sun, sand, and sangrias.

man oh man. i am WAY behind on updating this.

i want to to write down as much as possible on my short but AMAZING weekend in barcelona. mostly for me, of course, but just in case any of my diligent readers wanted to know...

barcelona is my favorite city in spain. sure, granted it was the only one i went to, but i already can tell that it's my favorite.

thursday, march 13th, we arrived super late and caught a taxi from BCN airport. that was the first time i'd been in a car since my last day in New York! it was so relaxing because we were driving through the city at night and it was quiet and the man was playing spanish radio and he offered us gum. yeah, maybe not the smartest thing to do, take candy from a stranger, but hey, i'm still kickin' and breathin'. once at the hotel, we settled in and passed out from the day's events.

friday morning was a blur. met up with some other sju kids (notable fact: our entire hostel was taken over by sju. there had to be close to 40-50 sju people there). walked down the las ramblas and to the port and soaked in this amazing sun. i overestimated the weather and brought my scarf AND sweater, both highly unneccessary. after taking in some sun and breeze, we walked back and dropped our winter clothes off and headed back out in search of a place to eat. as we deciphered streets and turned corners, we stumbled upon a ...FILIPINO RESTAURANT. i'd never felt more at home. barcelona was becoming more and more comfortable by the minute. originally, we wanted a real "spain-ish" restaurant. but as we saw that the spainard place next door was really flimsy, we opted for the real pinoy food.

i think i forgot to mention that i gave up pork AND beef for Lent so i was definitely suffering as i watched Camay eat lumpia (beef for her) but they called it something else...not exactly sure what they were named. but it was comforting to hear the language being spoken in such proximity to me. after that we headed to st. josep's market and got this really awesome euro smoothie.

walked around for a bit before heading to the Cathedral of Barcelona which was stunning. said my prayers and my petitions and went off into the music of the streets. as we began searching for the water again, we stumbled onto a cute street with lots of little stores. i was tempted to buy this long dress just 'cause for 25 euro but camay convinced me not to.

the sun had set and night had fallen onto barcelona. we found the water and passed boats and overlooked the mont juic from the port. breath. taking. being the courageous people we were, we were adament about finding the beach and so we took off for the other side of the city and nearly an hour later found the beautiful, sandy shore. even in darkness it was amazing. we settled down, boots first, into the sand and watched the black waters crashing while listening to our ipods.

the next day consisted of an early wake-up call. since we stayed in a hostel (my first!), the 9 other people we didn't know in the room were hustling and bustling around at like 7am. it was, undoubtedly, annoying, but we got up and began to hustle for breakfast not too soon afterwards. we headed outside and literally 5 steps from our hostel was a gaudi house! i had always been fascinated by his architecture, especially after seeing them on the travel channel. then we decided to go to his unfinished materpiece, La Sagrada Familia.

camay and i have become pros at navigating through cities. we've gone around all of rome, florence, pisa, venice, sort-of paris, and barcelona all on foot. all we need os a trusty street map and we're good. and so that's how barcelona went. we located La Sagrada Familia and were on our way. one of the highlights of the walk was seeing a huge owl on top of a building. upon arrival to la sagrada familia, i was taken aback by its architecture. this was one landmark i did not remember watching on the travel channel, so it was a happy surprise. we waited the long line to enter an unfinished cathedral (supposedly will take 50-70 more years to complete) and to climb all the way to the top. the view was ridiculous! a hot sunny day in barcelona with a killer view! then we took a break for lunch at a place called donde jorge (forreal) for some paellas. my first time havin' 'em and they were goood!

after a hearty meal, we trekked up towards 'arc de triomf' listening to jason mraz the entire time. i must admit, this arc is prettier than the one in paris. then we bump into katie from our cohort! crazy and random. we walk through the major park (i forget the name) and then along the edge and cross train tracks to get to the beach. o.m.g. the beach during the day was the best. i definitely felt spoiled because it was freakin' march and i was at the beach. i took off my sneakers, switched to my flipflops, and happily walked along the sand. we went to the edge and walked along this rock dock and sat there listening to more music, sunbathing.

to get some food before our trek back, we stopped by this restaurant and as camay went ot the bathroom i literally closed my eyes and let my finger point out my meal. it turned out to be little fried fish. i don't normally eat that stuff when my dad cooked it so when it arrived i sucked in air and had to tell myself that i was paying for it. it ended up being decent and i got to keep my liter water bottle that the waiter provided us.

we found ourselves walking back to the cathedral of barcelona and caught the WHOLE SQUARE joined together in hands, dancing the famous 'sardona' dance. there was a live band outside playing and the young and old were in many circles just dancing. it was incredible! i can't believe that happens all the time. we need stuff like that in new york.

after i finished recording videos of the dances, got some sangrias and chocolate and churros and we were on our way up to mont juic and the "magic fountain". after sadly realizing the airtram didn't work past 6pm, we found ourselves somehow getting to the magic fountain on accident. it was incredible! it was an entire show matched to music and lights and afterwards we climbed up the steps and had a whole night time view of all of barcelona. it was the best way to end my stay in the beautiful city.

viva barcelona!


i promise to update about my last few weeks in paris and my first week and a half in dublin ASAP because I will definitely be blogging while in grand ole London over spring break.