Day 62 (Cruise day 6) - Barcelona, Spain

Wow Barcelona was beautiful today. We woke up in time to get ready before meeting everyone on the third deck before getting off the boat. Once on shore, we snagged a bus to Barcelona where we were going to meet up with Branden who has been in Barcelona for the entire week. We were going to meet him at the Christopher Columbus statue, but we got there so much earlier than we thought we would. Our bus took us straight to the statue and we didn't have to hassle with maps or other buses to get to our meeting point. At the top of the statue, Columbus can be seen pointing off in the distance. We were wondering if he was pointing to the new world an checked the compass, but apparently the Spanish government got it wrong when they built the monument and he's pointing out to India. It makes a sort of sense because that's what he was aiming for, but we learned later from Branden that the Spanish government really did get the direction wrong and in reality he's supposed to point to the Americas. 

 Columbus pointing to the East

Don't mind us, just hanging out

A rare Aggie David appeared!

He only wears an Aggie shirt once a semester, never gigs 'em, and we caught him on camera!!

We waited at the Columbus statue for a while, but soon wandered a little bit down the roar to look at various souvenirs while we waited. About 20 min later, Branden came down the road and we walked with him back the way he came so we could meet up with the three other people e was rooming with. Once we met up with them, we all went to a Spanish market and bought some juice that was absolutely delicious. It was all from natural juices and a few of us got different flavors. I think the one I had was made of chocolate, coconut, and banana and it was good! The market was what you would imagine a typical Spanish market would be with a bunch of different stalls all in one large area selling every type of food you could think of. Once we got our drinks, we hopped on the metro to go to the Segrada Familia basilica that's being built. And yes, that means a bunch of church pictures are about to show up. 

The Spanish market

Tricked you huh? don't worry, the flood of church pics will be soon.

But before them, a little bit about this church and why it's so important. It's been under construction or the past 400 years an is only about 60% done despite the original plan stating that it would be done 200 years ago. It's architecture was created by the famous builder Gaudi who used trees and paraboloids as his inspiration for the structure of the church. When it's finished it's supposed to have 16 spires (4 on 3 sides for the apostles, one for Mary, one for Joseph, one for St. Paul, and one in the center for Jesus) with three façades for the nativity, passion, and holy family (I think). On the outside, it doesn't look like much an you can definitely see here the old stone ends an the new stone begins on the nativity façade, but the inside is a completely different story. The stained glass windows were absolutely amazing to look at and the decorations on the ceiling and floors were so pretty. I'm not joking when I was in absolute awe at the view inside the church. At one point one of my friends looked at me and was mildly concerned at the tears in my eyes. Yes, it was that beautiful and I highly recommend anyone even mildly interested in architecture or churches or even just looking at anything pretty to go. It's supposed to be finished in the next 25 years an will be the tallest church in the world. In a small room off to the side was an exhibit dedicated to the inspirations Gaudi took from nature for the architecture and below the church is something like a museum that shows early ideas an models for the church. But can I just take a minute to talk about the windows? Each window was dedicated to a different color group that seamlessly blended from one window to the next. All the colors in that window were put together in a sort of mosaic style and when the light shone through them, it truly looked like glittering gemstones instead of colored glass. Fun fact: that was actually the original purpose of stained glass windows due to the verse in the bible that describes heaven as paced with hold and gemstones. The architects of churches used this to make stained glass windows without any type of set design, but later these windows showed scenes from the bible or different important people in the Christian faith because if you're going to make it pretty, why not make it informative as well? In terms of churches, the outside was not the most visually appealing, but the inside more than made up for it and this church is now one of my favorites in all the world. Alright, done gushing about the beautiful church for now.

 Our first view of the church

 The passion facade (just the crucifixion part. The rest isn't shown)

 Windows!

 Also, these. This is for Luke (the Ox)

 For Jon (the Eagle)

 For Mark (the Lion)

And last but definitely not least, Matthew (the Man)

P.S. Love you bro!

 So many different colors!

 Everyone on this trip in one shot.

 Just...awe is all I can feel at this. The Crucifix, windows, and organs are so perfect here

 I think I'm more in love with the windows than any church architecture yet

 Aren't they like the precious stones they're supposed to imitate?

Scale model of the church

After leaving the church, it was time for lunch so we followed Branden through the Gothic quarter of the city (more Gothic churches were there) to a good restaurant that he recommended. We all sat down and and ordered our food. There was a special going on that gave the eaters sangria as well as a salad and a seafood paella. The sangria was absolutely delicious, but it made me a little sad because it was made fresh here in Spain. When we get back tote states and order one (when we're of age of course) the drink probably won't be as good. In fact, it will probably never be as good and the only way to get such a tasty sangria will be to go back to Spain and order one. The paella was also delicious with the added bonus of having seafood and not meat (forget lent? I think not!) so all the catholic people could eat it. We spent the lunch talking amongst ourselves and just having a good time in Spain. It's been absolutely mind boggling that in the span of just over 2 months, I've been to 2 continents other than my home one, and 7 (8 tomorrow) countries other than the US. 

I know, church overload, but it's just this one Gothic church this time

When lunch was done, we stopped by the post office so people could mail their post cards back to their families and then we set off to the luck turtle. The story behind that is that the turtle and birds used to be a part of a huge roman-style house. One of the legends says that if you rub the shell of the turtle, you'll have good luck for the rest of your life. Combine that luck with the good speaking skills I got from the Blarney Stone a few years ago and it looks like I'm in pretty good shape for the rest of my life. After looking around the house for a bit, it was time to head back to the boat so we wouldn't be left behind. Before getting back on the bus to the boat, we bought a little bit of sangria and wine to enjoy with everyone back on the ship. 

 The lucky turtle on the mailbox

Also, there were these people as statues that looked pretty cool

Tonight was another elegant night dress code for dinner and we spent the time eating talking with our table mates about anything from religion to politics. For dessert, our waiters came out with a delicious cake with champagne and the chefs came out soon after so we could thank them for all our delicious meals. After dinner, Kelsey and I went back to our room, but had to leave so that Carlo could clean our room. He's kind of been fighting an uphill battle to keep our room clean because there's rarely a time when no one is in the room. Anyway, we left to go up on deck with the twins and saw the coastal cities of Spain/France go by  and saw their city lights. When the cold became too much for us, we went to the dance hall on 5th deck and saw all the dancers. We met up with Johanna and she joined us in our people watching. Suddenly, an old man came up and asked all the girls to dance one song at a time. He was just so adorable and wasn't angry when we showed just how much we didn't know how to dance. It was probably the highlight of the night because we were actually able to dance. After the dancing, Kelsey and I went to the comedy show and had an absolutely fantastic time listening to the act before heading back to the cabin to sleep and get ready for the next day. 

This spring break had been just and amazing experience and I'll be both happy and sad to see it end. Sad because its been awesome to be on this boat and see the Mediterranean area and we'll have to go back to school, but happy because traveling around to all these different places is utterly exhausting. Tomorrow we have our last new country in Marseille, France before our trip ends the next day.  

Erin Z