Barcelona!!! (sorry no photos)

Over the past 4 days I’ve fallen in love with Barcelona. The city is beautiful, the people are nice, and the food/drinks are amazing! On the first day I went to Montserrat, a monastery an hour west of Barcelona. Just driving to the monastery was amazing. We had to climb over 700 meters to reach the place, cruising on winey, narrow roads not built for coach buses. There were incredible views of the city and the towns below and the peaks above. Old churches and builds were scattered along the roads along with some very nice cars (lots of Audis in Spain). Once we reached the monastery we sat on a wall overlooking a valley while we ate lunch…absolutely gorgeous. We then made our way into the monastery, as you enter your breath is taken away. Words can’t describe what I saw, pictures don’t do it justice. Everything was hand crafted and many of gold. Simply price less. A mass was going on when we entered, the priest was singing in Catalan as tourist took photos and German kids ran around screaming and jumping over stuff (Germans are way worst tourist then Americans). There were amazing pictures off to the sides of the church and statues of saints. We stayed till the end of mass (20 to 30minutes) and then just wondered around. There were trails the led up to the top of the mountain (the peak is 1100m, Monetary is at 400m) and a few of us walked up them, but we didn’t make it that far since we only have 30minutes till the bus left. Someday I’m going to go back and climb the whole mountain. Cycle up to the monastery (yeah, there were fucking cyclist climbing the 700m of winey roads up to the church square) and then hike the rest of the way to the peak.

Once we got back to the ship I ventured off into the city. I took the shuttle from the ship to Colom, the monument of Christopher Columbus pointing to North America (he’s actually not though, they messed up and instead he’s pointing to Brazil or something). From there I walked up Las Ramblus, 5^th Ave. of Barcelona.

I hit up the famous Mercat de la Boqueria, it was so crowded and there were so many vendors, but it was so sick! The stands the sold fish or meet were cool, there were frickin bars in the middle of the place, and the smoothies were to die for (only 1euro!!!).

After the market I just wondered. Went off on to some side streets and ended up in the Gothic section of the city, then the Business district, and finally to Parc de la Ciutadella.

On the way I bought an Espana Futbol jersey for the Euro Cup game that was going to be playing that night. I spent probably 4 to 5 hours just wondering around Barcelona on the first day. I wanted to head back to the ship a few times along the way, but every time I turned a corner I something caught my eye and I just kept walking. I got back to the ship at about 20:30 and met up with a group of people to go to a bar to watch the game. We sat down for drinks at around half time and had a blast. The Spanish are very generous with their alcohol. The girls got 24oz of beer or sangria while the guys got 32oz of beer. I had 2…it was a good night. After Spain won the match we walked down Las Ramblus to find another bar. We got lured into going to a Irish pub called Cheers. What looked to be a depressing old bar turned out to be a lot of fun. We sat down, had some more to drink, chatted, and requested songs for the women with the guitar to play (lots of oasis and wonderland haha). We called it a night at 3 and walked/took a cab back to the ship.

Day two was about the same. I spent the day wondering the city. Going to markets and touring a church (the Gothic Cathedral). I spent a long time trying to find the Picasso museum but failed in my quest. It was a solid outing, but the night was the highlight of my day. I got back to the ship at 18:00 and had dinner with Nick, Keenan, Chelsea, and Kindle. After dinner we decided to catch the light show at Font Magica up on Montjuic. Chelsea heard it was a must see. So we made the trek up Montjuic and OMG it was incredible. Great view of the city, an amazing museum (The National Museum of Catalan, which I would tour the next day) and an incredible light show (video to come). We were there till about 23:00 the 5 of us met 5 girls from our ship and decided to go to grab food and drinks. But where should we go? Well lucky for us I spotted a stadium off in the distance which I thought was FC Barcelona, but it instead was a retired bull fighting stadium that was converted into a mall. The mall was closed, but there was an elevator on the outside that takes you up to the top of the stadium, which has a bunch of restaurants overlooking the Museum and fountain we were just at. We went to this restaurant that was offering a free glass of champagne and all ordered Starters to hold us over the rest of the night. It was a good time, except for dealing with the bill, took us about 30minutes to figure out how to pay…but it was still pretty awesome.

Next we were off to Chupitos…which we had no idea how to get to. We asked for directions and a man suggested we take a bus to Las Ramblus and then a cab to the bar. The original 5 of us took his advice and made it to the bar, the 5 girls decided to take a cab straight there, did not end up seeing them at the bar. Anyways we made it to the bar at around 1:00 and it was packed! A lot of people took my advice about going to the place because the 50 or so people in there were all S@S students (the place was tiny). 5 of us each had 5 shots: Harry Potter, 69, Finding Nemo, Quickie, and Big Daddy. Shots ranged from having whipped cream, M&Ms, orange slices, chocolate, fruit flavoring, champagne, and yes FIRE!!! After the 5 shots (which we had in about 45minutes) we made the walk back to the ship. It was about 2:30 in the morning and we needed to cover 4 miles to get back to the port. Part of the walk back to the ship was on Las Ramblus, a completely different street by night. The tourist street that is lined with shops, vendors, street performers and markets, was now lined with police, guys selling cans of beer for 1euro, prostitutes, and drug dealers. At the time it was funny, but looking back it was really sketchy and sad. We all made it back in one piece though at about 4:30. It was an awesome night.

I went back to Montjuic on the third day to explore and check out a couple of museums. The mountain was hosted the 1992 Olympic games so I checked out the Olympic museum and the Estadi Olimpic de Montjuic (the Olympic stadium of Montjuic). Both were incredible and I ended up learning a lot about the history of sports in Catalonia and the Olympics.

                After the stadium I roamed around a bit: saw the Olympic swimming pool, arena, and baseball field; saw some space needle thing; and walked through a couple of the parks on the mountain. I eventually made it to the Museu Nacional D’Art de Catalunya, a gigantic beautiful building that overlooks the fountain where the light show was at the previous night. The building was incredible, the art inside was breathtaking. So many beautiful pieces of art: Gothic, Modern, Coinage, Renaissance, Roman, etc. I was in there for 3 hours and I think I missed and exhibit or two. My favorite exhibit was the Modern Art, runner up was coinage (pretty cool to see how much coins have changed since 400BC.

                After my 3 hour tour through the art museum I went for a run up to and around the Castell de Montjuic (a military fortress built hundreds of years ago and was used up to the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s) and then down the mountain and  back to the ship (good 7miles). It was a long day.

                Day 4 was short. I went for a run around the port in the morning and then made my way into the town at 11:00. Did some shopping, roamed the internet in a Starbucks (it’s better than Spanish coffee so don’t hate) and took the metro (best public transportation ever) to Sagrada Familia (didn’t have time to go inside, regret it). Got back to the ship at 17:00, we left port at 18:00. I’m tired of typing so I’m just going to stop hear. Barcelona was incredible, saw a lot but will have plenty more to see when I go back in X number of years. Sorry for any grammar and spelling errors. Rome tomorrow, then straight to Naples; will post again after that.

P.S. Drama at Sea: people getting sent to the drunk tank, one or two kids already kicked off, girls waking up in Spanish men’s beds (got to watch your drinks), muggings, fights and broken hearts. It funny, ridiculous, and sad. Hopefully things settle down in Rome.