Barcelona: Mes de un City

Overview

Barcelona was an extremely fun trip. We arrived Thursday night around midnight, or dinner time in Barca, after our flight was delayed 45 minutes. The flights there and back were pretty easy. We used a discount airline Vueling and the flight was only and hour and twenty minutes. This trip was different in the fact that it was only me and one other friend who went and we stayed with one of his friends from home studying abroad in Barcelona. it worked out well because we was able to take us around like a tour guide to all the main sites and it was a free place to stay. (Id like to think that I'm at the point where I could show people around Rome, after a while I've gotten used to how things work here and where things are). 

L to R: Sam(barca host), myself, Matt(Rome and UMD)

As the weekend approached I was constantly checking the weather report. Of course with our luck it said rain but just like Florida weather, an 80% chance of rain just means its going to rain at some point for about 2 minutes. That's really all it did. You'll see in some of the pictures that it looks muggy out. Friday was misty but Saturday had great weather as seen in the picture to the right. Honestly I don't remember the names of the places we went but one was a park designed by the architect that designed most of the Barcelona buildings. He's known for the mosaic tile work and having curved lines along all his buildings. We hiked to the top and took the picture to the right. Another place we went on Friday was Piazza Spangna which is where the waterfall picture is from. That was a really cool view from the top and kind of reminded me of the Spanish steps on Rome (ironic I know, but these had escalators on the side). We walked around the harbor and hung out on the beach Saturday morning and visited the Sagrada Familia castle in the afternoon. This castle is under construction still and has been since 1882.

FC Barca Game

My favorite part of the trip was the Barcelona soccer game at night. We sat all the way up top but it was really cool to see one of the best teams in the world play in one of the most famous and biggest stadiums in the world. Soccer fans are awesome, they constantly cheer the entire time and even though it was in Spanish I recognized a few of the melodies. We found a tapas (small snack like dishes) place right near the stadium and hung out there until the game.

At the game: that's my scarf too

Honestly I thought that being up that high at a soccer game wouldn't be that great but it was really cool to have almost a birds eye view of the field. The only problem with soccer games are that they are really short (real time wise) compared to other US sports. A soccer game is 90minutes running clock with a 15 minute half time. Football at home is only 60minutes of game clock but takes up to 3.5hours to complete real time. Luckily the rain held off until exactly after the game ended and FC Barca won 4-1 (at least it wasn't a 1-0 game.)

Observations

There are many differences between Barca and Rome and here are a few:

1. obviously its different languages, although Barca claims to be independent part of Catalonia (area of Spain) they speak Spanish not Catalan (which is used in airport signs though).
2. Barca has a very efficient metro system. I like that Rome is essentially free but Barca has constant schedules that are accurate unlike Rome. They also have a great subway system that doesn't really exist in Rome.
3. I really like Italian food better
4. Barca night life is a lot of clubs and they go out from 12-6, Rome is more like the US where we go out from 11-3ish.

Next up Fall break:

1. WSA Europe program for Budapest
2. Night train to Prague arrive Monday
3. Fly to Amsterdam Wed morning
4. Return to Rome Sunday morning
5. (#s 2-4 are us traveling on our own using Hostels we found: its about 5-10 of us together)

CIAO :)