Winter in Barcelona

My trip to Barcelona both started and ended pretty roughly, but the actual trip was completely amazing and worth the few hardships I faced. After struggling with whether or not to actually go on our trip to Barcelona (flights were being cancelled from Paris because of the snow, so we could have possibly been either stuck in Paris before even getting to Barcelona or we could have been stuck in Barcelona without being able to fly back to Paris), Laura, Abigail, Amy and I hopped on the train to Paris early friday morning. Our train was a little delayed, but we made it through the Paris metro system to the airport. However, I had to pay a 25 euro ticket while on the metro because I had not purchaced the correct ticket. I was pretty upset that I had been fined for not knowing which zone of Paris I was traveling through, but I handed over the money anyway and looked forward to the adventures to come.

 
 

To start, Barcelona was such a great vacation spot after experiencing weeks of winter in Nantes. The weather was so temperate for the begining of December and the skies were blue and sunny. Our hostel was once again very enjoyable and had easy access to the metro. We had an amazing view of the city from the 12th floor, free breakfast (bread rolls and nutella/jam), and our 8-person room only costs 11 euros per night. For our first night, we explored the busy downtown shopping areas. Some things we saw: Christmas lights decorating all the streets, at least five H&Ms within a ten minute walk from each other, Christmas markets on every corner (They mostly sold landscapes and figurines to make nativity scenes, but the most popular trinket in Barcelona was a "pooper" which is a figure with his pants down to go in the nativity. I am not sure how the trend started..), musicians and dancers entertaining the crowds, and hundreds of tourists doing their christmas shopping. We kept having moments of "We are in SPAIN right now!" and "It is almost CHRISTMAS time!" that really made us enjoy even the small things.

 

My favorite part about Barcelona was all the Gaudi buildings and park areas. The Temple de la Sagrada Familia was unreal and so unlike any other cathedral around. It looked like it was melting on one side, one side was topped with giant stone fruit baskets, and one side was sleek stone with biblical characters surrounding the main entrance. We somehow snuck inside for a few minutes (before we were kicked out for not having payed) and the inside towered high but with a completely modern aspect. Gaudi had so much freedom to create whatever his mind could imagine, and la Sagrada Familia looked like so much fun to have dreamed up. We spent most of our first full day in Park Guell which sits above all of Barcelona and was the most beautiful part of the city. It reminded me so much of being in Texas because the landscape was rugged and shrubby and there were even cacti! From the highest point in the park, we saw the entire city below us, all the buildings packed so tightly together. It was completely beautiful and I found myself wanting to take multiple pictures of basically the same scene just to try to capture it entirely. All the trees were still green and leafy (unlike the bare winter trees in Nantes now) and the sun warmed my back in a way I have not felt for a while in France. It was peaceful walking in the park all morning, and there were musicians scattered around the weaving paths. As soon as the music from the women playing the hammered dulcimer stopped, the steel stringed guitar began, and then a hang drum, then a folksy group of guitars. The Casa Museu Gaudi below the park was completely decorated with colorful tiles which must have taken so much time to individually place every single one. After being in Barcelona, I have fallen in love with everything Gaudi.

 

We ate burritos and paella and rice pudding, and I was a happy boy tasting all the spices that I have missed for the past few months (On a side note, people can smoke freely inside of restaurants and bars, so I probably inhaled a few cigarettes worth of smoke during my few days there). We also walked to the beach, and standing in the sand and touching the mediterranean water was so exciting since it is December! I tried to soak in as much of the warmth as possible so that I can remember back to that day when I am especially cold in Nantes. Another side note: My friends and I have come to enjoy replicating ads or sculptures in each new city we visit. We also take plenty of opportunites to practice being models with our own Vogue photo shoots. Barcelona was no exception for either of those opportunites.

My friends left for Nantes on Sunday afternoon (but I stayed because my ticket home on Monday costed over 100 euro less) and I felt my first real homesickness ever. I just had this realization that I was all alone in another country and my friends and family were no where close. I tried to nap it off at first, but I will admit that I looked into flights that would take me back to Texas earlier than my current ticket (they are rediculously expensive now, so do not worry about me trying to cut short my time in France again). After my afternoon siesta, I walked downtown and got lost in all the stores and markets and music and people (surrounded by all the Christmas spirit!) for a few hours until my feet started dragging. Monday morning I took a train to the airport and was so ready to just be back in Nantes. I arrived at my terminal over two hours early, and I ended up staying there for a total of six hours because my flight kept getting delayed. The air traffic controllers in Spain had been on strike over the weekend and apparently things still had not cleared up by Monday. My plane, which left Barcelona four hours late, also arrived in Paris four hours late, so I missed my train (and the last train of the night) home to Nantes. The next eight hours were extremely long and lonely as I tried to find a place to doze off in the Paris airport (all the benches are homeless person-proof and so it is impossible to lay across them comfortably). I had to buy a ticket to go to another train station at 6am the next morning and then another new train ticket to go to Nantes. I could not have been happier to be in Nantes (which truely feels more and more like home) on Tuesday morning as I walking home completely exhausted.

I had to wait a few days to write this blog because I ended the trip with feelings that might have overshadowed all the fun I had during the weekend. I was in Barcelona with my three best friends from IES, we saw beautiful, funky architecture all around town, and felt the mediterrean sun in December! I am completely content after spending a winter weekend in Barcelona with my friends. Being stuck in Paris overnight is just another thing to check off my to-do list.