Weekend Trip with Friends #2: Conquering Barcelona in only 2 days

February 19^th and 20^th

Barcelona is unlike any city I have ever seen and simply massive – conquering Barcelona in two days was quite the challenge, but I think we conquered it, and more importantly, we had a lot of fun exploring this city together! It has a vibrant, city-like atmosphere, as well as the peacefulness of both the sea and the mountains.

Barcelona from Toledo is quite the trek. Thursday night, we left from Madrid at 11:30 p.m. on an overnight bus and arrived in Barcelona at 7:30 a.m. Friday morning and started our adventure from there!

The first thing we did when we got to Barcelona was find the place we were staying. We stayed in an Airbnb which means that you basically stay in someone’s apartment for the weekend. It was in the Gracia neighborhood of Barcelona and the area was a little less touristy and very peaceful. When we arrived, our host was there to greet us – she was so nice! She gave us a map and told us the “must-sees” in Barcelona. She also made us coffee which was much needed after spending the night on a bus! Then, we were off!

The most peculiar thing about Barcelona is the Gaudi architecture. We were walking in the city and then there would be the Gaudi architecture that kind of just caught you off guard. Here are two of Gaudi’s masterpieces in the city that we saw, Casa Mila and Casa Batlló:

Next stop was the Cathedral. We went inside and also climbed the tower and saw a view of the city.

Then we went to the famous street called La Rambla. It is a long street with shops on each side. This street just felt like Barcelona to me. It was city-like, but also had a peaceful atmosphere.

We went to the market to buy some bread and fruit for lunch!

Later in the afternoon, we headed to La Sagrada Familia. Wow was it massive and stunning. This church was worked on by Guadi in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a way of putting art at service of Christian faith. At his death, the project was continued, but it is still unfinished to this day!

The outside is breathtaking because of the amount of detail. This is one side of the building, and the figures represent different events including the wedding of Mary and Joseph, the birth of Jesus, Jesus preaching in the temple, and many more.

The inside of the Sagrada Familia was also breathtaking and massive. My favorite part was the stained glass windows.

The last adventure of the day was Parque Güell. Since we got there after the normal hours, we walked right in without paying – score! We first saw the main part of the park – more cool architecture. Then we wanted to catch the view of the city while the sun was setting, so we hiked up the woodsy part of the park and made it to the top where we had a full view of the city!

Friday was a very full day! We went to a restaurant for dinner and then went back to the apartment and crashed.

First thing Saturday morning, we went to a cute café for breakfast and had coffee, chocolate caliente, and melindros. Yummy!!

We decided to go back to Parque Güell to see it during the day time – It was pretty during the night, but in the sun the park was even more stunning! We climbed to the side of the park where there are three crosses on a rock, we were so high up and had an even better view of the city than the night before!

We spent a while enjoying the sun at the park, and then headed to Barcelonita.

First stop was a 3 course meal – I got sausages and potatoes, cod and cooked veggies and for dessert I tried the “mal y mató.” The two main courses were so delicious, and the dessert tasted better than it looks, but it still was not very good haha!

Next stop, the beach! It was the middle of February and the beach was still packed, I can’t imagine how busy the beach would be during the summer!

After the beach, we walked the Picasso Museum. The museum was really cool and the area around it was also really pretty. It was a good, relaxing way to end our time in Barcelona!

That night we headed to the bus station and took another overnight bus back to Madrid and I got back to Toledo at about 9 a.m. Sunday morning. We packed a lot into two days, but I feel like I got a good taste of Barcelona from only two days and I am so grateful that I was able to visit this city in Spain!

Lessons I have learned from traveling:

It is better to go in with no expectations of the place or for yourself while you are in the place. It is important to remember that everyone has their own experience.

Don’t compare trips or try and compare the place to somewhere back home because chances are there are no adequate comparisons. Every place is truly unique.

Just relax and have fun! There is no pressure to do absolutely everything, just enjoy what you are doing and don’t keep thinking what is next on your list.

Vamos a la playa

Valencia, February 12th – February 14th

My first weekend trip was a success! Here is an overview of our time in Valencia:

On Friday afternoon, I went to the Museo del Prado in Madrid with my Master Painters of Spain class. After that, Chalena and I met up with Karlie and Emily in the bus station. We took a late bus from Madrid Friday night so didn’t arrive to Valencia until 2 a.m. – praise God that we were able to find our hostel easy and then go right to bed!

Our adventure started Saturday morning with a free guided tour of Valencia – our tour guide Helena was so great though so we made sure to tip her at the end. I think the tour was my favorite part of the weekend because we got to see so many different places of the city and learn about them. We started in the Plaza de la Virgen where there is a beautiful fountain as well as the basilica and the cathedral side by side.

