Successful trip to Barcelona

Good morning all!

Yesterday was our first trip to Barcelona! I had a great time. The morning started with us figuring out the train system. Because we will be traveling into Barcelona numerous times, we all bought T10 passes which is good for 5 trips, to and from, Barcelona.

We have to walk 20 minutes to La Garriga to catch the train, which is a 40-45 minute ride. There were lots of different people on the train. It was interesting. I enjoyed people watching; since the train was moving so fast, I couldn't take in a whole lot of what was going on outside.

Once we arrived at Barcelona, we all stopped to remember the pickpocketing issue, conceal our purses, and decide on a destination. We stopped at the El Corte Ingles, which was a huge Macy's type mall, with around 8 floors! There was everything from perfume, toys, clothes, furniture, electronics, and a supermarket in the basement. There was also a Christmas area that we stopped and looked at on the way back. This first time in, we went straight to the information desk to get a city map.

We used our map to get us to la Sagrada Familia. It was a huge Catholic church, designed by Antoni Gaudi. It has not been finished and they are still working on it now, with an expected time of completion around 2025. Important note to future travelers: Bring your student ID, you will get a discount. We got in for 10,50 euros without the audio and around 13,00 euros with the audio. It was a couple of euros cheaper with our IDs.

At this point, it started raining some. We left the church and headed back toward the train station in search of other sites and food. Most places have little indoor seating and rely on outdoor seating for their customers. But since it was raining, we needed seating for 6. We finally found a place and ordered. We had some kind of shaved chicken with lettuce, carrots, corn, cucumbers, etc stuffed into a pita type bread. Add to that french fries, and you have my first meal of Barcelona! Exciting stuff! It was very good!

Next, we walked to the Arc de Triomf. This is the entrance to the main Barcelona park. However, because it was raining, we decided to wait to go to the park and coast another day. Besides a lot of walking and looking, this was basically the end of our first trip into Barcelona. We headed back to the train station, grabbed the 5:11 train, and enjoyed a relaxing ride back to La Garriga.

Once in La Garriga, we hung around at a spot for a few hours and caught the first half of the Barcelona football game. They love their football! We stopped at a semi-dollar store, bought an umbrella, and walked back to the school.


Overall, had a pretty good day. Tiring, but a good day. The plan is to go back again today and take a bus top tour and check out the park. I will post a link of my pictures soon!


Adeu!