The difference in the scenery as I moved from Northern to Southern Europe was striking. Streets opened up into boulevards and buildings brightened from grays and whites to oranges and yellows.
I was in Barcelona for three days to visit my friend Amanda who is interning as an art instructor for an elementary school. She’s always been an artist and a free-spirit. She appreciates the looser sense of time in the city.
Every day she goes to her Spanish class half an hour late and the teacher simply says “no pasa nada.” This means “no problem” and Amanda insists it’s the most used phrase in Barcelona.
On our first day together, we went to Sagrada Familía, an enormous church that’s been under construction for over 100 years. It is estimated to be completed by 2026. I had never heard of its architect Antoni Gaudí, but now I understand him as a sort of Michelangelo of Barcelona.
In the afternoon, we hiked up to Park Güell, and after passing the stop and retreat point for most tourists who pay to take a photo at the iconic view, we saved our money and continued up the mountain through a wooded path. At the top was a panoramic view of the city bathed in the pink and purple hazes of sunset.
Amanda practices meditation, so we decided to try it at the summit. I asked her what we should meditate on and, she said, “the infinity before us. On the endless possibilities of our lives.”
Amanda and I have been friends since we were eight and we knew our kid selves would be thrilled to see us here together 15 years later. We met at a Montessori school that encouraged independent learning through play rather than structured lesson plans. For us, this meant that instead of choosing to work on our spelling or long division, we would sit in a corner and write stories and draw. That freedom to prioritize creativity is still something we look for in life and Amanda found it in Barcelona.
On one of the days, I went to the Picasso Museum while Amanda was at her internship. I found myself inspired both by his great works of beauty and his ugliest sketches. There were some paintings so magnificent that I didn’t want to leave the room, while others were so terrible that I laughed out loud. I think a lot of creative people, myself included, do not create out of fear of making something bad, but for Picasso, it was part of his process. I told my mom afterward that I wanted to transform the basement into a studio when I got home.
Amanda and I had a lot of fun in a short amount of time. We ate paella and drank cava, danced in a hip-hop class, and saw a light show on top of a Gaudì house. On our last night, we went to The Bunker, an old fortress-turned teen hangout spot, and found a little nook to look out over Barcelona. This time it was covered in darkness and freckled with still yellow street lights. We talked and laughed for hours while past-curfew youths danced to Latin beats behind us.
We made it back to her apartment in time to nap before our early morning flights. Heading in opposite directions, she flew to Amsterdam and I, to Rome.
Thank you so much, Amanda, for hosting me. See you at home soon!
Darcy Hughes 
Leave a comment