During the tour we learned about the history of the city; how it was founded by the romans and how Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike lived in harmony many times throughout history. These influences can be seen in the architecture throughout the buildings – one such being the rose windows of many of the churches. See the influence of the Jews amongst this Christian building with the presence of the Jewish star?

Some of the highlights of the walking tour include:

The orange trees in the plaza – Valencia is known for its oranges! Although the ones in the city square aren’t the best tasting ones, you are allowed to just pick an orange from the tree and take it if you want!

Inside of the Basílica de la Virgen de los Desamparados (this name is the patron saint of the city):

There are three main churches in Valencia: San Juan, San Nicholas and Santa Catalina. We went inside of San Nicholas:

The Market! It was huge! We bought our lunch here after the tour!

La plaza redonda (“The round square”) (love the juxtaposition here). You can see the top of Santa Catalina from here and from many other parts of the city:

La Lonja – This building was very important for business and trade transactions in the fifteenth century. On our tour, we just saw it from the outside, but on Sunday, we returned and went in (for free!) to see the inside. We were amazed by the size of the building, especially the largest room called the trading hall where many of these trading transactions took place. Also, fun fact, the top tower of the building was a temporary prison.

The buildings in Valencia were so colorful and pretty. Do you see the red part of this building? A family used to live here and it used to be the smallest house in Europe – I can’t even imagine living in such a tiny space! Now it has been converted into a restaurant and they combined the space with the pink and yellow part around it.

 Another noteworthy adventure on Saturday was going to the beach!  We brought our lunch that we bought from the market – lots of fruit and bread – and ate it right by the beach. After we walked by the water. It was a windy day, but still very relaxing and so refreshing to dip my toes into the sea.

On Sunday, we went to the Cathedral for mass so we were able to see the inside as well, it was so beautiful. After church, we climbed up to the top of the bell tower and had a view of the whole city!

We also went back to the plaza on Sunday and we saw woman and girls dressed up in really fancy and intricate (and may I add homemade) dresses dancing in the streets. This is a very typical event here. These women and girls are called “las falleres.”

Before we left Valencia, we treated ourselves to a three course lunch: salad, paella (very typical food of Spain) and dessert. I chose the cheesecake for dessert and it was scrumptious!

We had a very nice time in Valencia, and I am so glad I got to visit this city during my time in Spain. More travels to come!

Until next time,

Sarah 

El Escorial Y “Carnaval”

El Escorial Excursion – Friday, February 5^th

This was one of our school excursions that we went on with our school group! It is a palace/school/monastery in a town a little outside Madrid called San Lorenzo. It is a mountain town and the landscape is so peaceful. It was almost a 3 hour bus ride from Toledo – I slept on the bus both ways haha!

We got a guided tour of the whole palace, it was massive! On one side of the building is the school, and in the middle is the library, and the other side is the monastery. It was believed that studying has to be done before moving to the religious side. It is also a palace where the king and queen of Spain used to live. I couldn’t take pictures in the inside, but here is some pictures of the outside. Even the pictures can’t explain how big it was standing outside of it though. I really did like the tour and learning about the history of all the different parts of the palace. My favorite part was looking at the gardens, imagine seeing this view out your window every morning!

CARNAVAL – Saturday, February 6^th and Sunday, February 7^th

“Carnaval” is a very famous celebration all throughout Spain, and it symbolizes one last celebration the weekend before Ash Wednesday, the start of the 40 days of Lent. It includes processions, dancing, singing, and the tradition of the burning of the sardine at the very end to symbolize the end of carnaval. There is nothing in the U.S. to compare it to – people dress up in costumes so it is kind of like Halloween, and there are parades so it is kind of like 4^th of July, but in reality you just can’t compare it to anything in the U.S. It was so interesting to be a part of it and learn more about the traditions from my host family. For my carnaval, I traveled with my host family to the the pueblo – my host mom’s home town and stayed overnight at her parent’s home Saturday night. Carmen danced in the streets during the parades on Saturday and Sunday. It was cute and her costume was quite impressive – all the costumes were homemade!

Carmen in action and Carmen’s whole dance group:

In the plaza on Sunday afternoon was when they had the burning of the sardine and they were also serving sardines for people to eat. Carmen’s dance team “won” out of the three dance groups so they were all so happy and all the kids were dancing around the burning sardine. I was kind of scared someone was going to get hurt because they were so close to the fire it seemed, but it all turned out ok and everyone was very happy!

Although I was kind of confused what was going on the whole time during carnaval, looking back on the experience I learned so much and spent good, quality time with my host family – it was definitely an intense culture immersion experience!