We left last Thursday (Jan 31st) at 8:30am. Salamanca doesn't have an airport that RyanAir flies out of, so we had a two-hour bus ride to Valladolid, a city east of Salamanca. After spending the afternoon chilling at the tiny airport near Valladolid, we had a short flight (I was sleeping, so I have know idea how long... 2 hours maybe?) to Barcelona.
We took a 6-person taxi from the airport to our hostel. The taxi driver may or may not have ripped us off. We were told by ISA that all taxis charged the same, no matter how many people you had, but the driver convinced us that it was like that for normal taxis but the larger taxis charged 10 Euros per person to get to the center of the city. We didn't really have any idea, so we just went with it.
We stayed at the Mediterranean Hostel, which we picked because it was cheap and got good reviews. It turned out to be in a great location- we could walk to the Sagrada Familia, the beach, and Las Ramblas. Our room also happened to have a sweet glassed-in balcony.
Thursday night we went for a walk to explore Barcelona a little bit. We happened to walk past the Casa Batlló (the house with a roof that looks like a dragon)! Barcelona is full of crazy buildings and parks designed by Gaudí. I also stopped at an ATM right outside a bank to get some money. Most people think of Barcelona as being full of pickpockets, but I'll remember it as a city with nice, trustworthy bankers... I tried three times to get money out, but it didn't work. As I was starting to try a fourth time, three guys came out of the bank and stopped in the doorway, giving me a funny look. I was probably giving them a pretty funny look back, since I automatically assume everyone is a potential thief whenever I am taking any money out of an ATM. It turns out they were stopping in the doorway to turn out the lights and lock the door (a lot of businesses are open pretty late in Spain). At this point, I figured they were either bankers or had just finished robbing the bank. They looked pretty trustworthy, so I asked why it wasn't working in (very) broken Spanish... I was kind of flustered. They told me to try it again, and it worked perfectly, so I looked even more foolish. Oh well, at least I got some money...
Friday we checked out the Sagrada Familia, a giant Basilica designed by Gaudí. It's actually still under construction. If you ask me, Gaudí gets too much credit for these buildings, considering he comes up with designs so complicated that they're still working on them! La Sagrada Familia is pretty impressive, though. The facades on the sides of basilica are huge and tell complete stories from the Bible. For example, one facade is the birth of Christ.
The inside of the basilica was beautiful. It's filled with giant pillars that seem to go up forever. It felt more like a historical site than a church, compared to the other basilicas I've seen. There was a lot of information on how it was built and even a museum below the basilica. I geeked out over all of the information they had. We also got to go up into the towers, which provided an up-close view of the architecture and an amazing view of the city. The Sagrada Familia was by far my favorite site we visited in Barcelona!
On the way back to the hostel, we stopped for lunch at a Colombian restaurant for lunch. Angie (another ISA student) grew up in Colombia, so when she saw the Colombian flag outside of the restaurant, she convinced us to stop and see how good of food they have in Colombia. She was right! I had Ajiaco, a thick traditional soup that had potatoes, chicken, and corn-on-the-cob in it. And that was just the first course! The meal also came with rice, beans, meat, a drink, and dessert- all for under 10 Euros!
We spent most of Saturday at Park Guill, a famous park designed by.... (you guessed it:) Gaudí. The park is north of the beach, and there's an amazing view of the ocean. It's also at the top of a giant hill, so you have to walk up a giant incline and a lot of stairs to get to it. Luckily they have outdoor escalators for the tourists! The park is filled with Gaudí's work, including the famous lizard that is one of the unofficial symbols of Barcelona.
Sunday we walked to the beach. It was chilly (I was wearing a jacket), but there were quite a few people hanging out at the beach. It's still way too early to swim, though. I'm sure it was deserted compared to how busy it gets in the summer. We also walked around the Olympic Park and got to see the Arc de Triomf. Apparently Paris isn't the only city that has a Victory Archway.
Monday we headed back to Salamanca. Barcelona was an awesome place to visit, but I'm glad to be living in Salamanca. Barcelona felt "more Spanish" than Madrid, though. Madrid just kind of felt like a big city. Barcelona has so many unique cultural things that are only found in Spain. It also felt more "touristy" than Madrid. Almost everyplace we went, people could speak English. All of the signs were in Catalan, though. (Catalan is actually their primary language in north-eastern Spain, although pretty much everyone speaks Spanish as well). Catalan looks like a made-up language that is a cross between Spanish and French. I never thought seeing signs in Spanish would be comforting, but it was nice to come back to Salamanca, where I can understand the signs (at least a little bit better than the ones in Catalan).
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