CDLC

CDLC is one of my favorite restaurants to go to for lunch, an early dinner with friends or a late dinner. The atmosphere inside of this restaurant is just spectacular. It is located right on the beach in Port Olympic. This main reason why I love coming to this restaurant is because there is an outdoors area where you can sit outside on couches and enjoy a drink with your friends. It is very casual and of course a great meal! This is one of the restaurants that I was told to come to when I arrived in Barcelona. It is a more touristy restaurant compared to other ones, but I enjoy coming here for the atmosphere and great food. Every time my friends and I come to CDLC we always order the hummus platter. It has different types of dips in the platter that comes with falafel and pita. Most of the food in the restaurant is mediterranean cuisine but they do have sushi rolls as well. This is one of my favorite restaurants to bring friends to that are visiting barcelona!

La Boqueria Market

La Boqueria Market must be one of the most fascinating spots to go visit in Barcelona! The vibrant colors when you walk in are just magnificent. When I saw all of the vegetables, fruits and nuts, I could not help myself but stare at all of the fresh fruit right in front of my eyes. The candy, is another story! I have never layed my eyes on bigger pieces of gummy bears in my life! I felt as if I was a child in this market because the smile of my face was from ear to ear! The gelato in the market is so fresh that it melts in your mouth. Every time I go into the market, I am overly excited to see what they received! Even though this market is rather busy, since it is touristy, I enjoy the excitement of coming to this market.

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia is a land mark that many tourists know to visit when coming to Barcelona, Spain. Antoni Gaudi started this project in 1882, but in 1926 he was hit by a train and died. The construction of the project, slowly began up again but the Spanish Civil War interrupted the process. In the 1950's they began to build again, but is still not complete until this day. They say it will be ready in 2020. Even though the plan never fell through of being a cathedral inside, the outset of the church and the inside resemble a cathedral. Gaudi's designs were very unique and interesting, where his work drew primarily from nature. I have been inside of Sagrada Familia now 3 times and every time I go inside, I seem to find another part of the cathedral that I have never noticed. The mosaic tiles, inside the cathedral that let in the light from the outside are astonishing. Through my abroad experience, I have visited many cathedral and I would have to say that this cathedral is one of the prettiest works of art that I have seen!

Park Guell

Park Guell was designed by a Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. Before coming to Barcelona, all I heard about was Gaudi's artwork and that I must vista every single piece of his work! Park Guell is a breathtaking garden that is located on the top of a hill in the Gracia district of Barcelona. The little pieces of tile that are put into this park are astonishing and unbelievable. The first time that I went to the park, I walked all the way to the top where I could see all of Barcelona. The view of Barcelona was magnificent! When walking through the park, all I wanted to do was look at each, individual mosaic tile. Each tile as very different, which made it unique. The entire park was made up of different tiles and designs. I did not know until I visited the park again that this site was for a housing complex, but was not followed through. There are different fountains that are located throughout the park. In the middle of the park, there is sand where I see children playing soccer all the time or enjoying a day out with family. At the entrance of the park, there is a multi-colored dragon that has mosaic tile all over it.

Montjuic

Barcelona was selected to host the 1992 Summer Olympics. On the hill of Montjuic, which literally means "Jew Hill", is where the 1992 Summer Olympics took place. One afternoon after class, my roommate and I decided to take a walk from our apartment to Montjuic, since it is only a 15-20 minute walk. We went up the escalators to the top of Monjuic, you were able to see all of Barcelona! It was magnificent! I was able to see Sagrada Familia from where I was standing. We walked to where the Olympics took place after. It was gorgeous up there! I was able to see the big stadium where everything took place, the pool and the track area. The water falls, were beautiful! I heard that you can go back on a Friday or Saturday night from 7-8:30 and there is a light show that comes on. Since this is my last weekend in Barcelona, I am going to spend an hour of my night at the top of Monjuic.

Museu de la xocolata

Since I am obsessed with chocolate, why not visit the Chocolate Museum in Barcelona! While on a days outing, I decided to look up the address for the museum and head towards the direction of it. My mouth dropped as soon as I entered the museum! To enter the museum, you received a chocolate bar that had a bar code on it. That was considered you "ticket". When walking inside, I could smell the fresh aroma of the chocolate. In the museum that was rather small, we saw a chocolate sculpture of SpongeBob Squarepants and of warriors fighting. I found it unique how they could mold the chocolate into figures. When we walked outside of the museum, there was a Culinary School going on that you could watch in the courtyard. There must have been a group of 25 young adults learning how to made chocolate. I enjoyed my "ticket" as soon a we left the museum!

Picasso Museum

While walking around the Gothic Quarter, my friends and I decided to walk towards the Bank District where the Picasso Museum is located on Montcada Street. This is the first museum that is dedicated to Pablo's Picasso's artwork with more than 3,500 pieces of art. When walking through the museum, I found it to be very interesting because it was organized by the years he had created his artwork and how it has evolved throughout the years. When I listened to the audio set, I was able to understand how he started off his work and why. The museum opened up in 1963, with only a few pierces of his collection. The expansion has grown through donations that have been made to the museum. The museum occupies 5 large houses that have art work format eh 13th and 14th centuries. Each house is dedicated to a different part of time that the section was built. Now, the Picasso Museum hosts special exhibitions.