My time spent digging in the darkest depths of the back of my closet for my old Spanish textbook was spent in vain.
After being in Barcelona for the past two days, I’ve spoken the same amount of Spanish phrases as an infant.
I have tried conversing with people at restaurants and our hostel, but I don’t seem to have any luck.
I will ask a question in Spanish, but the responses I receive are always in English.
I really didn’t think my language skills were that awful, but maybe I’m wrong. I’m just going to tell myself that the people of Barcelona like to practice their English skills with tourists.
So with the English language being spoken so fluently and easily here, the five of us travelers are exploring Barcelona easily.
We checked off Las Ramblas as well as tapas and sangria at Mimo’s Born the first day. Let me tell you, saying that Spanish sangria is good is an understatement.
Today, we had a complete tour of the “old city” including the inside of the Cathedral of Barcelona thanks to Margeaux, one of my traveling buddies, and her guide book.
There was even a festival for the feast of Saint Roc taking place at the Cathedral featuring firecrackers, statues, dances and 2€ beer.
Quite the opposite of the “old city” was the ”new city” featuring Gaudi’s Casa Milla and Casa Battló as well as an expensive shopping district with all of the elite designers.
Maybe my favorite part of the day was exploring La Boqueria off of Las Ramblas.
Filled with bright colors and exotic smells, La Boqueria is a major tourist spot. The open food market was jammed with people, but this only added to the high energy atmosphere. La Boqueria featured everything from juicy arrays of fruit, meat straight off the bone, freshly caught seafood on ice, sugary candies, spices and nuts.
There is still more of the city to be explored though – La Segrada Familia being the most obvious.
No time for sleep or downtime…Gotta go!
BRYNN ADELINE 