Somehow all the other trips that I have taken during my time abroad have left me feeling every more exhausted than when I left, so I decided Barcelona would be different. I needed a true vacation, where my main goals were to relax and read as much as possible. Mission accomplished.
For this leg of my trip I visited and stayed with my best friend Marisa, whom I’ve known since I was 5 years old. The nicest part about staying with her and her amazing roommates was not just because it was free, that was just a plus, but that I felt more relaxed and comfortable. I also felt that staying with her allowed me to see a different side of Barcelona, a more insiders version. Most days I slept until a little before noon (it’s allowed because I am still in college) and then just went to the beach. Just a few metro stops away the weather was perfect so the beach was amazing. I spent most of my time just laying there thinking, “Yeah I’m just laying on the beach in Barcelona, Spain right now, no big.”
On the way to the beach on my first day Marisa warned me that the second I walked onto the sand I would accosted by people trying to sell me things. Alrighty, how bad could it be. Answer: Bad! Oh dear lord you need to listen to your ipod so you can drown out the noise of people yelling things at you. The list of noises/sounds goes as such:
1. “Massage?Massage?”- Asian women yelling in a thick accent that sounds more like masahe, they carried around massage oils so you can get a massage while relaxing on the beach. I found it quite entertaining when two of the women see a customer at the same time and fight over who gets to give them a massage…apparently its a cut throat business.
2. “Tattoo?”- Yes, perfect, that’s exactly what I want to do, get a tattoo from a random man carrying a book of examples around on the beach. He was a smart businessman however because he always had his book open to the page of playboy bunny tattoos. Nah I think I’ll pass.
3. “aklsjdfkajsdfa”- yeah no idea what this guy was saying but he was definitely selling slices of coconuts.
4. “BEER!”- men carrying around cans of beer in plastic bags.
5. This guy didn’t saying anything he was just walking around holding scarves for sale…oh yeah I totally want to buy that scarf that is all around your sweaty body. ew.
6. Favorite by far was donuts man: guy walked around with a platter of donuts on his head and did a show by throwing them around and spinning the platter on his head.
7. Rastafarian looking man walked around holding a fake joint the size of a 12 year old. Whatever makes him happy.
Since Marisa still had classes I made myself take at least one day to do the truly touristy thing. In the morning I decided to to go the Picasso museum, which I ended up liking a lot. Having only known his most famous work it was interesting to see his progression as an artist from when he was a young man. After some lunch I headed over to La Sagrada Familia, the world famous Roman Catholic church that was designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. Started in 1882 it is still not fully completed, but I was able to take a look inside and take an elevator ride to the top for some amazing views. The most interesting part was that it was different from any church I have ever seen, very different from the typical churches around Europe. You know the joke, a tour of Europe is a tour of its churches.
Here are some of my pictures from Sagrada Familia..trust me these don’t do it justice.
The rest of my time in Barcelona was spent relaxing and reading a total of 3 books, go me! Next it was off to Greece which was also relaxing but wayyyy more stressful.
To be continued…
