Day 8: (Barcelona) He Was a Sk8r Boi

Here we go again.  Thankfully, this day started out (STARTED OUT) a bit slower as we had a classroom session in the morning right after breakfast, so we had a little time to unwind before jumping into our day.  Today’s classroom session was heavily based on reflection, so my professors asked a series of questions and after writing down our responses, we would start a dialogue with the whole group.  As you can imagine, getting ten 20-something-year-olds to participate in reflection and discussion at 10am is kind of difficult, especially after being worked so hard physically during this trip.  That aside, the classroom session went great – everyone contributed at least one interesting thing and some discussion evolved. I also made sure to ask when we would have time to work on our blogs, since we've been so busy and so drained that it's hard to keep up when you're gone for 14 hours a day.. They assured us that we would have free-time and that we'd be fine.  (For those of you following this, you can see from how behind I am on my posts that I need more time! This is crazy!)

After our session, we went on another walking tour with Rick, this time through a section of Old Town called San Antoni.  It was a cute neighborhood with a lot of little shops and restaurants, all of which we were told we could “come back to later”, which, of course, we did not.  We instead took the Metro over to Montjuïc, which is a large hill (almost mountain status) in Barcelona.  On it, there are beautiful parks that overlook the entire city of Barcelona and the beaches on the Mediterranean Sea, the Olympic Stadium from when Barcelona hosted back in 1992, as well as a large fortress on the very top which was used to keep the Catalonians in check back in the day.

When we got off the Metro, we went just upstairs to catch a cable car to the top of the mountain, where the fortress is located.  The cable car had clear glass on all sides, so we were able to see all of Barcelona and focus on any part we wished; the beautiful sea, the park below us, the buildings that we have toured, the mountains across from us and a myriad of other things – you could see it all!  Once we reached the top of the hill, we got a brief history of the fortress and then looked at the views and took a group photo before it was time to head back down the hill.  I was pretty bummed.  I thought it was absolutely beautiful up here – the fortress, obviously very old, the ivy growing down it’s brick walls and the whole juxtaposition of the abundant city below as we stood at the fortress that tried to contain it – it was just beautiful in both thought and in scenery that I didn’t want to leave…

Unfortunately, our schedule was tight (from all the time we’ve allotted to walking to each place) so we needed to make our visit quick.  We walked down the hill of Montjuïc which was really pleasant, but also very steep.  The parks were beautiful and before we knew it, we were at the base of the hill where we started.  We continued our extremely long and grueling walk down the mountain towards Poble Espanyol.  On the way, we stopped at Fundació Joan Miró, which was closed because it was Monday.  Then, we walked to el Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, which was also closed because it was Monday.  We were going to come back later in the night to watch el Font Màgica de Montjuïc, which is a large fountain that puts on a show to lights and music much similar to that of the Bellagio in Vegas – but you guessed it! – There were no shows because it was Monday.  So, we took a break after a little over an hour of straight walking in 85 degree heat to get some water and take a breath.  We stopped on the terrace of the art museum, which overlooks most of Barcelona and I personally wanted to stay there forever.  Partially because of the shade and the nice chair I sat in and partially because it’s breathtaking to see mountains, ocean, city, country, art, famous architecture and so much more all in one place.

Short lived, we continued our long trek onward to Poble Espanyol, a life-size architectural museum which showcases architecture and style from different areas around Spain through the construction of replica buildings and houses which are now occupied by local artisans and craftsman to sell their work.  Also, ,this is where part of the music festival Sonar took place (which I REALLY wanted to go to but had no time/energy to) but I was a day late, showing up today instead of yesterday when it was in full swing – bummer.  We walked around a very small portion of the replica city, and found a beautiful glass blowing studio where you could watch the artists make the pieces before your eyes.  It was hotter than hell in there, but it didn’t seem to bother the artists, who cranked out new pieces left and right.  Before I could go buy a little glass-blown statue (FOR ONLY 5 EURO), we were on our way out the door, out of Poble Espanyol and on our way to a mall.  Yes, a mall.  Out of the architectural replica city filled with skilled vendors into a large, corporate mall. 

In any case, we left, I was told I could come back later even though the shops closed at 7pm and it was already 5:20pm, and made our way to el Centro Commercial de Las Arenas, which is an old bull fighting ring that has been transformed into a mall.  It sounds cool, but it really just looks like any old mall, just ring-shaped.  We got there and went up to the very top floor, which was a rooftop terrace that you could walk around to get a 360 degree view of the city.  It was beautiful, but I had contracted a bad attitude since I felt like we weren’t spending any time at the actual places in Barcelona, rather just walking 2 hours to get somewhere to spend 30 minutes at the actual site.  It made no sense to me, this trip was expensive, and for a while I had been feeling like our time and money weren’t being used productively.  So, I walked around the terrace to clear my head – it didn’t work, so I went into the mall and bought gelato – which kind of worked. 

We all met back up in the center of the mall and took the Metro back towards the hostal.  We sat down for a brief meeting to go over our day tomorrow, but by the time the meeting was over, we were all too tired to move that we just laid on the couch in the lobby of the hostal and talked for a long while.  It was nice to actually have some down time with the group where we could be stationary and actually talk for a while before having to stop talking to listen to a tour. 

Once the conversation died down, we had free time, which I spent wandering around Old Town alone.  I ran around looking for conditioner since my hair was the texture of an old sponge and came across a bunch of skater kids practicing outside of the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB).  Just across the small plaza sat a bunch of people with dogs, who were letting them run loosely and freely.  It was really interesting to see the skater crowd be accepted by society and for society to accept dogs not on leashes.  In America, people get really weird and angry when people don’t put their dog on a leash and I’ve found that they also turn their nose up to people in the punk/skater scene.  Here, especially in Barcelona, both of these communities and most others are accepted in that no one even bats an eyelash or thinks to second-guess or judge it.  It’s so uplifting to see.  You can just feel the more relaxed, happier vibe of the people living here.  It makes me envious feeling this and then reminiscing on my stressful life that awaits me back in Chicago..

It was starting to get a little chilly, so I went back to the hostal where I showered with REAL shampoo and conditioner instead of the free hotel stuff and actually shaved. It was beautiful.  My hair and body never felt so nice.  I ate yet another ham sandwich (I think this is like my third one in the past two days?) and then decided to see if anyone in my group was willing to check out this skater bar called Nevermind with me.  I showed up to their room and they were hanging out in their pajamas listening to Lizzie McGuire, so I figured that they weren’t really up for it.  I asked anyways, but I don’t think it was their scene.  I went anyways and was SUPER impressed by the place.  It was playing old school punk music, decorated with old skateboard decks plastered around the ceiling, graffiti all over the walls, and it even had half of a skate bowl in the back where people could skate and do their tricks, which was recorded by GoPros and then shown on the TV in the bar area (SO COOL!).  It was definitely really cool and not your typical bar, so I stayed there for a little while before returning to my hostal to work on my blog and then knock out.  Which I did… but not until around 4am… yikes!