¡Hola amigos!
I'm back from Spain!
I had a really nice trip! I went with a friend and we spent five days in Barcelona. We unfortunately did get a few days of rain, but the days that were sunny were really beautiful and warm.
Spain was definitely quite a cultural change from what I'm used to. The Spanish are very relaxed and are very leisurely with their time. Everyday, all the shops and businesses close from 1-3 p.m. so that everyone can go home and take a siesta. They live a much slower-paced lifestyle which was a little hard to adjust to, but actually really nice once you get used to it.
There is a lot to do in Barcelona! One of my favorite things was going to see the Olympic stadium. It's on the top of a big hill and you can see the whole city. The stadium itself was really impressive too. It was amazing to walk around and imagine what it must have been like to have been there in 1992.
I also really enjoyed going to the Picasso museum. They had a lot of pieces from his Blue period and Las Meninas. He spent a lot of time in Barcelona and so he donated many of the pieces in the museum himself. They also had a lot of his more modern art and it was interesting to see how different each period of his work was.
There is an incredible outdoor market in Barcelona called Mercat de la Boqueria. It is just of the main road, La Rambla. They sell almost anything you can imagine. They have tons of stands with the most amazing fruits and vegetables. There is also a lot of fish and meat stands which sell some very unique things. Some of my pictures of the meat stands are a little graphic but I just thought it was really fascinating. People in Spain are definitely very bold with their food and you can find some very strange things like whole sheep's heads, pig and cow hooves, brain, tongue, etc. We tried to be adventurous with our meals, but I'm afraid that I'm not quite brave enough to try any of those things. We did have some really good tapas and paella though. (The Spanish don't usually eat dinner until about 9 p.m. or later).
The city is full of some truly amazing architecture. We stumbled across some really beautiful buildings just by walking around the streets but we also sought out a few particularly famous monuments. Much of the city's prominent architecture was designed by Antoni Gaudi and the few that we saw were the main Cathedral near La Rambla and Segrada Familia which is a very well-known church that has been under construction since 1909. We also tried to see Gaudi's Parc Guell but we got really lost and just ended up walking around very confused in the rain for two hours.
I was a bit reluctant to leave the warm weather (even when it was raining, it was still much warmer than Ireland) but finally we left. We had a little bad luck on our return trip though. Our flight was delayed so we missed the last bus out of Dublin and had to sleep in the Airport until we could get a later bus in the morning. Not a lot of fun, but we did eventually make it back. Unfortunately I had to come back and take midterms and now I'm definitely in need of another vacation!
All in all, it was a very good trip and I definitely liked Spain, although I don't really think I would say anything bad about a country that has a legalized naptime!
