Spring Break Part 1: Barcelona

The girls of Portuense 100 all went their separate ways for Spring Break... Bridget headed to Greece and Turkey with her dad, Molly went to Brussels & the Amalfi Coast, I think Talia may have headed to Switzerland?! Too many incredible adventures to keep track of! My plan was to head to Spain with some girlfriends from school for the week. One week, one backpack. Camera, clothes, toiletries, shoes, purse etc. all had to magically fit into the backpack that RyanAir allows you to carry on the flight. Hello struggle city! After a packing fiasco Thursday night, we headed out early Friday morning and landed in the Barcelona sunshine! We wasted no time after finding our hostel (incredibly nice--balcony, electronic door locks and free breakfast!) and headed to Park Guell, also known as Gaudi Park. Almost everything we managed to see in Barcelona was the work of Antoni Gaudi--all mind boggling and fantastic! You might be able to tell from the pictures that this is where the term 'gaudy' originated...

After our trip to the park, we went out for a delicious meal by the marina and feasted on Paella, a Valencian rice dish with all sorts of interesting seafood. After dinner we sat and enjoyed the sunset before heading back to our hostel and then out again for the evening on a (lame) pub crawl put on by our hostel.

Saturday morning, we started the day of with a healthy breakfast of churros con chocolato and cappuccinos--this was the first of many churro experiences in Spain. It's a good thing they don't have these in Roma or I would be in serious trouble :)

Following breakfast, we headed to another one of Gaudi's masterpieces, La Sagrada Familia, the most incredible church I have ever seen in my entire life. It's been a work in progress for over a century since Gaudi was hit by a tram and died during his work on the building!

After gawking at the church for a few hours, we headed to the most colorful fresh food market in Europe: La Boqueria. We gorged ourselves on cheap papaya, pineapple, mangos and pureed fruit smoothies--yum!!

We hung out on the dock at the pier for awhile before seeing one of Gaudi's last treasures, Casa Batllo. He designed and created the building for a middle class family in 1877--but today it's more of a tourist destination... The outside is covered in mosaic tiles and my pictures don't do any of his work justice!

Amanda, Alysa and I stopped at our hostel for showers (far and few between on this trip!) and went out for a typical tapas dinner. Most restaurants in Spain don't serve main courses but you order a few mini dishes (tapas) and share. Someone at our hostel explained to us that tapas means 'to cover' and restaurants used to serve them in plates that fit right over the top of your drink. Since many Spanish drinks like Sangria are so sweet, it was meant to keep the bugs out of your cup while you enjoyed your food! We celebrated St. Patty's Day in Barcelona with a few beers and then headed home before our early flight to Seville!