SPAIN!

Hello all.

Last Friday, I jetted off to Barcelona, Spain with my second host mom (Malou), my host sister (Valérie) and her boyfriend (Lionel), my host mom's nieces (Marie and Guillaumine) and two of Valérie's friends (Oliver and Laura). We arrived late Friday night (after a bus scare -- my bus was 10 minutes late and we weren't sure I'd have a way to get all the way to the house... but it was fine. :) ) and, after dropping our suitcases off at the apartment we rented, we headed out for a glass of sangria and something to eat. It was a lot of fun just sitting around with everyone, talking and relaxing. When we arrived, we saw a large protest going on at the Plaça Catalunya (this will come back into the story, promise).

The next morning, we got up at about 10, and after everyone got ready, we walked to a boardwalk-like area a few streets away and began meandering around, taking pictures and embracing the Spanish sunshine. After a little while, we came across one of those tourist buses, and decided to tour Barcelona that way. I've always laughed at those tourists in the buses, snapping pictures everywhere, etc. But the bus ride was very informative, and I saw a lot of parts of Barcelona that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. After driving around that first day, we went out to dinner at a seafood restaurant. As I'm not really one for seafood, I had pasta instead. After that, we walked around the boardwalk a bit, before heading back to the apartment. On the way there, we decided that Olivier, Lionel, Marie, Guillaumine and I were going to go out and celebrate Lionel's birthday (June 7). We went out boire un verre (have a drink) for that, and partied it up with some natives. We didn't get home until about 3, so we were wiped out the next day.

Sunday, we took the bus again and went to La Sagrada Familia, the most beautiful church I've ever seen. Pope Benedict XVI visited a few years ago (2008?) and named it a basilica. It was started by the artist Gaudi in the early 1900s, and construction has been going on ever since (over 100 years!) and it's still not finished. The interior was completed a while ago, but the towers and the exterior are still being worked on. At the end, the church will have 18 towers:

1 for every apostle (12)

1 for each Evangelist (4)

1 for the Virgin Mary

1 (the largest) for Jesus. The work that has already been done is just extraordinary. The attention to detail is staggering. There are details in places I didn't know details could be! Visiting La Sagrada Familia was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip, because I knew I was standing in a part of history. It wasn't just some old church, it was a piece of art that has been worked on by countless men and women throughout the last century. Isn't that amazing?

After that, we continued our bus tour, but this time on a different route, and headed over to the Gaudi Park. While the word "park" usually invokes images of grass, trees, and greenery, this park was architecturally-based. It was full of colors and swirls and designs and shapes. Being in there kind of felt like being inside a kaleidoscope. We stopped and had lunch there, before going back to the apartment. That night, Lionel cooked pasta and a tomato/ham sauce, which was DEE-licious!

Monday, we all split up to do different things for the day. Lionel, Olivier and Guillaumine went to the beach and got some lovely sunburns; Malou, Laura and Valérie went shopping; and Marie and I were supposed to go to the Picasso museum, so we could at least say we did something cultural on our trip. ;P The museum was super close to our apartment, and we marched off in that direction after breakfast. We arrived a whopping 8 minutes later, only to discover that the Picasso Museum is closed on Mondays. Well then. We took some pictures of the signs that said it was closed (so we could give proof to Malou, haha) and then we jetted off to the Plaça Catalunya to pick up some gifts and to see what we could see. When we arrived, the afore-mentioned protest was still going on. We stopped and looked through some cardboard signs that had been left on the ground, and Marie took one home for a souvenir. It has a hand painted on it doing the rock symbol:

\m/

You know? With your pinky and your index finger sticking up, but your middle and ring fingers folded down? When I upload pictures to my computer, I'll put one up, okay?

After that, we hopped over to the Hard Rock Café so I could pick up a gift for Jordan. Marie bought one for her boyfriend, Hugo, as well. And we both bought bracelets for 2 euro to aid people in India. The woman working at the Hard Rock was super nice, and very interesting. She's originally from Columbia, and she had one of the most AWESOME tattoos I've come across. It's on her forearm, and it's an elephant from a Dalí painting. I don't know if you know much about Dalí, but he experimented with surrealism and such. His work is very interesting, I suggest you Google him.

