The city that ended up inspiring me to go to Spain initially was absolutely on the short list, so when my former roommate/part time Barcelona resident Goodwin told me he was coming over to reestablish his residency, I committed to the first Ryanair ticket I could find ($59).

After a slight concern about me getting bumped off my flight, by 11am Thursday I was soaring out of the Seville airport for the quick and pleasant flight over to Barcelona. It’s about 10 hours by car, 1.5ish by plane. We touched down with minimal fuss and I started to wander my way out of the beautiful labyrinth that is the Barcelona airport.

Once I finally made it to open air (read: diesel filled), I tried to find the best option for ground transport to the city. The airport is actually pretty far out of town, so there’s one option for a train, a bus that takes you straight to town, taxi’s, or a cheaper bus that takes you someplace. I shelled out the 6 euros for the bus.

It dropped me off in Plaza España, a huge rotunda in the middle of Barcelona surrounded by some big buildings and a stadium or something and a big museum-big city stuff. From there I grabbed some M&Ms then ducked underground to take the Metro the rest of the way to the AirBNB.

Upon arrival I met for the Goodwin’s mother Pauline and cousin, Robert, a DJ/music producer who lives in Lisbon, Portugal and was flying over for the weekend (there has to be something in their genes). I met with them and learned about them while Goodwin got a tattoo of what I know to be whirly-birds or helicopters, but are scientifically named Samaras. While we ate some popcorn, I learned about Robert’s life in broadcasting and his shift away to a more creative side of life-super interesting and inspiring in a lot of ways.

From then we walked down to the Metro station and jumped on to get over to the Sagrada Familia. We had a quick minute to tapear nearby before our time at the cathedral. When 3:15 rolled around, we took a quick picture in front, then went right inside.

I remember hearing about the cathedral for the first time and the ambition of the whole thing and how it would take centuries to build and how ginormous it was. So when we entered, I was taken aback by two things. First of all, it’s both huge and beautiful-but both less huge and less beautiful than I expected.

Seville has a huge cathedral as well. But Seville’s is almost double the size. And granted, the tallest spire of the Sagrada Familia is taller (172m to Seville’s 105m). But Seville is made out of blocks of marble and the Sagrada Familia of cement. And Seville’s was finished in 1517-La Sagrada Familia is still being constructed, using modern construction techniques. As far as things go, I went wanting to have my mind blown by the Barcelonés Cathedral-but there’s no doubt in my mind that given the history of the cathedral here, in Seville, beats its more famous sister. They also have the same amount of stars on google reviews.

After that, a Metro ride home and a Thanksgiving dinner among Americans at a hole in the wall Senegalese restaurant. This year, I’m thankful for other languages, travel, and being healthy.

A little nap, then to a few bars before bed. The bar scene is way different than from Seville. Here, everything (while equally cheap) is practically the same. You get a cafe, which serves beer, or a bar, which serves beer and mixed drinks (copas), or a bar, which serves beer, mixed drinks, and cocktails. In Barcelona there’s a much wider variety of bars, themes, tiki bars, cheap bars, dive bars, skater bars-the reality is it is much more reminiscent of a bar scene in a large city in the states, except generally the bars are all pretty small in area.

The next day, Goodwin and woke up to go for a run, then had a breakfast. I split off from the group for a few hours to do my own thing: first, a walk through the condensed Barrio Gotico, stopping at a free archaeological museum displaying some subterranean ruins of a 17th century Barcelona. From there, I walked, grabbing a coffee and trying on some Ray Bans, past a few shops, wandering through the cathedral and a park, past the zoo a magnificent fountain before checking out the Arc d’ Triomph and people watching while munching on a pastry.

I met up with the rest of the group for a late lunch before we got some groceries for an AirBNB resupply, then powernaps for everybody. That evening we made dinner and planned out the next day, which we would rent a car to take to Monserrat.

Monserat was incredible. We drove up out of Barcelona and into the mountains before arriving at a monastery nestled into the crook of a Mountain. After poking around a little, we bought some tickets that would take us on a tram to the final summit above the main area.

After the tram to the mountain we hiked a little ways up a wideish trail, stopping a little ways away to eat our packed lunches. Afterwards, Goodwin and I continued up, running into a few groups of climbers scaling a few different types of geological formations. We looped our way past a chapel, then to these little monastery type looking caves, then looped back down a long staircase. After that, down the tram for a cafecito while Robert went and picked up the rental car.

We drove to the coast for a paella and a really incredible sunset-good weather as well. Paella might have messed up the stomach a little, but it was all in good fun. We drove the rest of the way into Barcelona. That night was just me and Goodwin out, and we went to a cool little bar and had some really great cocktails.

The next day, we woke up at a reasonable hour before Goodwin and I dipped out to Barrio Gotico so we could grab breakfast (crepes and coffee), then buy some socks. The same weekend as Black Friday, it was a big shopping weekend and there where a lot of people around. We finally found him a few suitable pairs at H&M. It was really busy everywhere, kinda fun to be in that shopping environment.

We walked back where I packed up my backpack and hopped on the train to take me to the other train that I could take to the airport. I got on the wrong one, then missed the next one that could get me there, which took me about an extra 45 minutes longer than expected. This resulted in a tight, tight, airport run. Barcelona has two terminals, and the train drops off at the arrivals terminal, so I had to run across a skywalk to catch a bus to take me to the right one. I showed up to the airport 50 minutes in advance, but showed up to the right terminal 30 minutes in advance. It was tight, but I made it in time-and the flight ended up being delayed a bit. I made it into Seville and took the bus from the airport, getting home in time to have a nice conversation with my sister and do some homework before going to bed.

Great trip, but ultimately, Barcelona has nothing on the people, amiability, beauty, price, weather of Seville-I guess it has the beach, a bigger club scene. But Sevilla is much more my style.

I’m writing this a couple weeks late, so I’ll write a post about my trip to Granada this last weekend. Then finals, one last weekend, and a flight home a few days before Christmas. Should be a blast, and a mess. I’ll be back.