Barcelona

A few weeks ago, I found out that one of my closest friends from college (my sorority "big sister") would be coming to Spain for a week with her family because her brother is studying abroad in Barcelona this semester. The two of us were trying to figure out a way that we could meet up, and luckily we found a weekend that worked well for both of us! On Saturday, I took a train from Logroño to Barcelona, and it was incredible. I was given a separate seat by a window, the ride was incredibly smooth, and there was a stocked cafeteria with snacks I could purchase (I bought peanut M&Ms and an orange Fanta... healthy choices). I arrived in Barcelona in a great mood, and took a cab to Alexis' hotel. The two of us went to a nearby cafe and got tortilla de patata, and then we met up with her family and did a bus tour around Barcelona. I have been to Barcelona before, but I had never ridden in a double-decker tourist bus, so that was a fun new experience!

We got to see many of the famous tourist attractions that I didn't have a chance to visit last time I was in Barcelona. My favorite was definitely the Sagrada Familia, which is a church designed by Antoni Gaudí. He started construction in 1882 and continued to work on the project until he died in 1926. Since then, a lot of money has gone into finishing the project, but it still isn't done (they estimate that it will be completed in the next hundred years). Although I had read about the history of the Sagrada Familia before, I had never seen it in person, and I'm so glad I finally did because it was absolutely breathtaking.

After the Sagrada Familia, we got gelato and walked around the city some more. We accidentally walked through a huge protest for Catalonian independence, but we kept our heads down and got out of the crowd as soon as we could. When we got tired of walking around, we headed back to the hotel for a little bit before dinner. Alexis' family was kind enough to let me stay in a separate hotel room with Alexis for the night that I was there, and it was so fun to sleep in a hotel bed after living in my small apartment for a month and a half. We ordered room service (potatoes with creamy sauce and spicy sauce) and talked for a while before heading out to make our reservation. We had tapas and drinks on a beautiful terrace, and it was fun to try so many different things - we kept ordering tapas to share until everyone was full, and then we went back to the hotel to have drinks and dessert. I tried a White Russian for the first time (not my favorite) and we ordered three desserts to share. We sat in the hotel lounge and talked for a while, then Alexis and I went up to bed. We tried to watch a movie, but apparently I fell asleep about five minutes after it started.

The next morning, we slept in a little and had breakfast at the hotel (the first "real" breakfast I have had since arriving in Spain). We ordered coffee and eggs, and filled plates from the buffet with bacon, ham, quiche, fruit, nuts, and potatoes. I didn't realize how much I missed breakfast/brunch until we were sitting at the table, and in that moment I realized how amazing it was to be with a family again after living on my own for a while. It definitely made me miss my family, but I was grateful that one of my closest friends was with me in Spain and that her family was kind enough to let me tag along with them for a whole weekend.

After breakfast, we walked around the Gothic Quarter and saw the Cathedral of Barcelona. We couldn't go inside because they were holding Sunday Mass, but it was still beautiful to look at from the outside. We then went to an outdoor market and bought tokens for a gastronomy festival. We each got twelve tokens, and walked around to different vendors trying various types of local cuisine. It was very chaotic, but we finally managed to grab a table and from then on we sent one person at a time to get food while the rest of us ate. Out of all the things we tried, my favorites were the lamb, risotto, sausage taco, and chardonnay. After lunch, it was time for me to catch a cab back to the train station to return home.

Even though I was in Barcelona for less than twenty-four hours, it was so nice to see Alexis again after almost a year. Many thanks to the Bacciocco family for an amazing weekend!