Hi friends! Waking up to the sounds of Barcelona was super exciting this morning. After a long day of traveling and little sleep, I felt refreshed and somewhat adjusted to the time change. Yesterday my flatmates and I did everything we could not to fall asleep by exploring a bit. We ventured to the CEA campus so we knew where we are attending classes. Along with a lot of walking, we had some great food and drinks.
This morning we had our orientation at CEA followed by a fabulous lunch. The CEA staff are all welcoming and helpful with any questions we have about our program or the city itself. We had lunch at La Lluna, a restaurant that was tucked back in a small alley off Las Ramblas. We had a wide variety of tapas followed by a main course and then dessert. I was stuffed, but enjoyed everything I had! The patatas bravas were definitely my favorite.
After lunch, we had a lovely walking tour of Las Ramblas and the Gothic Quarter with a guide named Sylvia. She was born and raised in Barcelona and provided a lot of great information. Being on Las Ramblas was a bit hectic because it is a big tourist spot in the city, but moving through the small streets of the Gothic Quarter was beautiful.
We took a break in the evening to re-energize before heading to dinner. We tested our luck with the metro and took it a few stops toward the beach. We ate at a restaurant named Mirandoalmar and had some delicious sangria and paella. The service was great and the food was even better. The metro was fairly easy and we got to see many new areas of the city!