On Tuesday morning, April 23rd, 46 TY students and 4 teachers met at PCS to travel to Dublin Airport in the middle of the morning. After a 2.5 hour journey to the capital, we proceeded through customs and spent a few hours in the duty free. At 6.15 am we were on the runway ready to take off. We were very tired by the end of the 2.5 hour plane journey to the capital of Catalonia - Barcelona. We departed the plane, got our bags and headed to our coach where our tour guide was waiting for us. Our guide's name was Jess. Our first stop was at the CosmoCaixo science museum. There were many attraction here such as fish, giant ice pillars and a cafe that was extremely difficult to get to. We soon left the museum to head to La Sagrada Familia, a massive catherdral located in central Barcelona. Our tour guide filled us in on the history of the monnument andf we had some time to appreciate the architecture inf ront of us. We then left to head for Montjuic. MontJuic is a castle on a mountain, like most castles in Spain. To reach the summit, we had to take a cablecar. I enjoyed the experience as I had already been on a cablecar, however, not everyone was as calm as myself as I was accompanied by a rather screamy Ali McDonagh. We then left MontJuic and returned to or hotel where we had time to freshen up before dinner. The dinner the first night was not up to much. I didn't eat a lot as I didn't like the food served and I wasn't all that hungry in the first place. After dinner, we went bowling which was really enjoyable and fun eventhough I was awful. This was a great opportunity to have some fun after a long day.
The second morning began with a trip to the Gaudi museum which I knew nothing about. After the video introduction and the walk-through commentry the museum offered, I found out all about Gaudi's architecture and why he is so famous, especially in Barcelona.
We had some free time then to discover the streets in the area. We went from there to portaventura. We had a great time here and had fun on all the amusements and rollarcoasters. We left the theme park early so we would have some time to go to the beach or pool. I chose to go to the beach because it was warm and we were very close to it at our hotel in Salou. We had plenty to have fun at the beach and returned to the hotel before dinner. When we returned to the hotel we decided to go to the pool as we were already wet and I wasn't all that interested in missing the dinner in the hotel anyway because I ate very little the night previous. We had extra time int he pool then when we returned and after half an hour it was then time to get changed and head for dinner. After our meal we were allowed mingle along the streets of Salou unaccompanied. I used this time to shop and look at the scenic views. When we were finished, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed as we were very tired from our long day.
The final day started with visiting the Roman Ampitheatre in Tarragona. As I was extremely tired and hungry, I didn't pay much attention to this and couldn't wait until we had free time to explore the Tarragona region. We then reassembled and headed back on our coach to Camp Nou, the home of Barcelona FC. I am interested in soccer however, a lot of the history and cups that were housed in the museum didn't make any sense to me. It was interesting to see the inside of the stadium and the changing rooms and dugouts. After a swift trip through the shop, we boarded the coach again and departed for Maremagnum shoppping Centre. We had just over an hour to shop and then we were back on the coach to bring us back to the airport to return to Ireland.
Overall, I would have to say I whole-heartedly enjoyed our TY trip to Barcelona. In my opinion it was the experience in TY that benefitted me most throughout the course of the year and it was definitley the highlight of the year.
The second morning began with a trip to the Gaudi museum which I knew nothing about. After the video introduction and the walk-through commentry the museum offered, I found out all about Gaudi's architecture and why he is so famous, especially in Barcelona.
We had some free time then to discover the streets in the area. We went from there to portaventura. We had a great time here and had fun on all the amusements and rollarcoasters. We left the theme park early so we would have some time to go to the beach or pool. I chose to go to the beach because it was warm and we were very close to it at our hotel in Salou. We had plenty to have fun at the beach and returned to the hotel before dinner. When we returned to the hotel we decided to go to the pool as we were already wet and I wasn't all that interested in missing the dinner in the hotel anyway because I ate very little the night previous. We had extra time int he pool then when we returned and after half an hour it was then time to get changed and head for dinner. After our meal we were allowed mingle along the streets of Salou unaccompanied. I used this time to shop and look at the scenic views. When we were finished, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed as we were very tired from our long day.
The final day started with visiting the Roman Ampitheatre in Tarragona. As I was extremely tired and hungry, I didn't pay much attention to this and couldn't wait until we had free time to explore the Tarragona region. We then reassembled and headed back on our coach to Camp Nou, the home of Barcelona FC. I am interested in soccer however, a lot of the history and cups that were housed in the museum didn't make any sense to me. It was interesting to see the inside of the stadium and the changing rooms and dugouts. After a swift trip through the shop, we boarded the coach again and departed for Maremagnum shoppping Centre. We had just over an hour to shop and then we were back on the coach to bring us back to the airport to return to Ireland.
Overall, I would have to say I whole-heartedly enjoyed our TY trip to Barcelona. In my opinion it was the experience in TY that benefitted me most throughout the course of the year and it was definitley the highlight of the year.