The way I see it, there are two ways of traveling Europe: the make a list, run by each sight, snap a few pics to prove you were “there” traveling, and the relaxed, pick a few places that truly interest you to visit, spend some time there, laugh with your friends and relish in the experience as a whole, traveling. I think there are advantages to both types of European touring, but I have tended to favor the latter in recent weeks, because, to be honest, cathedrals and museums with placards in languages I can’t understand get old after awhile. So, for my Barcelona trip, I decided to free myself from the stress of being a scrupulous traveler and I decided to just hang out. Before a trip, I usually research my destination, reference my travel guides, and plan an itinerary, but for Barcelona I did not so much as google, and my lax attitude paid off, allowing me to have a great time in a great city with some fantastic friends.
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| Park Guell |
Our flight left at 7:00 am from Pisa which meant that Teague (whom I traveled to Barcelona with) and I would need to wake at 4am to catch a 5:20 bus to Pisa. Pretty painful, although it is experiences like this that have taught me some valuable life-skills while abroad, as in the ability to sleep sitting up while gripping your belongings. Despite the early start, the rest of the trip ran shockingly smoothly, which was a pleasant surprise.
After meeting up with my friends from school, Meredith and Teresa, the three of us made our way over to Park Guell, while Teague waited to meet her friend Andrew, who would also be traveling with us. The walk to the park was a bit longer than we had anticipated, but we got to explore the city a bit along the way. After about an hour of walking we reached the steep hill up to the back of Park Guell, which was designed by Architect, Gaudi. The park was beautiful and as always, I was thrilled to get away from the concrete-chaos of city life and spend some time in nature. We meandered through the park for awhile and I being the klutz that I am, managed to fall down some stairs and skin my hands and knees while protecting my camera and leather jacket with my life. Luckily, Meredith managed to capture the sequence of events on her camera so that I can preserve the embarrassing memory forever.
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| Meredith at Park Guell |
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| Beautiful mosaic |
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| Pre-fall |
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| Post-fall |
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| Bruise after fall |
The rest of the trip was filled with a lot of meandering and wandering throughout the city, and enjoying the beautiful weather. It was interesting for me to be in a country where I have no knowledge of the language. Used to translating Italian for my friends, it felt strange to have my friends who spoke the language, translate Spanish for me. In a way, it made me feel much more comfortable with the Italian language.
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| Boqueria Market |
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| Beach! |
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| Sagrada Familia Cathedral (we were too cheap to go inside) |
All in all, Barcelona is an amazing city. It is much more intense and vast than Florence with a more modern feel. Allowing myself to relax and wander without feeling that I needed to see every monument and museum was a nice change of pace.
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| Ugly American |
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