The other Capital

That's right, BARCELONA! I actually did it; I spent my Thanksgiving in the other most famous city in España. Today, I returned to Palma on a flight at 14:20. I arrived in Barcelona on Thursday at 21:00. In the meantime, I enjoyed about 41 hours in Barcelona. The trip was so quick but that much more amazing. However, jet-setting is a tough job. I literally hit the ground running, from one mode of transportation to another. It was really easy to get from the airpot to the city on the bus. From the bus stop in Plaza de Catalunya, I took the metro to Diagonal, one of the longest streets in the city. Here, the hostel was located about a block away. Yes, that's right! I stayed in a hostel for two nights, a very good experience actually. I recommend that all student/young travelers try it at least once.

After I found the hostel and dropped my stuff, I left to find my friends. I was excited to see Barcelona, but most of all I was excited to see my friends that I haven't talked to in about a year. We were in the same program on campus freshman year and kind of lost touch sophomore year, but that didn't mean a thing this weekend. In fact, I now know just how fortunate I am to have such great friends who welcome me anytime and anywhere. With Christin, Martine, and Mel, we were off for the night. First, we hit up their favorite bar, which is now my favorite too. Just check out the menu and their wide variety of choices to see why! We stayed, we enjoyed, then we left. We walked around some after that, but surprisingly the streets were very quite for a Thursday in. Likewise, we were all tired from the week. I wanted to get some sleep in order to get an early start in the morning to see as many sights as possible. So, back to the hostel I went.

In the morning I woke-up feeling good. Even better, it wasn't raining! It was going to be a good day in Barcelona. First, I went to La Rambla, the main street for tourist to see street performers, vendors and artists. Here's a picture of the main sign, welcoming visitors off the metro. I didn't really have an itinerary for the day, more like a list of places to go. Also, I didn't know where anything is located. I knew it was all close to La Rambla, so I just walked, more like wondered in awe. It was such a perfect day. I walked all along the water front. I made it to this mall, passed the awesome aquarium, and finally stumbled upon this cool looking museum. It was even better on the inside. The Museum d'Historia Catalunya is a four story building dedicated to the history, evolution, and modern culture of Catalunya, the autonomous community within Spain. Before visiting Spain, I knew of the language of Catalan, but I had no knowledge about the entire community nor its history of political autonomy. It was all very interesting to see in this very modern building. Its an interactive museum where the kids come to learn during class time, and they can play with all the exhibits. I had fun playing too, but I had to get going. I was meeting Martine that afternoon to start making the dessert for our day-after Thanksgiving feast.

Yes, that's right. As American students, we celebrated our holiday in style with all the traditional trimmings. Christin was the gracious host in her very spacious apartment. She made a great vegetarian stuffing and cooked a turkey. Yes, it was a full bird! She and her friend Christanna spent literally all day caring for this 20lb bird. The best part was that all the side dishes were vegetarian. We ALL ate WELL. I was so impressed because it all turned out so great. It was a good meal that I did not expect, which made it even better. It was also great to meet all their friends who are in their program or just visiting like me. I was in good company with great food. We ate, talked, and laughed for hours, stuffed ourselves silly of course. That's what the day of thanks is all about right? We all took advantage, and than we napped. After a full day of walking, there is nothing like a warm meal to put me to sleep. I napped too. I had to rest up for the night.

After dinner, Christin, Martine, and I took this photo, one of my favorite pictures from this weekend. We're spelling out W.L.P. which stands for Women's Leadership Program. How good are we?! After sleeping off the meal, we had lots of desserts for everyone to eat. Martine was very determine to "make" something and made chocolate rice krispy treats. We also bought a pie and tons of cookies. There was something for everyone. However, we were all ready to walk/dance off all that good eatin'.

We had a fun night at this popular club. It was group of us, and we stuck together through all the floors and different rooms. This place was huge, and we almost shut it down. We only left early to beat the crowd to the metro. Finally, at the end of the night, I had to say goodbye to everyone on the metro because of course I had a flight to catch. I was sad to leave so soon. I didn't even see a third of all the museums and attractions that Barcelona has to offer. It really is a beautiful city with a great culture. I will be back soon with more time to spare and a really good map.