Barcelona, Spain

After class on Wednesday, February 13th, I flew to Barcelona. Our plane arrived a little later than scheduled, so we had to take a taxi rather than the metro to reach our hostel. The guy at the reception was a friendly American who turned out to be from San Clemente - he even went to the same elementary school as me (though he had moved up to middle school by the time I got there). We then went to the room, which Whitney and I shared with two friendly girls from Greece.

The next morning, we began our grand march (we covered 10-12 miles). First we hiked over to the Sagrada Familia - a large unfinished cathedral-like building designed by Guadi. It is a very impressive building, designed to be the next generation cathedral, and appears highly organic. We rode the lift up to the upper decks and enjoyed a spectacular view of the city. We then hiked over to the main avenue of the city and walked down it, passing many interesting buildings designed by Guadi. As we hit the old part of the city, we reached a giant protest about universities or something (there were thousands and thousands of protesters banging drums, blowing whistles, and waving flags and banners). We avoided the mob and went to the city cathedral, which was interesting. The best part was riding up to the roof and getting another view of the cityscape. Afterwards, we wandered through the rest of the old part of the town, again passing the protesters, and reached the marina. The marina of the city is quite nice, with a huge boardwalk and numerous wharves to venture out onto. There was a cool gondola running over the marina towards the castle (off on the edge of the city on a giant hill overlooking it), which we went over towards, but they closed it before we reached there due to strong winds. Defeated, we headed back towards the old town and visited a pleasant park and the city's Arc de Triomf. Afterwards, we rode the metro (which was horribly confusing and poorly marked - the Tube in London is vastly superior) to Park Guell, a large park on a hill overlooking the city, which provided yet another great view of the city. By then it was getting dark, so we rode the metro back to the hostel. There we met our new roommates, two British girls both named Helen, who are French majors spending a year abroad teaching English to French students in Normandy. They were really friendly and interesting to converse with.

The next morning, we rode the metro over to the foot of the hill on which the castle is perched, and spent the next hour (and more) hiking up it until we reached the castle. The hill is deceptively larger than it looks, but I enjoyed the long hike up through a park to reach it. The view from the castle was amazing, as it lies much higher than the city up on the headland. From there, one can see the massive port facility that is just south of the city, which I found quite fascinating. We went inside the castle and saw the various exhibits, including a rather impressive firearms collection. We then hiked down to the old royal palace, which was converted into the National Museum of Catalonian Art. On the way, we passed all the Olympic buildings from the '92 games, which was kind of cool. The art museum was kind of lame, at least for me, as the museum was mostly medieval or modern art, and I am not a fan of either. By then, the daylight was starting to fade, and we headed back to the hostel to pick up Whitney's gear (I had lugged mine around with me all day) and then back to the train station and caught the overnight train from Barcelona to Bilbao. The bunks were cramped, but it was an interesting experience, and I was able to sleep for much of the 10 hour ride. And thus, we left Barcelona.

I will be posting numerous photos very soon (probably tomorrow). Check back if they are not up yet.