Barcelona

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After three weeks of being with my family for Christmas break it was finally time to head to Europe for J term. For two weeks and two days I would be traveling the medetteriean on a cruise ship again. This past summer I had the amazing experience of attending Semester at Sea, which was basically a floating college that took us to eight different countries in a period of 66 days; it was the best time of my life. So it is no surprise that I am not just excited but completely ecstatic. After a two hour car drive with my mom and her friend Gab we finally got to the hell of all airports in Florida, Miami International. For those who have never had the pleasure of having t navigate Miami monstrosity of an airport. If you were to compare Miami International to Fort Lauderdale lets say Fort Lauderdale is a carnival and Miami International is Disneyland. Fort Lauderdale has some order to it, it very easy to get around. While Miami international is pure and complete chaos, mostly all the staff speak Spanish, also the layout of Miami international is similar to a maze. You literally feel as if you are a guinea pig stuck in a maze with no way out. After going through security and waiting a few hours we finally boarded the plane. Around 8:30 A.M we landed in Paris and then boarded our flight to Barcelona and arrived at 11:15 at Barcelona International.
After getting our bags we hitched a cab to our hotel, Le Meridian Barcelona located on Las Rambles, the times square of Barcelona. Due to having attended Semester at Sea I was already familiar with this city. After an amazing lunch filled with tapas, a traditional Spanish dish, which are described as small plates, consisting of a variety of different type of food. Examples of tapas include: hummus with pita bread, Iberian ham, croquettes, fried calamari, mussels, and clams. Though I have been to Spain before I was really surprised to learn that you have to pay for bread, where as in America it is free. Another thing, which is different from America and Spain regarding food, is that at restaurants in Spain and throughout most of Europe the water is not free and they only have bottled water.
After lunch I took my friend Jake out for a stroll down memory lane for me, I started taking him down Las Rambles and showed him all the different shops, restaurants, and bars located on this massive street. When we reached the end of Las Rambles I took him to Palazzo de Colon. In the middle of Palazzo de Colon there is a statue dedicated to Columbus, surrounding the massive statue are some smaller statues, which are lions. After marveling at the statue for a little while I took Jake for a walk down the harbor. Along the harbor we saw hundreds of sailboats all with white sails. Also, along the harbor is a statue of a giant lobster smiling, which always reminds me of the song, “ROCK LOBSTER.” After walking past the lobster statue we started heading to one of Barcelona’s beautiful beaches. Along the way they were having an expo entitled Barcelona World Race, which included wind surfing, a wind tunnel, and people selling t-shirts. Finally, we arrived at the beach and decided to walk a little further, we passed people making the most amazing sand sculptures. One of them was of three monkeys, one blind, one mute, and one death, while another was of La Sagrada Familia the famous church in Barcelona by Gaudi. Eventually we started heading back to the hotel where we met up with or whole group for dinner. For dinner I decided to have lamb, which was the most succulent thing I ever tasted and for desert a chocolate soufflé with a scoop of gelato. Finally after paying our bill we separated, Jake and me decided to go to bed extremely early because we were completely exhausted.
Following a well-rested night we attended a mandatory breakfast the next morning, which was a buffet style. The first thing I had of course was coffee; European coffee is immensely different from American coffee. European is thicker and stronger then American coffee you can literally put your spoon in it and it will stay up straight. Normally I am not a breakfast person, but whenever I go away to Europe I find myself always wanting to have breakfast, due to the food being superior to American food. I had some pineapple and strawberries, which were an explosion of flavor in my mouth. Also, to satisfy my sweet tooth I devoured a chocolate croissant along with some more Iberian ham.
