Hi friends.
Again, I feel I must apologize for the lengthy delay in updating my blog. You might think my life would have been more hectic at the beginning of the semester here, and I might have skipped a day or two, but apparently, these past few weeks have been the craziest. But I’m back now!
Last week was a bit nuts because I had a lot of schoolwork to do—philosophy midterm on Monday (which went well!), Spanish essay due Wednesday, and my second big positive psychology essay due Thursday. So, I was pretty stressed last week and didn’t have a lot of spare time to write a new post. But most of my work is done now, so I’m feeling much more relaxed. I also registered for my classes back at Creighton for the fall, and with that done, the extra burden is off my shoulders!
Mom, Emma, and M got here Friday morning and went straight from the airport to my apartment. They rearranged their suitcases (to pack smaller bags for the weekend in Barcelona) and rested a little bit before we headed to the station for our high-speed train ride to Barcelona. We had upgraded seats on the train, which was spacious and comfortable, and included a light meal. Emma and I really enjoyed the meal—ravioli, fruit salad, consommé, and bread with olive oil—pretty good for a train!
On the train!
When we got to Barcelona, we took a taxi to our hotel—Hotel Casa Fuster. It was a beautiful building with lovely rooms—very comfortable for the four of us. We decided to walk around for about half an hour to get the lay of the land a bit and then relax before dinner. The street near the hotel was quite nice; there were several upscale stores and nice-looking restaurants. After our walk, we took a siesta and then got ready for our dinner at Botafumeiro. Emma and I split the lobster paella, but it wasn’t really that good (in my opinion). I had paella with Katie here in Madrid, and liked it a lot more than this paella…oh well. But the restaurant was lovely and the waiters were nice. When we got back to the hotel, we played a quick game of cards (Kings in the Corner—hadn’t played that game in years!), and then went to bed because we were so tired.
staircase in the hotel
front of Casa Fuster
Mom and my hotel room
On Saturday, we had a half-day walking tour of Barcelona. Our tour guide, Norbert, is a Barcelona native and is very knowledgeable. He met us at the hotel at 10 AM (after our great breakfast at the hotel—so much food to choose). We walked through a lot of Barcelona and my favorite site was the huge market with all kinds of foods—fish, ham, meat, fruits, vegetables, olives, candies, etc. It was awesome to see all of the options, the vendors, and the people shopping. Everything looked delicious as well, and it was all super fresh. Norbert told us that the chefs from the best restaurants in Barcelona do their shopping at the market every week, so we were obviously in good company! Much of what we saw on the tour was buildings and interesting places, but not a lot of history of Barcelona. To me, it seemed that Barcelona is more of a “current” city; obviously, it has history, but its current state is more important, especially with all of the commerce there (Norbert told us that Madrid is the government, and Barcelona is the money—sort of like Washington, D.C. and NYC).
Gaudi building in Barcelona
view of La Sagrada Familia from our hotel
Hotel Casa Fuster at Night
Rooftop pool
Barcelona at night
At the end of the tour, Norbert left us at a great little restaurant where we got some tapas for lunch. Delicious! Everything was so good and tapas are definitely the right size—we got to try a little bit of everything and didn’t get too full. After that, we did some “shopping” at El Corte Ingles, which is the huge department store in Spain (sort of like Macy’s but with even more stuff). Then we stopped at Hard Rock Café to get shirts—keeping up with my collection—and some dessert. We also had some good conversations about what we (my siblings and I) should be thinking about/doing for the future. Very interesting and good things to think about.
At Hard Rock Café
Although we had reservations at a restaurant down by the harbor, we decided to skip that because the place was really expensive, and there’s no reason we need to spend 50 Euros per person on dinner—none of us appreciate “good food” that much! We ended up walking around for a long time with no luck finding a place. That was very frustrating for all of us, but I tried to be optimistic and have a positive attitude. Finally, we just decided to go in this little Lebanese place called Luna de Istanbul. The menu was all in Spanish and Catalan (the language they speak in Barcelona) so we randomly ordered some things that sounded decent. When the food came, it was all SO GOOD. We definitely ordered way too much since we didn’t know what it would be like, but it was all delicious and flavorful. It was also much less expensive than the restaurant from Friday night, so it was a win all around.
