BARCELONA! Spanish beachside paradise

I am so excited to finally write about my past weekend in Barcelona. I spent four days in a very magical place that was so so different from what I have been used to here in Rome. Although Barcelona could never live up to the rich historical and artistic lineage that is so prevalent in Rome, I came to love and appreciate its serenity and easy way of living that is desirable for so many people. Unique is certainly the operative word in describing this city's culture, architecture, and location. A couple of really amazing places and experiences made a huge impression on me in such a relatively short amount of time. 


First a couple of words on what I thought of the city and people I met while there. Barcelona is situated in a nearly ideal location on the eastern coast of Spain between the Mediterranean Sea and a mountain range to the west. This makes orienting yourself in the city very easy because it is basically one giant slope down towards the water. The public transportation system is just as ideal because there are metros EVERYWHERE and it's never a problem getting from one place to the next, much unlike Rome. The comfortable and convenient public transportation system certainly reflects the laidback lifestyle of the people in the city and I figured that out immediately when I got there. Everybody seemed friendly and I was so glad to be staying with my friend Brit who is living there for the next year. She is already fluent in Spanish and learning Catalan so we spent the majority of the weekend conversing with the locals in their own language. Additionally, Brit's friend Audrey was staying with her who is fluent in Portuguese so I got to hear some of that as well.  I loved the weekend for the amount of foreign languages I was exposed to and got to (attempt) to speak: Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian, and of course English.  And what gave the weekend an even more local feel was hanging out with Brit's boyfriend Axel, who was born and raised in Barcelona so we were taken to plenty of non-touristy places.


ANYWAYS, I left Rome on Wednesday night which was great because I got to miss my Thursday Italian class in order to have the most possible time in Barcelona. When I arrived at around midnight, despite the general worries of landing in a foreign country for the first time by myself, I was relieved to get right on my way to Brit's and made it to her apartment in no time. Even at night I got a good look of the city while on the bus. Barcelona is everything that Rome is not: open, calm, well-designed, and CLEAN. By the time I got to her apartment I was so stoked for Barcelona that I couldn't wait to go out and see more.


So after just barely seeing her apartment and dropping off my stuff, we headed out to the Wall St. Bar nearby. This place, though very 'American' (the bartenders spoke to us in English the whole time), was pretty cool because all the drink prices go up/down according to the 'market' or what people were drinking at the time. We had a few beers (mostly strong, dark Belgium beers, Brit's favorite) and headed in early (3 am)- relative to Barcelona time of course.

On Thursday morning we got up at a reasonable time (close to noon) and went to grab breakfast at a café downstairs from Brit's apartment. I had my first bocadillo con salchicha, or little sandwich with sausage and it was amazing and only 2 euros. This was first of many delicious and affordable meals that I got to enjoy while in Barcelona.


After breakfast we met up with Axel and took a walk to the Parc Guell, the first Gaudi work that I got to see in Barcelona. It is located someway up the hill so it has a great vantage point of the city. Despite the rainy/misty weather the view of Barcelona was amazing. 

The architecture was the most unique thing thing that I may have seen because of Gaudi's use of organic, curving lines and shapes. He truly had a very specific style that was seen in his ornamentation.

 So jealous this was right in Brit's backyard! What a gem.


From the Parc we walked down into the city to have lunch at a favorite restaurant of Axel's. Like the entire weekend, I was totally open to try new things so we had him order whatever he thought was good and it was really delicious and unique. 

And of course we had some Belgium beers to wash it all down. After our lunch we headed to Plaza Catalunyan and Rambla street, the main fashion and shopping district of Barcelona. Brit was looking to buy some Vans so we went to a couple of skateshops and it was like I was in Southern California all over again. 

The skate culture in Barcelona is really cool and I was glad to finally see it in person. It only made me want to skate but I unfortunately wasn't able to all weekend because of the rains. Along Rambla Axel showed us a side-street that was really cool and music-oriented with guitar shops and record stores. I even bought a Spanish-edition vinyl of Help! that is one of my favorite Beatles album and will be a great reminder of Barcelona.


On our way home we saw another Gaudi building, the Casa Mila which is a functioning office/apartment building but still has a unique, organic feel. 

a perfect example of what Modernity is all about.


Once we got home we rested up for a big night ahead of us. We planned to first have drinks at Snack 55 and then head to the beach for Opium Mar. 'Snack' was a really cool local place that had great drink deals and was a fun hangout spot with a foosball table. For only four euro, I ordered a whisky sour which was a full liter! I was really impressed with this place and I can see why Brit and her friends go there all the time. After the pregame we hopped on the metro towards the water and easily got in to Opium Mar for free which was really exciting. The club was so amazing; I don't think you could ever top its location literally spitting distance from the sand. The dance floor was so much fun and the DJ played some incredible mixes. What made the night even cooler was running into friends I knew from Florence and getting to party with them as well. To make the world seem even smaller I ran into a few girls from UCLA who all happened to be in Barcelona that weekend. What a great night. We ended up getting home extremely late (or really early, for the morning) and passed out immediately.


