by Armen Changelian

Created on: May 09, 2009

Spring Break of 2009 did not find me passed out on the beaches of Mexico, roasting in the sun and futilely trying to recover memories from the night before. It did not find me waiting in line at Disney World, talking to the guy in front of me for two hours about the sweet new ride that had just opened. It certainly did not find me trapped in my hometown of Northville, sitting in my basement, wearing only boxers, cradling a half-empty bag of Doritos.

No. Instead, Spring Break of 2009 found me sitting next to my dad on a plane descending into the Barcelona airport. It was an early graduation gift. Business had brought my dad to Spain, and he had chosen to bring me along for the experience.

When you step off that plane onto another continent, the full impact of where you are seems to hit quite suddenly. In Barcelona, you look up and see hills and mountains far off in every direction. You see Euros, palm trees, and a slightly unsettling lack of street signs. And as you climb into a cab and pray the driver understands you in your pathetic attempt to relate your destination in Spanish, you realize you are not at a tourist resort. This is not some grand production put on solely for your entertainment. This is another world, one that you must readily adapt to. It may seem obvious, but for a virgin traveler, this new world can be overwhelming, as it was for me.

As we arrived at our hotel, I took a quick scan of the city around me. It reminded me of downtown Chicago, but the sleek, modern skyscrapers had been replaced by older, bizarre, beautiful stone architecture. A perfect combination. Jet lag forced me to crash early that night, but our sightseeing tour of the city began the very next morning. Our journey started off a bit clich as we visited the renowned and most popular tourist attraction, the Sagrada Familia. From five blocks away I could easily make out the faade of the famous cathedral, under construction for the past 130 years with 30 to go until its ultimate completion. I do not consider myself an art enthusiast by any standard, but I had to appreciate the enormity and incredible architectural style of the structure before me. The fact that any such structure could be assembled by human hands, especially with the technological limits faced over a century ago, left me bewildered and deeply humbled.

The remainder of the day and night was spent simply wandering through downtown Barcelona, soaking

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