The One With Santa Eulalia and Montserrat

I spent this past week in Barcelona since classes were starting up again. It was the celebration of Saint Eulalia over the weekend which meant some pretty cool Catalan cultural festivities were taking place. There was a parade with giants and even a giant dance off that took place in the center of a gathering of people. One by one different characters took their turn dancing in the center of the ring. This celebration combined with the passion of the crowd really gave me a great sense of what Catalan pride is all about. One thing that I noticed while at the festivities was that Spaniards seem to be slightly shorter than Americans. I had absolutely no problem seeing over all the people in the crowd which is generally not the case.

I also explored Parc de la Ciutadella today, which was beautiful. In most guide books this park would not necessarily be one of the top couple of things to see in Barcelona, but you should absolutely take a couple hours to see it if you visit and it is a nice day. While I was here I was lucky enough to see a breakdancing show right past the Arc de Triomf. Overall the park just had a great vibe with all of the activities going on. If you are a fan of people watching, this is definitely one of the best places to do it in Barcelona.

This weekend we also spent a day hiking Montserrat, which I absolutely loved and will definitely be doing again. The mountain is about an hour and a half outside the city center of Barcelona which makes it an all-day event. This was actually the first real mountain that I have hiked and while it was difficult, it was definitely worth it. There is a beautiful Monastery situated half-way up the mountain and plenty of other cool sites along the hike as well. It is truly a great feeling when you get to the top because it feels like you really accomplished something. The views from the very top were incredible as well. The part we climbed up was off of the main path which meant that there was no protective railing at the top to prevent you from falling off the mountain which was a little nerve-racking but well worth the adventure.