Barcelona!!!

This past weekend, I got my first taste of Spain and there is no way I’m going to let it be my last. Let me ask those of you from Iowa City a few questions. Do you love the ped mall? Would you want several kilometers of it instead of a few hundred meters? Do you love the farmers’ market? Would you like it to be 10X the size? Do you love how cycling friendly Iowa City is? Would you like to multiple that friendliness and accessibility by ten? If you answered yes to any or all of those questions, call a travel agent or let good old Priceline help you because Barcelona is the place for you.

Now we begin “The Official Kaitlin Flannery Tour of Barcelona” with the beverages. First of all, cava, the Spanish version of sparkling wine which I can now say from experience is exceptional. Cava is produced from grapes that only grow in Spain and therefore nothing else in the world can be called cava; like champagne can only come from the Champagne region in France. There are many different blends some sweeter than others and my favorite due to my insane sweet tooth was the sweetest of them all, Freixenet Malvasia, a cava that is aged nine years and has a liquor added to it that has been aged thirty years. I sadly learned that this specific cava is not exported to the states, but I will be looking for it all over Europe for the next couple months. On Friday, we went on a tour of the Freixenet wine cellars and learned all about the process of producing cava and then taste-tested a few varieties. The other drink of the trip, SANGRIA! There is not much that can top a Friday happy hour at Saloon in Iowa City with a glass of their sangria, but, a fish bowl of sangria during happy hour on La Rambla in Barcelona does perhaps. Roommates, we need to make it to this happy hour some time together (90 under 90 list possibly). I also learned how to make sangria and I’m looking forward to trying it out when I get home. Here is the recipe I was taught:

Mix together all these ingredients in a 1.5L pitcher

400mL of red wine

300mL of orange juice

3 shots of white rum

3 spoonfuls of sugar

A sprinkle of cinnamon

Slices of apples to soak up some of the alcohol

Oranges and limes to give flavor

Fill to the top with club soda

I suggest you try it out, it is muy bien. Now after all this cava and sangria, I didn’t think I could like anything more, but then the two joined forces and blew me out of the water with sangria de cava. I’m still trying to work out why drinks besides water and sangria de cava exist, truly nothing else is necessary.

Me with my favorite cava



Cava de sangria



Okay, enough about drinks. I have mentioned previously in my posts how ashamed I am of the European history we are taught in the states. So, before planning a trip to Barcelona I didn’t know much. The thing, actually person, I did know beforehand was Antoni Gaudi. Now I appreciate why he is what is best known about Barcelona. Antoni Gaudi, was a Spanish architect in the field of modernism whose vision can be seen all over Barcelona. Below, I have pictures of Park Guell and his masterpiece La Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Familia began being constructed in 1882 and has an anticipated completion year of 2026 (100 years after Gaudi’s death). The detail in Sagrada Familia is breath-taking. It is by far the most beautiful church I have been able to set foot in. Notre Dame and St. Mark’s Basilica, though beautiful have a dreariness and oppressiveness about them, while Sagrada Familia is bright and welcoming without losing its devotion. For the final decade of Gaudi’s life, he worked almost solely on La Sagrada Familia. He knew he wouldn’t live to see the church completed but he left behind detailed plans of the final product. These plans are still being decoded today. Unfortunately his life was cut short on June 10, 1926 when he was run over by a tram. He was laid to rest in the crypt of La Sagrada Familia.  

Entering Park Guell



Looking over Barcelona from the top of Park Guell




Had to take this picture from google because none of my pictures did the outside justice



Now on to La Rambla, the street that defines tourism in Barcelona, stretching from Placa Catalunya a kilometer down to the sea. It is filled with tourist, street performers, vendors and shops. It is much like the other streets in Barcelona being wide and tree lined but you wouldn’t want to try to bike down this one. My favorite part of La Rambla was St. Joseph’s Market, a humungous open air market with fruits and vegetables, meats and seafood, deserts, and even bars. I’m guessing it is St. Joseph’s that draws a large amount of locals to venture to La Rambla. I can’t imagine you could get a better variety of fresh food anywhere else in Barcelona.



The Columbus Statue at the end of La Rambla




The sea at the end of La Rambla



I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post that Barcelona is a bike friendly city. After travelling around almost all the city in a weekend it doesn’t seem that any location in the city would be challenging to get to on bike and with the weather in Barcelona, biking would almost always be pleasant. To promote biking, Barcelona did what many other large European cities have done (and what I hope will begin in large US cities) and implemented a city biking program called “bicing”. The program has stations where you can insert your member card (citizens can get this for a cheap annual fee) and get a bike from the rack and return it to any bike rack in the city. No worrying about bike repairs or how to get your bike home when it is raining after class. Also almost every street has a median in-between the lanes and on the median are bike lanes. My requirements for my future city of residence used to be somewhere with an effective enough public transit system that I didn’t need to own a car, now I’m adding a biking program to list of demands for my future city.

My zodiac sign is correct on at least one level, I love water. I need to add ‘by a substantial body of water’ to the list of demands for my future city of residency (this list is getting bigger and bigger and the list of cities smaller and smaller). I just get giddy looking out at water. Friday, we got to enjoy the Mediterranean in Sitges, a small, beautiful, resort town outside of Barcelona. Saturday, we ate dinner at a restaurant on the sea and Sunday, we spent the day at the beach, me mostly floating in the Mediterranean and reading my Kindle (new book recommendation coming soon…I will spare you more of my opinions for now).



Giddy because of a wave hitting me




Church in Sitges that dates back to the tenth century



Finally, it wouldn’t be one of my posts without some food. The main food I consumed was paella as you will see from the pictures. I have to say though I much prefer the food in Romania so it is good to be home in Cluj. I kept referring to Cluj as home all weekend in Barcelona! I’m sure my mom is cringing while reading this. It took her long enough to adjust to me calling Iowa City home. Okay, I will stop for now as I have gotten very long winded. If you made it down all this way, I sincerely hope it was interesting and worth all that reading!