Elon Men's Cross Country Barcelona Global Experience

Pictures From The Flight To Barcelona

BLOG ONE (NOV. 25)

BY TYLER MASTRANGELO

The day began with a trip to Montserrat, which is on a mountaintop about an hour drive from Barcelona. Our group spent the morning exploring the stunning area, known for its unique culture and picturesque views of the cities below. While it had elements of a tourist attraction, the experience remained memorable. The morning included a walk up the mountain road to a lookout point. There was thick fog for most of our time on the mountain, but it cleared just long enough for one great view of the city below.

Lunch was a buffet at a Monserrat cafe, followed by a visit to the Museum of Montserrat, which stood out as a highlight. The museum included work from artists like Picasso, Degas, Dali, Monet, Renoir and others. Dr. Tucker, our professor, pointed out a very rare painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio. The day emphasized a deeper appreciation for art, literature, and cultural experiences, all set against the backdrop of Montserrat’s beauty.

The evening in Barcelona featured dinner at Buko, and time spent overlooking the city from Barcelona’s former bull ring.  Bull fighting is no longer legal in Barcelona, so the arena was converted to a shopping center full of stores and great restaurants. The day wrapped up with video editing and heading to bed, marking the end of a full and enriching day.

BLOG TWO (NOV. 26)

BY BRYAN HAMPSON

Today I woke up to Mike’s 7:30 alarm knowing full well neither of us were going to get up until 8:30. After a little while I decided to do a four mile out and back from our hotel in Plaça d’Espanya over to the Olympic park. After going up a decently sized hill, I ran past beautiful views of the city, dog walkers, and past athletic fields for rugby, cricket, football, tennis, as well as a big track. I got back in time for a quick shower and breakfast at the hotel. 

At 10:00 we headed out for a bus tour of the city. A local Barcelona guide named Anna joined us to tell us about the history of the area  Afterwards we got out and walked the streets past La Pedrera and Casa Battlo, getting to see it on foot. A lot of the cool buildings we passed on the bus trip along with sculptures and parks were built for the 1929 World’s Fair and  for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. 

After some pictures of these places, we headed to lunch. At the restaurant we had some delicious tapas and then fish for the entree. I’ve really gotten to like one tapa with the tomato sauce and olive oil on grilled bread and another one with fried eggplant discs. I also tried mussels for the first time which were surprisingly good despite the appearance and smell. 

When we finished our meals, we headed over to the home of Freixenet Cava, where we got a tour of the wine cellars and learned the process of how the sparkling wines were made and the development of the process over the years. From what I can remember, the cava starts with 3+ types of top-quality grapes (for different types of cava) that are grown in this region. The different types of grapes are best grown at certain altitudes in the region, and the soil helps largely in the development of the quality of grapes, with the amount of clay helping contain the rainwater. They mentioned that they don’t irrigate the fields and just let nature do its work. They pick the grapes in the later summer months, although due to global warming and increasing temperatures, the times for harvest have been premature, with the last 2 years being the earliest on record. 

The next step in the cava making process is to crush the grapes (now industrially) in large containers where the first big squeeze produced 60% of the “grape juice.” This is the top-quality stuff they use for wine making, with the aromas and flavors they are looking for. The next squeeze gets most of the rest of it, which isn’t as good quality, so they sell it to distilleries and other companies for making alcohol and other drinks. The next step is adding sugar and their own yeast to the large containers and letting it sit for a while to ferment. 

To make sparkling wine however, they put the liquid in the bottles, and let it sit again for some number of months to let the yeast do its thing allowing no air to escape. The yeast will eventually collect and clump together, creating “lees” (a sediment) which has to be taken out before they can sell the bottles. They have a shaking/shifting/rotating process to separate it out from the liquid keeping it at the end near the lid of the bottle while the liquid is in the bottom. They have an automated process now done by machines that can do a hundred bottles in only 3 hours per machine when it used to be a few days or weeks for 2 bottles done by hand. 

The part of the bottle with the lees are then suspended in ice water until it freezes and then (also automated now and less tedious than by hand) the bottle is opened, and the lees are removed, then it’s recapped without losing any of the cava. Also, the wine was previously stored underground because it has a constant temperature required for optimal fermentation, which is about 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit. 

They make several million bottles a year and were the first sparkling wine to sell internationally. Freixenet is a big supplier to the the US as well, and I assume it’s popular.  After the tour we got to taste two of their most popular Cavas. I’m not a fan of alcohol so I didn’t particularly like it, but learning the process was interesting. 

In the evening we headed over to the Olympic stadium for the Champions League fixture between FC Barcelona and runners up in the French Ligue 1 last year, Brest. Lamine Yamal was out with an injury, but early in the match Lewandowski, the Barca striker (#9) converted a penalty to make it 1-0 early. Barca went on in the second half to score two more through Dani Olmo and another from Lewandowski. It was a great result for Barca overall and a great spectacle, but I was also in a bit of a dampened mood after I saw that my team Manchester City, who were playing at the same time, had blown their 3-0 halftime lead and tied Dutch side Feyenoord 3-3, bringing the City winless streak to 6 (but technically breaking a 5 game losing streak). 

I also enjoyed seeing everyone wearing Barca merch at the match. Ramy wore his lucky Lewandowski shirt, and Daniel had a smooth all black Barca hat and a dual scarf commemorating the day. Overall it was a very fun day and I to see my very first UCL game, which was something I won't forget! 

