Blogs from Monistrol de Montserrat, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Europe

Hola! This week new classes started and while language classes stay the same, my culture classes are now Spanish Modern and Contemporary Art and Hispoamerica Culture through literature art and painting, and we get to go on a field trip tomorrow! Field trips, siestas, beaches and sangria? This just might be paradise! After travelling around the past couple weeks, I decided to take and easy weekend and enjoy Barcelona and take a trip to nearby Montserrat! This is an area built into the mountains with a lot of religious and catalan historical value. When Nepolian found the town, he destroyed it and once the people started to rebuild Franco put the laws that rejected Cataluynian culture into affect and the project was postponed. Franco's death fueled the reconstruction and rebirth to this amazing landscape, which is ... read more

For our second day in Barcelona we had chosen an optional extra which was a trip up to Montserrat. This is a rocky outcrop of mountain about 1.5 hours drive outside of the city. It looks rather like a grey Ayres Rock but perhaps not quite so large. On the way we collected our guide from the previous day (Cesear) and set off early in the morning. This was good cos the weather was expected to be very hot again and I expected a lot of vertical walking which is difficult in the heat of the day. History: In the year 880 some shepherd boys had a vision of a descending light and angels singing their parents returned to the site and witnessed the same happenings, then a local priest had the same experience in a ... read more

Today we went to a monastery inland from Barcelona. Went with a few new friends we've made from the hostel. Pics uploaded again. Love... read more

Day 4 The weird rocks of Montserrat Well, again we decided to go out of the city. It was a much easier experience as we realized that we had to look for the train Cercanias sign. This time we had to go over to the Placa Espanya (it is pronounced the same way, however it is spelled in Catalan). Allison and I walked all the way from our pension to the plaza. I am not sure if I mentioned it, but it is so worth walking around in Spain, there is so much you miss if you depend on public transportation. There is such amazing architecture that it is well worth walking. Placa Espanya is well worth visiting. We ended up spending a few minutes there. There are two great towers that stand on either side ... read more

A brief update in summary as I don't think anyone will read this anyway. Yesterday - Montserrat (an abbey up amongst some remarkable rocky protruberances) - I cunningly bought a multi-ticket which let me onto the train, a cable car and funicular, thus making up for Wednesday's funicular disappointment. - The cable car was ace. - I ate horrible food in a horrible big buffet and there were loads of old ladies with red labels on their lapels who also ate the horrible food. I had a magnum even though it was cool up in those mountains - the magnum intake on this trip has been steady. - Rocky Outcrops are now superceded by these fantastic protruberances. I climbed up a few having taken the Funicular up to the nearly top. The sun came out and ... read more