Barcelona

Christy and I arrived in Barcelona pretty late at night and so we took a taxi to our party hostel. It was located right off La Rambla (the main strip of Barcelona) in Plaza Real. Our accommodations were an 8-dorm suite where we meet some pretty cool people. There was a couple from Canada, but working in the UK, a couple from Brazil, and a couple that were also studying in Paris. The Paris couple were soon switched out for actual Parisian girls who were extremely nice to us. Christy, Genoveva, and I hit the city early in the morning each day and stayed out until the wee hours of the night. We started most days with a generous breakfast provided by the hostel: cereal, bread, ham, cheese, muffin, and coffee. Yummer for the first day... boring on the 3rd consecutive day. In Barcelona, we wandered around taking in the beautiful architecture and hitting up a couple of cute boutiques. On our second day, we went on a Gaudi walking tour that took us to some of his most famous works including: Casa Batlló, Casa Milà, and La Sagrada Família. La Sagrada Família is a cathedral that has taken a hundred years to complete, but is nowhere near being completed. When we toured the cathedral, only the exterior looked remotely finished. I believe it's supposed to resemble sand falling down into the main spires of the church. The next day, Genoveva managed to use her cute smile to get us into the Picasso museum for free without waiting in the long line. The museum was interesting, but it was mostly filled with lesser known works that Picasso completed as a young student and many were preparatory sketches. The Picasso piece I would love to see up-close and personal is Guernica which is in Madrid. Oh well, next time. During my time in Barcelona, I never did actually enjoy a siesta instead I was more inconvenienced by it since we usually wanted to eat at that time, but everything was closed. I did enjoy the food more than I thought I would since I've always been told that Spanish food is pretty gross. I almost forgot to mention that Genoveva was to leave us a day before, but fortunately for me, she missed her plane and had to come back. On the day which was to be her last day, we went up to Park Güell which is a park that was conceived by Gaudi. It was to be a new place for people to live, but it turned out to be a commercial failure. Nevertheless, Gaudi himself lived there. On our extra day with Genoveva, we went to the beach where we all got tanned... some of us more than others. That day, we all made our flights Geno to Granada and us to Rome. Stay tuned!