barça

barcelona was wonderful. sunshine and seaside and gaudí and fresh fruit and picasso. what more can you ask for? 

all of our mornings started with a stop at la boquería, which quickly became our favourite place in the city. 

la boquería from the outside

 conveniently located along la rambla just a few blocks from our hostel, the covered market was a treasure trove of delicacies: chocolate-covered strawberries on skewers, multitudes of empanadas containing various fillings, plastic containers filled with sliced mangoes or coconut chunks, sacks of dried fruit and nuts, stacks of argentine-style alfajores, hefty slices of egg and cheese tortillas. of course, there were also slabs of raw meat and fish, the occasional fin or tentacle dangling perilously into the walking aisle... but we won't talk about that.

throwbackkkkk

one scoop dark chocolate chili, one scoop mojito. so goooood.

manteca de cacahuete, anybody?

but what brought us back time after time were the smoothies. strawberry/kiwi? mango/coconut? papaya/maracuya? it was impossible to pick just one, and luckily they were priced so cheaply that we didn't have to. after 6 weeks of getting our carb quota in the form of buttery french pastries and cheap cereal and toast at hostels, the idea of overdosing on fresh fruit sounded like a veritable heaven.

on the right: a blackberry/coconut blend.

the other thing we fell in love with in barcelona was gaudí. the whole city is a love letter from the architect to his native catalunya. vibrant hues, swirling shapes, the absurd and the romantic entwined-- it's like the architectural equivalent of magical realism. even the parts of the city that weren't designed by gaudí share his flair for the marriage of whimsy and elegance.

we loved wandering around barrio gòtic, the old city.

a big priority for us to hit in barça was the museu picasso. 

on one hand, i feel like at this point declaring oneself a fan of picasso is a bit like declaring a love for abe lincoln, or for beyoncé. picasso is so much a part of the art canon that it almost seems silly- redundant, even- to say you're a fan. it's not cool or edgy to love picasso. 

and yet. the museum was phenomenal. maze-like and overwhelming, yes, but encompassing work from every era of picasso's life, starting all the way from his early teenage years. here's the deal about picasso: he was just so. damn. good. at. everything! throughout his life he experimented with (and created!) so many different styles and media and he was absurdly good at all of them, from his early realist work to the blue period to the rose period to cubism and even to ceramics. the museu's crown jewel, however, is the collection of all 58 paintings in las meninas, picasso's re-imagination of the titular velázquez painting. another highlight of the museum was the temporary exhibit, which consisted of work inspired by picasso, and showcased a variety of artists, including basquiat and condo. let's just say we saw everything there was to see in the picasso museum.

and now onward to the parks of barcelona, which are renowned. it's for good reason; they're beautiful. we climbed up to the top of parc de montjuïc and were rewarded with a panoramic view of the city... and a prime portrait-taking location.

the next day, we headed to the sagrada família. the ticket fee- even with a student discount- to visit the church and also go up the nativity tower (an added cost, but we'd heard it was worth it) was steep. we justified it as our one pricey tourist attraction in the city-- we were cheap about everything else, but is there really any point in going to barcelona if you don't see the sagrada família?

gaudí, you outdid yourself.

our fav sign in the adjacent museum... picturing a bunch of chileans sitting around just being like, "yo CHILL, we're working on it."

also a must-see was parc güell, another gaudí masterpiece.

when we weren't consuming smoothies or admiring art and architecture, we spent our time strolling along rambla de mar, catnapping on port vell, drinking sangria, attempting to find affordable tapas, having to navigate our way home from some random road where our cab driver abruptly dumped us because he slammed into a motorcyclist (yes, really), hitting up locals-only bars, fighting in two languages with our ridiculously awful french roommates, making friends with the vendors at la boquería, and having heart-to-hearts whilst walking down la rambla.

and of course, on our last night in barcelona-- the last night of the gap year, really-- where else would we find ourselves but clutching pints of guinness in an irish pub?

we toasted to the gap year, to friendships new and old, to adventures, to aprovecha-ing and profiter-ing our way through this year/life, to travel and to all the weirdness that inevitably comes with it.

salud, santé, prost, sláinte; it didn't matter what language we said it in. some sentiments are the same in every language.

cheers to the gap year.

x
M