I am on a UA faculty led study abroad trip this summer doing the Globalization of Sport program. Last week we were in Madrid touring their sport stadiums and attending a European sport conference. This week we traveled around Barcelona learning about various sports and having fun along the way. When we arrived in Barcelona, we met our tour guide for the week, and he took us up to Park Guell. The park is full of colorful buildings, and you could see the entire city. Barcelona is located on the beach, and we were fortunate that our hotel was about a 20-minute walk from the beach. The morning of our second day we went down to the beach to relax before the rest of our busy week. This was the perfect time to get to know everyone on our trip even better. Barcelona is filled with history and beautiful architecture. We went on a guided city tour seeing Las Ramblas, the Gothic Quarter, and La Sagrada Familia. These are must see sights in Barcelona. The La Sagrada Familia has been under construction for the last 140 years and they are nearing the end. One day we went on a catamaran cruise and did a Spanish cooking class. Learning about the Spanish culture was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Aside from the touristy parts of the trip we had the opportunity to tour RCD Espanyol and listen to their marketing director speak about what international marketing looks like. We toured the Olympic Museum and listened to the Sport Director of Special Olympics speak. On our final day we toured the Barcelona F1 track and watched the MotoGP races at the track. Overall Barcelona is the perfect place to study abroad. It has a great mixture of history, fun, beaches, and culture.
