Oh Gaud-I love Barcelona!

The trip to Barcelona began very early Easter morning. As we set off with our luggage and bags of Easter candy in tow*, we took the first bus to Avignon centre. As the gare routière (bus station) in Avignon has been under construction since September, it is kind of confusing to know where these international buses pick up from. After asking at the office beforehand, we waited in a little nook outside of the main road of Avignon, hoping that sometime within the next hour, a Eurolines bus would come to pick us up. As time passed, more and more people started gathering, making us feel much more assured, until finally the bus pulled up. The driver came down and instantly starting yelling directions in Spanish. As neither Alie nor I know any Spanish, we were left using a weird mix of English and French to get our point across. Nevertheless, we boarded the bus to Barcelona…. the nine hour bus. There was ample amount of entertainment though, all stemming from an older Spanish woman chatting up all the young men around her. There was clearly a language barrier between them, but even us outsiders looking in on the conversation couldn’t help but laugh along with them, as their tone of voice and facial expressions were hilarious. 

Finally, we arrived in Barcelona during the evening. We might have gotten a little lost in the process of finding our hostel… an hour later we arrived at the front door of Nikbor hostel, which had a sign attached saying that reception was next door at a different hostel. As we entered the beautiful Casa Gracia hostel and said we were checking in for Nikbor, we were informed that Nikbor was now closed. Inside, I felt an immediate sense of panic until the receptionist continued to say “But we have taken over all their reservations, so you have an upgraded room!” It was a blessing in disguise that this happened, we got a better room at a better hostel for a cheaper price! Casa Gracia is definitely one of the best hostels I have stayed at: spacious rooms and bathrooms, big common area, HUGE free breakfast, reliable wi-fi, friendly staff (minus one receptionist who was not always the nicest), and an amazing general atmosphere. Even the décor had its own unique style, close to a rustic charm. I would recommend this place to anyone visiting Barcelona, definitely worth every penny!

After a nice Easter feast (sangria included of course), we settled in for bed. After waking up early on Monday morning, we set off into the city to try to get to the Sagrada Familia just as it opened, hoping to beat the line for tickets. Walking through the city to Gaudi’s one of a kind cathedral, I was very thrown off. I had heard that Barcelona was a bustling city, some even said it was quite sketchy. Even driving in on the bus on Sunday, you could tell that this city is quite dirty and has some bad parts. As we were walking amongst the spitting rain Monday morning, not a soul was in sight and nearly all shops were closed. This was my first experience with Easter Monday, an extra day after Easter Sunday where many people don’t have to go to work and many businesses are closed. I was aware that France celebrated this but now, Spain is added to the list too. 

As we reached the Sagrada Familia, you could definitely tell that the cathedral was not closed for Easter Monday. With lines wrapping around all sides of the building, we found the end and began what we anticipated to be a long wait. Two minutes after, one of the workers announced that all morning tickets had already been sold out. It was 9:15am, 15 minutes after they opened. It became increasingly clear that if we wanted to go here during our stay, we were going to have to get our tickets online, which is exactly what we did for Tuesday. With a free morning, we decided to explore as much of the city as we could on foot. We walked down the street that our hostel was found on, Passieg de Gracia. This street has a great location within the city and is lined with many expensive shops, including Michael Kors, Prada, and many more. Whenever we walked down it, I couldn’t help but feel like I was walking down the Champs d’Elysées of Barcelona. Also on this street are two of Antoni Gaudi’s amazing casas. The first we came to was Casa Mìla. Unfortunately, there was scaffolding covering the entire façade of the building, and since paying 23 euro to enter was not in our budget, we just left our impression of this casa to be of the poster surrounding the building. The second casa along this street was one of my favorite things I saw in Barcelona: Casa Batllò. With the stone façade of the building almost looking melted and molded into bone like pieces, this was my first real experience seeing Gaudi’s art nouveau architecture and I was nothing short of amazed. I was also struck by the colors, the tiling showing a mixture of iridescent blue, pink, purple and green. Because this was always on our way to the hostel, I was happy that we passed by it at least twice a day during our stay.

This is all we could see of Casa Mila... boo!

As the Passieg de Gracia met up with the famous La Rambla, there was a big square connecting the two, called Placa de Catalunya. A big area, filled with fountains and flowers, and a big area for vendors or people to walk in. However today, as there were not a lot of people around, the pigeons took center stage. They are there every day, as I noticed afterwards, but since it was cold, rainy and Easter Monday that first day, I might have partaken in some pigeon running…. Then we continued down La Rambla, the biggest pedestrian street in Barcelona. Many compare it to the Champs d’Elysées in Paris, but I consider this street to not be the same level of chic that the Champs boasts. Even with the rain and cold, we walked the entire length of La Rambla until we reached the sea, and then turned around and walked it all again. With the awful weather, we were surprised to see how busy this street was – we were having to squeeze through people at times! Back at our hostel with pizza and easter candy, we took a well deserved break indoors for a few hours.

Just chasing some pigeons...

La Rambla

When we left the hostel to walk back to La Rambla, we were happily surprised to see the sun peeking through the clouds and the temperature rising. When we reached the pedestrian street, we were surprised to see it even more packed**. We walked to Placa Reial, where we were meeting for a free walking tour of the Gothic quarter. Since we got there early, we got to soak up the sun while sitting by a fountain.

Our free walking tour of the Gothic quarter was really amazing. We were able to see the Catedral de Barcelona, Santa Maria del Mar (what the locals consider the real cathedral of Barcelona) and the Jewish quarter. Our guide was SO knowledgeable and she really made the history come alive, even making some of us act out the events. Needless to say, it was a great way to see a part of the city that we probably wouldn’t have explored by ourselves.

