Barcelona II!

The third day of our Barcelona trip started out at the beach.  Barcelona has not always been a beach town, and wasn’t actually even that popular with tourists until they hosted the 1992 Olympics.  In preparation of the Olympics they tore down the Industrial area of the city, and made a beach with sand from Egypt and palm trees from Hawaii.  We sat on the beach and enjoyed the people and the scenery.  There were people walking around selling drinks, food, sunglasses, and weirdly enough massages.  It wasn’t especially warm while we were there, so we didn’t swim.  However, apparently the sun was much stronger than we thought, because after just an hour and a half, we were all sun burnt.  I was bright red, and very uncomfortable for the rest of the trip. 

After the beach, we went to Montjuic, or the Jewish Mountain.  The mountain was where the Jewish cemetery was located, and also the location of the Olympic stadium.  We were planning on going to the museum about the Olympics, but found it closed when we got there.  So we just went inside the stadium and walked around.  It was huge!  I can only imagine what it must have been like when the games were happening.  We walked around the rest of the area dedicated to the Olympics.  There were a lot of fountains, and a couple buildings where different events took place.  I had been disappointed because you could not get down to the track that was used.  However, we found an area with a big circular fountain.  I decided it was close enough to a track and challenged one of my friends who is also a runner to a race around the fountain, just so I can say that I have run at an Olympic stadium.  After the Olympic stadium we walked by a big palace at the top of the mountain.  We also saw the Magic Fountain.  It does “performances” with music and lights, however only on Friday and Saturday, so we did not get to see a performance.

Monday we had planned on going to the Picasso Museum and the City History Museum, but when we looked them up to get directions discovered that both are closed on Mondays.  We were feeling a bit defeated, but decided to improvise.  In the lobby of our hostel was a big display of brochures advertising things to do in Barcelona.  After looking through them, we decided to go to the aquarium.  We ended up having a great time.  They had interesting exhibits.  They even had a giant tunnel that goes through a big tank, so when you walk through sharks and other fish are swimming right next to you.  Also, I tried to read all the information in Spanish, not English, so we learned a lot of new vocabulary. 

The aquarium is right by the beach, and at very close to Las Ramblas, so after we left we decided to just walk around and revisit all of our favorite places.  It was our last full day, and it was nice to just take it easy and walk around.  We went back through the Gothic center, and walked up Las Ramblas again.  We also found this great store called Happy Pills.  The whole store was just gummy candies, and you fill up “pill bottles” with them.  Then you get to put a prescription on the bottle.  I chose “Universal Remedy”, but they also had stickers for Mondays, for Sundays without futbol, for Sundays with futbol.  My friends and I got a huge kick out of the store.  After walking around for a few hours we decided to go back to the hostel.  As much as I loved Barcelona, I was pretty thrilled that I only had one more night of sleeping in a dorm with 11 other people. 

Tuesday morning we woke up early.  We were planning on getting to the airport around 1 for our flight at 4, but thought if we got up early enough we would be able to make it to the Picasso Museum.  We checked out of the hostel and got on the metro for the last time.  When we got off the metro, I went into a store and asked the employee if he knew where the museum was.  He told me that I should walk towards the big white building across the street.  I got outside to find about six or seven big white buildings across the street and decided that he probably didn’t know where the museum was.  After stopping in two more stores and one hotel, we were still lost.  Time was running out, and we sat on a bench to try and find the museum on a map.  We made the decision to just give up, and started walking back towards Las Ramblas.  About thirty seconds after getting up, we found the museum.  It was closed.  I thought I was going to die laughing.  Two of my friends also found this very amusing, the third was somewhat mad that we could have gotten two more hours of sleep.  We decided to just go over to the airport a little early, since we didn’t feel like walking through the city with our bags. 

Although I had a lot of fun in Barcelona, I was very ready to head back to Granada.  I am comfortable in Granada, and like that I don’t feel like a tourist there anymore.  I have been here about three months now, and only have one month left.  One month may seem like a lot, but I know it is going to go by so fast.  On the plane to Barcelona, one of my friends was thinking about leaving and started to cry.  It wasn’t long before the rest of us were in tears.  We made quite the spectacle of ourselves.  I am getting excited to go home and see everybody, but it is going to be sad to leave Spain.  However, I am not going to think too much about leaving yet.  I still have quite a bit to do and see here.