How can I describe my Friday in Barcelona? Well, it was essentially a night- but a FULL night considering we woke up at 3:30 PM. As we rolled out of bed, starving, we headed downstairs to have a late lunch at one of Brit's favorite restaurants. It was coincidentally an Italian place owned by a real Italian, Max whom Brit has befriended since she eats there so often. I could immediately see why. For only 9,50 euro I got a caprese salad, delicious bolognese lasagna, and a coffee that was all amazingly authentic. If I lived there I probably wouldn't be able to avoid eating there at least once a week.


I'm pretty sure we did nothing more in the daylight of that day but we definitely made up for it that night. After leaving the apartment finally, we met up with some of Brit's friends to get some Chinese food. Again the Barcelonan restaurants blew me away. We ended up getting the price-fixed menu for 5 people for only 40 euro and it was a ridiculous feast! There must have been at least 8 or 9 plates of amazing food that was again really authentic. Two pitchers of fresh sangria made it taste even better.


From the restaurant we walked down Rambla St. to get to the 'Absinthe Bar.' This was exciting because I had never tried it before and Brit had said it was a really cool place. The bar had a really antique feel to it with dim lighting and old-fashioned liquor bottles everywhere.

The absinthe itself was actually pretty tasty once the 'process' was completed. To accompany the absinthe, you dip two big sugar cubes in the absinthe and light them on fire before hosing them off with water and mixing it all in the cup. It ends up tasting like a very strong black licorice alcohol.

After Absinthe the plan was to go to Razzmatazz, another club in a different part of town. But when we got there it didn't look busy at all plus we had to pay 15 euro to get in. At this point we decided to go back to Opium Mar because it was free and it was just that epic. 


Friday night was easily the best part of the weekend and coolest night I have had in a long time. Again we danced our asses off and all but Brit and I were left by the last half hour or so that the club was open. This was perfect for our beach adventure once the club closed at around 6 AM. We then left the club and went to sit on the beach to watch the sunrise. It was so amazing and refreshing to be on the EAST coast and have a completely knew perception on which way was North/South in compared to the water. The sun rose pretty quickly and lit up the sky in the most unforgettable blue:

As we watched the sunrise, we walked toward Barceloneta, the beach scene a little bit south from us (felt like North?!). We then met this amazing man who had starting building his sandcastle at 7 AM. At first it seemed strange to us but after talking to him some more, we learned he was dying from cancer and the castles were the only thing he did to bring joy to himself and the people who came to watch. I couldn't name a more sincere person that I've met in a long time and it was such a grounding experience to talk to someone so accepting of life and his situation. 


The morning came up so fast and it was already way into Saturday morning before we knew it so we headed home. We got on the metro and got off at the Sagrada Familia stop, Brit's usual stop to get home. At around 9 AM we stepped out right in front of the building and it was quite the shock. 

We wanted to go in right then but decided to wait and go with Audrey later that day. We got home and went to bed immediately. Again we got up late again and went back to the Sagrada to visit Gaudi's remarkable interior. Luckily the line wasn't too long and we got in pretty quickly. This was easily the most impressive space I have ever been seen. Gaudi clearly was ahead of his time and probably still not ready for ours. Stepping inside that magnum opus of architectural genius was truly an experience. 

By the time we left Sagrada it was already dark so we had to get our plans ready for the night. We knew for my last night that we wanted to go to this really good Tapas restaurant and Axel came over to go with us and show us how to get there. This place clearly lived up to the hype and I found myself eating and trying the most delicious things that I still don't know what exactly was in them (I think one of them was made with pig's blood but who cares?). 

endless tapas.


After our long dinner we went with Axel to this sort of hole-in-the-wall beer bar that had something like 400 types of beers available. It was cool because the beers were really unique and we also met up with our Florentine friends so it was a good time. I tried a bunch of beers and some were upwards of 10% alcohol so I definitely got my money's worth. 

our Florentine friends.

such a unique variety of beers and friends.


After a few beers we were pretty tired and decided to head home early but we definitely had that coming given our last 3 nights. When we got back to the apartment I had one more final look from Brit's balcony at Barcelona through the drizzle and it was pretty damn special and I didn't want to forget it so I took a picture:

It was heartbreaking to leave the next day but I knew it had to be done. At least the bus shuttle and airport were really relaxing and there were no problems leaving Barca. Landing in Rome in the pouring rain, however was a different story. Of course the shuttle to Termini took forever and I was quickly reminded of the craziness that is Rome. But it is the monumental scope of what is within this city that makes it all worth the inconveniences. Getting home unfortunately was a close to my time in Barcelona but at least it prepared me for all the great weekends I will be having in Rome and in other cities for the rest of my semester.