My Epic Night in Barcelona

I spent most of this weekend in Barcelona and I only have one word to describe it: amazing! On Saturday morning, the Universitat de Vic had organized a small tour of the city. It's so big that we couldn't possibly see everything in one day but we saw some pretty neat things. (I plan to be back almost every weekend so I'm positive I will see almost all Barcelona has to offer by the time that I have to come home). We visited the MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya), walked to the Heart of the City, Placa Catalunya. From there we carried on down La Ramblas, a street that leads down to the Mediterranean Sea, and continued on to see one of the Gaudi museums. Towards the end of the day we stopped at the Cathedral and toured the Gothic quarter of Barcelona.

This is a picture of Gaudi's casa (house) in Barcelona. We didn't get to go inside (it is expensive, 15 Euro) but the outside was amazing like this. Not a straight line anywhere except on some of the windows. He designed and constructed it himself. There are other places in Barcelona that have some of his work, including the actual Gaudi museum.

This is a picture from inside the MNAC. One of the ceilings. When we went to the museum I didn't think I'd take the interest that I did. I found all the paintings really interesting. there were a number of different sections. We were only there for 1.5 hours and only saw two exhibits. My favorite was the modern art section. They had an exhibit on Picasso which was really neat. We weren't allowed to take pictures though but I swear I saw them! There is another museum in Barcelona that is dedicated to Picasso so I think I might go and check that out one weekend.

This is a picture that a friend took from inside the museum. Kind of hard to explain what's going on here, but the structure I'm looking through resembles a building and it's been painted on the inside. It was interesting because the man that painted this is the same man that painted the Cathedral in Vic that I posted pictures of: Joesph Lluis Sert. I was told that his work is also displayed in Paris and New York, among other places. This is from the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona. I'm not sure why this walkway is so famous but everywhere you go, you can see this image on paintings, drawings, postcards and anything else touristy you can think of. This is a picture from on just outside the MNAC. It sits on top of a hill that looks over the City of Barcelona. You are only seeing a part of Barcelona. It seems like it goes on forever to both the left and right of the picture. It was quite a hike up there though. There was even escalators put in because the walk was so long.

This is the bottom of the hill that starts up to the MNAC. There is some big mobile convention going on soon. Not sure what that is all about but it certainly made it very busy around the museum.
After the tour, a group of us decided to stay in Barcelona for a while. We headed down to the beach and took a few pictures. This is the last picture I took before my camera died for the night. It was really surreal to look out onto the Mediterranean Sea. Didn't quite feel like I was in Barcelona but I've had that feeling for a while. I have a friend visiting me right now and she studies in Finland and I asked her how she felt about it. She said the feeling never really goes away. I think that's a good thing. I would hate to take advantage of this opportunity. If i continue to have this feeling, I think the experience will mean that much more to me for years to come.

When it started to get dark and close to dinnertime, we went to a mercado (grocery store) and picked up some sandwiches and wine (there aren't any liquor stores here, they're part of the grocery stores) and took it down to the beach. It was starting to get cold and windy so we came up with the smart idea to have a bonfire on the beach. Best idea ever! It was nice and toasty warm. We wandered up and down the beach looking for wood and had a few good laughs along the way. Stories that I'm sure will come out at a couple of parties (I will refrain from writing it on the Internet for the world to see).

The day and night was so fun that it almost distracted us from the fact that it was Valentine's Day. It was late when we all realized that it turned out to be a success in a different way than what we had thought it would be. There is only one word that could describe our day: Epic. It won't ever be forgotten.

Until next time...