Helena's Super Secret Ninja Missions

So since so many of my friends seem to want to visit Barcelona this semester, I figured I should should compile all my tips into a blog post. Partly to help them, but also partly so I don't forget my favorite parts.

First of all, and possibly one of the most important things I have to say is to watch out for pickpockets. They're basically everywhere. A little bit of paranoia is healthy. After all, someone did steal my watch two days before I departed the city (I don't know if I'll ever get over the fact that 1-I was so close to leaving without having been pickpocketed or 2-that I was actually wearing my watch when the theft occurred). So if people are crowding you on the metro, or anywhere for that matter, put your hand on  the zipper of your bag to make sure nobody can stealthily steal from you. And if you're male, I don't recommend that you keep your wallet in your back pocket. Never leave anything unattended.

The metro runs from 5 AM to midnight Sunday through Thursday. On Fridays, it's open until 2 AM and it does not close on Saturday night. You will probably end up using the metro quite often, so I would suggest buying a pass with 10 rides. It's much more cost effective.

I understand that when many people think of Spain, they think of paella and sangria. I feel that I should warn you that if you find sangria in a restaurant or a bar, chances are that they got the cheapest wine possible and mixed it with whatever juice and fruit they had on hand. Basically, unless you're invited to a Catalan gathering, you are falling into a tourist trap. However it probably wouldn't taste bad, so if you really enjoy sangria, then go ahead. I just don't recommend it. And in regards to paella, a good rule of thumb is that if there is a picture of the dish outside the restaurant, it is not going to taste good. There may be exceptions to this, but in general, it's a good guideline. Also, if the menu says that at least two people in your party need to order paella, then you'll know that it will definitely be freshly made. Some places simply make huge portions early in the day and heat it up for each customer.

Speaking of restaurants, unless you have already looked up reviews or received a recommendation from someone, try not to go to a place that's located right next to a tourist spot. If you wander along a side street, you might be able to find a better place. Look out for places with a menú del día. It's usually a pretty good deal; you can get a three course lunch for around 8-15 euros. Also, tipping is not necessary. It's not America; waiters/waitresses are not dependent on tips. If you're having a meal in a restaurant, you might want to round up to tip. The last thing I'm going to say about restaurants is that Spaniards eat lunch at 2 PM, and they tend to be long meals. They eat dinner at 9 PM, or sometimes even later. Let me know if you want more specific restaurant recommendations, and I might be able to point you in the right direction.

Some of my favorite dishes were tortilla de patata (Spanish omelette), pan con tomate (bread with tomato rubbed on it), and esqueixada (codfish salad). Of course, I made a point of satisfying my sweet tooth with crema catalana (basically crème brûlée), ice cream (Use the verb probar-to taste/try-to ask for samples of the ice cream before buying.), and ensaimadas (delicious coiled pastries that sometimes come with fillings. Like pumpkin, which is amazing.)

Here's an ensaimada that K and I got for breakfast once. My fingers give an indication of its size. We only got the medium one, and somehow, she managed to convince me that we would have no difficulty polishing it off (honestly, I did not need too much convincing). Needless to say, we spent the rest of the day, carrying around half of a giant ensaimada. There's a lesson to be learned here, somewhere.

In case you didn't already know, Barcelona is in Catalunya, and is bilingual. In fact, some are actually more fluent in Catalan than in Spanish. Thus, almost every sign will be in Catalan, Spanish, and English. I don't know much Catalan aside from bon dia, bona tarda, bona nit, and No parlo el català (I don't speak Catalan). You should be able to get along fine for a weekend without speaking Catalan. And if you can read French, you might be able to read some Catalan.

As for tourist spots, some of my favorite places in Barcelona were Parc Guell and Parc de la Ciutadella. Parc de la Ciutadella has a gorgeous fountain, a pond, and a statue of a giant mammoth. Take a picture on or standing next to the mammoth. If you have time, hang around to watch other tourists' photo ops; watching someone struggle onto the mammoth's trunk can be quite amusing. The park is also walking distance from the beach, Arc de Triomf (which wasn't built to celebrate a victory or anything, by the way), the zoo (which I never actually saw), and the university that I attended while I lived in Barcelona. If you go to the beach, try not to let the massage-offering, beverage-selling people irritate you too much. Click here to read more about characters you might meet at the beach.

