Spain: Day III (Barcelona)

Friday, August 5^th:

The Olympic Courtyard and Estadio Olympico:

            What a long but incredible day and night! Today started out as the others have, sleeping in a little bit before heading out sightseeing. Matt had not been to Las Ramblas, and Max and I had not been there in daylight, so we started our day in that direction. Las Ramblas is far less sketchy during the day, and the shops that line the street are really quite charming. There is also much less, if any drug traffic during the day, so that is one positive note.

Fruits and Vegetables in Mercat St. Josep:

Candy in Mercat St. Josep:

We spent a little time wandering down Las Ramblas before ducking into a beautiful and crowded market called Mercat St. Josep La Boqueria. This is one of the prettiest markets I have ever been in, as all of the fruit, vegetables, candy, fish, meat, and shellfish are all laid out in gorgeous fashion, and the lighting really accentuates the color of everything the eye can see. It actually reminded me a lot of the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey that I had visited in the Spring. It was, however, very crowded, and making us very hungry. Since we had no means of really cooking our own food, we decided to find a place to stop for lunch, and we settled on a place called Rita Blue, a little shop where we drank some Cava and Regular Sangria and ate Beef Carpaggio and Tortilla Chips with Guacamole.

The Estadio Olympico (1992 Summer Games):

            After lunch we continued our wandering to the West, a part of the city we had not yet explored. We walked and walked for what seemed like hours, until we stumbled upon the area where the 1992 Olympic Village was! It was pretty cool to walk through the beautiful gardens and less-crowded architecture on the way to the Olympic Stadium. We did get to go inside the massive Olympic Stadium, and we actually spent a few hours on the grounds—I actually caught a couple hours of naptime on the base of the Olympic Torch structure. This part of the city also offers some cool views into the adjacent valley, still part of Barcelona, where the big office buildings are. The city really is quite huge.

The National Art Museum of Catalonia:

            All of the wandering around the Olympic Village really took up a good portion of our day. We walked all the way back (which took about an hour) to our hostel to rest up for a long night. My friend Sam Day, who spent a semester abroad in Barcelona, gave us a good idea of what we were in for that night. According to him, the game-plan is to have some drinks before heading to the clubs, because the drinks there are far too expensive (he was right, they are more than ten euro per cocktail!). He also suggested to dress our best, and to show up with girls if at all possible, because the bouncers aren’t very inclined to let a group of American males into their clubs. These clubs also have cover charges, and since everyone takes a Siesta nap during the day, nobody shows up until around 1am. They also spend the rest of the night partying and dancing at the clubs, and watch the sunrise over the Mediterranean at around 7am. Yikes!

The Lliure Theatre in the Olympic Village:

            We did decide to follow his advice, however, so we rested up and woke again at around 10pm for our long night. We grabbed some food at a Tapas restaurant called Txapela, where we stuffed ourselves with basically everything on the menu, before beginning our real adventure. We started the night again at the basement bar of our hostel before walking across the city to the clubs on the beach. Thanks to Matt, we drank some wine on the way as well. Once we got there, we decided to go into the club called Opium Mar, one of the trendiest in the city. We got inside with little issues, and had an absolute blast. It was pretty crowded, but the music was lively and we had a great time. The time really flew by, and since we got there at around 2am it quickly got to be around 5am without us even noticing. We made our way out onto Barceloneta Beach and hung out, jumping in the water a bit, and watching the sun come up until about 7am. I even met some kids from Swampscott, Massachusetts, a neighboring town to my hometown of Marblehead! All-in-all it was a really fun and crazy night, and the only casualties were Collins’s phone and wallet…

Las Ramblas: