Hola, Benvinguts!
This weekend was a long weekend because Labor Day fell on Thursday, and whenever a holiday falls on a Thursday they give Friday off as a "bridge day", one of the many reasons I love Spain. For the long weekend I headed to Barcelona to meet Lindsey and her friends (from her program in Italy). I took the overnight bus and arrived in Barcelona on Thursday morning.
I met up with Lindsey and her friends and we went to La Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Gaudi that is under construction in Barcelona. The construction began in 1882 under Gaudi and is still being built today, it is expected to be finished by 2026.
After we went to the church we had lunch outside at some cafe, and shared a pitcher of sangria then we walked around the city to take in some sights. We ended our first day in Barcelona with a bar-crawl that took us to a bunch of bars around La Rambla, the most well known street in the city, for a few drinks and some tequila!
Our next day in Barcelona we visited the Picasso Museum. Picasso lived in Barcelona and had a strong link to the city. The museum has a great collection that was donated by a friend, and many works were donated by Picasso himself. One of the most famous works here, and my favorite, was Picasso's take on Las Meninas (a Valazquez painting). The museum also had a good collection of paintings from his blue period that I enjoyed a lot, as well as some of his ceramic work.
After Picasso we were off to the beach! It was perfect weather, in the 70's, and not a cloud in the sky! The beach was packed and full of vendors trying to sell you everything under the sun, from massages to fresh cut coconut. The water was a bit chilly but felt great after laying in the hot sun.
While in Barcelona we also visited Guadi's park "Park Guell" where Gaudi took on the landscape. He lived in a house in the park for years with his family, we toured the house that is now full of furniture he designed.
I loved Barcelona, possibly even more so than Madrid. The city is a little more laid back and has a great beach vibe. I have never heard more English, especially American English in any other city in Spain, which I saw as kind of a negative. Catalan seemed to be a bit of a mix between French and Spanish, but the language is as old as the other two.
I left Barcelona Sunday and headed back to Soria just in time to catch some of Catapan, the first celebration of San Juan, which is a celebration at the end of June in Soria. The party had live music stages all over the city, free wine, cheese and salt cod.
My pictures of Barcelona are posted on my picture site (check them out here).
Hope everyone had a great weekend! Congratulations out to AnneMarie and everyone else at UT who graduated this weekend! Congrats also to Malerie who graduates next weekend and was accepted into Michigan for her nursing graduate school! GO BLUE!
Besos y Abrazos a todos!
