A weekend in Barcelona!

Barcelona!

Last weekend we stayed in Barcelona for one of the guy's birthdays. It's a great city but I think other people liked it more I did - it's so big, you feel lost (obviously if you've never been there!!), all the streets look the same, it's a much more international city, touristy with English speakers everywhere - I didn't want this, so I'm glad I chose Valencia - I think it has more style, it's a nicer size...everything is closer together.


The language in Barcelona was something else I disliked - Catalan. It's like a mix of French, Italian and German! - really difficult to understand, and I think it's quite strange how a language with a really low population of speakers is spoken in such a big city, and not really anywhere else in the world, other than Andorra.


We took the train from the Estacion del Norte in Valencia to Barcelona-Saints with Renfe, which cost around 65 euros return. Next time we'll book earlier...it was about half the price three weeks before. It took about three hours to get there, so watching 24 Season 8 killed the time!

Arrived! - Does anyone want to go to the MAN toilets? - Nice one barca...

Quite funny seeing the translation of Taxi here, just incase people don't understand it the other two times!! (the only word that's the same in every language).

We stayed at Catalina Hostel , which was about 11 euros a night. We were out in the city all the time so it didn't really matter where we stayed. But the location was great.


The arcitecture in Barcelona is really unique, by Antonio Guadi. We visited the Sagrada Familia, a church that was never finished. It's a huge structure that's unfortunately still under construction and will be for another 20 years or so - the scaffolding and building work really spoils it.

 

  

  

During the afternoon we went to Park Guell to look over the whole city and towards the coast. When you see the view, only then do you really feel how big the city is - impressive!

 

 

  

  

I'm sure a lot of people go here...!

 

Simpsons! - I should have bought it...

 

Barcelona vs Malaga at Camp Nou!

I was really looking forward to this - Camp Nou - the biggest stadium in Europe with nearly a 100,000 capacity. Messi, Iniesta, Ibrahimovic, etc, What a team!...which reminds me, I still need to buy a Spanish camiseta (shirt) for the World Cup!

   

 

Barcelona at Night a couple of night pics:

 

 

 A view of from behind the city at night. I expected it to be a lot brighter though.

...not really sure if the picture's worth showing.

Some of us decided to see this view before going to a club, but actually it took longer that we thought (only getting to the top at 4am!) and we didn't have time to go the Razzmatazz (the club everyone recommends in Barcelona)...I regret not going - people said it was amazing and I would have liked the music...Damn.

A couple of the guys:

 

Sean..squeesing into the full metro after the football game

 

Petr..sleep drinking, siesta fiesta?

Fallas!

It's March - Fallas! - A tradition in Valencia where communities create huge monuments to be burnt - Everyone covers the streets and it's basically a huge party for three or four days. The main days this year are the 15th to 19th, I think. Already you can hear bangs outside in the evenings. Can't wait!

April Travels?

A lot of people are starting to organise travels during April - I think we have about two weeks off, plus exam week, plus probably another week just so Spain can make it a month!!

A few of us are hoping to go to Morocco for a week - I think the Bourne Ultimatum was filmed there. Seeing Marrakech, the dunes, staying a night in the dessert, camel rides...sounds so good!, and it would be nice to see a different culture outside of Europe.

Hasta luego!