FC Barcelona vs. Inter Milan

A huge local new story is the Champions League Semi-Final between FC Barcelona and Inter Milan. Last week on April 20, 2010 FC Barcelona lost the first of two Semi-Final games 3-1. Today (April 28, 2010) game is huge because if Barcelona loses, they are out of the Champions League Tournament. If they win, they advance to the finals and a chance to repeat as European Champions (what I believe to be the higest honor in the soccer world except for the World Cup, of course). The loss was the first time Barcelona lost by a margin of more than 1 goal this year, a tremendous feat. Unfortunately, Eric Abidal and Andres Iniesta are going to have to sit out of the game with injuries, but hopefully Lionel Messi's magic left foot will be able to carry Barca to the championship round. Barcelona needs to win the match by the score of at least 2-0 because they lost their first game by two goals. The way the advancement to the next round works in the Champions League is that the winning team needs to have more total away goals if they are tied in wins. So because right now Barcelona has 1 away goal, they would need to hold Inter to less than one goal in order to advance. If Barcelona gives up more than one goal, they are out of the tournament. This should be the most exciting match of the year, and I cannot wait to see what happens. GO BARCA!

El Raval Field Trip

Our last field trip in our Barcelona Past and Present class was to el Raval area in Barcelona, which is a neighborhood in the Ciutat Vella district that borders La Rambla and is home to 200,000 people. We started at La Rambla near Placa Catalunya and went through all of the winding streets. The area had many clothing shops and places to eat, and it was great to see all of the side streets of the famous La Rambla. Xavi took us to the MACBA building (pictured in this blog), which is the Modern Art Museum in Barcelona. While I have personally never been inside, the outside was very nice and modern, with a glass facade facing the square in front of it. Xavi also explained to us that a lot of skaters come to the area from all of Europe in order to skateboard and do tricks since it is a very respected and well-known place for modern skateboarding (see picture). When we were in one of the squares in el Raval we saw a few young skateboarders trying out some of their dangerous new tricks. One boy tried to jump about five feet, kickflip his skateboard and land, but we saw him painfully fall about 10 times. It was really hard to watch for a lot of us and I thought to myself that this boy would never be able to land such a difficult trick. Another boy was holding a camera filming the skater, I guess to record the trick if its ever landed successfully. This camera man seemed to be an injured skater, as he was limping around whenever he walked. Xavi explained to us that some skaters come to the Raval area from Germany on a very cheap bus with no money and just sleep outside at night and skate during the day. They come to Barcelona because of the nice weather during the wintertime. I could never imagine myself doing such a thing but I guess these people are really passionate about their skating hobby. I could never n be homeless for a span of time just to skate but these skaters seem to be a lot more high maintenance than me.

Vila Olímpica Beach

Vila Olimpica and that beach area is a site i frequent often with my friends. It has a beautiful beach, a casino, and many great restaurants (some of which turn into night clubs). During the day when it is nice out I often go there for walks. I love being on the beach and by the ocean and this area is in my opinion, one of the nicest in Barcelona. During the nighttime there are a lot of great restaurants to chose from that later on turn into awesome nightclubs. I often go to Shoko and Opium, which are both great restaurants during the day and really fun clubs during the night time. Shoko has great Japanese food, which is my favorite in Barcelona. The beach is crowded when it gets nice out and people love going there to hang out when there is good weather. A view of the beautiful hotel W (or hotel vela as called by the locals) is visible, which is a brand new hotel that opened this year that is the talk of the town. Its architecture is absolutely beautiful and it is supposed to look like a sail in the ocean. I have been lucky to visit the hotel numerous times because my visiting friends have stayed there a couple of times. I sometimes go to the spa there as well.
There is also a McDonalds in the area that my friends and I go to all the time which contains as far as I now, the only drive through McDonalds in Barcelona called a McAuto. I have noticed taht McDonalds in Europe are a lot nicer and classes than in America. Also, the portions are a lot smaller so that a large is equal to a medium in America and a Medium is equal to a small in America. This phenomenon is very strange to me and shows a lot about how much larger our portions are in America. In the area there is also the Hotel Arts, a really nice 5 star hotel that is a really tall tower that can be seen as one of Barcelon'a tallest building. A really cool huge fish sculpture called paix that was designed by Frank O. Gehry is present next to the Hotel Arts.

