Last week was (finally) my spring break! My roommate and I spent the week traveling through Spain, and it was a really great week! Unfortunately, the weather didn’t always agree with us, but we got to explore Barcelona, Mallorca, and Madrid, and we had a fantastic time. Since spring break is about three times the size of my normal trips, I’ll be splitting the trip into two articles (so check back tomorrow to hear about Mallorca and Madrid!).
On my flight to Barcelona, someone almost got kicked off for refusing to cooperate with the flight attendants. Considering this is the second time this has happened to me, I think I should probably just stop flying alone. After the pilot came out and spoke to the passenger, we were finally able to take off. Our apartment in Barcelona was right near the Sagrada Familia, so we got to walk past that every morning, and it was incredible. There was also a Starbucks right near there, so it was a great way to start our morning (considering I haven’t had a Frappuccino since I left America).
On our first day in Barcelona, we took a free walking tour through the city. It was great to see a ton of sights that we probably wouldn’t have found on our own, like the steps that Columbus walked up to get to Ferdinand and Isabella’s palace when he came back from America. Hearing about the history of the city was also really cool. Then we went to Park Güell, which is probably my favorite place I’ve been so far. If you’ve seen The Cheetah Girls 2, you’ve seen this park. It’s the one with all the mosaic benches and the lizard. It’s really beautiful.
The next day we went to a fantastic brunch place in one of the small neighborhoods of Barcelona, and I had probably the most delicious burger of my entire life. We wandered around the city for a while and then we went to Casa Batllo, which is a house designed by Gaudi, and it’s really cool and interesting and pretty. We got chocolate con churros for a snack, which may be my favorite part of Spain. Churros in Spain are not like American churros: they’re basically just fried dough that you dunk in melted chocolate, they’re not cinnamon-y at all. We continued to wander and explore, but it started to rain (and hail for like 15 minutes), so we went inside to get tapas for dinner as an escape.
On our last day in Barcelona, we went to the Picasso Museum, which was so amazing. It has the only full collection of one of his sets of paintings, his variations on “Las Meninas” by Velazquez, and it’s really cool to see the entire set. We went to Cituadella Park, where there’s a giant fountain designed by Gaudi, and it’s huge and fantastic. We went down to the beach and watched the sunset there, and then went to a castle-turned-museum up on a hill and saw an amazing view of the city. We spent the night in the airport because our flight to Mallorca was at 6 a.m. and we didn’t want to pay to spend a night somewhere.
Our next stop was Mallorca, which is an island off the coast of Spain. We spent the few days there wandering the city of Palma and lounging on the beach. Check back next week for the full story about Mallorca, and for my adventures in Madrid!