Aside from Parc Guell, Gaudí is also responsible for Sagrada Familia, Casa Milà (otherwise known as La Pedrera), and Casa Batlló. If you go to Sagrada Familia, I highly recommend that you go inside. Tip: the process may be significantly less time-consuming if you buy your tickets online beforehand. While you're nearby Sagrada Familia, I would recommend wandering through Hospital de Sant Pau. It's nearby and it definitely does not look like your typical hospital. Palau de la Música Catalana is also gorgeous, and is by the same architect that designed the hospital. In other words, they're some of the few famous works of architecture in Barcelona that Gaudí did not create.

Museu Picasso is also pretty amazing--I actually spent three hours there once. Sometimes they have free entry (you can look that up online), but if you're only in the city for a limited amount of time, it might not be worth it to stand in line for an hour, waiting to get inside. I really enjoyed exploring the neighborhood around the the museum, so you might want to do that as well.

Although flamenco isn't as huge in Barcelona as one might expect (it's bigger in Andalucía, but I once saw a show in Madrid), you can still find shows. If you want to see a show, I could give you the name of a place that one of my friends went to once. 

Finally, if you're going to be in Barcelona for a while, you might want to look into going on day trips, possibly to Sitges, known for its lovely beaches, or Figueras, home of the Dalí Museum. I briefly touched on my trip to Sitges in one of my past posts, but I want to note here that the beaches of Barcelona cannot compare to those of Sitges.

Writing this really made me miss Barcelona. Even more than I already did. But that's okay because I recently booked a flight back there, and as long as strikes don't screw it up, I'll be able to visit again before returning to the U.S.

Here's to Barcelona!

Note: If you wish for me to make adjustments to my list of people who receive e-mail notifications, please inform me.

Towards the end of my semester in Barcelona, I spent a great deal of time trying to fit in as many must-see sites as possible, but I definitely did not have enough time to do everything I wanted to do. It seemed that all those days of sleeping-in had finally caught up to me. I remember that R and I went to the Christmas market (Santa Llucia), which had tons of different caganers and caga tíos. The stalls had both traditional caganers and ones of celebrities, which were especially amusing.

Later that day, we also went to see the Montjuic fountain show, which was unfortunately under construction when I tried to go with K. It was rather impressive, though I must note that if one wants to sit on the steps at night in the winter, one should probably opt for pants instead of tights (even in Barcelona). If you wish to see a picture of this show, I would suggest either going there in person or using Google, because at that point, I (more or less) decided that it would be a better idea to enjoy the show than to waste time snapping pictures. Besides, I'm sure that I could not have captured the full majesty of the fountain anyway.

On another occasion, A and I went to Fundació Joan Miró, which I really enjoyed. All of his works seem to have the same elements: stars, women, men, ladders, birds... As time went on, we became progressively more skilled at identifying each of these elements (they're fairly abstract). Anyway I recommend this as well.

Later, A, her host mom, L, and I (finally!) went inside Sagrada Familia. I've seen the outside of it countless times, and in my opinion, the outside is nothing compared to the inside. It was absolutely gorgeous, and A was able to tell us several interesting facts about the church, due to the fact that she opted to use the audio guide the last time she went. 

It's as if you're in a forest!

So my departure from Barcelona was actually more bitter than sweet, given the fact that I decided not to go directly home like my fellow students. Therefore, I did not return home for the holidays; instead, I proceeded to travel to Sevilla (where I spent Christmas), Cordoba, and Madrid (for New Year's), all of which were lovely in their own way. I wish I could say that it was significantly warmer further south, but this was not the case. Despite this, the extended time in Spain was definitely worth it, but I'm not going to go into that right now, since it is fairly late and I have my first classes tomorrow.

I spent about two and a half weeks in New York (not nearly enough time, if you ask me) before flying across the pond (yes, I'm going to start trying to use English terminology as much as humanly possible). Being on the group flight was great because I was able to meet D on the plane, and I didn't know anyone in the program before. In fact, they wouldn't even tell us who our roommates were before we arrived! We had to wait and be surprised.

Anyway, the plane arrived in London on Wednesday, and I proceeded to my flat, which I am sharing with four other women in my program. We have a kitchen, two (abnormally small?) bathrooms, and two refrigerators. There isn't much else to say...My flatmates have been great so far. I got a great little cell phone with the Orange network, and hopefully this time, the back won't fall off. I still do not know how to cook, so if you would like to send me any (simple!) tips, they would be much appreciated.

Fun fact: the beds are on wheels. It is quite inconveniencing when one wishes to get on or off their bed. One of these days, I will simply fall on my bum (okay, now I feel slightly ridiculous).

