Benvinguda a Barcelona

This past week, the McAvoy fam trekked across the Atlantic to visit Barcelona, and I had the chance to see some sights I had been saving up all semester.

- Montserrat

o Montserrat was for me, the best combination of culture (the usual church slash basilica slash chapel slash cathedral scene) and the most breathtaking natural views I could imagine. We took a train ride and then were treated to a gorgeous (though rather unnerving) gondola ride up to the top of Montserrat’s vast rocky surface. We heard the apparently famous Montserrat choir boys sing. Required to be prepubescent so as to preserve their lovely voices, the boys served up a few hymns with their high-pitched voices of angels. We then hiked the region and took a few funicular rides, enjoying the beautiful weather and the spectacular views. I could immediately tell that this week of family touristing was going to be one full of walking, walking, hiking, and more walking (and some yogging). Oh, and we touched the Black Madonna (apparently this is a big deal—good luck).

- Sitges round two

o I also had the chance to show off Sitges, the most beautiful Meditteranean beach in Cataluña. The views were plentiful, the weather was perfect, and the fam couldn’t have been more appreciative. We put our feet in the Meditteranean (In November!) and had a delicious paella lunch. Audrey also continued what seemed to be a trend of finding each and every cat in Cataluña. I have always noticed all the dogs this semester, but the second Audrey enters Spain, queue slews of cats of all shapes and sizes.

- Tarragona

o We took another wonderful day trip out to Tarragona, a region further down the Costa Daurada than Sitges, that has some of the oldest Roman ruins in Europe. We explored an amphitheatre, and old roman circus (where they had chariot races), parts of the old Roman wall around the port city, and had the most delicious meal I’ve had since I first arrived in Barcelona. I’m not kidding when I say this; I’ve been in Spain for three months now and I have to say that the random little restaurant we found in Tarragona and had the menú del día at was definitely the most delicious (and genuine i.e. not tapas) meal I have had this entire semester.

- Tibidabo

o The last day of the visit (and luckily the only day with remotely poor weather), we took another funicular ride up to the top of Tibidabo, the most unusual combination of an old church and an amusement park that overlooks the best view of Barcelona. Though we were rather chilly and pretty worn out from a very full week, we enjoyed the views and gawked at the synthesis of a church and a ferris wheel for the appropriate amount of time before making the ascent back down to warm our frozen feet.

- Other highlights:

o La Musclería: Another find that I’ve been saving up all semester, this restaurant coincidentally right around the corner from our apartment has a menu that consists almost entirely of mussels prepared in every way imagineable (and some that didn’t look all that appetizing in my opinion—who wants vanilla and ginger on their muscles I might ask).

o A newfound obsession with some strange Spanish gameshow that between the entire fam, we still could not entirely figure out. Oh, and Dad and Will’s renditions of the goings-on of Spanish-dubbed versions of Walker, Texas Ranger, and Spongebob Squarepants.

Recent Barcelona:

Queue appropriate bump in the road experience: Laptop versus English

Breakfast Tea

Winner: ¡Empate!

So I came out of the experience with my laptop intact, but Servicio Técnico Apple Barcelona came out of it with 150 euros of my hard-earned, supposed-to-be-for-traveling money. Turns out it may not have been the tea’s fault at all. I arrived at the repair store this afternoon and was informed that my memory had to be modified because I had too much information on my computer (likely the thousands of photos I’ve been downloading to Flickr on an almost daily basis); so it may be that my clumsiness wasn’t my downfall after all, although for the hundredth time I find myself lamenting my lack of external harddrive.

Thanksgiving in Barcelona (Twice): This past week also marked another American holiday that we of course had to give credit to despite not being in the U.S. We celebrated Thanksgiving twice (that’s more than the states, just to make up for being across the Atlantic), once Richmond/Bentley family dinner style complete with every Thanksgiving food possible compiled to make one huge, loud (as usual) feast. I then celebrated Thanksgiving again on the actual holiday with the fam as well as the international roommates. We again were treated to a feast and I got to explain Thanksgiving and it’s roots (Which Mom was actually better at since she has to explain it to five-year-olds every year), all the while piling on more and more delicious food. I still have leftovers in the fridge.

Last but not least (for now): I’d like to include a brief clip from a website discussing Barcelona’s Christmas traditions. It turns out that over the next few weeks, we have quite a lot to look forward too, my favorites of which being the prospect of a field trip (Catalan clase) to the gorgeous Barcelona Christmas market, where we can find Caga Tío’s of every shape and size. If you don’t know what a Caga Tío is (and you don’t), take a look at this link: