Barcelona

Sagrada Familia ceiling

I wasn't really sure what to expect from Barcelona. I didn't really know anything about it except it had Gaudi architecture and palm trees, but its one of those places that everybody raves about, like Prague, and I loved Prague so I figured Barcelona must be cool too. Yep, Barcelona is really awesome. It kind of feels like Miami on spring break. 

There's tons of young people and the beach is always packed. We didn't do a whole lot in Barcelona. We became very lazy and slept a lot. We did go on a tour of Gaudi's architectural achievements, and he was really creative but really crazy too. There is a famous basilica in Barcelona designed by him called Sagrada Familia, and it looks completely ridiculous from the outside. Its been under construction for 150 years, and it's supposed to be finished by 2026, but I doubt this will happen. Unlike my opinion of most monumental churches in Europe, this one has a meh exterior, but an absolutely fabulous interior. Don't get me wrong, when you walk up to it, its so huge and very impressive, but the facade that you see in all the pictures looks like sandcastle made with dripping wet sand. I'm really glad we went inside though, because its absolutely beautiful, like no other church you've ever seen. Its really modern and doesn't feel like a church at all. Its by far the most bizarre building I've ever seen, both from the outside and inside. 

Cool lamp post designed by Gaudi

Our first night was the eve of their San Juan festival, which was ridiculous. The Spaniards know how to party for sure. The problem is, they have siestas in the evening before they party, so they party until 7 am which is really inconvenient for when you're tired and want to sleep!

Super excited about this mound of meringue I'm
about to devour.

In North America, when we have big holidays, its a very structured way of celebrating. Everyone has their bbqs, there's a firework show put on by the city, and you do your thing. In Spain, everyone buys their own fireworks or firecrackers, you can buy the big ones too, and it results in a complete gong show. Needless to say when we got up the next morning and ventured out for bunch, the streets were basically empty. It was very impressive how quickly they can clean up from their parties though!

Hippies blow massive bubbles every evening for the amusement of
small children

Of course we went to the beach because we had some bad farmer tans to even out after the last month and a half of traveling, so the first time we went we were all responsible and wore sunscreen. The problem is, we didn't get tan at all, so the second time we decided to skip sunscreen and deal with the results because we really needed to get rid of our awful neck tan lines... and that's why I currently cannot move very much, let alone carry a 30 lb backpack. That is actually the worst part of the burn is carrying a backpack. It hurts so much! Anyway, at least our tan lines are evened out now.

Post sunburn fun at the Gaudi Park

The old town in Barcelona is really cool to walk around in. Some of the streets, especially in the Gothic quarter, are so narrow its crazy.

Photogenic gothic bridge

The food in Spain was pretty decent. We had supper with D and his companion at a really good burger place, but our authentic Spanish meal wasn't that impressive, but probably because it was in the touristy part and they never make good food there. They had these things made with a slice of baguette with all sorts of food artistically stacked on top. I don't remember what they were called, but they resembled a boat, and I wanted to try one so bad but didn't get the chance. 

We really liked these street lights by our hostel

Next time I'm in Barcelona, I am definitely trying the boat sandwich, visiting the authentic gelato shop we found, wearing at least 10 SPF sunscreen, and not trying to catch a train at 9 am. That's just way too early.

The trees were shedding these yellow flowers all over the city