(Saturday, July 10th-2010)
There come points in our lives as humans that if we died right where we were, we would be entirely content. There would be no regrets, no looking back, just a blissful and peaceful sleep forever. Barcelona, for me, has been one of those points. There have been no regrets here in Barcelona and nothing I could have done differently would have made this trip any better or worse.
We left Segovia yesterday, Lindsay, Britney, Lauren, Savanna, Alex Miller, Alex Clary, and me. We took the bus from Segovia to Madrid and then the metro to Avenida de America where we picked up our 8 bus tickets for the 7 of us. Rebecca, the hysterical and wonderful dear paid us for her portion of the bus ticket, so we didn’t have to front that out. She even accompanied us to the bus station in Segovia because today (Saturday) she was looking to catch a flight back home to the states. Anyway, loading onto the bus, none of us were looking forward to an 8 hour bus ride to Barcelona. We stopped three full times and the first time, I got off, stretched my legs and filled up my water bottle. The other two times Alex M. and I stayed on the bus, comfortably cramped in our seats. We didn’t sleep too much on the trip, but for some reason the trip wasn’t as long as we all thought it was going to be. This morning, just as we were getting into the outskirts of Barcelona, I was lucky enough to wake up and look at the mountains and the industrial areas of Barcelona. It was quite the sight to behold at 5:45 in the morning. I never realized that Barcelona was such a mountainous area. Anyway, pulling into Barcelona, the first thing I immediately noticed was that it wasn’t busy like Madrid. Despite being a large city, it had a small town vibe even at 6am in the morning. I woke up Alex so that he could take in the first few minutes of the city and a bit later, we were off and onto the subway. The man who greeted us on the subway told us in perfect English that we had to buy our tickets down the way and to beware of pickpockets. When we left I asked if it was that obvious if we were English speakers. The whole group’s consensus was that we were very “American” looking. We bought individual tickets priced at a 1.45€ apiece and loaded onto the metro and immediately found were we were going and our hostel. At 7:45 in the morning, only one of the rooms was open so we loaded in, two of us showered, and we partook in the delicious continental breakfast of cereals, breads, OJ, and milk. It was like being back home. Afterward, the rest of us showered, chilled out, and then headed off to see La sacrada familia, which is a humungous church that is visible even from space and has been in the makes for over 120 years, designed by a man named Gaudí. Immediately getting off of the metro we looked to our right and my first impression was “Holy Shit.” It was the biggest and most eloquently built edifice I’ve ever seen. We spent nearly 20 minutes just trying to snap enough pictures of the front and the intricate details. Then Savanna told us that she wanted to go in and so we did—paying 10 or 12€ we got to go onto this amazing church and take pictures of the abstract inside and out. It was some of the best money spent this trip. After spending nearly 45 minutes inside we headed off to the Parc Güell that Gaudí invented as well. The walk was a little far and we were all quite hungry, so instead of spending tons of money on food we walked into a Colombian bakery and purchased empanadas de pollo y carne (chicken and beef empanadas). Walking along we found a nice shady spot and chowed down on these delicious creations. Afterward we rested in the grass for 15 minutes, just looking at the sky and feeling the metro rumble underneath our tired selves. If I hadn’t taken the initiative to throw away everyone’s trash we might have just spent the next few hours napping in the middle of Barcelona. Grabbing a metro to the closest station for the Park, we headed up the mountain, thankfully assisted by 4 large escalators, and arrived at the top. Upon entering into the park I felt as if I were out west in the United States. It was a drier area on top of this mountain but had tropical trees such as palm and cacti growing. We could see La sacrada familia and snapped pictures of its greatness from nearly half a mile away, it still towering over almost all buildings in Barcelona. A few street vendors were selling their wears and I found a beautiful necklace for my mom that I knew she’d love, so I picked it up and went along, taking pictures of two the most beautifully abstract houses I’d ever seen. Back down the hill, we returned to hostel, got the rest of our rooms, and decided to meet up at 8pm for dinner at Telepizza. Alex M. and I napped in our air-conditioned hostel room and showered again. The rest of the group was ready to go out for dinner and so we grabbed two large pizzas for just about 3€ a person and decided to head to the beach. What a beautiful beach it was too. We had stopped by before we started the day off earlier and spotted a couple naked European men and women walking around. Thankfully most of them were covered up enough to leave just enough to the imagination. This evening wasn’t as bad, far away we spotted some people playing what looked like a naked game of cornhole. We came to a bar on the beach, each bought a beer, and sat down just as the sun set, not 100 feet away from the water, and ate our pizza and drank our delicious Voll Damm beers. Dinner was all laughs and smiles. We talked about how picturesque and tranquil it all was and how we all truly felt like adults, being there without the help of anyone. We had made this happen and here we were, celebrating the spoils of victory on the beach with some very wonderful people. After being stuffed with the two pizzas, we ditched our shoes and stood in the Mediterranean Sea, soaking our feet and letting the waves and sand wash our legs. It was beautiful as the sun was setting and the air cooled around us. Not that we had anything to complain about anyway, the weather in Barcelona had been perfect. There was some humidity, but a lot of cooling wind, and it had been in the low 80s and sunny all day. We snapped photograph after photograph of the nature around us and just enjoyed ourselves as the sun said good night. Seeing a long pier that went out many hundreds of feet onto the ocean, we all decided to rinse our feet off and walk out there. We just conversed and chatted about the day and how beautiful Barcelona was. The pier was wonderful and gave us a full view of the nightlife and lights of Barcelona this evening. More pictures were taken and somehow Alex M. and I got into some pretty deep conversation for quite some time while staring out over the ocean. I informed him that if it had been anyone else out there at that point it wouldn’t have been as perfect as it all had been today. Ending the night, we came back to our hostels, said goodnight, and I informed the crew that I’d be waking them up to watch the sunrise over the sea tomorrow morning at 6:15. So much for a lot of sleep, but hey, that happens in Barcelona.
Now Alex and I were writing our blogs, glancing over pictures, and just chilling in the air-conditioning. Tomorrow we are going to go swimming, with swimsuits of course, and visit a few other places. I’m going to try and search down a Harley Shop for Mom and start looking into vacation spots for the long weekend coming up this week and for the weekend following. We’re thinking the Canary Islands, but if it’s too steep we might just stay mainland and go to Valencia for some more beach and beauty.
¡Hasta Pronto!
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