Barcelona with my Besties
Last weekend was one of the best yet! Megan, Sarah and I were able to spend a wonderful three days together in Barcelona, Spain. Once we made it from the airport to our hostel, we spent hours catching up outside at a little cafe. It was sunny and warm, which was the perfect weather to enjoy a pitcher of sangria. We explored La Rambla, which is a main street filled with street performers and is home to a wonderful market. Every flavor of fresh juice was available for only 1 Euro. I tried pineapple, orange, strawberry! Delicious! Every exotic fruit, vegetable, fish, and meat was available. We saw sheep heads, brains, unidentifiable fish, and some other meats that we weren’t quite sure about. We also stumbled upon the best baklava I have ever had. It oozed honey and I could have licked the napkin clean. We then explored along the pier and beach. Surprisingly, we ran into both groups of girls from our program, also vacationing for the weekend, within 5 minutes of each other! Small world! That night for dinner I had the most bizarre pizza: shredded spiced pork, buffalo mozzarella, cocoa powder, chives, and honey. It was phenomenal!
Saturday we visited the breathtaking Sagrada Familia. That morning, I felt like a little kid going to Disneyland for the first time. I have wanted to see this church for such a long time. It was incredible. It was so refreshing to be in a church that incorporated nature into the design. It really does feel like being in a big forest with beautiful blues and greens streaming in from the stained glass windows. I was speechless for a while as I took it all in. They are anticipating for construction to finally end in 2026. Only 8 of the 18 towers have been completed. It was interesting to learn that the towers are for the 12 disciples, 4 evangelists, Mary and Jesus. The sun rises on the nativity facade, sets on the passion facade, and during the day is on the resurrection facade. I just loved how each element was carefully planned out to the last detail. That day, we also made it to Park Guell. It was neat to see the tile benches and big, tile salamander. That evening we hiked up Mont Juic looking for the Magic Fountain. After quite an uphill battle, we gave up on seeing it. To our surprise, our bus stopped right at the fountain! The area was packed with hundreds of people. It was similar to the Bellagio fountain, but with a little more spunk and a lot more American 90s music. It was a perfect way to end the day.
Sunday was our relaxing vacation day. We pretty much hopped from one cafe to the next. Our lunch was at a place called Wok to Walk. It’s a make your own stir fry bar. You pick everything from noodle type to meat and veggies to the type of sauce. I really am hoping that it makes its way over to the US some point soon, because it was delicious! It was nice to have so much time to just enjoy being with each other and not having to run from site to site. That evening, we had tapas at a place where you pay by toothpick. Each little appetizer (tapas) plate has a toothpick in it, and at the end of your meal they tally the toothpicks and you are set. It was a great way to try a lot of different foods. We had everything from shrimp to sausage to deep friend potato meat ball things. Overall Barcelona was one of my favorite spots yet! We had a riot! We have already made a pact to go back when Sagrada Familia is finished!