After the Hard Rock, we went back to the protest and walked around some of the booths, talking to the people there, and learning about the protest. We found a guy who spoke French, so he explained it to us. That man speaks 5 languages: Spanish, Catalan (the local dialect in Barcelona), English, French, and Arabic. He was with the environmental group at the protest, who were making little ashtrays out of old soda/beer cans and giving them away for free. They made them the same way we made Christmas ornaments in RiverWatch last year. Just goes to show, the function of an item depends on how you look at it. He told us we were allowed to take one, as they were being given away for free, so we did, as a souvenir. After that we continued to walk around, and walked through an area where people were selling books as part of the protest. Next to that, there was a booth where you could get your shirt spray-painted with a message about the protest. Well, not being ones to miss out on the opportunity to get a protest shirt, Marie and I ran to H&M to get cheap tank tops to spray paint. We came back, and we found someone to explain the phrases to us in English (I then translated for Marie), as they were originally in Catalan, a language neither Marie nor I can speak. :P

Our shirts say:

HEM PERDUT LA POR

which translates to

We have lost the fear.

I like it a lot.

Note: Does anyone know the history of the Catalan language? I think it's a combination of French and Spanish, but I could be wrong. I've come to that conclusion for 3 reasons:

1. Barcelona is pretty close to the French border, so it's normal that the cultures would have inter-mixed

2. There is a ç in the word plaça, and probably other words as well. As far as I'm aware that little tail (called a cedille) is only present in the French language, and does not exist in Spanish.

3. The words "la por" mean "the fear." In French, the word fear is "la peur." Kinda similar, no?

After making our shirts, Marie and I went to one of the large fountains in the park to cool our feet off and to relax and enjoy the Spanish sunshine. While over there, we took some pictures, rocked our new shirts, had a random woman take a picture of us in the fountain, and met a group of Catalan teenagers. One of the girls in the group spoke English, and she and I talked about the protest (she told us we weren't allowed to wear protest shirts if we didn't know what they were protesting), the government, and corruption. Marie and I then explained to her that Belgium hasn't had a government in over a year (that's a record, folks). She didn't understand how that was possible, so we did our best to explain. But, in all honesty, I'm not even sure how that's possible. It's a bit of a pickle we're in, no?

After a bit, Marie and I headed back to the apartment and we met up with everyone there. Laura and Olivier were leaving that night, so we all said goodbye. That night we stayed in the apartment and ate the leftovers of Lionel's pasta, which was just as good as the first day. The next morning we were up bright and early (8 am or so...) and we packed up our things before heading out for just a little more shopping. A day or two earlier, Marie and I had found a super cool store called Happy Pills. I laughed when I saw the sign, and explained to Marie why we call anti-depressants "happy pills." We decided to go inside anyway, and it turned out to be a candy store! You choose your bottle size, and then fill it with any type of gummy candy you want. There were chili peppers that were super spicy (Marie and I found that out the hard way), giant strawberries, eyes and teeth, eggs sunny-side up (all candy, I promise!), and gummy worms!!!! We decided that these would be perfect gifts for some friends of ours, so we each made a bottle. After you fill it with candy, you can choose your "prescription." Most of these prescriptions were in Spanish or Catalan, but a few were in English. There were things like:

So the Force is with you

For days and nights without me

For all thoughts (positive or negative) about your ex

Against all stress

etc. etc. We took some extra prescription stickers just because they were so funny!

Anyway, on Tuesday we went back with Guillaumine, and she made a bottle for her boyfriend. While we were there, Marie decided to try one of the candies shaped like an eyeball. I am really freaked out by most body-shaped candy, and this was no exception. This was a BIG eyeball. Marie bit into it and there was goo inside of it!!!!! Ew. She said it was yummy, but I'll take her word for it.

We all met up at the apartment one last time, grabbed our suitcases, and off we went! We arrived back in Belgium at 5:45 or something, and I got home at about 7:30.

I must say, Spain was probably one of the (if not the) best trip I've been on so far. I really loved the atmosphere in Barcelona. The weather was beautiful (HOT!) and the sun was always shining. I would have liked to go to the beach, but unfortunately I didn't make it. I did see it, though, and it was gorgeous. Barcelona, while being a city of 3 million people, didn't feel like a big, dangerous place. Everyone was welcoming, the food was good (especially the ham. I LOVE Serrano ham), and it's a very liberal-feeling place. There were a lot of people with tatoos and piercings, a lot of different clothing styles.... It just seemed to me that even if you weren't what one considered "normal," you were still accepted and you were allowed to be yourself. I love that kind of place. Honestly, when I arrived, one of the first things I said to myself was, "Wait... Why didn't I exchange to Spain?" I really hope I'll be able to go back some day.