The second week in Barcelona went even quicker than the first one after an eventful weekend outside the city. Days pretty busy at school, evenings often in either Born or Gracia barrios – usually after a brief and well deserved siesta. Highlights included a really nice dinner at Carpe Diem, visits to Monjuic fortress, Tibidabo and La Boqueria market. Russia was also off to a spectacular start at the world cup. Next stop is Ibiza for Sean’s bachelor party after saying goodbye to Laura who returned home. I certainly need to come back to Barcelona – two weeks don’t do this great city any justice.
La Boqueria Market
I love hanging out in this market be it that its central location make it pricey and a rather popular tourist destination. Felt a little bit like our outdoor spanish class in Medellin’s Minorista market to train fruit & vegetable vocab. You can sample all sorts of fruit, jamon and other artesian stuff at La Boqueria. I wouldn’t recommend coming here for your weekly shopping trip though :o) anyway, a beer with a bit of serrano always lightens up my mood.
Tibidabo
Tibidabo is the highest mountain in the city (512m) offering superb views. There you find the pretty Sagrat Cor church and, if you are into this stuff, an amusement park (felt pretty deserted compared to the masses of tourists elsewhere in Barcelona).
Monjuic fortress
Hidden well behind the more prominent National Art Museum of Catalonia lies the historically important Barcelona fortress. It is very well maintained, offers great views over port as well as downtown barcelona and it worth a visit.
Inside you find pretty informative rooms laying out the history and importance of the fortress to Barcelona and Catalonia overall. There was also an exhibition on the history of education in Spain and Catalunia with some interesting facts. Not quite the size and prominence of my home town fortress, but really well maintained and worth half a day of your time.
This fortress is to Barcelona what the Bastille was to Paris or the Peter and Paul fortress to Saint Petersburg.
– Joseph Kessel, Argentina
Spanish school finished
Admittedly my spanish has come a long way in the past two weeks as grammatical options as well as vocabulary stepped up a level. It was also great fun and well organised… I really recommend Camino Barcelona school!
