This past weekend was the IES study journey, which was a trip organized by the program that I am participating in this semester. This semester, the trip was to Costa Brava, which is the region along the coast north of Barcelona.
On Friday, we had to meet at Plaza Catalunya at 8 AM. It happened to be the first day that we've had rain in Barcelona and it was pouring. The buses were also late, so by the time we got on the bus, everyone was soaked, but we were all still really excited about our trip. My program is huge, and so we took 6 buses total. Also, there were 3 different itineraries so that we wouldn't bombard the small towns with 6 buses of students. My group was the last two buses and our entire trip was in Spanish, which was good because I need practice.
Anyways, we left around 9, and headed to Empuries which is a small town with both Greek and Roman ruins. We had a quick tour of the ruins before getting back on the bus. I thought that it was very interesting that the Greeks and the Romans were able to live so close to each other in peace. We also had a very brief tour of the museum where a very famous statue of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing, is stored. The guide told us that it looks nothing like it used to when the Greeks were hear, not because of missing pieces, but because it used to be painted in vibrant red, brown, and tan paints.
After the tour, we took a short bus trip to the center of the town of Empuries to have lunch and explore the city. After a delicious lunch of pizza and wine, we went to explore the town. The town is extremely small, so you could see it all within about 15 minutes. However, there was a jetty that you could walk out on and get a view of some nearby seaside towns.
After lunch and free time in Empuries, we headed to Girona to check into our hotel and tour the city. Girona is said to be a mini Barcelona. I don't know if I agree with this, but it is a pretty good sized city in Catalunya. When we arrived in Girona, it was pouring down rain again, but we still had our tour. I wasn't able to take very many great pictures due to the rain, but I did get a few! Girona's Cathedral has the widest nave of a Catholic church besides that of St. Peter's in Rome. We also got to see the old Roman city walls, which were very impressive.
After our tour, we checked into our hotel, which was very nice. We had dinner at the hotel later that night. Most people on the tour chose "carne" as our meal, which typically refers to beef in Spanish. However, we were all surprised to find out that the carne was actually fried chicken and french fries. We were slightly disappointed, haha. It continued to storm all night, so we weren't able to leave the hotel for the night, but we had fun meeting new people in the program.
The next day we had breakfast at the hotel then headed to La Jonquera, a Spanish city near the border with France. Here, we toured the exile museum which focused on the long journey that many Catalonians had to take in order to escape the reign of Franco during the Spanish Civil War. This took place shortly before World War II and was one of the first instances in which concentration camps were used. I found out from one of my teachers that the Catalonian government had to fight for a long time with the Spanish government in order to have this museum. It is a part of the Spanish history that is usually swept under the rug. The museum was in all Catalan, so we weren't able to understand any of the text. However, many of the pictures were very moving.
After La Jonquera, we crossed the border into France! We visited the small border town of Collioure. Collioure is in a region known as French Catalonia, so the people here speak both French and Catalan. First we visited the grave of Antonio Machado, a famous Republican poet who also fled from Franco's reign.
After viewing the gravesite, we had free time to eat lunch and explore the city. We had much better weather here and the city was beautiful! I loved walking up and down the different streets. Also, there was a beach that you could walk on that had beautiful views. After a lunch of ham and cheese crepes, we walked out to a small church on a cliff to get a great view of the coast.
After a great afternoon in France, we got back on the bus to return to our hotel in Girona. We had much better weather tonight and after a dinner of hake (a typical type of fish in the region) and potatoes, we were able to go out for the night!
On Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and packed our bags for our last day. Our first stop was in Figueres to see the Dali Museum. The museum was extremely interesting and maybe my favorite part of the trip. A lot of Dali's work, at first glance, seems very strange and confusing. However, after having different pieces explained to me by a great tour guide, I learned to appreciate how intricate many of his pieces are. Every detail of the museum was designed by Dali, so everything worked really well together. There were so many details and symbols throughout all of his paintings and the museum itself, that you really would not be able to fully appreciate it without knowing how much thought went into it. Overall, I loved the museum!
After touring the Dali museum, we took the bus to the small port town of Port-Iligat, where Dali used to have a house. The town was very small but pretty.
After a short walk around the beach, we took about a 20 minute walk to the town of Cadaques. Cadaques was probably the prettiest place I have ever seen. The water was a beautiful shade of blue and all of the houses were white with different colors of shutters. The town was full of locals and I feel that we were the only tourists there. We had a great afternoon walking through the different city alleys and taking pictures of all of the fantastic views.
Sadly, we had to leave Cadaques that afternoon for a long bus ride back to Barcelona. We got back just before dinner on Sunday night. After a dinner of chicken stew with Angeles, Daniela and I both had tons of homework to do. However, we had a great weekend in Costa Brava!!
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