BLOG THREE (NOV. 27)

By Josh Driscoll

At the time I’m writing this, it is 1:30pm. Already today we have bussed to Tarragona, a beautiful coastal city embedded in the ruins of ancient roman style buildings. Tarragona, in Spanish, translates to textile center. We’ve been given some free time to explore, so the boys have gathered for lunch at The Continental, a little spot at the city center. Before this, we explored a park built around ancient Roman ruins that date back to the 2nd century, which led us into our next stop at the Roman Circus museum. The museum was very interesting, as you were guided into what were once the outer bleachers, where citizens and patrons would gather to watch chariot racing and other circus events. After getting a view of the playing area, you walk through a tunnel which was once a passageway through the stadium from one road to another. This takes you to the last building, which was essentially an old Roman barracks, as it was attached to the outer wall of the city. You ascend the floors of the building, seeing old Roman inscriptions and columns along the way, until you reach the top which has a magnificent view of Tarragona. The view really put into perspective how huge the circus area was in relation to the outer walls. You also got a good view of some of the other forts nearby and the amphitheater that was outside the city walls. 

We had planned to visit Les Gavarres, which is said to be the most diverse and complete shopping area in Southern Catalonia, but unfortunately I think we will run out of time to get there and back. We’ve decided to walk around to see if we can get another nice view of the ocean from above. This town is absolutely beautiful. 

We met back at the plaza afterwards, and drove 90 minutes back to the hotel, where we chilled out until dinner. We had dinner at Tablao de Carmen, where they also had a traditional flamenco performance. The meal was great, and the performance left most of us in awe. They had cheese plates, bread, an assortment of potatoes and chicken, but most importantly, a great atmosphere. The restaurant was tucked into the Spanish sector that was built for the 1929 World Fair. The buildings and streets around were decorated for Christmas, which was nice. We are now back at the hotel and getting ready for another great day tomorrow!

BLOG FOUR (NOV. 28)

By Joe Lavelle

Today was Thanksgiving and our free day, and for me has to be the highlight of the entire trip. After some much needed extra sleep, we woke up at around 10am with big ideas but no concrete plans for the day. Our group, including Daniel, Caden, Seth, Bryan, Jack, and myself, were eager to revisit Montserrat and explore some of the nearby trails. Our first experience there was beautiful but clouds covered most of the views on our short hike that day. After a quick look at maps we realized it was possible to take the train from right outside our hotel directly to the mountain. Shocked by how easy getting there seemed to be, we quickly ate our breakfast and got on our way.

At around 1:15pm we began our hike of Monterrat’s highest peak, Sant Jeroni. Totaling around 6.5 miles with about 2100 feet of elevation gain, it was no easy feat but we were excited nonetheless and embarked on our journey. It is hard to put into words how beautiful the hike was, with everything from sights of Barcelona in the distance and the breathtaking views of the entire mountain, to close encounters with the mountain’s wild inhabitants, Ibexes. Upon summiting the peak, we all felt a sense of accomplishment and appreciation unlike anything before.

Following the hike we took the train all the way back to the hotel where we had about 20 minutes before departing again, this time for Thanksgiving dinner. Before the meal began Caden delivered a speech at the table, basically summing up what was on everyone’s mind, talking about how thankful he was for the opportunity to be on this trip and how everyone on the team really is a family. 

That’s how we spent our Thursday, I’m so excited for even more fun tomorrow!

BLOG FIVE (NOV. 29)

By Evan Taylor

On November 29, we started our day at our hotel breakfast at around 8 a.m. By 8:30, everyone was down in the lobby, and we were ready to leave and take our bus to La Sagrada Familia, one of the most famous architectural monuments in the world. We arrived at the church at around 9 a.m. and had to organize into three separate groups because, as a whole, our group was too large to enter all at once. Before entry, we downloaded an audio guide to enhance our experience at La Sagrada. The sight was incredibly busy with tourists, and we waited in line to get into the church. Once we got in, we began touring and listening to our audio guides. 

The temple has 4 sides to it. Three of the sides have different facades that represent different things about the life of Christ. The first facade we saw was the Nativity Facade. This face of the temple showed the birth of Christ with beautiful statues and tapestries. The second facade was the Glory Facade. We did not see this one from the outside because it is still under construction, but from the inside, we were able to see how it would look when it was finished. The third and final facade was the Passion Facade, which told the story of the death of Christ. The inside of the church was incredibly beautiful. Antoni Gaudi, the architect who designed this church, wanted the inside to have a natural feel and this was accomplished. With the stained-glass windows and pillars that represented trees, it felt as though you were walking through a large forest.  La Sagrada Familia is still being built even though construction on it started in 1882! 

Once we left the church it was time to meet back up again to walk back to the bus. Once there, we began the roughly 90-minute drive to the city of Girona. Girona is a beautiful city in Spain that has many remnants of Roman Spain. We got the chance to do some touring on our own after we had lunch at a cafe. To get the best views, we walked up to the old city walls that were still standing. The walls date back to the 1st century so to be able to walk along them was amazing. The history and beauty of the Girona was something special. 

We left Girona at around 3:45 pm and drove back to the hotel. Once at the hotel we had some free time to shop, have a siesta, or pack for our flight which was the next day. Our final activity on our Barcelona trip was a dinner at Abrassame, the same place we had dinner on the first night. As a team, we enjoyed several tapas dishes and seafood paella. Once the dinner concluded, we had a final word from our tour guides Jake and Dani, and said our goodbyes. They gave each of us a magnet as a souvenir to remember them and this trip. We left the restaurant together, headed back to the hotel, and made sure to get to bed early as we had a 3 am check-out the next morning.