Exploring the Vibrant City of Barcelona!!
Location: Barcelona
Today was such an adventurous, fun, and rewarding day after our long voyage. As our time living on our beautiful Vela is winding down, we got to spend one full day on a passage walking through Barcelona right before our big cleanup of Vela tomorrow. To start the day, we had the wonderful opportunity to wake up at the ripe hour of 5:45 AM to do most of the walking in the morning, when it is nice and cool. After our early-morning wake-up, we all scarfed down cream cheese bagels that Mac had prepared in advance, and we got ready before we left at 6:20 to walk down to the train station. Once safely on the train, I went back to sleep. After the hour-long train ride, we finally arrived in Barcelona, which is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and a pickpocketing hotspot. It was the entire group that was responsible for the fact that no one lost a single thing. During our time in Barcelona, we explored Gaudi’s church, La Sagrada Familia. We also had the privilege of seeing Gaudi’s three beautiful houses that he both lived in and designed himself. Once we did some more hiking around the city, we took a pit stop at a local bakery and cafe to refuel with pastries and coffees. After our final walk around town with the full group, we split into smaller groups in order to better appreciate the city and to shop inside the stores that were scattered around La Rambla, which is an old street/area in Barcelona that is much more cramped compared to the more modern/new city. I was personally in a group with Ellie, Alex, Giles, Matt, and our awesome tour guide/staff member Francisco, who brought us to all the greatest spots in the old city district (which is also called Ciutat Vella). One of those spots was a traditional pastry shop called La Pallaresa, which had the best churros and chocolate sauce I have ever had. Another popular place that every group went to was the large and spacious local market that had so much meat, seafood, and fruits/fruit smoothies, all from a variety of different shops across a huge area under a roof. I personally got some fried crab and a banana/strawberry smoothie. We explored and shopped a little bit more before the entire group met back up at the Barcelona maritime museum. It was incredibly interesting learning about the history and technological development of ships in the Mediterranean and how it affected trade across the world. It was especially impactful because we had just spent three days sailing in the same Mediterranean that sailors have been sailing in for hundreds, if not thousands, of years before our time. After an hour of looking at sailing ships of all shapes and sizes, we began our walk back to the metro station, which we then took to the train station, which we then took all the way back to Tarragona, where our home is (so many trains!). Once we arrived at Vela after a long day in 93 degrees Fahrenheit weather (34 degrees Celsius!), we were pleasantly surprised to find that the staff members who had stayed behind (Mac, Jaime, and Emma) had fixed the AC on Vela! We were even more pleased to find that Mac was cooking a barbecue of hot dogs and cheeseburgers! Overall, today was such a satisfying day of exploring a vast new country. It really feels like we were the crew members from ships in that museum stepping onto uncharted land after a month-long journey across oceans. Now that we’re well rested, we are ready for the big cleanup and appreciation of our vessel Vela, which is the boat that has carried us so far for so long. Thanks for tuning in, and we will see you guys soon.
P.S. Bravo India Romeo Delta Sierra
Written by Bryce J.
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