Barcelona

Barcelona! It was an amazing trip. I have pictures posted on flickr, and I will add from my friends’ pictures soon, but right now I have some blog catch-up to do!

Eight of us went to Barcelona together: me, Emily, Rebecca, Mara, Josh, Phil, Jamie, and Anna. I do not have very many group pictures posted, because we agreed that we weren’t going to take the same picture with eight cameras, so we will all be trading pictures in the near future. I’ll add some soon! A summary of the trip, which explains many of the pictures…

Sunday
Our airport shuttle picked us up at 3:50 in the morning to get to the airport three hours early for our 8:15am flight to Barcelona. Needless to say, it was dark out and we were tired! The flight was happily uneventful, and we landed in Barcelona around lunch time. We found our ride to the hotel, a bus chartered by an Israeli company and filled with Israelis! We were a little surprised (and not entirely enthusiastic) to land in Spain and still have to speak Hebrew. But we made it to our hotel, and immediately changed into bathing suits and headed out in search of food and beach. We found both quickly, and felt like we had really started our vacation! The rest of the day, we did lots of relaxing, dinner at the hotel, and we hung out in our rooms before going to bed early.

Monday
Most of us got up early, had breakfast at the hotel and ventured out in search of the train station. Our hotel was in Costa Brava, an hour up the coast from Barcelona. The train station was a fun 20 minute walk across the center of town, and then there were frequent trains running into the center of the city. We got to Barcelona, and immediately started taking pictures at Placa Catalunya, a big plaza in the center of the city. I promise I’m spelling things (mostly) right; they actually speak Catalan more than Spanish in Barcelona, so spellings and whole words are somewhat different than expected. We started walking down Las Ramblas, a touristy street featuring lots of shops, restaurants, and street performers. Many of the street performers would be completely still, and then when someone gave them money, they had a prepared response or act that would follow briefly, before they went back to being statues. It was fun to walk past and watch them all! After lunch, we made our way to Barrio Gotico, the Gothic Quarter of the city. First we found the one Jewish area, a synagogue that was recently reopened to the public; it was a working synagogue in the 1300s and probably earlier, one of the oldest known ones in Europe! It was two rooms, including a sanctuary where they currently hold occasional Shabbat services. We were all touched and excited to find such an old Jewish landmark in a city that is not exactly known for its Jewish population. Barcelona’s Jews mostly disappeared one hundred years before the expulsion in 1492, from a series of pograms in the 1390s. Unfortunately, the old attitudes have not disappeared entirely. A few buildings away from the synagogue, there is a replica of a Hebrew (or Ladino, we couldn’t decide) engraved stone. We did not discover until we took pictures of it that there had previously been graffiti on the stone, both of a swastika and “free Palestine.” The graffiti had been washed off, but with a camera flash, it showed up on all of our pictures. It made for an interesting contrast. After seeing the Jewish side of the city, we went to the cathedral, although some of us were not allowed inside because we had worn shorts that day. None of us thought about clothing restrictions outside of Jerusalem! We then went in search of a street that had been noted in the guide book for having several shops which loosely translate to “chocolaterias.” Obviously, I was leading the hunt! We found the street, and we were not disappointed. With the help of some locals, most of us ordered a dessert that we were promised was very Spanish: hot chocolate and churros. Except that the hot chocolate was not the drink, but melted chocolate served with a spoon and churros (soft butter cookie sticks?) to dip in it. That was one of the highlights of the trip! We then wandered back through the city and eventually to the train station to go back to Costa Brava for dinner at the hotel. Later that night, most of the group went out, but I was very excited for a quiet night in the hotel reading and going to bed early!

Tuesday
We got a late start Tuesday, possibly because of the going out the night before. We all slept in, and did a little exploring of Costa Brava and grabbing of lunch as we made our way to the train station. We split up when we got to the city, since we all wanted to do different things. Mara, Rebecca, and I braved the subway system, and went to Parc Guell. Parc Guell is a park designed by the architect Gaudi around the beginning of the 1900s, and it’s a pretty crazy place. We were trying to decide whether it reminded us more of Alice in Wonderland or Candyland. I don’t think I can explain it any better than that, but there are lots of pictures. The whole bottom part of the park, including a couple of buildings, is decorated with brightly colored tiles and interestingly shaped structures. The upper part of the park is much more like what I expected out of a park, but mixed with creative landscaping and carved columns and other interesting features. We only had about an hour to explore, but I could have spent so much longer there. After the park, we went to Temple de la Sagrada Familia, the Church of the Sacred Family. The church was also designed by Gaudi, it was started in the 1880s, and is still under construction. The main facades of the church are mostly finished, and amazing. We sat staring up at one side of the church for over an hour, and we were continually noticing new things. There are still more spires being built, the inside is completely unfinished, and there is not yet stained glass in any of the windows. It is estimated to be completed in about 2020, but I’m not sure I believe it will be done by then. It was amazing. The whole group met up again that evening for dinner, and we found the best food we had the whole trip (aside from the chocolate, obviously). It was a small tapas bar, and their food, and their sangria, was delicious. After dinner it was back to the hotel and off to bed.

Wednesday
We split up again Wednesday morning, with half the group going to Montserrat, a monastery outside the city, and half of us heading into Barcelona again. Mara and I went to the Picasso Museum when we arrived, where part of the group had gone the previous day. I never knew that Picasso could really draw! I was impressed by his earlier work, which shows that he really had a lot of traditional artistic talent, drawing and painting landscapes, portraits, and anything else. It was not until later in his career when he started with the super-abstract and somewhat odder paintings. While I definitely appreciated seeing the whole transition through his life, and the late stuff is somewhat interesting, I’m a fan of the early stuff. After Picasso, we split up and finished out Barcelona on our own. I was sort of excited to navigate the city on my own and meander wherever I wanted to go. I walked around more alleyways and narrow streets of the gothic quarter, looking at a lot of the little shops. I bought myself a lithograph of one of the streets in the gothic quarter, and I am very excited about it! I had ice cream. I went back to Las Ramblas and walked the rest of the way down it that we had not done the first day, all the way to the port, and I was rewarded with a beautiful view. It was a great afternoon! The group met up again to find dinner in the city, and then headed back out to Costa Brava. After showering and a siesta, we headed out to explore the nightlife in our town. We started with a drink outside at a local bar, and then headed to a club to dance for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun, but check out was mighty early in the morning.

Thursday
We had to check out of our rooms by 10 am, but they let us extend one room very cheaply, so we put all of our bags in one room for the rest of the day, since our airport shuttle wasn’t until well after dinner. Once again, we pulled out the bathing suits and headed down to the beach. We all laid on the sand for a few hours, very happily reading, napping, talking, and enjoying the sun. Then we headed to lunch, and then a while down the beach to have some water-fun. Josh and Phil had scouted the beach and found where we could rent a banana boat, a long, skinny raft where we all sat one behind the other, with handles to hold onto. The raft was attached to a speed boat, and the driver’s goal was essentially to make sure we had a good time and fell off a few times. Mission accomplished! It was SO much fun. After that, we played in the Mediterranean for a while longer, and then took a long, slow, meandering walk through Costa Brava and back to the hotel. We somehow managed to have no problems rotating through 8 people’s need to shower, we had dinner at the hotel, and waited for our airport shuttle. Our flight back left Barcelona at 2 am. We landed in Tel Aviv at 7 on Friday, overtired but relaxed, excited to be back, and happy to realize that Jerusalem is feeling like home!

An amazing vacation. School started today, but I’m out of typing energy! Coming soon.