Here's to the end of an era. And the start of a new one. (Also, is it weird that as I wrote this post, I was narrating in my head with a British accent?)

I had a lovely time the weekend of Halloween, when I wasn't busy thinking about all the work I had to do for the following week (midterm week!). A take-home midterm for the 6th, a midterm exam on the 3rd, a 300 page book to read for the 17th, and a paper for the 17th.

Despite the fact that it's nearing winter, I somehow managed to justify the purchase of a new dress and a large scarf that I plan to use as a sarong next summer. I know--I'm really good at planning ahead. I also bought a last-minute Halloween costume--an adorable purple witch's hat, which was a big hit. Apparently zombie costumes are popular among the Catalans though. I probably saw at least a dozen of them.

Here's a picture of the hat I wore. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the whole outfit, not that it was anything extraordinary. It was, however, pretty sparkly.

On Sunday night, E invited me to her apartment, and I helped them make panellets! Panellets are these traditional Catalan sweets, as pictured below. I had a really great time.

First you dip a ball of (sweet) potato in egg whites and then you roll that in almonds or pine nuts. Or you could mix the ball with shredded coconut.

After that, I rushed back over to my homestay--my host mom held a dinner party in which we had tortilla de patatas, roasted chestnuts, panellets (my favorites are the almond ones), sweet potatos, pan con tomate, ham, and pork.

She invited seven people to the dinner. Therefore, after introductions, I couldn't remember anyone's name. They were really nice though!

These are the panellets my host mom made (basically almond paste or potato and chocolate or almonds or pine nuts).

I'd never had roasted chestnuts before! They were pretty good.

I actually had a ridiculous amount of panellets that week...On Tuesday, our program director gave us some, so I got to try some other types such as coffee!

Here's to celebrating La Castanyada on Halloween!

So I may or may not have lost (some) interest in my blog, for a number of reasons. For one, my laptop is still having problems--I took it to the repair shop over two weeks ago and from what I could understand, they fixed the original problem by clearing everything out, but I still can´t have it back because they seem to have created a new problem. For whatever reason, they changed my laptop´s language to Spanish, and appear to be having difficulties with changing the language back to English. At least this is what they told me over the phone a few days ago. Incompetent much? Anyway, the point of that whole story is to tell you that I usually write my blog posts at home, when I´m bored and/or procrastinating, but since I haven´t had my laptop at home, it hasn´t been happening.

I´m so dependent on my computer. I suppose I already knew that but I didn´t realize the extent of my dependence until recently. In the past two weeks, I´ve basically been living at the library...Well I suppose that´s an exaggeration--when I´m at home, I can (sometimes) use my host mom´s computer. And I finally got a Barcelona library card!

Anyway I guess I should probably try to catch up on updates on my trips to Madrid and Montserrat, as well as my new Swedish roommate (who does not speak Spanish) and my internship (challenging but not particularly stressful).Oh, and my acceptance into a London study abroad program, of course. I believe that´s all...

By the way, let me know if you want my posts to be automatically sent to you via email; I recently found this great function that lets me do that...

Here´s to technology!

La Merce is this huge festival that Barcelona has annually. The official day of the festival is the 24th of September, but the activities really start much earlier, and there are tons of events to attend. In times like this, I really wish there were more than one of me. Warning: this is a really long post. Also, here's a shout-out to C and B, who apparently read and discuss my blog despite the fact that they are also here. 

On Thursday, after two exams, I went off to a flamenco concert in Avinguda de la Catedral, which was excellent. The next morning, I woke up early to see the castellers, the giants, and the Barcelona beasts in Placa de Sant Jaume. Anyway I took an obscene amount of pictures. Here´s one of the giants:

Fun fact: some parents allow their children urinate in the placa. They then proceeded to splash water on the urine; I was actually a few feet away when this occurred on Friday. On the bright side, nearby Placa de Sant Jaume, there is a lovely gelato place that seems to share my love for Nutella.

The jars were gigantic! However I was vastly disappointed when they told me that they do not actually put Nutella in any of the gelato (it goes on waffles, which I suppose is still good).

After attempting to take a siesta, I went off again to Parc de la Ciutadella, which was absolutely gorgeous! It's generally lovely as is, but on Friday, there were flower lampposts and the ambiance was somehow different. The sunset was beautiful--it would have been great as a desktop background (to be used on my laptop in a few months, when I feel homesick for Barcelona).

I actually seem to spend an abnormal amount of time photographing lampposts.

