Barcelona

5/6/17

Today we left Rhodes and flew into Barcelona.  When we landed, It was just a way different environment.  I would say the biggest thing that stuck out to me was the design of the city.  The architecture was so much different than Greece.  Most of all the buildings were all connected (i.e. side by side).  Not only that, but there were a lot of trees that decorated the street.  It was nice for a change and it was actually a lot cooler there than Greece.  In comparing to the U.S., I feel that we the way our buildings are built are similar to those in Greece, built separate from other buildings.  There also isn’t really any trees and what not that run through the streets of a big city.  Personally I was a fan of this.

Then at night I was able to go to an FC Barcelona soccer game.  Let me just say that this was an unreal experience.  Just imagine a stadium filled with 100,000 plus fans.  The environment was awesome.  One thing that I noticed about sports fans here in Europe compared to the U.S. is that they seem to be more controlled than fans in the U.S.  For example, when there was a good play, the fans would clap rather than scream and go crazy, which is what they do in the U.S.  FC Barcelona won the game 4-1 and it was so cool to see some of the top players in the world (e.g. Neymar, Messi) play.  Although the ticket was super expensive, I don’t regret spending the money.  

5/7/17

This morning we attended church here in Barcelona.  Not gonna lie, it was pretty hard to stay awake.  It was super hot and it didn’t help that church was in a different language.  However that was my observation for the day, was the language.  I was expecting church to be in Spanish, but it was in a dialect called Catalan.  I thought that all of Spain spoke Spanish and only Spanish, but apparently this part of Spain (e.g. Barcelona) also speaks Catalan.  

After church we went back and took naps and rested up a little bit, but then went back out.  We went to go see the MNAC, which is this huge museum in Barcelona.  Unfortunately on Sunday’s, it’s closed, so we just walked around the grounds which is still really cool.  The museum is up on a hill that overlooks a lot of the city, so it was really nice to walk around.  Close to the museum they have an olympic park.  I didn’t know this, but apparently once upon a time, the olympics were held in Barcelona.  The grounds were very well taken care of and it was fun just to walk around and see people out and about on a Sunday afternoon just chilling and relaxing with their family and friends.  

After we ended up going down to the port/beach area for dinner.  We wanted to eat some local food, so we found a place and all ordered some Paella.  This is a famous Spanish dish that is like fried rice.  It was pretty pricey, but it tasted good and I did it for the experience.  You can’t go to Spain and not get Paella.  One thing that I found interesting while we were down there was that there were lots of locals out at these restaurants eating.  Normally I would have expected to see mostly tourists and hardly any locals here eating at night, but I was surprised.  Barcelona has been good to us thus far!  Another day down.  

5/8/17

Today was an awesome day.  We were able to meet with a travel agency and hear about their business.  It was interesting to note that Barcelona and Madrid don’t get along all that well because of cultural differences dating back several hundreds of years ago.  I learned that tourism has been a concern of the citizens of Barcelona.  However, I must say, I was pretty tired during the presentation and so it was hard for me to focus.  

After the business visit, we got to go tour the La Sagrada Familia.  That had to be one of the coolest things that I have ever seen.  It symbolized the sacred family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.  Symbolism was definitely a huge part of the architect’s, Gaudi’s, work.  I thought it was cool to hear about Gaudi’s purposes for all the various parts of the cathedral.  It will cool to see when they complete it.  One thing that stuck out to me that I was constantly thinking about was how did these people build this thing?!  This structure is huge and so tall, like how back in their time did they build it?  Something that I didn’t realize being in the states and then coming here to Europe, is just how old Europe is.  I think that’s what makes it so amazing to me.  There’s so much history here and it’s like, how did they build these things hundreds of years ago.  My eyes have been opened for sure.  

Later on we went to Park Guelle which apparently is a famous park in Barcelona.  It’s a really big park.  That’s something that I’ve noticed about Barcelona.  There are huge parks and there you will find a bunch of people, both tourists but also locals, out and about just walking, talking, and relaxing.  It was really enjoyable to be in the park and be surrounded by trees.  Nearby this park is this place called bunker hill.  It’s this huge hill that apparently seems to be the high point of the city of Barcelona.  Seeing that it was nearby, we decided to go there and hike up to the top.  There was an incredible view at the top of the whole city.  Once we were up there, I realized that our tour guide from earlier wasn’t lying when she said that when the La Sagrada Familia is finished, that it will be the tallest building in Barcelona.  From up at the top of the mountain, it’s crazy but yeah, La Sagrada Familia is HUGE!  It’s also crazy to note that the tallest part of the cathedral hasn’t even been built/completed yet and even with the shorter spires, it’s still one of the tallest buildings.  I would have to say that I think Barcelona is a really pretty city.