Barcelona Spring Break

Barcelona

For our week long trip for spring break, me and 11 other friends decided to spend our spring break in Barcelona, Spain. We took off late Friday night and arrived in Spain at our hostel around 11p.m. at night at the Amistat hostel. This hostel was located only 5 blocks off of the main beaches in Barcelona. We woke up the next morning (Saturday) and headed to the beach. We were craving a little sun and beach volleyball. The weather was great! We spent the entire next two days hanging out on the beach and playing volleyball. When Monday rolled around we were ready to explore the city. Our first destination was the castle on the hill. On our way we pointed some major differences from Rome. The City was very clean. There wasn’t trash everywhere you turned. Another benefit that Barcelona had to offer was the convenience of travel. The city was extremely easy to navigate using the metro or subway. One last pleasant surprise that Barcelona had was it was very easy to talk to people because the majority of people knew English. When we reached the castle on the hill we spent some time looking over the city and taking in the beautiful view. We could see for miles over the Mediterranean Sea. We also grabbed some lunch at a restaurant on the hill, which had some Paella. This is a Spanish dish that consists of rice and various types of seafood. After lunch we moved our way to the Olympic stadium near the castle on the hill. This area was the hosting site of the 1992 summer Olympic games. The area was a very large open space with stadiums around it. It was kind of sad to see it vacant because I’m sure during the Olympics it was a great space. Another significant thing to this area was the Tele Communications tower. It is a telephone tower designed by Calatrava. This tower stands over the city and is almost a piece of art more then a tower. When we finally made it home we all grabbed a beer and sat on the beach. We sat there for hours watching the waves roll in and spending time with close friends. The next day was one of my favorites. We woke up and ordered our tickets to see one of the most famous churches in the world, Sangrada Familia. We spent the morning checking out other Gaudy work in Barcelona, which to me wasn’t to fascinating. The style was to abstract for me. The buildings were very interesting and well presented just not my style. When we arrived to Sangrada Familia though I was in awe. The place was so large and intricate. The entire church was filled with columns, windows, and details that replicated nature in some sort of way. It was amazing and again indescribable. To explain how intricate the building is, it started construction in the late 1800’s, it will not be finished until around 2030 or so. The construction on the building is still being working on daily. It is so amazing to think that this church is so massive and detailed that it is taking construction over 130 years. After this we made our way back to the hostel and watched Iowa State win the Big 12! One the next day we headed to another famous church in Spain known for its gothic architecture. Again the church was amazing and detailed everywhere!One good thing about Bacelona was that the prices were reasonably cheaper then Rome. Food was cheap and affordable. While most of the days we bought groceries and cooked food at the hostel, there were some places we went to eat that were a nice change of pace. One was an Irish bar located in the middle of the city. This place had large quantities of American food. It was delicious and filling at the same time, which doesn’t happen often in Europe. The bar was filled with people watching a big soccer game, so the atmosphere was awesome. One other place worth mentioning was Pedro’s chicken. It was a place where you could order an entire chicken for a very reasonable price and again it filled me up. These places reminded me of America and I am assuming that why I enjoyed them so much. Barcelona was an amazing city.