousand feet in elevation but it was worth it. This allowed us to cover all of the Olympic stadiums and museums from the ‘92 Olympic Games and make it to the top of Montjuic castle to see an incredible view of Barcelona and the Baltic Sea.

Our day ended at CoCoVail, a very American restaurant complete with local beers, hot wings, and ballgames. Our game of choice while eating was dominos – something I’ve only played once before but enjoyed thoroughly. Highly recommend making it there for a chance to retire from the Spanish speaking, to find your college banner on the wall, and “feel at home” as they so prominently placed on the walls around us. Don’t let the last statement fool you… my Spanish hasn’t improved all that much, thanks Duolingo, and everyone here speaks adequate English.