Anyway, there was a great dance performance by the AcroRollers, who rapped, danced, and showed off on their rollerblades.We also saw this amazing aerial acrobatics show by the Voala Project from Argentina. There was a crane that lifted their trapeze in the air (if you click on the link, there's pictures!). However, we didn't stick around for the entire show because we wanted to get delicious (chocolate and hazelnut/banana) crepes before going off to Barceloneta Beach for the Fireworks Festival competition (it was France's turn). Afterwards, we returned to the park to see a laser show in which I felt as if I were standing in a vortex.

The crepes were much more expensive than they would have been outside the park, but they were completely worth it!

On Saturday, we took a day trip to Sitges, which is this gorgeous little beach town only 30 minutes away from Barcelona. We had delicious gelato--I chose to have Rocher (as in Ferraro) and another flavor that was something along the lines of carapina. Unfortunately I don't remember what the flavor was called-it was in Catalan. Obviously I need to at least study food vocabulary. Pictures are below!

Here´s a lovely picture of Sitges!

This was taken at the bar of the Romantic Hotel.

They took us to Casa Bacardi (yes, that Bacardi), where our tour guide was sixth generation Bacardi.

They taught us how to make the perfect mojito. Clearly that's a must-have skill.

The beach was great; the sand was so fine and the waves were lovely.

After a bit, A and I rushed back to Barcelona to make it in time for Correfoc, or Fire Run, which was surprisingly intense. We were slightly unprepared, or at least less so than the other spectators we saw; the amount of gear that the others were wearing was rather off-putting, so we left early to get to the OK Go concert, which I enjoyed immensely. Belle and Sebastian performed afterward (I'd never heard of them before but now I´m definitely a fan). Then we hopped on the Metro to get to Placa Espanya for Festa Maxima. I was surprised to see people who looked about 13 years old, partying at midnight. Another thing that raised an eyebrow was the fact that people were dancing on the bus stop awning. It was actually wobbling the whole time, and I half expected someone to fall.

On Sunday, I managed to wake up relatively early to check out the sardana competition by Jaume I.

The sardana is a dance typical of Catalunya.

Then I walked over to Parc de la Ciutadella (I was actually trying to get to Urquinaona, but since I don't enjoy using maps, I walked in the wrong direction), where I took the pictures shown in the beginning of this post. While I was there, I saw this crazy contraption shown below.

There were three men playing instruments (one played saxophone and clarinet, the others played drums and bass) and two others that controlled the movement of this...machine.

Later on, I saw Tenane perform. This group is comprised of the women who danced with the Acrorollers on Friday. In the words of E, it was intense.

A while later, we took the Metro and a bus to Montjuic, which was incredible.

Here's a picture of a man lifting his coworker in the air. They were hilarious!

I had a delicious croissant while watching another performance involving fire... However, one of my favorite events was a crazy performance involving a swinging trapeze.

This is a picture of one of the performers, just rolling around on his giant metal hoop. It looked like a lot of fun, but I´m sure if I tried that, I´d just fall flat on my face. Literally.

After that event, we headed back over to Placa Espana for Piromusical, a very popular fireworks show that is put to (American) music. Although it was ridiculously crowded (even more so than any of the other events), I enjoyed it--especially since having people around me kept me warm (I neglected to bring a sweater or anything of the sort).

Here's to la Merce! Now I love Barcelona even more than I did before.

So recently, I had to do a project in which I had to take five pictures of things that are strange to me, or things that aren't the same in the U.S. I decided that it was interesting enough to share =P

The titles of (most of ) the books are facing the wrong way. When I'm in a bookstore or a library, this frustrates me to no end. My professor thought this was an odd thing to notice...

The Metro is so clean! It's astonishing!

The smoking laws are really different here...

People are more environmentally friendly.

There's places to lean against in the train! For those of us who usually lean against the door...

I should probably get back to studying for the two exams I have tomorrow...Or maybe one of them is a quiz...Anyway here's to procrastination!

Today I met up with E and D to go to Colonia Guell today (S8 from Placa Espanya). It's a beautiful, peaceful village a little outside Barcelona.

This is a picture of the (unfinished) church that Gaudi designed for Guell. It was actually supposed to be gigantic. Later, we saw that they were holding a wedding there.

One of the stained glass windows, as seen from the inside of the church.

I really enjoy the design of the balcony area. I believe it's a private home now.

This was taken in Placa Joan Guell.  It's a statue of Eusebi Guell, founder of the colony. On the left, you can see the place where we had lunch.

