Show me some of that Spanish dancing ....

My last trip out of Italy, to Barcelona, this past weekend was bittersweet. It was my last trip out of the country, so it was a little bit sad, but I got to see two of my best friends from NU there! One of the girls has been studying in a little town in southern Spain this fall and the other just came to visit us. It was awesome having a little Boston reunion in Europe. I hadn't seen either of them for months, so a reunion was long overdue!
Barcelona is a gorgeous city. Our hostel was literally right on the beach, we walked out of the door and past the Mediterranean sea every morning - were we lucky or what? And across from the street from where our hostel was was an adorable boat yard full of rows upon rows of sailboats. It was incredible! It made me want to rent one and go sailing for the day, even though I get incredibly motion sick - but it would've been worth it!
Barcelona reminded me a lot of Boston, its right on the coast, most things are within walking distance, and it even had a street that reminded me of Comm Ave, lined with trees and brownstone-esque buildings and a square that reminded me a lot of Copley. But once you got off of the main streets, and wandered a little bit, you realized again that you were in Spain. The set up of the streets are a lot like Italy in that buildings are really close together and a lot of smaller streets connect hidden gems nestled in the middle of city blocks, like the Picasso Museum and the Santa Maria Church (both completely obscured from view from the main streets, but tucked away in little back alleys).
Gaudi, the artist/architect from Spain was also a HUGE influence on the city of Barcelona. His architecture is a little bit out of the ordinary and covered in mosaics of brightly colored tiles. His main work in Barcelona was unbelievable. The Segrada Famiglia as it is called, is a chapel that has bee under construction for 300 years. Its construction is fueled by anonymous donations alone, so it still has yet to be finished. It is probably the most outrageous religious building you will ever see. It towers well above most buildings surrounding it, and with its 18 towers and hundreds of turrets covered in the brightly mosaic-ed tiles, at first glance you're not sure if you're staring at a church or a giant wedding cake. Words simply can't express how interesting and intricate this building is, and its not even finished yet! Gaudi also created a number of other buildings and a park area. The park greets you with two giant gingerbread looking houses and and entranceway staircase covered in the trademark mosaics. the most famous peice of this staircase is a beautifully represented lizard. And at the top of the stairs is an informal sitting area with a winding row of benches surrounding a oval shaped portion of land, and the benches are just as beautifully ornamented with his signature color scheme as the rest of the architecture he created. And the view of Barcelona is unbelievable as well!
Soccer is also huge in Spain, so naturally we took a look at their football stadium, also really cool. It technically just looks like any other stadium, but if you imagine it full of people (literally no empty seats anywhere) and these people are decked out in their favorite teams colors, screaming their heads off, like only passionate Spanish residents can, it is quite the site to see!
They also held the 1992 Olympic Summer games in Barcelona and the "port Olympic" as it is now called was also quite amazing to see. There was another stadium where most of the games were held, and an interestingly shaped building where the athletes were housed for the duration of the games. Also, one of what I thought was the coolest parts, was a park opposite the stadium and all along the park were flag poles and during the Olympic Games, each flag pole held the flag of one of the countries competing in the games. Not so cool now that they're empty, I suppose, but if you walked down that strip of park area in 1992 amidst all of those flags flying, I think it would be really interesting.
Barcelona's nightlife is a little out of control. Luckily I didn't experience too' too much of it. We went out at night, because socialization is a big part of getting to know a country. And while it was interesting to be out an about in such a beautiful city, at the time we went out a lot of the area was dead. Apparently, bars are open until 2 or 3 in the morning and then at that point, the clubs and discos open. Apparently this is a HUGE part of Spanish nightlife, however, it was a art that I did not get to see. I'm not quite sure how the Spanish manage to operate on so little sleep, but apparently I'm not European enough, because I simply couldn't stay out and awake until 5, 6 or 7 in the morning! I keep kind of thinking to myself that that was was a pretty lame move, not staying out as late as the Spanish, but then I think, if I could operate on 2 hours of sleep, then maybe I could've done it. All I know is that even with a siesta (the break the Spanish take midday, and EVERYTHING shuts down for the equivalent of kindergarten nap time) the Spanish are pretty amazing people to be so energetic on so little sleep all of the time. Bravo Spaniards, Bravo!
The last thing I did in Barcelona though, was possible the coolest, my roommate and I got up really early and watched the sun rise over the Mediterranean Sea. Not only did we literally have the best, most obstructed view of the sunrise, but the colors were magnificent! IT was literally the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen! And it definitely helped that I was experiencing it in Barcelona, the sun seems a bit brighter there :) Sadly after that it was back to Italy I went, but it was interesting to see the sun set in Italy and think, I saw the sun rise in a completely different country that I am seeing it set in and neither is the country I come from. Unreal. Simply unreal.