My school trip to Barcelona

We left Belgium to go to Barcelona on Friday the 17th of April 2009 at 18h30. It was the holiday that all rhetoric students expect for long weeks and so, everybody was very excited.

The coach was quite small but it seemed it was enough for 26 students. Unfortunately, the coach was really uncomfortable to get to sleep as you might expect (we had planned in advance to travel during the night to win time for visits and stay) and so, almost everyone was tired the next day.

On Sunday, we arrived at the hotel at about 10 and we had to wait for unloading luggage because the rooms were only available at 13 o’clock. During this time we enjoyed the sunny day and we decided who would go with one another in the different rooms (there were 4 girls in each room and 3 boys in each other rooms).
For the rest of the day, we were allowed to do whatever we wanted, in other words : a free afternoon. What about me, I went to the beach with Bruno, Robin, Florent, Sandy, Christopher and Pierre (the beach was just in front of the hotel). The beach was made of little stones : we could have been disappointed but it was not the fact because it created good games throwing them! The form of the different beaches in the area was also a bit special for Belgium people : they’re always little beaches finished by an amount of stones ; they look like coves. We also enjoyed the accommodation and the infrastructure of the hotel. We were provided a swimming pool, a tennis court, a mini-golf course and an entertainment room. The only regrets about it was that the rooms were quite small and not very special when you compare with the rest of the hotel, and the Spanish people were not very kind with us in the hotel.
At the end of the day, we went and ate in the huge dining room of the hotel. We could eat Spanish specialities like paëlla of coated fish but if you didn’t like this, you could also eat international food like pasta or pork.
For the evening, the all group (without the 2 teachers) decided to go to a local bar in front of the beach and try local fruit cocktails : they were generally very delicious with flavours we don’t know absolutely in Belgium.

The third day (Sunday), after eating breakfast, we left our hotel called Surf-mar situated in Lloret de mar (a seaside resort) to go to Barcelona. The trip lasted more or less 1h30 because there were stations where you had to pay for driving on the motorway. At 10h45 we visited the Miró Fondation which contains a lot of paints made by Miró but I think it was too short to appreciate it to the full : we only stayed for 1 hour and a half. This museum wad situated on the “Mont Juic” and so, we could also appreciate the beautiful view of Barcelona.
Besides, the French guide showed us the Olympic stadium where the Olympic Games took place in 1992. For this occasion, the Spanish government had decided to rebuild the roads of the city because Barcelona had been above all an industrial city for some years. So, we could discover the great new roads, the new port (the Olympic port, in fact) and the new buildings.
At he middle of the day, we went to the “Spanish Pueblo”, a place of 1 km2 which assembles all the different architect styles of Espana with reproductions of true buildings. We ate our lunch there and we could enjoy the great atmosphere there because there are a lot of typical shops and on the main place called “Plaza Major”, there are often play (in Spanish, of course!).
In the afternoon we returned to the centre of Barcelona where we visited the Gothic neighbourhood with beautiful ancient Roman buildings such as the ancient palace of Ferdinand d’Aragon and Isabelle de Castille. And one of the most surprising moment was when our guide showed us ancient Roman columns in a little house of a small street!
At 16h30 we moved, to visit the “Pedrera” which is a house totally designed by the famous architect Antoni Gaudi (you could see many of others buildings in Barcelona designed by him as well). And the most funny thing is that all the things are made in curves, even the walls ! This strange house was built between 1906 and 1912 with the best blacksmiths ans stone-cutters of that moment.
Finally, we went back to the hotel and Robin, Florent, Pierre and I had time to play tennis for one hour. Fortunately, we were 4 for the bill because if not, we would have to pay 15 euro (a bit expensive for just a hour... but we could see that life is quite expensive in the area).
What about the end of the day, all the students were really excited because the next day, it was Pauline Pinget’s birthday (18 years). So, some people shouted in the corridor of our rooms and even Bruno sang a little for the occasion. But the coach driver didn’t enjoy very much because he was already sleeping in a next room... Then we went to the beach to pass the rest of the night all together (great moments!).
On Monday we went to Barcelona once more to visit the lovely “Parc Güell” which had been also designed by Gaudi. Originally it was built for Spanish people to provide them a beautiful living environment but as the houses weren’t sold, it was just Gaudi himself who lived there! The place is also in the same kind of architecture as the other places designed by Gaudi : all in curves ! But the using materials are really well-choosed because they come from Barcelona and so, the all place doesn’t shock you at all. The weather was also very sunny and we enjoyed this good time very much.
At 12h55, we went to the centre of Barcelona to visit one of the most famous buildings of the city : the “Sagrada Familia” (in fact, it’s the cathedral of Barcelona). And it was built by ... Gaudi! But the work (started at the beginning of the 20th century) was stopped because of the lack of money and because of the civil war between 1936 and 1939 (Gaudi worked for this cathedral for 40 years of his life !). They only started to build it again some years ago with donors’ money and they plan that it will be finished in about 2026. The style of this cathedral was really strange for me because I used to visit Gothic cathedrals. This is part of the modernism movement. But there are 2 things that I didn’t like at all : a gift shop took place inside the cathedral and there are vending machines at the entrance ! So, it seemed too tourist to me and not enough religious.
In the afternoon we could walk in the “Las Ramblas”, one of the 2 main avenues of Barcelona. There is an enormous amount of actors who are dressed in strange characters and most of them stay motionless as long as they can and they just wait for a little coin. We also did shopping in this avenue because there were a couple of famous shops but little gift shops too.
When we returned at the hotel, I play tennis once again with my friends and in the evening, we celebrated Pauline’s birthday with 2 Spanish cakes (payed by ourselves) which were made of lemon cake and cream. For the rest of the evening, we were allowed to go to a disco of Lloret de mar but it was only the girls who were more motivated. If I remember clearly, 8 girls and just one boy (Robin) finally go to it. The other students and I preferred to have a quiet and warm evening at the hotel. We had a drink together at the bar of the hotel (Sangria for everyone, even the teachers !) and we listened to music. We also met a funny barman who danced on Shakira’s songs when he was serving us our drinks. He was very kind with us and we still remember his funny accent when he named different international biers.
And to finish this evening at best, the boys played with playing cards in their rooms and so, we went to bed quite late but it was such a great memory.

