Getting lost in Barcelona

I know that I’ve been quiet for the past week or so.. My nose has been stuck in countless textbooks, struggling to process information like a human computer.

Taking midterms exams in Europe is a serious game changer. I had to take everything I knew about studying and throw it out the window for this one because multiple choice exams don’t exist over here. Instead you have to prepare to write three long essays during the exam period and you don’t know what questions will be asked ahead of time.

Meaning you have to make sure you have everything ingrained in your head and hope to God that your professor will actually ask a question you know. If not, just BS your way through (which is essentially impossible, BTW). Or, just don’t even answer a question at all like this one girl in my class did. She stared at the exam packet for 30 minutes, then just closed it and left the class.

Luckily I didn’t have to take extreme measures like that. I stayed pretty consistent with each exam, having at least some idea of what I was talking about for 2/3 questions.

After my last midterm on Thursday I was so mentally drained… I was in dire need of a getaway.

A getaway to Barcelona to be exact.

Saturday morning at the crack of dawn we made our way to the airport and after touching down at 11 am we found ourselves 1,300 km farther and 30 degrees warmer than our home in Brussels. There’s nothing better than palm trees and a light breeze.

We dropped our bags off at the hostel and first stop? Food, obviously. And of all places to go… we went to a Mexican restaurant.

I think the one thing I miss most about Richmond is Lil Mex. And when I saw that this place had a frozen lime margarita I was like: “Dos por favor!!” followed by “rápido!” (in my head, of course, I’m not rude).

After lunch I split up from the group and decided to wander. And I mean truly wander…. being so consumed with midterm exams the week before, I failed to put together anything that resembled an itinerary, and be it that I’ve never studied a bit of Spanish in my life, I was destined to get lost.

So I got lost.

The cool thing about Barcelona is that if you go off the main roads there are large buildings with alleyways (that all begin to look the same) that open up into gorgeous plazas like the one pictured below.

You may ask, what do you do when you get lost in Barcelona?

Some may worry, some may panic…

Me? I bought some wine.

I spent an entire afternoon finding gems throughout the city and the only problem is I couldn’t tell you what they were.

What I can tell you is that I originally set out to find La Catedral (c. 1448), which is a beautiful gothic cathedral smack dab in the middle of the labyrinth of buildings and alleyways. Doesn’t the spire looks so cool peaking out over the other city buildings? I was so excited I might’ve actually squealed with excitement that I was drifting in the right direction as opposed to walking around in circles like I originally thought.

While I was aimlessly walking, it was wonderful to see the array of talents that Barcelona had to offer. Barcelona is full of creativity! There were markets with local painters, sculptures and an unexpected marionette performance.

  

And the street walls reflected this creative atmosphere as well. Being the lover of street art that I am, it was really cool to see a street artist (or, ‘street delinquent’ according to Tom :P) tagging a park wall.

By the evening, I finally got back on course. Another great thing about Barcelona is all of the fountains, which are beautiful during the day, but just spectacular at night. I spent some time enjoying the slower pace of the evening and eventually made it back to my hostel, meeting up with my SA friends. That night we went out with some other travelers at the hostel… We met two Germans who seemed to have a chant for everything.

The next day we went to the Sagrada Familia, a modern cathedral that I absolutely hated. It started construction in the ’80s and is still not finished. There is scaffolding everywhere and I think the architecture is just ugly. I’m sorry. I had high hopes, and tried my best to appreciate it, but nope, I just can’t.

It was disappointing to say the least, but we made up for it with the most amazing Spanish lunch. With the help of our friends at the hostel, we found hands down the best restaurant for traditional paella and sangria. And I mean the best. This place doesn’t take reservations and has a line out the door for a table at all hours of the day. In total we probably spent three hours at this restaurant, but I really feel like this wasn’t wasted time. We had black noodles and squid, paella, Spanish custard and sangria… Sometimes enjoying a meal is the best way to immerse yourself in a culture.

Anytime you have an opportunity to see an entire city’s skyline, I’d take it. Originally, we planned to go to Parc Güell, which is famous for it’s colorful tiles, but we were running late after our meal and the sun was sinking fast.

To get to Parc Güell, it’s rather “hilly.” Just kidding, you have to hike up San Francisco-like inclines to get to the top of a dang mountain. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good hike, but I wasn’t exactly prepared in my birkenstocks.

Before getting to Parc Güell, we got a little distracted by the view. And when I say a little distracted, by the time we could finally tear ourselves away from the vista, it was too dark to go to the park and we just said “forget it.”

Which is funny because it was one of the places that attracted me to visit Barcelona in the first place. But this moment goes to show you that an itinerary isn’t everything. You can’t stress yourself out to see everything as planned; sometimes the best moments within a trip lie in spontaneity… And I wouldn’t have traded enjoying this moment with some great new friends for the world.