Days 2, 3, and 4 in Spain (June 25, 26, and 27)

The four days I spent in Barcelona have been non-stop! I haven’t had one second to write and update my blog, because I have been running around literally all day and night!

My visit to Barcelona can pretty much be summed up in two words: deliciousness and exhaustion. Please beware, this bog post contains a many descriptions of food, so sorry for those of you who find that to be redundant/boring! It happens to be one of my favorite things to think/talk about, so I have a feeling that might be the theme of more than one future post. : )

Something that I forgot to mention about the first day in Barcelona is the fantastic lunch that I had that day. We were in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona when we walked by this old, tavern-looking bar called Sagardi. At first it looked a little sketchy, but when we went inside it was very elegant. The inside of the restaurant had this long bar with platters and platters of piled with tapas! (Tapas, by the way, are just little bites of food.) At this restaurant, you ask for a plate at the bar and then just grab whatever you want to eat. Each bite is on a piece of bread with a toothpick in it – you leave your toothpicks on the plate and when you go to pay, the bartender just adds up how much you owe according to the number of toothpicks. I had delicious jamon, some soft cheese (reminded me of goat cheese, but can’t be sure), a mushroom croquette, and tortilla (potato and egg omelet). Yum…all of my favorite foods in one place!

Thursday night (the first night in Barcelona), I went to this AWESOME restaurant located semi-close to Placa Catalyuna. It’s customary in Spain to eat later, so we went around 10:30 pm. The restaurant was called Tapas 24 and we went there because one girl in my program, Haley, had eaten at a restaurant owned by the same chef and said it would probably be just as good. It was a small restaurant with mostly counter seating. Because we were such a big group (12 of us ended up going together from the ship) and the restaurant was so busy, the hostess sat us as there was space available in smaller groups. I ate with Erin and Haley, who take eating very seriously. So naturally, we all get along well. : ) My FAVORITE part of the night was that Haley, Erin and I sat at the bar (it was all bar seating) and got to watch the kitchen as they prepared the food and beverages. It was so cool.
The tapas that night were SO incredibly good. We ordered one delicious tapa after another – grilled buffalo mozzarella and truffle sandwiches, MORE croquettes, patatas bravas (fried potatoes with 2 sauces – creamy mayo and spicy tomato…omg!), lamb and chicken skewers, and more tortilla (of course!). My hands-down favorite item of the night, though, was pan con tomate, which is exactly what it sounds like – bread with tomato. There was one man in the kitchen whose only job was only to crank out dishes and dishes of the pan con tomate. It was fascinating! He just toasted the bread, cut a ripe tomato in half, rubbed the tomato on the bread, gave it a quick squirt of good Spanish olive oil, added a tiny pinch of salt and was on to the next batch before you knew it. I know it sounds so simple, but I am telling you it would NEVER taste that good when I make it at home. The pan-con-tomate man is a magician. ‘Nuff said.

The drinks that night also made that meal totally special. We started the meal with a bottle of red wine from a local region in Spain and we finished the meal with a pitcher of sangria made from cava (which is like Spanish champagne) as well as rum, brandy, and cointreau (orange liqueur). It was yellow and bubbly and tasted citrus-y. It was totally refreshing after a long, satisfying meal. Afterwards, we walked around the city and then, of course, there was dancing long into the night. Ah. Barcelona!

On Friday, I visited the University of Barcelona in the morning with my class. My professor Kathy and her partner, Keith, took us to one of the campuses in Barcelona. We weren’t able to have a tour, unfortunately, because we were there during their final exam period, but we walked all around the building/complex. The interior honestly reminded me of Hogwarts –it had grand staircases, huge tapestries and paintings on the walls, scary statues, and lofty ceilings. No moving pictures, though. 

After the tour, I went with Greg and Colleen (2 other Student Affairs at Sea-ers) to check out El Corte Ingles, which is the main department store here (the “Macy’s” of Spain). We got some picnic food – a baguette, some good cheese, spicy Catalan sausage, and grapes and then ate outside in the Plaqa de Cataluña near the Font de Cataletes. Totally fun and relaxing afternoon.
Afterwards, we met up with more friends to tour the Sagrada Familia (“Holy Family” church) – one of the most beautiful places in the world (in my opinion!). The church itself is incomplete. It started being built in 1882 and construction continues today. It is one of the greatest works of the famous architect/artist Gaudi and is a symbol of the city, for sure! I visited this church when I was in Barcelona last, but it was cool to see the progress that they have made in the past two years! Mostly the interior was more complete than the last time I saw it. Although the pamphlet says that construction should be completed by 2030, some believe that it may not be finished in our lifetime. That’s weird to wrap my head around. It’s also cool that the funds from the tourists’ admission fees go directly to the continuing of the construction, so when you visit, you can feel as if you are becoming a part of the building process.

