I’m off on the last leg of my eleven week adventure,
although this time it’s no longer Spain that I will be exploring. I am headed
to Paris for (almost) four days, where I will meet up with my friend Emily. I’m
currently on the train, and as I write this the train is pulling out of the
station at Barcelona Sants, which means I am officially done with my time in
Spain. While I’m sad to leave this amazing country that I’ve come to love over
these past ten weeks, I’m excited for this next and final phase of my trip. And
to be honest, those last few hours was the perfect way to end my time in Spain.
I left Valencia Friday afternoon directly after work. I had
to go to Barcelona to make my train to Paris today, but I wasn’t particularly
keen on the idea of wasting close to ten hours on Saturday sitting on trains. I
also was dying to go back to Barcelona, even though I only left two weeks
ago. Based on all that, I decided to
leave Valencia right after work on Friday so I could spend my last 18 hours in
Spain in my favorite Spanish city—Barcelona. I got a hotel room right next to
the train station so I didn’t have to haul my luggage all over the city
(believe me, the five minute walk from the station to my hotel was more than
far enough! I have a large, roller suitcase, a very full, heavy duffle bag, and
my backpack, and when I carry them all at once I end up waddling like a duck
and having to take frequent stops to keep my roller from tipping. Add the
extreme heat into the occasion, and it’s really not a pretty sight), and then
once again met up with Hyland, who is in Barcelona through Sunday. With nothing
specific planned, we just wandered around the city, which turned out to be a
fantastic way to see some of the things I missed the last time I was there.
We found ourselves back in Plaza España, where the magic
fountain is, and Hyland suggested we go to the top of the bull fighting arena
for a view of the city and dinner. The arena is circular with a walkway to
provide a 360 degree view of the city as you walk around it. There are also
cafés and restaurants in the center where you can enjoy dinner with a view. And
what a fantastic view it was! Aside from providing an incredible vantage of
Plaza España and Montjuic, I could see La Sagrada Familia, Tibidabo (a mountain
overlooking Barcelona with an old amusement park and a cathedral on the top),
and the ocean! It was yet another thing I would not have experienced if I hadn’t
been with Hyland.
After we left the arena, we walked up though Plaza España,
past the hordes of people waiting to see the magic fountain, and up to the Mueso
Nacional de Arte Catalonia. We went up not because we wanted to see the museum’s
collection, but because the building itself is beautiful and provides yet
another great view of Plaza España. Montjuic, like TIbidabo, is a mountain overlooking Barcelona. The museum is situated low on Montjuic, so after we made it there, we decided to walk around the mountain a bit. Among other things, Montjuic has beautiful gardens, a Miro museum, and an old Greek theater. We strolled around the mountain, through the gardens and made our way to the theater, although we didn’t get a good view as there was a play being performed there later that night. Even though it meant we couldn’t walk into the old Greek theater, I loved the idea that people can still go there to see a show! Montjuic is a popular place to visit in Barcelona, and it was one of the things I opted not to visit when I came a few weekends ago, so it was a pleasant surprise that I was able to see it last night.
At this
point, I am about an hour into my six hour train ride to Paris. For the first
time on the trip I am feeling, not culture shock per se, but definitely a
heightened awareness of the unfamiliarity of my surroundings. My car is almost
exclusively French people, and I neither speak nor understand an ounce of
French. Anytime someone talks to me or asks me a question I have to ask “Do you
speak English or Spanish? Ingles o Español?” in order to communicate. In
general too, it’s strange not to hear Spanish being spoken everywhere, and I
wonder if I’ll have that same reaction about hearing English when I go back to
the US on Thursday.
To get off Montjuic, we simply walked random streets that
went downhill and towards the city. Doing this, we bumped into what at first
appeared to be a very lively street full of bars and cafes, music, and lots of
people. As we continued walking through this area we discovered that what we
had bumped into by chance was (and I’m going to get the name of this wrong, so
I apologize in advance) the festa major of Poblesec. Apparently, in Catalonia each of the different towns
(neighborhoods?) has a weekend during the year where they hold their town’s
festa major,
which is basically a big, weekend long, town wide party. It was fun to walk
through because there were small stages set up with bands playing live music,
and the bars, cafes, and streets were full of people hanging out and having a
good time. For an already lively and exciting city, this was a particularly
lively and exciting event to walk through. Before we went back to my hotel last night (Hyland stayed in the hotel with me and we had a sleep over, complete with Oreos and The Office) we took one final walk down La Rambla to the pier.
Right now we are passing though the countryside of France. There is lots of open land with rolling hills set against a mountainous backdrop. There is also a “Pixar” sky (think Up or Toy Story), which brightens the landscape and makes me wish I could leave the confinement of the train and explore the open land and quaint little towns passing by. I fell asleep for a bit, so time has passed a little quicker, and now there is only an hour and a half until the train pulls into Paris Gare Lyon.
Now back to Barcelona.
During my previous weekend in Barcelona I managed to see everything on my list, with the exception of the inside of La Sagrada Familia. There had been a mix up when we bought tickets and we weren’t able to go inside. That was the only regret I had from that weekend, especially because I was so taken with all everything I saw designed by Antoni Gaudi. With checkout from my hotel at noon, and my train not leaving until 1:30, I had plenty of time to see it today before I left Barcelona, and that’s exactly what I did.
I bought my ticket as soon as I decided I was going to be in Barcelona Saturday morning, and I decided to get the earliest timeslot, 9 am, to give myself plenty of time to see the incredible basilica. As an added bonus, I was able to buy tickets to go up in the towers at 10, something I wouldn’t have been able to do if I had been able to go inside during my previous trip. I didn't spend too much time outside since I already saw that; instead I went straight in. If the outside was incredible, the inside was astounding. First of all, the building had the most vibrant stained glass windows I have ever seen. Not only were the colors of the glass vivid, but they let in an impressive amount of light which in turn reflected the colors of the glass all around the inside of the basilica-- off columns, walls, etc.
The really neat part for me was that looking at la Sagrada Familia from the outside, I never would have imagined so much natural light could be entering the building. Aside from the stained glass windows, the columns themselves were impressive and innovative. They looked like tall trees with a thick column trunks that had thinner branches coming out of them to support a leafy looking ceiling. Gaudi drew a lot of his inspiration for his buildings from nature, and even though it is a religious establishment, La Sagrada Familia was no exception to that.
After I saw the inside of the basilica, I went up the tower of the nativity façade, which is the side generally seen in pictures and postcards that looks like its melting). The stairwells were narrow and winding, but it gave a beautiful view of the city as well as a much closer look at some of the details on the front of the nativity façade. The chance to see the inside of la Sagrada Familia was the cherry on top of a wonderful ten weeks in Spain. Now I just need to come back after 2026 when the construction is finally finished!
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| The view of Plaza de Espana from the top of the arena, where we ate dinner |
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| Stained glass windows inside La Sagrada Familia |
Hasta Luego!
Aubrey
