Jours 28-31: Barcelona

Bonjour tout le monde!

Jours 28-31

May 19-May 22

BARCELONA

This weekend was my optional student travel weekend of my study abroad, and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Barcelona! It was such an amazing trip with amazing people, I had the time of my life there.

On Thursday, May 19, my group that went to Barcelona (Dina, Stephanie, Jessica, Melissa and me) left straight from class to the airport. Our flight was supposed to leave at 3:30, but of course, I was at the airport when the airport workers were on strike. Classic Paris. So, unfortunately, our plane got delayed three hours. Then we got there, had to take the metro to the complete other side of Barcelona, and got to the hotel. Check-in took a while, there was a little bit of a mix up with the room, but our lady Jennifer who ran the little hotel/apartment place was probably one of the nicest people I had ever met. Finally, we left the hotel at 10:30 to go find some food. After searching for forever for a place that was good that was open, we just stopped at this hamburger place next to the Place de Catalunya. Let me tell you, these hamburgers were actually the best hamburgers I have ever eaten, probably because I hadn’t eaten anything for the whole day.

Place de Catalunya

The next day we started out early and were on the metro by a little after five. We started our day getting a little lost while trying to find the Park Guëll, but we eventually made it there. This park was so pretty, and we were able to climb to the cross which is in many of the backgrounds of post-card photos of Barcelona.

The view from the Cross at Park Guëll

 After, we walked over to the Sagrada Familia, which was a beautiful cathedral. Unfortunately, there was a lot of construction going on and the wait to go inside was over two hours so we didn’t go inside. 

Sagrada Familia

After we went to lunch at the place called Brunch and Cake. This place was also delicious; I swear my favorite part of Barcelona might have been the food we ate. We had delicious smoothies and I had an açai bowl in a pineapple, enough said.

Our lunch at brunch and cake

After, we went back to the hotel and rested for a bit before heading back to the Place de Catalunya. We walked through the gothic quarter and went inside the Cathedral. There was so much music and a lot of little performances going on in the gothic quarter it was so much fun. We ended the day at the beach until sunset, and got a dinner at a little restaurant near the beach.

The cathedral in the Gothic Quarter

At the beach the first night

The next day we ended up leaving a little later than hoped, but that’s okay. We saw the arc de triomf of Barcelona, and I have to say I think I might like it a little more than the one in Paris.

At the Arc de Triomf

 We then headed over to the Place de Catalunya and walked down the Ramblas and ended up the Columbus monument. 

The Columbus Monument

After, we spent the whole afternoon at the beach. The water was actually a little colder than expected, but it was so wonderful to be able to relax in the sun and I loved every second of it. I had some Paella for dinner, and it was just a wonderful relaxing day. 

In the freezing water

The next day, Sunday, we went to the Monastery of Montserrat. However, we missed our train by one hour so we went to the Place de l’Espanya and saw the beautiful Art museum. After, we were able to catch the train to the Monastery. This monastery was completely beautiful. Actually, the view from the Monastery was completely beautiful. We were able to take the gondola up to the monastery and were very surprised when there was actually a little town up there. We got some lunch, went inside the monastery and took some pictures.

The view from the Monsatery

 We took the train back right when it started raining. After the monastery we tried to go the Castle Monjuic, but you had to pay for another gondola and we didn’t want to do that twice. We want back to the place de Catalunya and got our luggage that we had left at Jennifer’s apartment. We got some things for dinner and headed out to the airport. By 10:30 we were at the airport and set up camp next to some outlets. We ended up sleeping at the airport because we had a flight that left at six o’clock in the morning. Let me tell you sleeping at the airport is NOT fun. The ground was hard and cold and I essentially got no sleep. However, I was able to sleep the whole time on the plane without waking up, which has never happened before so that was nice. Overall, it was an amazing weekend.

Differences between Barcelona and Paris:

Obviously there are a lot of differences between Barcelona and Paris: The language, the country, the environment. However, the biggest difference was the ambiance. Over here in Paris, people are very melancholic. They take the train to work, work, and go home without seeing any of the city. They wear all black, and tend to look kind of sad. However, at Barcelona everyone is happy. People talk on the metro, they wear bright colors, they smile, it was all very different. Also, the metro was a lot cleaner than Paris, however, they were not nearly as many stops as Paris and so everything was much farther apart. This meant it took a lot longer to get places. The food was also a lot different here. In Paris, there are Mcdonalds, but they seem so out of place next to all of the cute cafés. Here, restaurants are very similar to the United States and they have much more of a modern feel. Actually, when I first got out of the metro my friend, who lives in Santa Rosa, remarked that it had a very similar look and feel to a bay area city, except for of course the language difference. That all being said, I definitely prefer living in Paris. I love the feel and the history and the people. I love it here, even when it is pouring rain like it was when we got back from Barcelona.

À Bientôt,

Claire Hunsaker