36 hours in Barcelona...

At the Parque Guell

Over looking the City on our tour

Getting Ready to go out on the first night

What an eventful 36 hours we had in Spain's most famous city on the Mediterranean! The group left on Friday afternoon at 1 pm from La Lonja (old gothic building near our dorm). The bus trip took 6 hours to make its way up the cost to Catalonia,the province where Barcelona is located. The road trip wasn't all that interesting. We stopped at a Spanish truck stop and they are almost universal in how similar and ordinary they are to the ones in the states. Right before we got into the city, the bus broke down briefly on the road into the city and the air conditioner also seemed to crap out on us as we approached the hotel. We all started to suffer on the bus right as we arrived at the Hotel Catalonia Ramblas. UGA en España must have had some extra cash lying around because this hotel was a major upgrade from the Hotel Tryp Gran Vía in Madrid. The room had a waterfall shower and very comfortable beds. Scott (roommate) and I got our key and rested a little bit before we went out to dinner. I decided to call my friend Alice Lee, who is studying in Barcelona, with the University of Chicago. We met up in the lobby, she was coincidentally staying in the hotel next door to mine. I had about 45 minutes before I had to go to dinner with the group, so she showed me around the Las Ramblas neighborhood. It was nice to catch up with her and chat for a little while. Unfortunately, we were not able to meet up later in the weekend but it was still nice to visit for a while. After, I ate dinner with the group at a very good pizza and salad buffet chain in Spain called Fres Co. It was refreshing change from the dorm food. The vegetables and pizza were really fresh and they had a wide variety of dishes including desserts too. They had a self-serve pizza and salad bar which I enjoyed. After dinner we all headed back to the hotel and started to get ready to go out. Around 11:30 or midnight, a small group of us (Scott, Maryella, Rebecca, Diego and me) left the hotel to find a bar or discotecha that had been recommended to us from other students/try to find some other people in the group. This didn't really work out too well in hindsight. We asked around or directions and started to make our way down Las Ramblas. Las Ramblas avenue is the main commercial/touristy area in Barcelona right in the center of the city. The street in filled with sketchy characters at night. During the day its a perfectly nice attraction for tourists but at night its infested with regualr hookers and transvestite hookers. Our little group had a run in with the ladder. As we were walking, we soon noticed that we were surrounded by very scary and ugly transvestite hookers. They seemed to want to stop and converse with us, but we kept moving quickly and tried to put some distance between us and them. We then arrived at the port of Barcelona, which was cool to see how big it was and filled with very expensive yachts and tall ship sail boats. At this point we didn't know where anyone else was at so we decided our night at been significantly sketch so we called it quits and took a taxi back to the hotel because we didn't want another run in with the crazy street folk of Barcelona.

The morning of the second day we had a group tour that lasted from 10 am to 2 pm. The best part of the morning was the breakfast at the hotel. It reminded me of Waffle house because it had all the comforts of home plus the usual Spanish food at breakfast. Everyone took a little longer to savor the breakfast than they normally would because it was so good and filling. The tour included a knowledgeable local tour guide who told us a lot of interesting facts about some of the historical and interesting places in Barcelona. Many of us were very tired and/or hungover from the previous nights festivities but I was more tired just because we had to get up early. We saw the Sagrada Familia, the port of Barcelona, Park Gruell, some other architecture by Antoní Gaudi, the Olympic complex, a viewing site that overlooked the city and other cool places around Barcelona. The Park Gruel feels like you stepped into a Doctor Suess book because all of the architecture is very surreal and has an almost fantasy appearance. We stopped and spent an hour or so wandering around the park and enjoyed the sites and the street performers. After the tour we ate lunch at Fres Co again which was still good the second time around and then we had the afternoon free to do whatever we wanted to. The options included the Picasso museum, the Sagrada Familia, buying footbal tickets to the Barcalona game or go to the hotel. I was really tired and I knew I was coming back to Barcelona before I leave for the states again, so I choose to nap at the hotel before dinner. I figure I will be able to enjoy the city the second time around when Emily and Scott come at the end of this trip to visit and travel with me. That night, everyone was responsible for getting dinner on their own so Rebecca, Scott and I went out to dinner at a Pizza place on Las Ramblas. We got 2 pizzas and a pitcher of Sangria for under 25 euros so it was pretty cheap by Barcelona standards. After that we went to the hotel to decide were we wanted to go out for the night. Some of the group went to a discotecha/club called Razzmatazz the previous night so those of us who didn't go last night decided it would be fun to go there. We had to take the metro to get there which was a little worrisome because at this point I already thought Barcelona was sketchy at nighttime, but I survived and we made it to our destination quickly. From the station it was a short 10 minutes walk to the club. All I saw was a huge line to get in that had formed around the block. The line moved surprisingly fast and while I waited I talked with a group of guys from New Zealand. They explained to me the difference between an Australian accent and a New Zealand accent. I still couldn't tell you the difference. The inside of this club seemed to be a converted warehouse, the place was at least 3 or 4 floors tall and had about 6 gigantic rooms filled with people and music. The music and lights drowned out any ability to speak or communicate with anyone around you. We went in together with a group of about 10 of us then we quickly separated into smaller groups because it was nearly impossible to stay together. It was fun for a while but at one point Diego and I split up from the rest of the group and could not manage to find anyone, so we shared a cab back to the hotel with some students from Wisconsin studying abroad somewhere in the Netherlands but I can't really remember. Barcelona is a great city with a lot of stuff to do, see and, experience but I definitely prefer Valencia. Its much smaller and not as intimidating. I don't feel like I'm constantly going to be robbed every time I leave the dorm. But hopefully I can do more and explore the city when Emily and Scott come to visit me. And also I really want to go to a Barcelona game!