Barcelona!

After James left for the airport, I hopped on the metro to head to a different airport to catch my flight to Barcelona.  Of course my metro line would be down, but I met a nice French boy who helped me figure out how to make it to my bus.  I got to the busses no problem, took a nap on the hour drive to Beauvais, and read while I waited for my flight.  Everything went smoothly and I met up with Casey and her friend Elayna a few hours later.  We went for churros con chocolate, and I got a yummy falafel while wandering around on the beautiful day.  We stopped in the Picasso Museum and were able to go in for free! 

Casey and I took a couple beautiful runs down the beach at sunset.  Our hostel was right on the beach.  It was beautiful!  Apparently, Barcelona wasn’t as nice as it is today until it was spruced up for the Olympics in 1992. 

Olympics statue

The next morning we found their market and bought the best smoothies ever for breakfast.  Then, we high tailed it back to our hostel to make the 11 o’clock tour of the city.  Little did we know the tour’s main meeting place was literally 5 minutes from the market that we were at so by noon we already had a good 5 under our belts and we hadn’t even seen anything yet.  

.  The gothic tour of the city was great.  Our tour guide Sofia showed us the University Picasso attended when he was only 13 years old, which was ironically next to what used to be a red light district, a church that fisherman had built themselves by carrying stones on their backs all the way from the mountains, Saint Eulalia’s memorial (Eulalia was a young girl that wouldn't renounce her Christianity when the Romans came in.  They exposed her naked in a public square in the summer and a snow storm covered her nudity.  They rolled her down the street in a barrel with knives stuck in the sides and she survived.  When she died it is said that a dove left her body), the first Synagogue in Europe, the original Roman walls, where Ferdinand and Isabella greeted Columbus after his voyage, how the Barcelona flag and Spain flag got the colors red and gold, and many others.  

Casey and I found a great lunch deal and then headed to the beach to take a nap.  We woke up to a naked man walking around… Since the sun was setting, we went for a run.  We ate tapas and sangria for dinner at this legit Spanish Bar.  It was delicious, and we tried squid, fuet (sausage), and patatas bravas.  We met up with Taylor and her friends and danced the night away at Apollo.  The club was a black hole and we lost all track of time because we found ourselves walking home at 4:30. 

We went again to the market the next morning for smoothies and an omelet.  The market had such fresh fruits and we were obsessed.  Literally every single banana, apple, strawberry, passion fruit, kiwi, coconut, pineapple etc. had the most vibrant colors.  So we can back in the afternoon for another smoothie.  Oh, and again that evening because we just could not get enough.

In between our first two market trips, we went on the Gaudi tour.  Gaudi’s first public work was light posts in a pretty piazza; but, the state ripped Gaudi off, so he took the case to court and won, vowing to only for private families from then on.  We saw Palau Guell, Casa Batllo, and La Pedrera.  But of course my favorite was La Sagrada Familia.

There are three different facades, the Nativity Façade, the Passion Façade and the Glory Façade hasn’t even been built yet.  We went inside and after visiting many different churches, they all seem to look alike, but not this one.  My second favorite was Casa Batllo.  There are many theories about what Gaudi's inspiration was for this house.  One is that the roof is the scales of the dragon the King George is slaying, the balconies are skulls, and the windows are bones of the sacrifices the dragon had eaten. Another is Carnevale.  The mosaic is confetti and the balconies are the masks worn during the festival.

 In between our second two smoothies we went to Parc Guell.  Gaudi designed this and it has a stunning view over Barcelona and many different trails to explore.  We relaxed at the top.  My feet were in so much pain from all the walking and wearing flops with noooo support out to the club.  On the way back to our hostel with our smoothies, we stopped in the La Seu Cathedral.

For dinner, Case and I got a tapa and yummy paella.  We had some admirers at the table beside us that spoke awful English.  He would type questions on his iPhone and leave it at our table for us to answer and then they would pull up the tablecloth to hide under while they read our responses.  It was quite entertaining and slightly awkward.  We then went out with our hostel roomies that happened to study in Florence as well to Opium on the beach.  The entertainment continued when we started dancing with Asians that absolutely did not know how to dance, they did, however, know how to use a camera and were snapping pictures all night.  We headed back to the hostel for a whole two hours of sleep before our flight to Sevilla!