Barcelona

After stuffing our purses full of free crackers and bread and biscuits at breakfast Sunday, a scenery-filled train ride dropped us off in Barcelona, right in front of the Gaudi Casa Battló. Apparently there was a massive race right in the city center, so Katie and I had the pleasure of forcing ourselves and our suitcases through thousands of people while we headed to the hostel. In front of the Barcelona Cathedral, a live band was playing (and replaying) some traditional Spanish song while heaps of people danced the Sardana. There was a lovely antique market right beside the cathedral, and for once I was thankful I didn't have any money because it could have easily been blown within a matter of minutes. The main Plaça De Catalunya boasted more pigeons than I had ever seen in one central location, as well as beautiful fountains and roads radiating out from the city center. We also stumbled upon some castellers, or human-tower-builder-people. I had only seen them on TV and the interwebs, so it was really cool to see some in real life. I'm thinking it was some sort of competition between 3 different teams: the Castellers de Sabadell, the Castellers de Barcelona, and the Minyons de Terrassa. The red Barcelona team must have won -- we later passed by them and they were all running around on each other's shoulders and playing music and doing some other traditional Spanish dance. Cool beans.

We failed to find the free walking tour group we were looking for (rather, I think they failed to find us), so we ended up exploring the city on our own. Although it was raining we had to go to la playa (the beach). On the way we passed by the Columbus Monument who, although pointing out to the ocean, in reality was probably aiming for somewhere in Africa. We also spotted a couple towers that were attached to cable car lines. Walking through the Rambla de la Mar, "the gateway to Barcelona's largest leisure area," I spotted a McDonald's and ordered a McPollo (not because I particularly like McD's chicken, but simply because I wanted to order a McPollo). Some French girls asked us where the la playa was, and we attempted to give them our best directions in Spanish. It was really cool to see the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, but yet another ominous looking front forced us to head back early. Dinner consisted of fish and chips at an Irish pub (I know I know, we should have eaten proper Spanish food while we were in Spain... just be patient and keep reading!).

The next morning, we walked to La Sagrada Familia, passing by the old bullring and Barcelona's Arc de Triomf on the way. The line for La Sagrada wrapped all the way around the church and we didn't have hours to wait in line, so we just admired the massively lovely Gaudi architecture from the outside (trying to ignore all the construction cranes surrounding the spires). We then took the metro to the other side of town, where we knew the cable cars started. We had no idea where they went, we just knew we wanted to ride in one. And it was definitely worth the €9 ticket! A little old lady from Norway joined us in our car and we all took in the beautiful aerial views of the city. Free entry to the Castell de Montjuic greeted us at the top of the mountain, which none of us were expecting. The ocean-front views were gorgeous; it was a near-perfect day weather-wise, and the sea looked like it met the sky at infinity. Some music meeting (maybe an awards ceremony?) was going on in the courtyard, and a few really talented archers were practicing their archery on the castle grounds. Afterwards we headed back to Girona. Dinner this time consisted of proper Spanish cuisine: tapas, which are basically teeny tiny appetizers. We had cod croquettes, patatas bravas, Siberian ham, Spanish cheese, chicken wings, and bread. Yummyyy. Back at the hostel, we hung out in the common room and watched hours (literally) of music videos on whatever channel the TV was on, then headed to bed. Flying to Paris in the morning!

- I want to find a cable car somewhere once I get back home, because they're fun to ride in.
- Water fountains are everywhere outside, but they're exponentially cooler looking than the ones back home.
- Thankfully, a LOT of Spaniards speak English. While I still surprisingly remember a lot from the two Spanish classes I had in high school, charades can only go so far.