Lunch was delicious! We did the menu del dia, which gives you the choice of two courses, dessert, and a drink for 10 euro. For the first course, we all ordered fideua, which is like a seafood paella with thin noodles instead of rice. Also, the flan was delicious and I regret not taking a picture of it before eating it. Next time!

This is part of the school, which I found slightly awe-inspiring.

Sometimes I'll go into a shop, and for a moment, I can almost fool myself into thinking that I'm home, before I remember that I'm actually in a different country. A while ago, I was actually in Claire's (how American is that? The Spanish don't even use apostrophe marks), just to be able to see something familiar. I enjoy looking at their products, but I don't think I've bought anything from them in a number of years.

I also recently went to Hibernian Books, which is this great place that sells books in English. No, it's not the same as sitting in Barnes & Noble, but it was close enough for me. I got a copy of The Mayor of Casterbridge, which I was reading before I left for Spain but never finished. I haven't actually had time to continue it though...Speaking of bookstores, I also went into Casa del Llibre by Placa Catalunya today...It's fairly large, and there's a small section with books in English, which makes me happy.

Anyways, this feeling of familiarity also seems to happen every time I fall asleep on the metro. The soothing, rocking motions remind me of home, until I hear the recording announcing the next stop. In Spanish, of course.

One thing that really strikes me as different (aside from the obvious)  is that the Sephora I went to didn't have disposable lip gloss applicators. I suppose that fits in with this whole environmentally-friendly business, but I still find it very odd. I was pretty shocked, actually. Obviously I won't be able to try random lip glosses in Spain. I suppose Spaniards just use the communal one..?

Here's to finding the familiar, even as a stranger in a strange land.

I suppose it's a good way to sell donuts. It was significantly less annoying than the women wandering up and down the each, offering massages.

At home, September 11th is the day we remember the terrorist attacks that occurred in 2001. However in Catalunya, it's the Dia Nacional de Catalunya. Today, they celebrated their...defeat in 1714. I find that very odd, but it is what it is. Today, they had political demonstrations (because many want independence from Spain) and concerts and such, as well as castellers!

Note the small child scurrying up to the top.

After getting to the top, he unfurled the flag of Catalunya.

This tower was built to give floral offerings.

Another tower! This one's taller.

He dropped it!

I'd never seen this game before. You use this odd tool to try to get the ball in the basket.

A few days ago, it occurred to me that I haven't been taking pictures of all my food, like I usually do when I travel or whatever. So I started. This is the pizza I ate today, at a place nearby the university. A and I agree that we are not returning. Service was terrible. Croquettes were good though.

My host mom made nuggets del pollo.

Escalibada

Filete de panga

 Here's to the people who lost their loved ones nine years ago.

This weekend was a blur of tours and eating delicious food. On Friday, I believe we took a tour of the university and then I went out with E, E, A, and B. We had a great time pretending to be Spanish (E is excellent at coming up with fake names on the fly; mine is Clara). We briefly chatted with students from University of Richmond.

On Saturday we left for Costa Brava, specifically Figueras. There, we ate at L'Ou d'OR (on C. Sant Llatzer). I'm copying this from the itinerary; I don't even remember which restaurant this was. Clearly I should have taken notes. Or at least more pictures. Anyway, then we proceeded to Museo Dali, which mostly focused on works that relate to his relationship with Gala, and Museo Joyas Dali, or Dali's jewelry museum, which I (unfortunately) don't have pictures of.

I love Dali; that loaf of bread is so odd.

It's raining!

Look, K! A caduceus! (I had to look up how to spell that and it was really annoying.)

I didn't even realize this was Lincoln until after I took the picture. I thought it was just a Venus de Milo thing.

A bathroom on the ceiling?

A nose fireplace?

While in Costa Brava, we stayed at a lovely rural hostel that used to be a farm. Here, you can see the entrance.

Aside from the Dali museums, we went to the Exile Memorial Museum, which was quite eye-opening.

I had the most delicious cookies this weekend! I find the name absolutely hilarious, and I bought more when I returned to Barcelona (they were on sale). By the way, I also recommend the oatmeal ones.

Here's a picture of the Costa Brava beach. Or the water, rather. The water was freezing at first, but I got acclimated.

This bridge is brought to you by the maker of the Eiffel Tower! They call it el pont de les Peixateries Velles/Old Fishmonger's Bridge.

Here's to surrealism and delicious, healthy cookies!