Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Barcelona- here we've come!

I'm sure I won't be updating this every day of this trip, but I'm so excited about today, that I want to write about it immediately!  We arrived in Barcelona around 10 am (3 am central time) this morning (the 2nd of January).  After about an hour of impatiently waiting for our bus to arrive to take us to the hotel, we arrived at the hotel only to wait another hour because many of our rooms were not ready.  We freshened up as much as we could in the small space shared by several girls in another student's room and headed out to sight-see in our first day in Spain.  After getting cash and a subway ticket for 50 rides each, we made our way to La Rambla, a street full of shops, restaurants, stores, and historical monuments.  We split up into smaller groups and five of us headed out to find a meal.  My group ended up in a cute little bar/ restaurant that served a wonderful meal that was filling, not too outside of the box, and most importantly- within our college budget.  It began with wine and ended in coffee, as is the Spanish custom, which put us all in the perfect mood to go out and explore more!  We started walking down the main street of La Rambla toward the Mediteranean Sea and ended up stumbling into the Monumento a Colón, a statue of Christopher Columbus pointing toward the New World. 

The streets are just so incredibly gorgeous.  The architecture everywhere is just amazing!  We found a shop with a beautiful mosaic on the outside that said "Founded in 1820".  The history just bleeds from the city!  But what was even more incredible to me was noticing how in a city like this, it just seems to move like a living, breathing organism.  I've always heard that comparison, but never really understood it!  But while traversing through the bowels of the city, just how connected everything had to be was incredible!  The movement of people from place to place is what keeps the city alive all throughout the day.  (and I've only been here 8 hours!!)  
 The streets of Barcelona near La Rambla (others turned out too blurry)
 Me with the one of the lions surrounding Christopher Columbus
Quynh, myself, and Megan in front of the boats on the pier.  Do we look sleep deprived??

Well, enough for tonight.  I don't want to ruin all of the amazing parts of the city for everyone.  I'm sure there will be MANY updates to follow in the near future!

1 comment:

  1. I wish I can go on that place this coming summer. Because I was amazed on this blog, it was forced me to go there. But before that I think we need this hotel a Barcellona to accommodate. I will browse here for more hotel accommodation.

    ReplyDelete