Spain’s daylight savings time change was two weeks later than the U.S.’s, so we sprung forward on Sunday morning. Because of the change, we started our tour on Sunday at 11 AM instead of 10. This tour was a driving tour (yay!) all based on the work of Antoni Gaudi, a famous architect in Barcelona. We first saw Park Güell. This was supposed to be an area of lots of homes for the wealthy of Barcelona to get out of the city (it was started in the early 1900s). The concept was great, but the timing was off because families weren’t willing to make the hour long carriage ride to the park (it’s now a 10 minute drive from the city). Although the project failed, there were a few buildings there and then a giant public park. The buildings are really cool, albeit not functional at all. The rooms all have curved walls and weird shapes, making it difficult to put furniture in them—all the furniture had to be built in the rooms and designed in weird ways to accommodate the strange architecture. I thought it was fascinating but would not want to live in a Gaudi house!
Gingerbread-like Gaudi house
Park Güell
Public park--so green!
mosaic ceilings
House that Gaudi lived in
Next, we drove down by the harbor to see the sea and the beach. It was great to finally see the water and imagine what the beach would be like in the summer—literally packed with people. The weather was decent while we were there, but definitely not nice enough to sit outside and sunbathe. Oh well.
After that, we went to La Sagrada Familia, which is a huge church in Barcelona. It was designed by Gaudi, and is absolutely incredible. It was started in 1883 and is still unfinished. The pope just consecrated it as a church last November, which I thought was very interesting. The outside is unique and quite unusual, but I was struck most by the inside. I thought it was so amazing—light, airy, beautiful, bright, and modern looking. If I had a church like that near me, I would definitely be there as often as possible! I suppose some people might find the church a bit cold or intimidating, but I like it much more than most of the cathedrals that I’ve seen throughout Europe. I like the simplicity much more than the ornate design of many of the old cathedrals.
Model of La Sagrada Familia
Real life Sagrada Familia
Ceiling
Kiss of Judas
Following the visit to the church, we said goodbye to Norbert, and he left us at the restaurant where we had reservations for lunch at 3. I had roasted chicken, which was great. In Barcelona, seafood is popular because the city is right on the sea. But I’m not much of a seafood/fish person; I’ll have it once in awhile, and I like most of it, but it’s definitely not my favorite, and I rarely crave it. After lunch, we were all pretty tired, so we went back to the hotel for a little siesta. On Sunday night, we went to a great tapas place for dinner and got to try many small dishes. We again ordered way too much and couldn’t possibly finish it all. I hate to waste food, but when you’re full, you’re full, no matter how good the food is!
Sunday was our last night in Barcelona, and we left Monday morning. We had another high-speed train and got back to Madrid around 2. It’s funny how Madrid feels like home, especially after I’ve been traveling. I remember distinctly how relieved and happy I was to return to Madrid after Paris, Sevilla, Granada, and Barcelona. The only place that I wanted to stay longer was Ireland! :)
In order to give us a little more time in Barcelona, I skipped my Spanish class Monday morning, but I did go to Philosophy at 4. After class, I stopped back at the apartment, said hi to Maria, and then went to the Madrid hotel around 7. We had a tapas tour starting at 8. Carlos, our guide, took us to 4 different tapas bars and then to San Gines Chocoleteria for churros and chocolate. I can’t remember the names of all the places we went, but it was all fun and really good food. I love going on guided tapas tours because everything is taken care of and I can sit back and try what I want! It’s wonderful. But now that I’ve been to some of the places, I might try to find them again with my friends and do our own kind of tapas night.
Today (Tuesday) was another busy day. Mom, Emma, and M had the day free (until the evening) so they did a little shopping and relaxing. I went to class and spent all of my free time in between classes working on this blog post and still didn’t finish! Anyway, classes were decent. After art history, I rushed to get to the metro and make it to the hotel because we had a Hidden Madrid tour at 6. I made it with 15 minutes to spare. Mark, our guide and the author of a book called Hidden Madrid, met us in the lobby at 6, and off we went. The tour was awesome because it was more than just the major monuments and tourist destinations that you can see on any old tour. We heard the lesser-known stories of Madrid, which I really enjoyed. I actually had heard some of the stories that Mark shared with us before; way to go Sandeman’s New Europe free walking tour—you really did your research!
Palacio Real
Entrance to Plaza Mayor with a cool sky in the background :)
After the tour, we found a little Mexican restaurant and had dinner. I finally got home at 11:25 and am now putting the finishing touches on this post. Wow, long day, and long post. Okay, that might be it for a few days. Hopefully not though. I’m going to try to keep up with the blog… we’ll see how it goes.
Love you all,
Elizabeth
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