Espagne Part 1: Barcelona

Telephone Pictionary

¡Hola everyone! I’ve been back from Spain for over a week and I still have the urge to say por favor and gracias for please and thank you—probably not the best habit to be in while I’m in France, oh well. My eight days in Barcelona, Seville, and Madrid were exciting, adventure-filled, and exhausting. I was a bit concerned that traveling by train would be really time-consuming and boring, but the hours flew by between playing games with my friends, studying for classes, watching the countryside whip by, and napping. We all had a good laugh playing telephone Pictionary, where one person writes a sentence then passes the paper to another person who must draw an illustration for that sentence, fold over the original sentence and pass it to the next person who writes a caption for that picture, folds over the previous picture, and passes it to another person to draw a picture, etc. By the time the paper makes it all the way around the group, the final illustration is hilariously different from the original sentence.

Goofing around on the train

Garden House Hostel Barcelona, continental breakfast

By the time we got to Barcelona, it was after 11pm. We were so excited to have made it to Spain, but it was too late to explore a new city in the dark of night, so we took the metro to our ‘hood, found our hostel, and hit the sack. I had heard some unfavorable things about the cleanliness and safety of hostels, but the one we were in was beautiful. It well decorated, had a full kitchen, and gave our group a nice big room (with a locking door) all to ourselves, so we didn’t have to worry about our stuff being stolen. We also had a private balcony from our room—it was a shame we only got to stay there two nights!

Kathryn with a street performer on Las Ramblas

On Saturday, our first full day in Spain, we took the metro downtown to hit the major tourist attractions, armed with digital cameras and a map of Barcelona. We walked along Las Ramblas, the most famous street in the city, and encountered an overwhelming number of street performers and vendors. I had my money, passport, and train tickets in my [very attractive] money belt, but I still held my purse in front of my body because of all the warnings I had heard about Barcelona being the pickpocket capital of the world. Luckily none of us encountered any thieves, but I can definitely see how distracted tourists would make easy targets there.

Eventually we made our way to The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (AKA the Sagrada Família), Antoni Gaudí’s architectural masterpiece. It was started in 1882, and is expected to be completed in 2026. Even though it’s not finished, it was still absolutely breathtaking to visit. I was thoroughly impressed by the façade of the building and the way Gaudí made the church look like it’s a giant sand castle. However, the front is nothing compared to the beauty of the interior, which looks like a holy jungle with the many intricate tree-like columns leading the eye up toward the heavens. The more I saw of Sagrada Família, the more I was taken aback by the level of detail and perfection Gaudí achieved without even having any formal artistic training. I’m already planning on returning when I’m 36 so I can see the finished product.

A few people in our group (including the only two Spanish speakers) had been to Barcelona before, so they left on Sunday morning to explore Córdoba, leaving six of us to fend for ourselves a couple days. It was a bit difficult not knowing the language, but we made do pretty well with hola (hello), gracias (thank you), lo siento (sorry), dónde está (where is), cuánto cuesto (how much), and adiós (goodbye). On Sunday, the six of us remaining in Barça had a relaxing time visiting Port Vell and walking along the Mediterranean Sea. We sat down on the edge of the boardwalk to enjoy the beautiful view, but almost got attacked by a flock of seagulls! During our walk, we watched a salsa dancing competition in the streets, stumbled upon an open-air antique market, and found 20€ on the ground.

IWU trio with the mosaic dragon

On Monday, we got up early to catch an organized tour of Barcelona’s Old City, which was 3 hours long, but very interesting (and luckily in English!). We were able to see and learn about parts of the city we never would have known about otherwise. Later, we headed to Park Güell, an architectural marvel and beautiful garden designed by none other than Antoni Gaudí of Sagrada Família fame. We made our way up the precipitous climb we later dubbed “Rocky Balboa Hill” and towered above Barcelona—a truly magnificent sight. Even the enormous Sagrada Família looked tiny from the summit of the hill. As we made our way down, we saw countless souvenir vendors selling everything from earrings and scarves to painted rocks and fake designer sunglasses. Before heading out, we all waited in line to take pictures with the famous mosaic dragon at the front of the park. My friends were getting anxious to leave because they kept hearing an annoying high-pitched tone that hurt their ears. Apparently this high frequency pitch can only be heard by those under the age of 25 or so, and is used to solve loitering problems. I thought they were making the whole thing up because I couldn’t hear a thing… I guess I’m just an old lady.

We spent the rest of the night hanging out on Las Ramblas before heading back to the hostel reasonably early to get sleep before our 8 am train ride to Seville the next morning. Stay tuned for the details of my adventures in Seville and Madrid!