Park Güell

Park Guell is a famous park and tourist destination in Barcelona that was designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi and built from 1900-1914. Features of the park include a multicolored mosaic Dragon (picture included in this post), la Torre Rosa (Gaudi House), and a long serpentine bench at the top. From the top of the park there is a beautiful view of the city as seen in one of my included pictures. I had previously visited this magnificant park with my parents in high school when I toured Barcelona and coming back was still extremely enjoyable. People from all ov er the world come to see Gaudi's special park, which is unlike any park I have ever seen. While not that big, it offers plenty of site, with weird and trippy little aspects everywhere. Gaudi's gingerbread house inspired buildings at the entrance of the park are really cool as well. There were some gypsy's that we saw at the park when we were there and I guess they go there during the day to enjoy the beautiful scenery. My friends and I went for a long walk around the park until the sun set, and it got a little scary so we left. I hope to visit the park at least one more time before my abroad experience is over and it is one of my favorite sites to visit in Barcelona.

Cerveseria Catalana

My Favorite Spanish restaurant in Barcelona is Cerveseria Catalana. It is a Tapas place located in Gracia on Mallorca 236. I have been there about 4 or 5 times and always take my visiting friends there for what I think is the best tapas in town. When I go there in large groups we order so much food and such a big selection that I have to write down my order on my phone before I can repeat it back to the waiter. I love the idea of tapas and the fact that you can have a large selection of food that you can share. I always love trying a little big of everything so a tapas meal is the perfect type of meal for me. There is usually a wait to get into the restaurant and be seated but it is well worth the wait.
I love Cerveceria's chicken salad, steak skewers, and mini hamburgers the most there. I also really enjoy Iberian ham on catalan bread. Every time I eat there my friends and I get so much food, but we always finish it all. The place is not even that expensive for being such a good restaurant. A normal bill usually runs me about 20 euro, which is not bad considering the quality of food I get there. The waiters and waitresses there are very friendly and most of them speak English (which is convenient when ordering). I would recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting in Barcelona as it is the best tapas experience that I've ever had.

Carnival at Sitges

The Carnival at Sitges was one of the most fun experiences I've had abroad. All my friends and I took a half hour bus ride to Sitges (which is known as the gay capital of Spain) at night where there was a parade and party on the beach. There was a lot of drinking, eating and dancing. Everyone was dressed up in costume and I was dressed as a cowboy. I bought a hat, wore a plaid shirt and jeans and had a water gun that I filled with vodka. I had a friend that also dressed up as a cowboy with me (see the pictures). It was really funny spraying all of my friends with vodka and getting people wet. One of my other friends shown in the picture dressed up as a skeleton and we called him "skeletor" throughout the night. Three of my other roommates dressed up as clowns. The best costume I saw that night were two guys dressed as men
My friend unfortunately lost his cell phone at the end of the night and left it on the bus ride home but aside from that incident my friends and I all had an amazing time.

Roman Barcino and Museu d'Història de la Ciutat de Barcelona Field Trip

My class and I went to Barrio Gotico and the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat de Barcelona on our first class field trip . We explored remnants from ancient Rome throughout the Roman Barcino area and the museum had an amazing underground exhibition showing many Roman ruins. Even though it was forbidden to take pictures, I was still able to shadily take some with my digital camera. It was extremely interesting for me as a History Major and History buff to see actualy Roman ruins from thousands of years ago. Xavi gave us details about different Roman ruins throughout the area and the museum, including how the people of Barcelona used to excel in making wine, the Temples they built (including the remains of the temple of Augustus), and the different forms of pottery they made. I have included a picture of our class outside in Placa del Rei with Roman era buildings in the background and one picture I took underground in the museum of Roman columns and ruins.