Art and Tapas!

7:30AM - Adam wakes me up with a phone call because the hostel is not yet ready to check him in.

Adam: I'm at the hostel, can I crash with you?
Me: Yeah, are you in Madrid?
Adam: Yes, I'm in the patio at the hostel.
Me: Where are you? In the patio?
Adam: In the patio.
Me: That's so convenient. I'll come get you.

Haha, I was so tired!

About an hour and a half later, Jessica and I headed off to the Botanical Gardens. The garden actually began as the King's Fernando VI botanical collection in the eighteenth century. It was nice to see, but would have been much better in the summer. I could only imagine the amount of flowers that would have bloomed.

Real Jardin Botanico

I had to go back to the Crystal Palace as it would now be opened! One could actually walk inside on top of the water on the marble's crevices. This really allowed a person to experience the art as they were apart of it!

The Crystal Palace. One could be apart of the art as people could walk between the crevices full of water!

View of Retiro Park from the Crystal Palace!

The Valasquez Monument inside Parque Retiro was gorgeous! It is dedicated to Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, the same architect that designed the Crystal Palace and several other buildings in Madrid. The monument had fountains, vines, and peacocks all over! To complement the mood, even a lone saxophonist played next door.

Just one part of The Valasquez Monument

A local church was nearby and as I adored the architecture, I decided to stumble on in. The priest put a piece of styrofoam into everyone's mouths as a sign of cleansing. Way to be blessed! ?

The best attraction besides the Crystal Palace would have to be the Royal Palace. Albeit the fact that it is the official residence of the King of Spain, only grand galas are held there. As the largest palace in Western Europe, the ceilings had such beautiful intricate detail as well as grandiose chandeliers.

The Royal Palace

Tip: If the line seems long, try going to the line on the farthest right side! I had zero wait while the other lines were out the door!

We all met back at the Cat's Hostel for the Tapas Tour. The tour took us to have sangria and tapas at a handful of local bars and restaurants. We ended up meeting Andrew from San Clemente and Kevin from Nebraska - small world! Another individual at meat for the first time as well! We inquired if he would become a carnivore from now on to which he responded that he was not sure. Oh, goodness.

Tapas Tour crew!

Afterward, we went to Chocolateria San Gines, a local restaurant that serves chocolate covered churros - delicious! We joined another protest; this one was to protect government workers' benefits. Good stuff! I also completed my mission of finding the famous "Bear and Tree" statue! Lying in Puerta del Sol, the 20ton statue shows a bear reaching for strawberries.

El Oso y El Madrono a.k.a. The Bear and The Tree! It was a difficult climb.

The group went off to Reina Sofia where there were great works by Picasso and Dahli. The first portion features Spanish artists from the late 19th century to the Second World War and the second features artistic trends from the 1940s - 1980s. As it focuses more on contemporary and modern artwork, it was much more to my liking!

We went to Matador for more tapas and played good ole' American games such as Celebrity ABC (say a celebrity name that starts with "a", now "b", etc.). Our continuation of the Tapas Tour continued onto Tapas de la Monde where we finally had enough sangria! The end of the night came as we headed back to the hostel for our 5:30AM wake up call!

Morning, Madrid!

The Airbus is the cheapest way to get to BCN airport, especially with our discount for having the Barcelona Card! The stop at Madrid's airport was an adventure in itself as we ran into Andrea Wheaton, another exchange student, and we spent twenty minutes looking for Jessica's credit card. Thankfully, she found it and didn't leave in it Barcelona!

We bought two days worth of travel as it was only 8euros. After checking into Cat's Hostel, we took the metro to Parque del Retiro. With its 350 acres, the park offers sculptures to monuments to a gorgeous lake. On this beautiful Sunday afternoon, the locals came out performing and dancing! It was quite relaxing and highly rivals Central Park of New York.

Relaxing on the Monument of Alfonso XII

One of the highlights was rowboating on the lake! We struggled a bit (okay, alot) to get the boat out, but after a few, we were pros!

Rowboating adventure on Estanque del Retiro!

The attraction that I needed to see in the park was the Palacio de Cristal. The glass pavillion was built in 1887 and was inspired by the Crystal Palace of London. It portrayed a gorgeous exhibition from Rafina Sofia.

The Crystal Palace - my favorite attraction in Madrid!

Museo del Prado was free on Sundays from 5PM-8PM, so off we went! The sculptures about Aphrodite and the exhibit by Valesque were amoungst the best works. The famous painting "Plaza del Sol Dinner" was featured as well.

That night, we took a siesta before planning to wake up for the pub crawl at 12:30AM (which if you remember, is early to go out in Spain!) Unfortunately, as we were exhausted from the night before, we completely slept through the alarm! It was very much needed sleep though!

Viva Barca!

I woke the others up at 9:30AM to grab breakfast, but everyone was so sleepy! While they got ready, I strolled down Las Ramblas to the flea market. To my surprise, the merchants sold a variety of "goods" from fish to rabbits! The floral market and the H&M were fantastic as well!

La Familia Sagrada, Gaudi's most famous work, is a must see for anybody in Barcelona. Construction began in 1882, but is not expected to be finished until 2026. The privately-funded Roman Catholic church sits with intricate detail and draws thousands each year. La Padrera and Casa Batllo are more aesthetically pleasing though as they are not under complete construction (perhaps the beauty of La Familia Sagrada!).

Gaudi's most-detailed and famous work, La Sagrada Familia

I then headed off to the Caixa Forum. With its modern space containing several rotating exhibits, locals find this art gallery popular while tourists never know about it! Hence, it is quite a treasure for a traveler!