On Tuesday we had to prepare our luggage (Oh...) quite quickly to let the rooms available at 10 for the next guests. And after it, we could enjoy our last moments in Lloret de mar by going to the local streets and buying some souvenirs. And actually, we looked like true tourists because there were a lot of Pakistani shop assistants saying to us in French and with a great accent : “Venez. Venez. Les tee-shirts à 10 euro. Pas cher...Pas cher...” . At lunchtime we ate all together at a local restaurant situated in front of the beach of Loret de mar. In fact, the meal was free for everyone thanks to the additional money that was provided for the stay in case of emergency. Most of them ate the local Paëlla but pizza’s were available for people who don’t like this.
Finally, we took the direction of Figueras to visit the well-known Dali’s museum. We arrived a bit in advance and so, we had to wait a bit before coming to the museum but it was the opportunity for the girls (mainly) to get a tan. At 16 o’clock we finally came to it and we stayed for 2 hours. And actually, I found it very interesting because there was a lot of different paints which represented the different styles of Dali’s thought. And besides, there were also a few of sculptures and so, it was fairly varied. I love this surrealism movement.
So, as you might expect, it was definitely time to go back to Belgium at 18h10. The coach journey wasn’t better than the first time if you consider the comfort but there was an amazing atmosphere even if everybody was already a bit nostalgic. Fortunately, the 3 films we saw during the 2 long journeys (“American family man”, “Nemo” and “Braveheart” . Sorry for our English teacher but this last wasn’t in English...) succeeded in removing us this bad feeling and we finally arrived in Chimay at 9h20 on Wednesday morning.

This holiday was one of the best memory I’ve ever had and I was happy to have had this atmosphere, these visits and friends for these 6 days. The only thing it could be improved for the next years is perhaps having a longer stay and visiting more. I hope that the new friendship will remain as long as possible and that everybody will remember these unusual moments that you’ve rarely in your life. Thanks to everybody.