A few IES friends and I left last Thursday afternoon on a train from Salamanca to Madrid and then took an overnight train to Barcelona. This was our brilliant way of maximizing our free time and minimizing costs (since the 9-hour train ride is cheaper than the bullet train that takes the same route, and that meant we got 3 full days in the city but only had to pay for two nights in a hostel).
We get on the train, and unlike the train to Lisbon, this one had a compartment! So European!
Eventually, we arrived in Barcelona at 8AM, with less than an hour's worth of sleep between the five of us. (So it wasn't just me who failed at sleeping this time!) We immediately stored our bags and wandered off. Somehow, despite the fact that Barcelona is one of the worst cities in Europe for pickpocketing (or one of the best places to be a pickpocket...), not one of our group lost anything during the weekend - apparently a massive accomplishment.
Our first main sight, after an amazing breakfast that included the richest hot chocolate I've ever had, was the old Gothic cathedral, aptly placed in the Gothic Neighborhood (Barri Gotic). It was certainly impressive, despite the construction on the exterior. However, this church was just a warm-up for Barcelona's more epic cathedral: La Sagrada Familia.
We walked a ton, and had plenty of opportunities to marvel at the city. And we got paella! (A massive accomplishment because I found out that Basa is the one Spaniard who flat-out dislikes paella. Therefore, sadly, I had eaten it only once this past two months.) I also got to see my friend Katie, since she's participating in the SCU Barcelona program along with 60 other Santa Clara students.
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| Katie and I in front of the Arc de Triomf. Victory! |
We kept on walking straight through our second day, which was the appropriately titled "Gaudi Architecture Day." First, we went to Parc Güell, which actually looks to be straight out of a Dr. Seuss book or Candyland. It was pretty impressive, and even in the middle of October, overrun with tourists. However, the park itself and the view of the entire city were definitely worth the crowd.
Traveling in our group of four (Alex ditched us to go stay for free at a family friend's house) has worked out really well on these past two trips. Even if we get tired, cranky, and lost, we've always managed to keep it together and avoid any major problems. This happened mid-day on Friday, and then we found a Starbucks. My friend Leah, who is from Seattle, just about fell over in the street with giddiness. Between her energy and the caffeine, we were ready to find the next three stops on our tour.
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| Gaudi's Casa Mila |
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| Casa Batlló |
What was worth 10 Euro: La Sagrada Familia. Flat out, my favorite cathedral I've ever seen - and I've visited cathedrals all over western Europe. It's absolutely unreal - completely unique in a weirdly fascinating, modernist way. I'm still fairly obsessed with it.
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| Notice the cranes - it's still being built! |
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| Look at how small and insignificant I am... |
One of my favorite facts about Sagrada Familia was the 100+ year history of its construction. Between Gaudi's accidental death, the Spanish Civil War, the dictatorship, and human inability to construct ridiculously large towers instantly, they will have just finished the interior by the end of this year. Eight towers have already been built, but the 10 tallest ones are left, so they don't estimate the completion to be until 2030. Seriously, what else nowadays has been under construction for more than a century?? I'm amazed. My friends (who were just as mesmerized as I was) and I have already planned a reunion for the year 2030, since we became patrons of the arts by paying to enter the cathedral (which is how they finance the continued construction).
Overall, Barcelona was amazing. It was so gorgeous, and I loved being on the coast. However, again, I realized that Salamanca is really the place for me this semester. The Autonomous Community of Catalunya is so unique and proud of their Catalan heritage, but this also means that everything is written in Catalan (a Romance language that basically combines French and Spanish).
(Quick lesson: Spain has only one official language but three other historically recognized languages that are common in their own regions: gallego from Galicia, vasco/euskera in Basque Country, and catalan in Catalunya. What we call Spanish is castellano here. Since Franco banned the use of all other languages during the dictatorship, there's sensitivity surrounding the exclusivity of the term espanol - these are also Spanish languages.)
Back to my main point, living in Barcelona does not give you the same level of Spanish practice that you get in Salamanca. Besides the use of Catalan, everyone speaks English! I was actually fairly annoyed at this. Even if we spoke Spanish to people, they'd respond in English if they recognized our accents. In Salamanca, it doesn't matter how poorly you speak it - you have to speak Spanish - and I have never appreciated that fact more.
Also, too many Americans! Jeez, I can understand why people would be sick of us. Even during a random weekend in the middle of October, there were still so many tourists all around town.
One last reason why I'm glad to be in Salamanca: things are expensive in Barcelona! Even though all of us were trying to minimize our spending, we still ended up spending more than we hoped. But it was definitely worth it! (And the train ride. The return trip was not quite as painful, but almost.)
One last glimpse of Sagrada Familia: seriously, this is a real place. Golly.
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| Courtesy of Mia, the only one who had her camera at night to capture this epicness. |
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