This was the first time I ever traveled abroad without an adult, where I was completely responsible for myself, my transporation, my accomodations, my meals, everything. It was downright thrilling! Getting in early the first day was nice, because we had a relaxed time navigating public transportation in the city and finding our hostel, where we then took a long nap to make up for the two hours of sleep the night before (it was an intensely emotional farewell evening with everyone from our program...more on that in another entry). Admittedly, all the planning that went into this trip, and the crazy last minute crunch of work and school and goodbyes and packing made things stressful up until the moment we reached our hostel...but after that, our time there was some of the most relaxed semester-detox I could have ever asked for.
The weather was absolutely stunning - winter in Amsterdam has not been too bad, mostly just chilly and a lot of rain...in Barcelona, the sun was out in a cloudless, blue sky every day, with the temperature in the high 60s most of the time. I walked around in a t-shirt during the day (and light jacket at night.) We hiked all over the city, through touristy districts, through residential areas, to all the sites, up mountains, down beaches, pretty much everywhere...using tourist guides at our hostel (which was fantastic), we picked out all the places we wanted to go, and made it happen: Gaudi architecture was what we had heard most about, so we made it to Casa Batllo,
Casa Mila,
,the Sagrada Familia
and Park Guell,
all of which were really awesome. In Park Guell, Becca and I spent our only time the entire trip apart, as I decided to hike up to the top of the mountain, and she read at the bottom. Although the view wasn't all that different from what we got from other places we visited, it was nevertheless quite spectacular, and well worth the solo hike :)
We also went up to Mount Montjuic (by the Funicular Tram, what fun!) and went to the Miro museum, a surreal experience of art in a zillion different creative mediums (media?)...
After the museum, we walked over the contemporary art museum...on the steps of which we could overlook all of Barcelona
and thus began our long series of photos of the entire city, as we spent much of our time in belvedere-like overlooks, just basking in the sun (we even both managed to score a bit of sunburn in our time there...in December!) taking siestas, and talking about life. We went to the Castell our first evening, where many of the old cannons are still in place (albeit covered in graffiti) and decided to stay up there until the sun went down.
The hostel situation was interesting...we were in a four-bed room. We had two Austrian guys as roommates the first couple nights, and they were pretty nice. Although they managed to walk in on both me and Becca naked (changing after showers) on separate occasions, it was only a *little* awkward; they were very respectful and good-humored about the whole room-sharing business. Then we got a new roommate after they left, an older German guy who spoke very little English, and mostly just lay in his bed all day long, shamelessly keeping his eyes trained on us any time we were in the room. That was a *lot* awkward...
We also spent an afternoon at Poble Espanyol, a little Spanish village - it was cute,
but kind of a waste of money/time, as it was largely a money trap...five Euros to get in, but there wasn't anything to do once you were in except eat and shop. We did, however, watch a glassblower at work, crafting a little glass horse in about forty seconds flat, and that was pretty sweet.
The last day we were there, we walked the entire length of the city (from Park Guell) to the beach! We played there until the sun went down
at which point we walked over to the Picasso museum...which was really interesting, it was more of a biographical museum detailing the evolution of Picasso's work through his years as an art student, apprentice, and eventual artist - a lot of the stuff was actually pretty mediocre, but I personally found it fascinating to see how his art progressed through his years in art school, and eventually became the kind of art for which he is famous.
Above all, it was really fabulous to travel with Becca; both of us marveled over the fact that we didn't even know each other a few months ago, and there we were alone in a foreign city together, spending days on end with each other and never tiring of one another's company and conversation.
A few more reflections on the culture there...
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The animal rights activist in me had to post about this:
Inside this box are several hundred birds, including canaries, parakeets, parrots, chickens, roosters, and turkeys. They are all crammed into tiny, tiny cages and sold as pets on the street during market hours. In off-hours, the whole box is shut up with all the animals inside. Thick as the walls of the box are, you can still hear all the screeching and chirping and cock-a-doodle-dooing inside as you walk by; it's oppressive and awful and made me want to cry inside.
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On a more positive note, though, Barcelona was the most wheelchair-accessible city I've ever been to. It's not something I ever paid a lot of attention to before getting enlightened at Oberlin about disability rights, but I've started paying more attention to that sort of thing, and I was really, really impressed by how much Barcelona works to make their city accessible to everyone...ramps, elevators, and wheelchair-lifts everywhere we went.
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A few of my friends that have visited Amsterdam, as well as some other backpackers I've met who've traveled to Amsterdam, have all expressed amazement that I've studied abroad here. They experienced it as a crazy, crazy city full of hookers and drug addicts...it's really amazing the different kinds of experiences you have being a tourist verses actually living somewhere. To me, Amsterdam is not that much of a party city at all; it's a relatively calm, quiet, small city, the only one I've ever been to where I feel consistently safe being out alone at night...whereas I can't imagine ever living in Barcelona, given the fact that Becca and I were cat-called, whistled at, and even occasionally grabbed at by men pretty much everywhere we went. Going there was fantastic for a few days, but it's been a huge relief, for me, to be back in my lovely, peaceful A'dam :)
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P.S. If you're still interested, a few more photos of our adventures can be found here: http://oberlin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027213&l=3e8f6&id=4302953
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