First Week in Barcelona + Montserrat

The view of Montserrat from St. Michael’s cross.

Monday, Jan 20

We arrived in Barcelona today and I am so excited for the future. It is so uncertain but that doesn’t worry me at all. We went to our leasing office to sign contracts and get our keys. Our apartment is has a perfect location in a very local area. It’s very cute and has so many markers around it.

All us roommates went to El Corte Inglés to get some essentials to share: a hair straightener, measuring cups and a blender! That place is insane and has nearly everything you could ever need, but some stuff is definitely overpriced.

Then, we all showered because we were feeling GROSS and the shower door did not have good suction, so it wouldn’t stay closed (but we made it work haha). It had been pretty gross and rainy all day, so we just decided to go to an Asian restaurant close to us for dinner. It was kind of a fail at trying to speak Spanish because we ended up getting red wine instead of white. We ordered in Spanish but the waitress spoke English better and wrote the order down in Japanese (I think, not totally sure). But the food was great and once we figured out the wine, all was well! Also, the restaurant closed at 11 pm, but we didn’t realize this until 11:10 pm. They hadn’t said anything to us or the other couple that was still eating. How Spanish of them!

Vegetable Paella from El Corte Ingles. My tofu dish from the Asian restaurant.

I am a little tired, but was expecting to be way more exhausted considering amount of travel and lack of sleep I’ve had the past 24 hours.

Side note: there are SO MANY Asian restaurants here and that is something I did not expect at all (and I’ve been to Barcelona before)!!

Tuesday, Jan 21

Our whole program had a bus tour scheduled for today. Before we left, I wanted to grab a water (we still haven’t gotten a water filter) so Isabel and I went to the Armengol, a cafe near our apartment. I also wanted something to eat so I got a croissant - it was amazing because I haven’t had one since before I went vegan!

So back to this bus tour - it was an absolute monsoon today. Everyone kept saying it doesn’t rain here, this is so weird!’ I was more bundled up than when I was back in Chicago. The tour guide walked us around La Sagrada Família and tried to find balconies for us to stand under. We still got soaked and nearly blown away in the wind at points. So back on the bus we went, driving around for three hours. The guide pointed out many landmarks and places to return to, but we could barely see them outside the bus’s foggy, wet windows. I took lots of notes of places to go back to too! Also, when we drove by the beach, police were making sure no one was there and I saw the biggest waves of my life. The bus driver jokingly said (in Spanish) that he wanted to surf out there. 

This was taken at the National Art Museum of Catalonia, which has a great view of the city. Obviously, the weather obstructed the view a bit. We are also very bundled up!

We walked around the Gotchic Quarter a bit and eventually made our way to La Boqueria. Luckily, it was covered and was that busy, since it was raining. I walked around and was amazed by all the fresh fruit, seafood, orange juice, bakery goods and, of course, meat. (That smell is something I will never get used to.) Eventually, I found a cute little Catalonian food stand with a nice man behind the corner. I got spinach croquettes because I was obsessed with them last time I was in Spain. I ordered in Spanish which led to me having a full conversation with this man. He asked where I was from, why I was here, and the like. Plus, he even said I spoke well!! Pretty good for my second day, I already feel at home and like I’m ‘blending’ pretty well (woohoo).

Barcelona Cathedral. Catalonian Fountain on La Rambla. Croquetas!

Next, we went to our Program Director’s office. She had some traditional tapas set out and we went through what to expect in our courses and internships. I also found out that for my internship I will take the bus with the kids and get my lunch provided (:

After this, we got our T-Jove metro passes and were off to find our way home on the metro. Then we took a very necessary siesta - we had to embrace the culture!

My program also makes us get a local number, so we all went to buy our Spanish SIM cards at an Orange store, and then Isabel and I had to get our burner phones. While we did this, our other roommates got the water filter. We went to Media Mart and I got a flip phone because I’ve never had one (my first phone was a slide phone). I can’t wait to be dramatic with ~all~ the calls I’ll be getting lol.

We were all hungry and the weather still wasn’t great, so we went to some random place that looked decent for tapas. We got pretty traditional tapas which were average, but this one garlic shrimp dish was my favorite. We also had been wanting to get churros and chocolate, so we found a place Cappukcino (I think that’s how it’s spelled) and got some. The chocolate wasn’t the thickest I’ve had, but it was delicious nonetheless.

At night we invited the three boys in our program over to watch The Bachelor so that was a fun little ‘American’ thing. I’ve never watched a full season but my friends always have, so I’ll see how I feel about it! I’m debating applying when I turn 21 just because why not.

I already feel at home and am totally adjusted to this Spanish time. It’s 2:30 am and I am not tired at all. Life is just so exciting and relaxed here that I guess sleep isn’t totally necessary.

