Barthelona Barthelona

With only four hours of rest after a night out in Cordoba, I headed to the bus station for the first leg of my first trip of the program. Destination? Barcelona, a prized city in the northwestern portion of Spain. Three bus rides and a flight later i arrived in the early evening with Mariko at an apartment of a friend that is currently living and studying in the city. So began our adventure in this new, and in my opinion very strange place.

Barcelona is, in reality, a very precious city. Its main squares, the plazas,are adorned with magnificant fountains, eateries, and local shops that extend for what it seems to be miles. This weekend was exceptional in that it was the festival "La Merce", which means that these areas were even more bustling and lively than usual. Add an array of concerts, events such as "the fire run", the creation of a human wall, plus a whole bunch of mimes wandering the street and trying to entice different crowds, instead of a city you got yourself a gigantic fiesta to end all fiestas. My Saturday here was full of sightseeing. A good friend of Mariko's is studying in Barcelona as well and her knowledge of a lot of the different places here is astounding and really helped us really see the city for what it truly is. The main attractions here are the many different construction projects done by the famous artist Gaudi, and man are they some sort of spectacular. My favorite one? Of course the prized church "La Sagrada Familia." This church, although construction began a way long time ago is yes, still under construction. The continuous building of this monument is dependent on public donations, so when the public gives more money, more can get finished. Even though this monument is still unfinished, it is still impossible to not stare at it with mouth and eyes wide open. Towering high above you in the clouds, it is filled with various carvings of Biblical stories. The whole church is like 50 million eye-popping sculptures. I'm not even an art history buff but tears easily came to my eyes when I saw this place.

Like I said the city of Barcelona is precious, although, in my opinion something a little different can be said about the people.(Before i left, Poli, my senora warned me that while the city is beautiful, la gente? she says, son feas!) A lot of my knowledge of this place, like i said is only drawn from being there for a little more than a full day and a half, but was assisted a lot from hearing the experiences with the people and the place told by Mariko and I's friends that live there. So, here it goes. Barcelona is the capital of the region of Catalonia in Spain, and apparently there is a lot of political drama involved with this region and the rest of the country. Catalonia considers itself to be a "separate' region from the rest of the country. This can be easily viewed in their creation of a different language Catalan, their "diverse" or "unique" form of dress, their elimination of bullfighting in the region and as it seemed to me, their bad attitude towards everyone that is not from Catalonia. (This whole rebelious desire to be independent stemmed from the conquering of this region by Spain like over three hundred years ago. I guess they like to hold grudges.)

I like to think of the relation of Catalonia to the rest of Spain in this way.Say you have a family that is really close knit and loves each other a lot. Then there is like one son that is always a problem, and has been rebelling since he was like fourteen, for really no reason at all, except now the son is like forty, and his only contact with his familiy is when he stumbles in late and really drunk every year on Thanksgiving, and always picks a fight with his older sister or something. Just imagine the derranged son is Catalonia and the rest of the family is Spain. The youth of Catalonia are what cracks me up. Their appearance can be described in the way. If you take a teenager in the U.S who is going through his punk phase in high school, add some lip piercings, a rat tail, or an intense mullet, whichever you prefer, plus a good amount of negative shower time, you have a teenager from Catalonia. (My favorite sight was a mullet made out of dreadlocks, que guapa!)( I got super excited this weekend too because I got to see many many baggy pants, something i dearly had been missing in the U.S.) I mean it's cool I guess that they want to dress that way, different cultures have different views of what defines beauty, so i can't judge the mullet right?? Gahh it's so hard!!

All in all I definitely think going to Barcelona was an experience worth having, but I sure did miss my Andalucians. When my final bus arrived in Cordoba Sunday afternoon, and I walked in the door to have Poli greet me, man was I glad to be.....home? Yes, home.