Well hello again todos,
I'm hear again to tell you about my wonderful weekend in the heavily toured yet awesome Barcelona!! Olé!
I wasn't quite sure how the trip was going to go at first, as Erin and I had another night in the airport on Friday, since our friend Megumi (who was going to come with us) was sick and decided to sleep at her house and try to make the flight in the morning...she did in fact, just in the nick of time. I'm quite jealous, though I know I would have been freaking out if I had to cut it that close. Plus, Erin and I found this random cafe that was closed for eating, but the actual seating area wasn't...so by chance we found some booths with more comfy cushions, and we had ourselves a wonderful night there. :) ...Much better than last weekend I must say. A cleaning lady came around at one point and turned on the lights, but she just moved our shoes out of the way, did her business of cleaning the floors, and turned the lights off again when she left...thank you, lady janitor. :)
The next morning we got on our plane and took off for Barcelona, and we must have gone straight to our hostel...since this happened a few weeks ago my memory is not fresh, but I'll say what I remember, and just go with it. Our hostel was pretty nice, as it was the same company that we stayed with in Valencia, though it certainly didn't add up to our hostel last weekend in Portugal...I don't think any ever will. Still, it did the job. Next we walked to the main street where they have all kinds of shops, and when I say shops, I mean Gucci, Coach, Burberry, the whole works. I see now why Barcelona is a central place for fashion. After uncomfortably walking around stores where we couldn't even afford a scarf, we headed over to the more affordable "Ramblas" street. This was a more young and hip place to buy stuff, and I ended up getting a lot of souvenirs for me and others. Ceramic and mosaics are a pretty big deal here, so I just had to capitalize on it. We also went past a few Gaud buildings, the famous architect who had some crazy cool ideas for design! We then went back to our hostel, bought pizza from convenience store, cooked it in the microwave after realizing our hostel didn't actually have an oven, and just chilled.
Next morning, more Gaudi!! We went to the well known "Sagrada Familia" cathedral that's been under construction for more than 100 years, and won't be finished for another 25!!! Gaudi knew he'd die before they finished it, isn't that nuts? Regrettably he died by a streetcar instead of old age, but his work still continues! It's just amazing inside, and the stained glass looks so beautiful! I'm planning on returning someday when it's finished!! Hopefully! We then went to another obra (work of art) by Gaudi, "Park Guell." I thought it would be like any other park, right? Wrong. It was more built on a mountain, because originally Gaudi wanted it to be a neighborhood for the rich. However, at that time it was too far out of town so nobody wanted to live there!! It had a ton of paths carved into the hill(s), sweet looking structures, and even some houses that looked like gingerbread houses! Erin and I decided they would be my summer homes after I marry my Portuguese prince. We also saw a ton of venders with sunglasses, jewelry, etc. on blankets, and a few people playing music for money. There was this one guy who was playing a didgeridoo, and as people walked by, he said that if anyone had any marijuana on them, feel free to drop it in too! Haha oh dear. Then, in a few minutes, there was a giant commotion! ...All of the street venders froze, and we heard someone shout "policia!"...those venders and their stuff were gone as fast as lightning! No joke. Haha Barcelona just got cooler and cooler as the weekend went on.
After a nice little picnic of bocadillos in the park, we went back to the main drag where we watched some traditional Catalan dancing. According to my host mom, it's the most boring of Spanish dances, but I still enjoyed it. :) We then went out for Mexican food, first ever since being here in Spain! It was really good, but such little portions compared to what we're used to. And before that, we went to the "magic fountain show."...it really was magical! That fountain had so many different sprays and colors, it was pretty magnificent!! After thoroughly enjoying the show, and after dinner, we just went back to the hostel to get a good night's sleep, and headed home again then next morning.
It was a great trip...except that I just realized I deleted a bunch of pictures by accident. I'll have to steal a few from Erin.
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