The plane landing was anything but smooth, yet passengers exploded into applause once we hit the ground in the Barcelona airport. Instantly, we knew we were somewhere special.
I had heard so much about the city, it was hard to keep my excitement contained. I was prepared for the big things I would see and experience, like the La Sagrada Família cathedral and Barceloneta beach.
The unplanned moments, though, would be my favorites.
Friday: Antoni Gaudí and friends
Waking up early on Friday morning to go to Antoni Gaudí‘s La Sagrada Família was unwelcome at first. My throat was on fire and my head was pounding. Parched, I got water from the tap – it was safe, we were told, but tasted metallic and lukewarm.
Of course, almost everyone in my group had caught the same cold. But we were determined to work through the discomfort.
Walking the half hour to the cathedral was like walking in a hot, steamy cloud. The intense humidity eventually turned into a drizzle, which soon turned into a downpour with rumbling thunder.
Soaking wet, with only one umbrella between the seven of us, we finally got inside La Sagrada Família.
And it was like the walk had never happened.
Standing near the entrance, my roommate reached out her bare arm to me – even though the room was warm, she had goosebumps from the beauty of the space.
At first, the interior didn’t look natural. But when the audio guide told us Gaudí was significantly influenced by nature, it started to make sense. The columns lining the walls actually looked like long, swaying trees, with white branches stretching across the ceiling. He wanted the light to be harmonious throughout, like the light that comes through a forest canopy. The rainbow stained-glass windows around the cathedral helped him accomplish this, to a stunning effect.
Gaudí never finished the building during his lifetime, and it was still being constructed as we walked around. If we ever returned to La Sagrada Família, it surely would look different from how we found it.
The rain had stopped when we went outside, and we decided to head to Gaudí‘s Parc Güell next. Thinking the city would be easy to navigate on foot, we decided to walk.
We found out later just how spread out the city is. After getting a little lost for about an hour, the sky made a grumbling sound and rain started to pour again.
Eager to make the best of the situation, we wrapped scarves and sweaters over our heads and started skipping up a steep hill toward the park while singing “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?” from “The Sound of Music.”
People taking shelter under eaves on the street smiled weakly at us, either out of mild amusement or pity. Encouraged – and dripping from head to toe – we kept singing the whole soundtrack.
As fate would have it, the sun came out just as we approached the park entrance.
The whimsicality of the park struck me most. It reminded me of “Alice in Wonderland.” And the views of Barcelona from the top were unreal. I was definitely converted into a Gaudí fan.
As the day turned into evening, I started to feel down. My feet – and throat – were getting increasingly sore, and my energy was waning fast. But after a short siesta around 6 p.m., I was ready to get going again.
We headed to the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc in the center of the city. The water, illuminated with neon colors against the dark night sky, danced and sprayed in impressive bursts while pop music played. It was like a July 4 fireworks display.
I was mesmerized. During that 20-minute show, I forgot about the pain I had been feeling.
Saturday: Mercat de La Boqueria and Las Ramblas
Waking up without as much of a sore throat, but also without my voice, on Saturday was actually a welcome surprise. My energy was restored for a less touristy, more authentic Barcelona day, our last full one in the city.
I left with my beach towel, a homemade sandwich – wrapped in toilet paper to keep it fresh – and Spanish homeopathic throat spray, ready to take on the day.
La Boqueria, a large open market in the center of Las Ramblas, was our first stop of the morning, around the time when most of the locals go do their shopping.
It may be sacrilegious to say, but I was filled with the same kind of awe in La Boqueria that I did in La Sagrada Família.
The market was crammed with dozens of stalls offering colorful bins of candies, fruits, vegetables, olive oils, smoothies of every flavor and meat – organs and eyeballs included.
The market is quite expensive, but offers incredible quality. Eventually, we decided on some kiwi-mango and lemon-lime popsicles and left.
The Las Ramblas district lines the outside of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, which we headed to next. The old alleyways and churches in Gothic style twisted and turned around each bend, and we eventually found the Barcelona Cathedral.
But when we tried to walk in wearing shorts above the knee, they stopped us for failing to comply with the dress code. Trashy as it was, we fashioned long skirts out of our towels and walked inside, marveled at the architecture and drank from the “agua potable” fountain.
By afternoon, we were ready for the beach we’d heard so much about. It was so crowded with people that there was hardly room for us to spread out our five towels. Jumping into the warm sea – which my host mother says is like a soup – relieved our cramped toes and tired legs immediately.
After a whirlwind weekend of touring in the heat, the respite the water offered was more than welcome.
Later that evening, we were sitting on our rental apartment’s porch, eating platefuls of homemade pasta and swapping stories about our weekend’s activities. The sweetest moments we savored weren’t in the famous grand cathedrals or warm ocean waves, but rather the transitions in between. Practicing our Spanish with patient locals at the markets, singing at the top of our lungs in the rain and drinking cold, normal-tasting water from a public fountain in the park after walking for hours in the heat were some of the best parts of the trip.
We left on Sunday with so much left to see. But now, we have a reason to return.