Barcelona was a beautiful city on the beach and I had a really great time!
We left Monday but first went to the Aerodrome in Santa Cilia to watch Nieves and Jusep (who we stayed with in Barcelona) fly their motor-free planes (scary stuff) and then ate a nice lunch before heading to Barcelona. It was about a 4 hour car ride and we arrived at night, ate some embutidos which are sausages and pepperoni type foods and cheese and then went to bed to get an early start.
Our first day in Barcelona we saw almost everything on our bus tour. There were three different routes and we were determined to see them all and we did! We were lucky to get a very sunny and hot day out, but with a nice breeze so the bus ride was enjoyable. It was a hop-on hop-off type deal so we decided to explore Parc Guell, one of Gaudi's many works of art in the city. He has a very whimsical architecture, using lots of colorful tiles and curvy lines.
Then before going back to the apartment we took a stroll down La Rambla, a street filled with lots of strange sites and people, which apparently turns pretty sketchy at night. After starting the bus tour at 10 AM and finishing at 8 PM we were wiped out. We ate more embutidos and cheese in the house with pan tumaca (bread with tomato and olive oil).
The next day we walked around the Gothic quarter and then after lunch we went to the beach. We couldn't enter the Cathedral because I was wearing shorts, but we just wandered around all the small streets and went in a few cool shops. The beach was perfect, not too hot with a nice breeze. Later I took a dip in the Mediterranean, which wasn't warm, but definitely warmer than Maine water in the summer. Anne-Sophie's friend Chancy from AFS staying in Barcelona (who also happens to be from Maine and met Irene at Sunday River) came to the beach to join us.
We then went to Maremagnum which is this mall-type area in the port that has waterfront tapas. Mercedes had her glass of wine and we enjoyed some tapas on the water. It was really a beautiful and cool area. We wanted ben and jerry's but they closed right before we got there so we had to downgrade to McDonald's ice cream. Mercedes' friend Judit showed up who's father owns a bunch of hotels and drives a convertible two-seater Mercedes. When Chancy found out that was the car she was giving him a ride home in he was SO excited, it was priceless and we got some good pictures with the car. The next day we saw a Maserati in the parking garage and he was equally as excited.
The next morning we went to have our VIP breakfast in the hotel Prestige where Judit lives, it was on one of the hippest and most central streets in Barcelona. They had a nice spread of fruits and breads and cheeses. Then we went to the Pueblo Espanol which is a representation of all the different types of architecture you find all over Spain and has replication of actual houses and buildings from different towns. Then we dropped Chancy off at the beach and went to eat lunch at a little neighborhood restuarant that Nieves and Jusep always eat at, I got gazpacho (a cold tomato soup) and salmon. That night we ate in a beautiful restaurant on the water in the port and all ordered Fideua, a specialty in Barcelona which is a noodle and seafood dish which was delicious!
We ate breakfast the next day at the Prestige again and then we went to our last stop the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's imensely impressive church that is still being constructed. It was a bit of a rip-off to go in for 10 euro and because of the construction you couldn't really see and then had to pay 2.50 to go up in the elevator, which I also assumed would be a rip off, and that gave me half a heart attack because we were up so high. Really the most impressive parts are the two facades.
Overall I though Barcelona was a very interesting city with architecture that is just incredible. I'm definitely looking forward to coming back some day. The only problem is they speak Catalan, not Castellano (Spanish) but it's pretty easy to understand and you can get around in Spanish just fine.
