Arriving in Barcelona was like coming back home. It was a surprising and amazing feeling that I had not yet experienced before, visiting a foreign country and having it feel like a kindred soul, a part of you forever. I lived in Barcelona for 2 months in the summer of 2010, studying the Spanish language and art at the Universitat de Barcelona, a gorgeous building steeped with history and culture. The school was about an hour walk from my house and an 8 minute metro, but each day I walked to school, savoring the rich architecture and unique fluidity that Catalan adds to the Spanish language. Barcelona is in Catalunya, a region of Spain that speaks Catalan, a romance language heavily inspired by Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese, changing the letters in some Spanish words and replacing others entirely. Many people are shocked to find that Spaniards here are not speaking Spanish to them - although once you begin to hear the regional accent it is very easy to comprehend with some Spanish language knowledge.
We stayed in an apartment in the heart of Barri Gòtic, the Gothic Quarter, the oldest part of Barcelona, housing the Barcelona Cathedral and neighboring El Born, the artists’ quarter where I used to live. Walking down the cobblestone streets, memories of my time there came back in waves; the patterns of the streets first, and then slowly the streetlamp that always framed the setting sun in the evenings and the local stores and cafés that welcomed me in during those hot summer days. The first day, I took the girls to La Colmena, a bakery and dolceria that made my favorite sandwiches - a fresh baguette, transformed into pan con tomate (bread smeared with fresh tomato, olive oil, and salt) with emmental cheese. We walked to the harbor and sat in the park overlooking the marina, enjoying the warm summer day.
The first day, I had an interview over Skype so most of my day was spent in the Starbucks (thankfully air conditioned) using the wifi, but I got to jump right back into vacationing that night as we ate dinner at Makamaka, a Hawaiian themed burger bar right along the Barcelona beach. The restaurant glowed with warm light and tons of young Spaniards just beginning their night - even the ever so entertaining first date or two. Tired after a long day of traveling, we finished our fries and headed back to get a good night’s sleep before our full day of sightseeing.