Catedral de Barcelona

That evening, we went back to the hostel to have dinner. Casa Gracia allows you to make your own food using their kitchen or you can sign up for their dinners that they make each night. We decided to sign up for paella night, since we wanted to have some while we were here anyway. Although I had definitely had better paella before, it was a great cheap meal and we got to enjoy it while listening to live Spanish music (with an American classic here or there).

On our second full day in Barcelona, we woke up to cloudy skies and a chance of rain yet again. I was even thinking about naming this post “The rain in Spain does not stay in the plains” but I thought it might sound too negative. Either way, we set off to explore another Gaudi masterpiece: Parc Guell. When you enter Parc Guell from the metro, you have to walk up a steep hill. Several steep hills. Thankfully, they provide escalators for those who are not so physically fit. That’s right: outside escalators. Once you enter the park, you are rewarded for your hard work with a wonderful view of Barcelona. As we wandered through the park, trying to find where the entrance is to Gaudi’s portion, I couldn’t help but notice how massive the site was, and that the sun decided to come out! After paying for a ticket to enter, we were able to marvel at the mosaic tile work that covered the surrounding benches of the park. This type of mosaic work was called trencadìs and was specific to what Gaudi created. I was also amazed by the two houses at the front gates of the park, both looking like gingerbread houses with some type of marshmallow roofs. And who can forget about that impressive mosaic gecko?! I wish that we had more time to explore the park, but instead we rushed through it and got back on the metro towards the Sagrada Familia.

Learning our lesson from the day before, we bought our tickets online a day in advance. We went directly up to the gate showed our screenshot images of our tickets and were in the Cathedral in less than 10 minutes. Its that easy folks – always buy your tickets to the Sagrada Familia online! Anyways, I really don’t think I can describe in words or images how breathtaking this cathedral is. Still unfinished, it literally took my breath away when we went inside. The only thing that I did not like about it was the fact that you could still hear the loud jack-hammering and sawing from the workers still constructing. Even so, we sat for a bit and just stared around us, trying to soak in its beauty. Then we headed up one of the towers. Through the recommendation of a friend, we bought tickets for the towers to get a better view of the city. Now, those who know me know that I don’t like heights, so its not surprising that I was a little weak in the knees. Not to mention that the winding staircases from tower to tower are clearly just a one-way affair, leaving anyone to become incredibly claustrophobic in the process. I am glad I went up in them, but I don’t think I would do it again – got such a better view from Parc Guell!

Pictures don't do it justice.

After having a lunch of a churro con Nutella (couldn’t resist), we were exhausted. So, we headed back to the hostel to partake in another Spanish tradition: an afternoon siesta. One thing that this whole whirlwind travel adventure has taught me is this: traveling, no matter how grandious it may sound, is TIRING. You need to take breaks every once in a while. For dinner that evening, we decided to get some Spanish tapas. Taking a recommendation from our tour guide the day before, we went to Gasterea, a little hole in the wall L-shaped bar, which looked like it could successfully seat about 20 people. Mind you, we arrived at 7pm, VERY early for any Spainard to be eating so the place was quite empty. As we sat down and tried to decipher the menu, I think both of us wondered if this was the right place to go to. Then the friendly waiter came by and explained as much of the menu as he could, letting have some time to think. We ended up ordering MANY different types of tapas, including fried calamari, patatas romescadas and lots of pintxos, which are tapas that toothpicked on top of a piece of bread. What was my favorite? The sweet cheese and blueberry pintxos. I seriously could have had thirty of those  things. We washed our meal down with a few glasses of tinto de verano. To walk off the meal a bit, we took a nice evening stroll down Passeig de Gracia. It was beautiful to see all the stores lit up, and Casa Battlò as well.

Our last day in Barcelona,  we were hoping for good weather so that we would finally be able to spend some time on Barcelona’s famous beaches. When we woke up, we were not disappointed – sunny blue skies outside our window. As we went into the lobby for breakfast we noticed everyone around us with roses. All of a sudden, one of the workers came up to us and gave each one of us a rose and said “Feliz Sant Jordi!” Saint Jordi Day is a tradition in Catalunya, the region of Spain that Barcelona is in. Tradition says on this day, a man must give a woman he loves a rose. As this day is also National book day, tradition also states that a woman must give a man she loves a book. And so, in Catalunya on this day, anyone can sell roses or books anywhere in the city. As you can imagine, it was a busy day to be in Barcelona. Thinking back to Easter Monday, I would NEVER call that day busy anymore. Either way, it was an exciting day to be there, and amazing to see vendors on the street everywhere selling their goods.

We headed down past La Rambla to the port and the beaches of Barcelona. We decided to go to the most popular beach, Barcelonetta. Although it was sunny, the wind made it quite cool, a perfect beach day. However, I will say that this was not a relaxing beach experience. Just as you are about to close your eyes and enjoy the sea breeze and sound of the waves, you hear someone yelling “Masaje, massage!” or “Ice cold mojitos!” The amount of vendors on this beach surprised me and, honestly, really annoyed me. I am glad that we had some time to soak up the sun, but I prefer the calm beaches at home any day!

The rest of our last day was spent souvenir shopping and relaxing at the hostel. As we left our hostel and waited for our overnight bus back to Avignon, I couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved to get back to somewhere familiar. I really enjoyed all of the architecture I saw in Barcelona, everything Gaudi did was amazing to see in person. However, I don’t feel like the city was really for me – I’ll take small town Provence any day!

*Thanks Tammie and Debbie! (Our moms are the best)

**After reflection, this could have been because of two things. 1. The sun came out. Those Spaniards love sunlight! 2. It was 4:30pm. If you live in Barcelona, you basically are nocturnal, since the clubs don’t close until 8am.