Wednesday, Jan 22

We had orientation at the same office as yesterday and decided to walk there - and realized that we will probably not do that again. The area didn’t seem bad, but it definitely wasn’t our scene. But hey, we live and learn. This might be our motto, “vivimos y aprendemos.” We had a break for lunch so we explored and stumbled upon Docemasuno, where Jojo and I split a pizza and a Caesar salad. After lunch, we headed back to the office for a Spanish class. I have taken a lot of Spanish, but this class was so fun and practical. Plus, the professor was one of the coolest people.

On the metro home, as we were exiting, I heard some people speaking English without accents who looked American. I asked if they were and they said yes but it was hands down the most weird, unwelcoming interaction with anyone in Spain so far. The locals are definitely more welcoming than those Americans were!!

After we got home, we took a siesta. Again - what is culture shock? The Spanish culture just makes way more sense and I haven’t had any issues adjusting. In fact, I think the culture shock coming home will be terrible. 

After siesta, we went to the grocery store to get some food for dinner. The groceries here are so cheap and fresh. Plus, there are at least ten different shops that we can walk to from our apartment. It’s amazing! I ended up assembling a bowl with rice, veggies and salmon for dinner. (I did not know how to cook salmon but somehow did it perfectly).

Then, since it was Wednesday, we decided to go out. We went to Ovella Negra and it was a huge, super cool place. We befriended about 20 locals and I ran into some high school friends. After a few drinks (and a few hours), we headed to Sutton. It was circus-themed that night. I’m not sure if we were supposed to pay, but I went up to the bouncers and said we were on a promoter’s guest list in Spanish. The bouncers gave me a hard time but after some convincing, again, in Spanish - anything to help us - they let us in. This place was insane but very touristy. Everyone I saw in there was studying abroad (and probably from America). For this reason, I didn’t really love it. But I still had so much fun and we ran into more people from our program!

Some of my locals friends. Mirror pic in Sutton’s bathroom.

VERY IMPORTANT: In Spain, you start pregaming around midnight at a bar, then go to the clubs at 2 am (at the earliest), and stay out until 5-6 am. Like I said, sleep isn’t really necessary here!

Thursday, Jan 23

Today we had orientation and Spanish class again. Everyone else was very hungover from the night before, but I was feeling amazing. We got lunch, which was Italian, at Pizzeria Eden. We got the menu of the day and I chose pesto pasta and mushroom pizza. Our whole apartment went and we ended up sitting there for four hours just talking, bonding, and telling stories. My roommates started to get some energy back after eating.

Once we got back to the apartment, we all took a siesta for about three hours since we didn’t get much sleep the night before. After that, we decided to make a charcuterie board for dinner so we got some groceries and prepared it. We started eating around 8 pm and, just like at lunch, started discussing anything and everything. This dinner ended up being SIX HOURS and when we realized it was 2 am, we figured we should go to sleep because we had to get up early for a tour tomorrow.

Time really doesn’t seem to exist here. No one is in a hurry or rushing you. I can get used to this. Oh please, I am used to this.

Friday, Jan 24 - MONTSERRAT

We booked this tour before we got to Spain because we knew we would have this Friday off from classes. It had great reviews on TripAdvisor. We woke up and got ready, then headed to the meeting point. We easily found the tour people and got on the bus. Only one other couple was on our tour and they were from Chicago, so we got along great. Our tour guide was Ana, the nicest, cutest guide ever. She was in her late twenties so she gave us some recommendations on what to do and where to go. We connected on Instagram and definitely want to try to see her again, maybe even go out with her!

She was also incredibly knowledgeable about the history of Barcelona and talked almost the whole bus ride to Montserrat. She also made the history interactive and interesting, applying it and making jokes. As we ascended the mountain, the bus ride was breathtaking. The nature was gorgeous, but even more insane was the fact that all those years ago people built the church and school all the way up here, without the modern technologies we have today. 

Here are the buildings woven into the jagged mountain.

Once we arrived, we were in the clouds. All I could see was the mountain and then it looked like we were surrounded by a sea of white. We walked past the little market before Ana took us around the property, including the monastery, church and school. What was so cool for me was that, on this mountain, there was a Benedictine monastery and the cross of St. Michael (that you could hike to). [My high school was Benedictine and my grade school was St. Michael’s.] The boys choir was on tour so we didn’t get to hear them. However, the amazing tour and landscape made me forget about that.

10:42am when the clouds covered the valley. 1:30pm after the clouds lifted.

After we knew the lay of the land, we had some free time. We hiked to the cross of St. Michael and took in the insane view, while snapping some pictures. There were some cautionary signs because of the storms the previous days. However, those didn’t deter us. And it was so worth the risk. Someone was whistling a song up there and it honestly felt like we were in a movie, or on another planet.

