Cathedral Sagrada Familia en Barcelona
I have been enjoying my first two weeks in Salamanca! The weather has gotten a little nicer here, not as cold so that is good. It feels great being moved in and not living out of a suitcase anymore. Now I know my way around town, I know the fastest way to school, the cafe's, bar's, and grocery store. I have met a few more locals and since Spanish classes started I have been putting my Spanish to more practice. Most of us know the good places to go out and where to buy things. And of course we know where to get yummy tapas. This past Monday we took a tapas tour as part of our Spanish Civilization class. Before leaving we got to learn about Spanish cuisine and where it comes from, the varieties of wine, and the differences between food of the regions of Spain. A few of my favorite tapas have become lomo, tortilla espanola, y tostas con champinons (mushrooms) and jamon. Spanish classes have been getting better. I feel more confident about speaking up in class even though I make mistakes. My profesora only speaks in Spanish, she never explains things to us in English. While this is difficult, it is a good learning challenge. She encourages us to trust in her and to use only Spanish in class then our Spanish will improve.
After a long busy week at school I have made it to Barcelona today! I managed to join a group of 6 other people who decided to make travel plans this weekend. We arrived here at 2pm by taking a train from Salamanca. It was a convenient train ride, long, but I was able to catch up on sleep since we had to catch the train at 6:40am this morning. After spending a few hours here I've seen some of the interesting architecture the city is known for. We got to see the outside of the Cathedral Sagrada Famila featuring the work of Gaudi. Tomorrow we will take a tour inside. I can't wait to see the beach here and more of Barcelona's very unique architecture. What's puzzling to me here is the Catalan language. I do not know much about it yet but I have made a few initial observations. The signs and Spanish even appear different, different words are used for some things, and I noticed that “gracias” was spelled something like “gracieas”. Supposedly this region of Spain identifies themselves as Cataluynan rather than Spanish. As soon as we arrived at the main train station in Barcelona there was graffiti opposing tourists saying “go home tourists” and other graffiti that appeared to have political slangs reading something about activism and communism in Spanish. This was interesting because in the past week of our sociology class we discussed how the graffiti here is primarily political and not gang or violence related. At home graffiti is commonly associated with gang symbols and territory. Here the graffiti seems more accepted as an outlet for expression. This evening we saw a medium sized demonstration in the Plaza near us. A group of people were gathered chanting and waving signs. It appeared to be people going on strike, and the building they were standing outside of had the flag of the European Union.
This day has been exciting getting to see a new city. Tonight is also my first hostel experience! We were able to make a pretty cheap weekend getaway for a train costing 100 euro round-trip and a hostel for 15 euro a night. The hostel is very different, but exciting. You have to go down the hall to shower, we share a big room with 14 beds some on a top platform and some on the bottom, and the room has two bathrooms in it. The beds are just a cushion on a frame but what luxury can you expect for 15 euros a night. I'm happy to be saving money and as long as its clean and safe here I am happy. The seven of us are sharing the room with three Japanese girls visiting Barcelona. It reminds me of camping so far, but then again this is probably as close as I have been to camping in a while! The people at reception here were very helpful and friendly. Hopefully we will make some new friends with the other young travelers staying here. I am excited to see where the rest of this weekend takes us and excited to celebrate my birthday on Sunday here in Barcelona! Hasta Luego, Ciao!
The penthouse suite. Living luxury at the hostel!
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