Barcelona

Barcelona was amazing!

Wednesday was our first full day in the city. At 9 in the morning we loaded the buses and drove to the edge of the city up on a hill. There was an old Spanish fort overlooking the whole city, the coastline, the airport, and the shipyards. This was my first time on the Mediterranean Sea, and it was better than I had anticipated! At the fort, we took lots of pictures and messed around a bit. From there we drove to a similar kind of vantage point, just not as high. We first had to walk through a park and then came out in front of a large art museum. There were fountains and waterfalls all down the steps and we got some great photos. We also took a group picture of all 100 of us. I hope I can get that uploaded to this blog too. After seeing the outside of the museum the bus driver dropped us off in front of the Columbus statue, and we had free time for the rest of the afternoon. I went with a group of 9 others to a restaurant in a typical Spanish courtyard/ square. It was really expensive (we didn’t realize that before we sat down), so I split the meal with Johnny. After that our group split up, and I went with Johnny, Maro, Emily, Emilie, Sam, and Laura. The girls wanted to do some shopping in the old city, so us guys tagged along. Fortunately they didn’t need too much time, and we all made our way to the beach! It was beautiful, but the water was still very cold. I went swimming for about 5 minutes and sat in the sun for a while. The weather in general was mostly sunny but when the clouds rolled in, it got quite chilly. The beach was nice though, and I spent some time there. After dinner I went back to the beach, but it was even colder, and the sand had cooled off a lot too. The water and sky were gorgeous though. 

 Views from the fort

The museum

Fabi and I

Fountain where the light show later was

Sam and I 

The square where we had lunch

Columbus Statue

Then yesterday in the morning we all took the metro as one big group to the Güell Park, designed by Gaudí, a famous Spanish landscape architect. The gardens were unlike anything I had ever seen! There were a lot of cacti and exotic plants I had never seen before and the design and layout of the plants and structures were unique, not to mention another great view of Barcelona, this time from a different angle. When we were done at the gardens around noon, we had free time until the evening. I headed out with Johnny (we couldn’t find Crash), and we got a little lost on the subway, but ended up buying a map and navigating the city on foot on our own which was way more fun! We walked for 2 ½ hours and ended up at the beach. On the way we stopped at the Sagra Familia and the Barcelona cathedral. I hope the next time I come the Barcelona, the Sagra Famila will be completed! Both of us took a nap on the beach with some other exchange students who were already there. We found Crash too and then the three of us walked some more to explore. We went by the IMAX theater and an aquarium and walked through the tiny alleyways until we came out in front of the cathedral again. We all met for dinner at the same restaurant again and afterwards we all took the metro back to the museum with the fountains from the day before. At 21:30 there was a 90 minute light and water show from one of the enormous fountains. There were a lot of people watching and music to accompany it. It was quite the performance! I’ll try to upload a video of it too. 

Güell Gardens

Sagrada la Familia

Johnny and me in the city

The Cathedral

Fountain for the lightshow

That was pretty much my time in Barcelona! It was a lot different from Paris because there weren’t as many sights to see, but the people were far nicer and the beaches were great!