The day we arrived in Barcelona was the day of a general labor protest in Spain. After the huge gathering of people we saw in Lisbon for their strike, the strike in Barcelona seemed much smaller but was still no less full of action. We had our usual educational portion of the trip where we visited the historic district and learned a bit about the history of this region.
During our time off we took some went to see what the protest was all about - this is a part of the cultural experience, after all.
The highlight of the trip, and one of the primary reasons why I wanted to study in Spain in the first place, was visiting La Sagrada Familia, Antonio Gaudi's masterpiece in Barcelona- stunning in ways a photograph cannot capture.
We got to see lots of Gaudi's work at the Park Güell
and later visited Salvador Dali's museum
The next part of the trip was spent in a coastal town - I especially appreciate the fact that Stanford gives us swanky hotels on the beach for trips like these :)
Beautiful location + lots of free time + late nights = good times right from the start. I have a feeling that the #whatshouldwecallme memes we passed around last quarter will make a reappearance.
Our trip back from Barcelona was long and tiring. We stopped about halfway through to visit El Monasterio de la Piedra, which was this beautiful reserve with waterfalls and a walking trail all around. It was the perfect way to stretch our legs and get the blood circulating back into our brains.
I love traveling and I really enjoy our trips with the program, but I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief to be back in Madrid and know I can take some time to decompress from all the bus rides I have had over the past 2 weeks.
So awesome that you got to visit Salvador Dali's museum!
ReplyDeleteAnd that waterfall looks amazing!