My roommates and I looking out on Montserrat just before we made it to St. Michael’s cross.

Next, we went to touch the stature of the Black Madonna. You wait in line but it is free, and when you touch her hand you are supposed to make a wish that will come true. After that, there is a little pathway where you can buy a candle, light it and place it next to others. I believe that they are all under the stations of the cross (but also could totally be wrong). We also wanted to get a good view of the inside of the church, so we ventured in. We ended up being there at the perfect time because a monk came out and said the mid-day prayer - a super cool experience we couldn’t have planned.

A look inside the church. The statue of the Black Madonna.

After this, we met back up with Ana and the Chicago couple. It was time for tapas and wine! On the bus ride down, to the winery, the tour guides pointed out some landmarks and the funniest was that the building the nuns lived in has a pool - but no one has ever seen anyone in it!

The exterior of Oller del Más, the winery that hosted our tasting.

We got to Oller del Más, an organic winery that has been in the family for 36 generations. Yes, 36 generations. That’s hard to even comprehend! Ana showed us around to the rooms for sorting, processing and fermenting the grapes. It was so interesting to learn about the differences between all the wines. Also, she showed us the ‘wine cemetery’ of all the expired wines that the winery refuses to sell because they will no longer have peak flavor. We had a room overlooking the wine cemetery with tapas prepared. Now it was time for the wine tasting.

Some of the vineyard’s details. The wine cemetery.

Ana showed us the proper way to do a wine tasting and assess its contents - using your fingernails, a napkin, your smell, and the speed to the ‘lágrimas,’ or tears. It was very interesting! She gave us information and explanations about the first two wines, the first of which was white and the second red. This was a vertical wine tasting. The third one was also a red and it ended up being the same wine as the previous glass, just from a different year. Comparing these two was a horizontal wine tasting. After that, we hung out at the winery, checking out the gift shop and terrace. We then took a bus back to Barcelona.

Five minutes into the drive, the tour guides explained that we passed where St. Ignatius of Loyola lived and prayed after he lost his legs from a cannon. He prayed to the Black Madonna and eventually recovered. After this brief history lesson, everyone on the bus took a siesta.

We all woke up back in Barcelona and hour later. We were in a busy plaza, so we decided to stop into a few stores. We went  into Zara and Pull & Bear. (I got some black jeans at Zara because I needed some without rips that I could wear to work.)

We returned home for a bit before heading to meet up with the boys in our program for dinner. They had not been branching out much, so we decided to go Marina Bay Moncho’s for paella. Aida, our Spanish teacher, had recommended it. The boys were a bit late (are we surprised?) and I had to speak Spanish to the waiters for the whole group. This place was slightly fancy and every paella needed at least 2 servings to be ordered. I had to ask the waiter about the paella sizes and requested chicken paella for my picky roommate and the boy who is allergic to shellfish. We also got ‘sangria de cava’ that was AMAZING. I split seafood paella with two of the boys and had to show them how to take the shells and heads off of the fish. Besides the chicken paella, my two other roommates split a vegetable one. This place was nice and a bit pricey, but so worth it. I even got all the seafood leftovers because the boys were going to a club after we ate. Before going to sleep, we all got some random stuff done on our computers and tidied up the apartment.

This place is really feeling like home and I love being forced to speak Spanish because it is making me improve!

Saturday, Jan 25

Today, we all slept in and had a very relaxed day. Cece, Jojo, Isabel and I ended up watching YouTube videos of weddings for a couple hours while we sat on the couch. Jojo and Cece are into videos so they were getting some editing ideas. We got some groceries right before the market closed (at like 8 pm) and made dinner.

We invited the boys over to pregame before going out to the clubs, but when we were getting ready we got a noise complaint for playing music. :( But, the boys were already on the way so we just went to the bar at Hola Hostel because it is close to our apartment. We ended up playing card games and drinking games before we headed to the clubs a little before 2 am.

There are lots of men outside the clubs who work for them and try to get you ‘deals,’ but they are pretty confusing so it took us a while to decide where to go. We decided to go to Shoko because it was €20 to get in with two drink tickets. This place was huge and there were lots of guys (many of which are too old to be clubbing), including locals. Luckily, our guy friends were super good about making sure we all could dance and have a good time without the creepers killing our vibe. We were out until 5 am this night (and the club was still going hard when we left).

Some photos of us before we went out and one with the boys at the club. (:

Sunday, Jan 26

Now, because of how late we were out the night before, we all slept in again and mostly just hung out today. Tomorrow we would start our internships so we prepped our routes, outfits and bags.