Friday, Aug. 01, 2008

Barcelona Has Plenty to Offer, but It Helps to Speak the Language

By Ross Murray

Contributing Writer

I traveled across the Atlantic this summer as part of my study abroad program at Texas Christian University, and during my journey I had the chance to say "hola" to Barcelona, Spain.

In my travels I’ve gone only to English-speaking countries. I went to France a few years ago, but I stayed in a Chateau run by British citizens. Spain was more difficult to navigate. Even so, it was enjoyable.

I’ll recount the two days I spent in Barcelona and point out a few things that I found interesting to anyone wishing to travel there.

First, I stayed in a hostel. Hostels are inexpensive places aimed at young travelers, and they’re great if you want to travel cheaply, but in all honesty, I’d recommend staying in a hotel. It might cost you a few more Euros, but in the end it’ll make your stay all the better.

The first day I was there, my friends and I decided to venture out and find some authentic Spanish food.

We walked fairly far from our hostel and eventually found a café that looked nice.

Upon arriving we realized no one in there spoke English.

Pooling our brains, we mustered up all the high school Spanish we could remember and informed them we wanted to eat.

We were shown to a table, and the waitress began to list a number of dishes for us.

We looked at her, dumbfounded, until I finally said yes to one of the dishes. Something called "paella."

Honestly, I had never heard of the dish and had no idea what to expect.

Initially, we thought we had ordered a dessert dish of some kind. She arrived back at the table with a huge frying pan filled with rice, crawfish, clams and other assorted seafood and meat cooked together.

We looked at each other with a slight hesitation and dug in. To my surprise, it was quite delicious — the right amounts of spicy and sweet. Later, I found out that this is a very popular dish locally.

Later that day, we began to walk around the city and came across one of the most spectacular works of architecture I’ve ever seen.

This was the Antoni Gaudi-designed Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família or "Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family."

The building itself is overpowering at first glance. Every inch of it is covered in detailed sculptures and scenes.

Construction, though begun in 1882, is still under way. The project has a completion date set for 2026, so there are still a lot of parts of the cathedral that you cannot see. I still would recommend it, as it is truly breathtaking.

Another Gaudi-inspired building is the Casa Milá — also known as La Pedrera — which has no right angles. It was constructed between 1906 to 1910.

Other hot spots to check out in Barcelona are the beaches.

Barcelona is a very large city on the northeastern coast, with many city beaches on the Mediterranean. They’re a little crowded and have a lot of people walking up and down trying to sell you things. But if you can deal with that and block some of it out, the beaches can be enjoyable.

The water is pretty cold, but still it’s a refreshing experience.

I was there for two days, and since there is so much more to do in Barcelona and Spain, two days was not enough time to see it all.