Barcelona, Spain – Day 3
June 27, 2015
Today we had another CEA event so we headed out to meet up with the rest of the group for a quick three hour bus tour of Barcelona. I’m really glad we were on a bus because by 10:30 in the morning it was already SO, SO hot!!
First, we drove past an old bullfighting arena that has now been converted into a shopping mall. Bullfighting no longer exists within Barcelona. Recently it was done away with for political reasons because as a Catalan state they wanted to distance themselves from what people associate Spain with, even though Barcelona is the only place within Spain that has ever had three bullfighting arenas operating at one time. We later drove past another that is currently, temporarily hosting a food truck festival since it is vacant.
After we drove past the Magic Fountain and the National Art Museum of Catalonia where the Gay Pride Festival is currently taking place at.
Then we headed up to Montjuic where the Olympic Games were hosted in Barcelona in 1992. Barcelona is as stunning as it is today because of the fact that they won the bid for the Olympic Games, this led to a general beautification of the city, construction of many new buildings, and many new statues and art installations throughout Barcelona. Montjuic means Mountain of the Jews and is originally home to a Jewish cemetery, but now is home to many different Olympic venues, fountains, cable cars/gondolas, and stunning views of Barcelona.
Following Montjuic we went to Barceloneta to see the world famous beach. It is absolutely gorgeous. It is pretty crowded, but the further North you go the less crowded it gets. There was also a stand up paddle board competition going on and it was really impressive, these people were going so fast I couldn’t even believe it!
Afterwards we went to see Gaudi’s famous Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia is an unfinished cathedral that has been under construction for the last 134 years, but is expected to be completed by 2026. As of now two sides are completed and just the middle needs to be completed. There are 8 out of 12 towers finished, the towers will be progressively taller and will be only slightly shorter than Montjuic and will be the tallest building in Barcelona. These towers symbolize the apostles. One side features the nativity facade, one features the passion facade, and the other will feature a glory facade. The Sagrada Familia was not actually designed by Gaudi, only the Nativity facade was, but a few different architects. The Sagrada Familia is now being constructed entirely based on funds from tours and donations. It is truly stunning how much detail there is, even if you don’t like the appearance you have to at least appreciate that.
Our last stop was to drive past Gaudi’s Casa Batllo and Casa Mila before we were dropped off at the end of Passeig de Gracia.
We then decided to get some lunch. We decided sushi sounded good and decided to try the place next to our apartment, but found a place on the way and stopped in there. It was unique because it was all-you-can-eat sushi for $15 with pieces coming around on a conveyer belt. So it was fun, but not really worth it in the end.
After lunch we headed back to the apartment and took a little siesta because everyone was exhausted and jet-lagged and then we headed out for dinner. We decided to try to go to a tapas place we heard was good, but it was too busy so we walked around a little more and tried another place. We are really liking the whole tapas thing haha, but we’re struggling a little more with the concept of dinner so late at night! We chose well for the restaurant and it was a good deal, killer ambiance, and yummy food. Plus really good mojitos.
After dinner we went to a bar called Espit Chupitos that is known for their crazy shots. The catch is that you don’t really know what any of them are, it’s just kind of a list of crazy names. The trick is to get someone else to order the “Monica Lewinsky” hahahahaha. But the “Boy Scout” shot is very popular. And DON’T try the “Black Widow”. Disclaimer: I did not light my hair on fire.
We then went to the bar next door for a little bit and tried to balance spare change on a lemon in a vase of water to win 2L of beer and were unsuccessful, before we headed out to a club. We showed up at the club a couple minutes too late and they were starting to charge a cover fee of 20 euros so we decided to go somewhere else and the random club we went to ended up being very fun and we stayed there for quite a while before calling it a night.
Keep following along with my adventure abroad!
xoxo J