Barcelona, Spain!

---

THE MOST AMAZING CITY! Did that do this entry justice? Haha 😊
The next stop on our travels was Spain, which was a total opposite of The Netherlands, Barcelona was a completely Metropolitan city, so diverse and flashy, people everywhere and there was so much to do at any time. Even though the city was very busy with a various mix of people, it was still overflowing with culture. The people were so friendly and I was even able to communicate a little thanks to many years of high school Spanish class. I was so surprised how modern the city was yet it still had many preserved historical sites. Barcelona is famous for the more modern architecture by Antoni Gaudi, his structures are so bizarre. We hiked up to Park Guell, designed by Gaudi built between 1900 and 1914, where we found weirdly shaped colorful buildings, tons of gardens, a building in the shape of a fish designed with colorful glass. It was so unusual but the bright colors, tropical flowers, and views were fantastic. We climbed up this mountain to see one of the best views of Barcelona, it was absolutely gorgeous up there we could see the entire landscape of the city and the ocean in the background.

A couple of Rutgers study abroad friends from Florence had arrived in Barcelona a couple days earlier so we all met up. We made sure to find a great restaurant on the pier for some real Spanish paella, a traditional Spanish dish consisting of rice, meat, seafood, beans, and vegetables. Its served in a large steel pan and is absolutely delicious! We enjoyed our lunch sitting out by the ocean since Barcelona is on the northeastern coast on the Mediterranean, seriously breathtaking.

Luckily our hotel was located on the central main avenue of Las Rambla. There are people buzzing everywhere, tons of street vendors, theaters, cafes, restaurants, bars, and street performers, its very exciting! It connects to Placa Catalunya which is a center point of Barcelona and home to the famous Christopher Columbus statue. We stopped at the world famous street food market ‘Mercat de la Boqueria’ and felt like we stepped into another world. It’s a colorful hideaway with different stands everywhere selling anything from Ostrich eggs, any animal parts you can imagine-even brain! ew, numerous fruit stands and fresh squeezed juices on offer, bread the size of my body, chocolates, EVERYTHING...it was so overwhelming and kind of disturbing with the different meats hanging off the ceilings, but definitely something worth seeing. Supposedly you can spot famous Spanish chefs there from time to time.

The next day we took a day trip to Montserrat, a village in the mountains about an hour north west of Barcelona. It is home to the Benedictine Monk Retreat. Its so high up we had to take a train and then a gondola lift up to the top, but it was well worth it for the amazing mountain view of Catalunya. Many of the buildings and churches are built into the mountains and there are numerous trails around the mountains, some were pretty steep and scary! We visited the Basilica there to see the world famous Gregorian all boys choir perform. We spent most the day hiking through the mountains and trying to capture as many pictures as possible of the countryside bellow, it was amazing.

Later that night we took the train back to our hotel and caught eye of a flyer offering a Flamenco show, so why not? For 23 Euros we ate delicious Tapas, drank loads of Sangria, and later went to a Flamenco show, it was a great deal and everything was spectacular. A whole night of the Spanish culture! I loved it and the dancers were so talented.

On our last day we saw Port Olimpia where the Olympics were held in 1992, it was HUGE right on the beach. Last we saw another work done by Gaudi-Sagrada Familia, a beautiful church, funny thing is that its unfinished and they started working on it in the 1800s!
Barcelona was by far my favorite stop during our travels. It was such a charming city with a little something for everyone, it was busy and even the small alley roads always left you happily lost in the mysteriously beautiful city.

---