I´ve recently become a little obsessed with doing as much as I can because of the fact that my closest friends now, a good bit of them, will be leaving at the end of January, so there isn´t a lot of time that we have left. With this in mind, Erik, Philipp, and I bought flights to Barça. We spent 3 nights in the city and did as much as we could with our time there. I´m used to being near the water, so for me Barcelona was perfect.
In Barcelona, the people speak another language- Catalán, and yes, it is a very different language. For me, Catalán is a crazy mix of Spanish and French. I didn't really encounter much Catalán because we reek of foreigner, so everyone spoke mostly English to us. The city is incredibly international which for some reason really surprised me. So many foreign people speaking so many different languages- for me, Madrid isn´t like this much at all- but I do love Madrid, and after 3 days of reading a language I don´t know, I was happy to land in Madrid and read signs in Spanish- my brain was able to just sting with the normal "I´m not reading English" burn.
So, in Barcelona we tried to do a little, but not too much: La Sagrada Familia Cathedral, Picaso Museum, visited some of Antonio Gaudí´s houses, some parks, etc. The cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, really was impressive. Before going to Barcelona, I´d seen pictures of the cathedral, and to be honest,I wasn´t impressed by it at all- it just looked really strange. After I saw the cathedral in person and read about Gaudí´s inspirations, I was really intrigued. The thing with Gaudí is that he was obsessed with nature. With that in mind, you can see how his architectural designs mimic natural designs. In the cathedral, the pillars are supposed to be designed to look like trees, and you can always see leaves and such in his designs. Check out the website because it does a really good job of explaining the different symbology that is used:
http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/index.php
Other than the cathedral, we visited Parc Montjüic and Parc Güell- both really beautiful parks. Güell is situated on a small mountain overlooking the Port, and it is where Gaudí lived for some time.
One night we went to one of Erik´s friend´s house to hang out- and little did I know, there were all Germans there except for 3 people- me being one of those 3. It was really late at night,and I'd never met any of the people before, so it was just really awkward for me to sit there and listen to German for hours with a few Spanish conversations thrown in there (I jumped in on the Spanish conversations). Those are the delightfully awkward times that I´ll remember for the rest of my life- "you know kids, this one time I was in a room filled with Germans speaking their mother-tongue..."
The trip wasn´t without the occasional problem, however. First of all, there were 3 guys who, for the most part, wanted to do different things- Philipp is one who loves to go and do everything that is possible: efficient. Erik is one who wants to see stuff but also have some relaxing time. Me- well I tend to lean more towards the doing stuff until it´s siesta time and then relaxing, but I try to meet in the middle. Well, Philipp and Erik kind of had their awkward moments and there I was being the "non-opinionated American" (I just wasn´t going to input a 3rd opinion in a sea of really opinionated people). I think all of that may sound worse than it was- it wasn´t bad. Also, one night Erik and I (we lost Philipp because he was out still doing stuff) were walking back to the Hostel, and we took a really sketchy street that was filled with, what I can only assume to be crack- whores. I´m from the South of the US and everything is dangerous there- so I was kind of uncomfortable going down "crack-whore alley." We walked faster, and in no time, we were back to the hostel. A similar story happened the next night, but ended with black girls approaching and touching all of us (not completely inappropriately)- including jumping on Erik´s back.
All-in-all it was a great trip- One that won´t be forgotten. I´m going to have to go back to Barcelona during the Summer so that I can go to the beach. My next trip is to Marrakesh, Morocco at the end of November and Lisbon, Portugal the first of December. I haven´t bought anymore plane tickets, but I know I´ll do some small traveling around Madrid soon. I may try to spend Christmas with a friend in Dublin- but as of now, I've no set Christmas plans. It´s great because when I tell everyone I´m not going home for Christmas, and they assume I´m spending Christmas alone. When I told this to some of my Irish friends in class, this guy, Darryl came back the next day to class and said that his dad gave me permission to come-- so an Irish Christmas may happen. Also, I am starting the hunt for an apartment to move into after I´m supposed to move out of the house I´m in now- it shouldn´t be hard to do.
" Life is not governed by will or intention. Life is a question of nerves, and fibers, and slowly built-up cells in which thought hides itself, and passion has its dreams."
- Oscar Wilde
