Benvinguts a Barcelona!

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” ~ James Michener

After a long, tiring, and treacherous “swim” across the pond, we finally made it to Barcelona, Spain. We began our time in Barcelona waiting in a long line to get through customs. As we hit the streets of the fabulous Capitol of Catalonia, we all were exhausted, although greatly enthusiastic about the two week journey that lied before us. Today held learning experiences, cultural flavor and a bit of confusion for some of us. Our substitute tour guide, Helena, (because Suzanna was feeling sick) awaited us at the airport. She kindly welcomed us and led us toward a charter bus that would take us into the city and to our hotel. The ride into the city was filled with fun and interesting facts provided by Helena, which began much of our new knowledge of Barcelona. We passed many famous landmarks of Barcelona on our way into the city including an old bull fighting arena, which now is used as a shopping mall. We arrived at our hotel to drop off our luggage and then began to walk the streets.

Helena guided us through the main tourist attractions that we needed to see, but mainly the city market, La Boqueria. It was prefect because it was time for lunch.  You can learn so much about a culture through food.  We were given free time to roam around the city market. Many of us tasted some satisfying as well as some not so satisfying fruit juices and fruit popsicles, and also wandered the market in search of other goodies to find including multiple fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, Iberico ham, assorted meats and more.

Here we discovered some interesting facts about the Spanish/Catalan culture.  The Spanish LOVE pork and the leg of the pig was proudly displayed all over the market.  Seafood is also very different in its presentation; did you know that the head is attached with almost every purchase of seafood? At the market, seafood and chicken are sold at the market with the head attached. Another cultural difference that we noticed were dog owners. Many people of Spain bring their dogs along with them everywhere they go. We saw dogs in the airport, on the streets, in cafés, and at the city market. Our tour guide Helena said that since most people live in small apartments with little to no air conditioning it is too hot for the dogs to stay inside all day.

See the Iberico Jamon in the background!

 

After leaving the city market we walked down to where the Mediterranean flows into Barcelona. As the temperature continued to rise, our energy levels decreased and our feet began to give out on us, we continued down a long stretch of sidewalk that paralleled the old city. Thirsting for a bottle of water we then continued to walk into the medieval part of the city and walked around the outside of a church we will tour tomorrow (Santa Maria del Mar). We were then given some free time to explore, shop, cool down and rehydrate. We later were led back to the hotel to catch up on some rest before dinner.

Suzanna began to feel better and met up with us for dinner. We enjoyed a seven course meal which included fresh tomato bruschetta with garlic, seafood casserole, vegetable casserole, calamari, gazpacho, seafood paella, and a final course of delicious dessert. After dinner Suzanna guided us on a night walk through Barcelona and we stopped to visit a few houses that the famous Spanish artist, Antonio Gaudí, designed. We walked to a house designed by Gaudí named the Batlló house. It is a key figure in modernist architecture of Barcelona. Seeing the beautiful house lit up at night was gorgeous. The roof of the house almost looks like the skin of a dragon with each tile looking like a scale. The balconies looked similar to masquerade masks and the pillars of the house looked like bones. A fun fact that Suzanna told us about the Batlló house is that if one was interested in renting the house for a party or wedding, it costs 5,000€ a hour. For long parties or weddings that adds up quickly! After visiting the Batlló house many of us were anxious to get back the hotel and get a good night sleep to be ready to take on day two in Barcelona.

 

 

Batlló house

 

 

Our first day roaming the streets of Barcelona also brought about some challenges. Communication with those who speak Catalan (the local language, a mix of Spanish, French and Italian) was quite difficult for some of us. Simply ordering a bottle of water in a cafè was not as simple as it sounds and as a French student myself, responding "oui" instead of "si" usually attracted some odd looks. Many of us also learned that jaywalking is never permissible. And in the words of Mr. Bizga, "DO NOT RUN ACROSS A STREET WITH A RED LIGHT!  IF YOU DO NOT WAIT FOR THE LITTLE GREEN MAN YOU WILL DIE."  Heading his warning we all will be more careful and patient and look both ways.

 

Today was a wonderful start to our European experience and we cannot wait to see what lies ahead of us in the next two weeks. Despite some of our ignorance to the culture, we have already learned an abundance about Barcelona that we did not know before and we will continue to adapt to this unfamiliar country.