Barcelona

¡Hola! and Bon dia!

I am back in Bologna after an awesome weekend in BARCELONA, SPAIN, where I was visiting my friend Lauren Engelmyer who came to visit me in Bologna a couple of weeks ago.

On Friday Lauren and I started out on La Rambla, Barcelona's bustling pedestrian-only boulevard, and stopped by La Boqueria, a huge food market that seemed to be selling every species and type of fruit, vegetable, cheese, fish, and meat. Next we headed to the edge of the city and up Tibidabo, a mountain overlooking Barcelona, where we were rewarded with spectacular views of the city (including the one above). After descending from Tibidabo we continued strolling the streets of Barcelona and looking for architecture by Antoni Gaudí, a highly individualistic Catalonian architect - we managed to pass by his La Pedrera and Casa Batlló.

On Saturday, Lauren headed off to the Salvador Dalí museum with her program, while I set out to conquer more of Barcelona's sights. I started out at la Sagrada Família, Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece. It's still very heavily under construction (it's currently scheduled to be completed around 2026, although whether this finish date will be reached is highly disputed. If completed, it will be the largest cathedral in the world). Here is a photo, although I warn you in advance that it really doesn't do it justice:

Gaudí's la Sagrada Família

Next I headed to what turned out to be my favorite place in Barcelona: Park Güell, a park and garden complex designed completely by Gaudí. Everything in the park seemed to be straight out of a fairytale - even the buildings looked like they had been transported from Hansel and Gretel.

Gaudí's Park Güell

I spent my afternoon strolling the streets of Barri Gòtic, the old city of Barcelona, and even got to check out an archaelogical excavation from Barcelona's Roman period at the Museu d'Història de la Ciutat de Barcelona before Lauren met me for tapas!

Saturday night we got tickets for a GIRL TALK concert at one of Barelona's largest and hottest clubs, Razzmatazz. The crowd was huge - here's a video of some of the craziness:

Madness.

Last but not least, since my friend Carly Miller (last seen when I was visiting Florence earlier in the semester) was also visiting Barcelona, we managed meet for breakfast on Sunday morning! As always, it was great to see her, and it was extra nice of her to get up early to meet me!

Barcelona was incredible, beautiful, and sunny sunny sunny, but I feel like I only scratched the surface of all there is to be seen there. Definitely a city I want to visit again!

To see more pictures from my weekend in Barcelona, check out the webalbum:

Barcelona, Spain

Enjoy!