As it was a sunny and clear afternoon, the cable car ride up Montjuiic was beautiful! The shallow hill allows a panaromic view of the city along with a 17th century castle atop. Although a scary and sketchy ride up, it was definitely a sight to remember.

Gorgeous view from Montjuiic

The hike to Parc Guell is long, but not too steep (as escalators will help if you go the back way! Here, one can walk around the enormous garden complex and find Gaudi's many artworks dating back to the early 1900s. It was nice as tourists and locals would all congregate together to enjoy the park!

The entrance of Parc Guell

Next step in this busy day was to pick up the FC Barca tickets! It was only 18euros for the cheapest seats - good deal! Unfortunately, the metro stop was on the complete opposite side of the stadium (Camp Nou), so it took me a good twenty minutes just to walk around the entire stadium! It did provide a nice little tour of the city though.

Walking back to the hostel, one could easily find all the Barca fans celebrating in and out of their cars while blasting music and cheering down the streets. So much pride!

We then headed off to Placa Reial Square for a flamenco show at Los Tarantos! It was worth the trip as the thirty minute show was only 5euros. For some odd reason, the only shoes I packed were my leather boots, so I borrowed Pauline's ballet flats. Unfortunately, they were too big, but we all had a time making them fit with tissue paper!

Flamenco show time!

Tip: If you go to Barcelona and need a hostel, stay in Kabul! It's a great, loud, and fun hostel located right in the square of Placa Reial, where there are great restaurants and nightly flamenco shows next door. It's less than a minute walking to Las Ramblas - great location!

Adam and Pauline left to catch their bus to San Sebastian while Jess and I took off to the futbol game. Luckily, our seats were right behind the keeper and only three minutes into the match, Barca scored! The Belgium boys we met at the hostel texted us and we met up with them at the end of the game.

Viva Barca! Cheering on Messi and Barcelona at Camp Nou

On the way to Port Olimpic, we found an amazing, giant lobster statue with a smiley face drawn on it! Thus, I made the driver pull over so I could take a picture. Looking at it, the lobster could possibly be my favorite attraction in Barcelona!

We started off at the Australian Bar and danced the night away going in and out of the sixteen clubs and bars by the harbor. Arriving back at the hostel at 7:30AM, I took a thirty minute nap before waking up to catch our flight to Madrid.

VIVA BARCA! I'm tired!

No Time for Siestas in Spain!

Since we had an early flight, Pauline's friend Emelie let us stay over at her place in Paris. Ironically, her other friend was stranded in Paris because of a strike (not too surprising in France) and it was one big sleepover!

Tip: Taking RyanAir from Paris to Barcelona is NOT worth it! Paris Beauvais is one hour outside of Paris and Gerona is an hour and a half outside of Barcelona. With the time you lose plus the fees for ground transportation to the each city, it is NOT worth it!

As opposed to the rain and gloom of Paris, Barcelona was beautiful and sunny! First stop was to La Padera by Antoni Gaudi. Amongst the most talented architects of the Art Nouveau style, Gaudi's unique buildings lie apart of Barcelona's culture as much as flamenco shows and tapas. The building was designed for Rosario Segimon and Pere Milà, thus, the building is also referred to as Casa Milà. The apartment complex was very interesting with its inside arches; however, it was the rooftop that was utterly breathtaking!

The gorgeous rooftop of La Pedrera

It was appropriately time for another photoshoot. We also came to the conclusion that I also like to climb everything that I see.

Typical picture of me in Europe

Next on our stop was Casa Batllo. Upon instant viewing, the building has quite a complex arrangement resembling a skeleton. Hence, the locals refer to it as Casa dels Ossos, translating into House of Bones. This time, the INSIDE of the building was a dream! If only somehow, La Padera's roof could be put onto Casa Batllo!

The inside of Casa Batllo - notice there are rarely any straight lines!

On the way to the Picasso Museum, Jessica and I found FB Barcelona futbol jerseys for only $25euros! We were all set for the game later that night! Unlike other countries, shops and attractions in Spain stay open until 8PM (due to siestas and the later lifestyle), thus, making life for a tourist convenient! The Picasso Museum houses over 3,500 of Pablo Picasso's works in its permanent collection. As one looks at Picasso's early works, bits and pieces of abstract can be found. It was interesting to see his progression and it was in his "Blue Period" that Picasso developed himself to the painter that we know today. A talented man, he even made linoleum into art!

Tip: The Barcelona Card is only 25euros for unlimited travel and discounts and is well worth the purchase! However, a student may not necessary need one as there are already great discounts in the city!

Pauline took us to her favorite paella restaurant and although tasty, I was not too much of a fan! We then tried going to the Magic Fountain, a grandiose display of water, lights, and music! Unfortunately, it was off (and empty dry) because it was wintertime...sigh.

Back at the Hostel Windsor, we got ready for our night out! First things first, take a siesta! Although we planned to sleep from 11PM-12AM, we ended up sleeping until 2AM! Our friend, Borja, a native Catalonian called us as they were "drinking in the streets before going to the club." We grabbed a cheap taxi and met Borja and his friends at the Razzmatazz Nightclub. The girls definitely saw the love from the Spanish boys as they just love to hug and put their arms around you!

The Americans and the Catalonians

At 3AMish, we entered the club (wow, what a fantastic nightlife already!) and danced, danced, danced! Xavi, the futbol coach, and I took a break from dancing and walked around the city a bit. Back at the club, the others hit the 6AM mark and decided to go home. By the time I hit my bed, it was 7AM! Oh, goodness, Barcelona!