On Friday night there was a World Cup futbol (soccer) game between Spain and Chile. We watched it in a touristy tapas bar in Las Ramblas (the main pedestrian street), expecting there to be a big celebration when the Spanish team won. It was funny, though, because there was not really a big reaction at all when they did! I think all of the Spaniards must have been at home watching the game on their own TV’s! After the game, we went out to the waterfront area which is a crazy stretch of about 20 or so bars/clubs. It wasn’t too-too busy that night (surprising), but there were a lot of people out and about. We danced and hung out until about 3 AM or so. On the cab ride home, I jumped in the front in order to give the driver directions back to the pier. It was an awesome experience because my Spanish was as fluid as it’s ever been! I really had like a ten minute conversation with the driver completely in Spanish! (And we understood each other! Mostly. haha) I got out of the car and my friends (who were in the back and didn’t talk during the ride) were like, “Sarah! We didn’t know you could speak Spanish like that!” haha Honestly, neither did I! To put things into perspective - I am definitely not claiming to be fluent here, but it was nice to know that I remembered more Spanish than I thought I did!
The next day, we (Erin, Haley, Colleen, Greg, and I) woke up a little later then we had planned (about 11 am), grabbed an early lunch on the ship, and then took off for the main Renfe train station in Barcelona. With only a slight delay (we accidentally got on a train going in the opposite direction – whoops!), we hopped a train out to Villa Franca, a small town about an hour outside of Barcelona. I’m so glad that we had the time to do this. The little town was totally sleepy and cute and the train ride there was gorgeous. There were vineyards and farms and beautiful wineries all along the way. Once we got to our destination, we jumped into a few cabs and drove about 5 minutes to the Torres Vineyard. It was huge! I thought it would be this little place, but it was a giant complex with tons of production buildings as well as vast fields of grapes! The tour we took was quite extensive. We first watched a short documentary about the history of the vineyard and the family who owned it (with special ear plugs to hear it in English, of course). Then we walked into a sensory tunnel – which was a tunnel with an I-max type wall and ceiling showing views of nature in the four seasons. While this was happening, you also heard sounds of those seasons and music, but they were also pumping scents into the tunnel, so when you saw flowers on the wall and heard bees buzzing like they do in summer, you also SMELLED a beautiful floral scent. It was supposed to highlight the differences between the different flavors/scents a wine can have – oaky, musky, etc. Very cool, except it gave everyone a little bit of a headache. We took the rest of the tour in a tram – it was well coordinated and informational. We drove through the buildings and the cellars, and then went to the main building for a tasting – I think we tasted about 8 wines total. It was amazing. Everything was so delicious! After picking up a few bottles to take home, we headed back to Barcelona for dinner at this great restaurant called Inopia. I know I have already raved about the food, but seriously. This was seriously my best meal in Spain.
Again, it was counter seating, so I ended up sitting with Greg and Haley. We started with a bottle of Cava and then proceeded to order a ton of delicious tapas. We enjoyed little toasts with creamy cheese and salmon (sprinkled lightly with dill and drizzled with honey), a jamon (ham), cheese, and truffle sandwich that was even MORE delicious than the night before (if you can believe it), a meat pie, more pan con tomate, little skewers of chicken, and lightly friend eggplant with an AMAZING balsamic, fig, and molasses reduction. It was unbelievable – and I am definitely trying that eggplant dish out at home. We finished the meal with a few bites of caramel cake. As we were sitting there, we saw the cooks making a tomato and tuna dish that looked mouthwatering, so we ordered that too – after dessert! Finest meal in Barcelona, without question.
That night, we came back to ship at 1:00 AM, showered, then went back out at 1:30AM for some night-time fun. This, my friends, is where the exhaustion part comes in since we didn’t get back until 5 AM! It didn’t matter though that it was late and we had been out all day…I might have been tired, but there was no way I was missing out on my last night in Barcelona!

Our final day in port, we went out for churros con chocolate near the Cathedral and happened to walk by as an amazing acrobatic group was building a human pyramid (about 6 or 7 people high!). Apparently, they do that every Sunday. We also happened to see these dancers who are people from the community who gather outside each weekend to do a traditional dance in the square outside the Cathedral. Our timing was impeccable! Afterwards, we hopped a bus to Park Güell to see the famous area designed by Gaudi. It was really hot outside, but also a very cool place to visit. After that, we headed back to the ship to check in and prepare for our voyage to Italy!

Ahh…it was so hard to stand on the deck and watch us sail away from the first port of this voyage! I just had such a great visit and (as much as I am looking forward to Italy) I am not ready to go! The people, the language, the food, the culture, the history….there are so many reasons why I am fascinated with this country. Even though we are sailing away now, I feel like a little part of myself is still in Spain – and somehow I know that I’m not done with Spain yet! I don’t know when or why, but I know I’ll be back someday…and I can’t wait!