After eating we set off to the nearest train station, proceeding up Las Rambles we made a left and followed that street to the University of Barcelona where we found our metro station to take us to La Sagrada Familia. Before I continue let me discuss a one thing about the Spanish metro. The Spanish metro was probably one of the cleanest and nicest metros I have ever had the pleasure of being in, when compared to the New York city metro system, the Spanish one is similar to the Waldorf Astoria, while the New York one can be seen as a hostel. The New York Metro system is full of trash and smells like piss, also there are many homeless people living there. Finally after boarding our train we arrived at La Sagrada Familia, which can be translated into English as, church of the sacred family. When looking at the church I always think of an undersea coral castle similar to king tridents castle in The Little Mermaid. Though the church is not completely finished it is hard not to marvel at its beauty. Last time I was in Barcelona I did have the chance to see the outside of the church; however, we did not get to go inside, so when I heard I would be going back to the church and I would get the chance to go inside I was overjoyed with excitement. After walking around the park by the church we settled down and started talking about our projects, now of course being the ADD kid I am I started roaming around the park taking picture of the locals, oblivious to what our teachers were saying. The layout of the park consisted of a lake in the middle full with green water, two botch ball courts where Old Spanish men were playing, and a small playground for children. Besides the numerous amounts of people throughout the park there were also dogs, Labradors, retrievers, huskies, and many other breeds of dogs.
After taking pictures, shooting pictures, and just goofing around we headed to the entrance of La Sagrada Familia. Once inside my draw dropped it was beautiful, on almost every wall there was a stain glass window, which was made up of different colored pieces of glass. The colors of the glass include: emerald green, ocean blue, fiery red, and sunny yellow. Most of the interior of the church was white, the wall, ceiling, and even columns were all colored white. Since the church had not been finished yet they did not have all the pews set up in the main service area. In the middle of the church there were four columns each with a oval shaped panel depicting a different animal with a name located at the bottom of the oval. The names were of four of Jesus’ apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Eventually it was time to head to the lift to take us to the top of La Sagrada Familia. Going to the top of La Sagrada Famila was probably one of the funniest and best experiences of my lifetime. The view from the top was breathtaking all of Barcelona stretched out before our eyes. To the left of us was a long street, which had many trees going down it, all of which were barren of leaves due to it being winter. Personally since I was in Barcelona in the summer I prefer it’s nice cool winter then it’s devilishly brutal hot summer. To the right one could see a giant metal building, sorry for being crude, but it reminded me of a giant dildo. Also, one could see the blue glistening ocean from the top of the church. Now that I have described why the view was so fantastic let me tell you why it was funny, sorry guys, but this has to go in here. Two people in our group were so afraid of heights that they were hanging on with the Jaws of Life to the stone railing of the archway we were standing on at the top of the church. I literally was waiting for an earthquake to come and demolish the whole building due to how scared they were. After many oooo’ss and ahhhh’ss we started heading down the spiral staircase of death to the bottom of the church. To get to the bottom of La Sagrada Famailia, from the archway, one has to traverse a short, narrow, and dark spiral staircase, which takes about 15 min, before you finally, reaches the sanctuary of the solid and firm ground.
We then set off back to our amazing hotel and then proceeded to go out for lunch. For lunch we decided to go to a paella place on Las Rambles, paella is a traditional Spanish dish, which consisted of mostly rice and either seafood or chicken. Along with the paella I had a glass of sangria, which is an alcoholic drink made with wine fruit juice and fresh fruit. After finishing our meal we went back to the hotel and then by my self proceeded to walk around Barcelona by myself for a little while, reliving the memories I had made over the summer. I visit the club we went to almost every night, the hole in the wall bar, the place where our shuttle dropped us off and picked us up from semester at sea, and finally I got the name of a really good paella place that I went to, in the hopes of eating there again when we arrive back in Barcelona at the end of our voyage.
Eventually I made my way back to the hotel just in time to go out for dinner, however, since I had such big lunch all I decided to have is a glass of red wine. After dinner we headed over to this waffle/gelato place for desert. Basically you can either get a scoop of gelato ice cream on a cone or you can an even better thing, which is a freshly grilled waffle made with whatever kind of toppings you want. It can be anything from chocolate sauce to ice cream or caramel to walnuts. After eating our delectable desert Tully, Jake, and me decided to go for a stroll around Barcelona. After an hour or two we started heading back and then went to bed so we could wake up for our next great adventure.

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