Spring Break: Barcelona

Our next leg of our trip was Barcelona! Our flight from Paris to Barcelon was around 15 euro! The flight was on time this time and we only had to take a short train ride to central Barcelona. A better start already! Coming up the stairs from the metro and seeing the city for the first time took our breath away. The streets are so much wider and the city is cleaner all together compared to Florence. On the corners of all the intersections they are cut 45 degrees to make an octogon instead of a square as the intersection which also makes it so much wider. Our hostel was beyond fantastic, the only downside is that we had to rent our towels. The staff was so much nicer than Paris and we had great roommates. One guy from Seattle works for Microsoft was taking a vacation and tagged along with us to some places. We ate lunch at a small cafe-like restaurant and tried spagetti bolognese. So delicious! The sauce had a sweet taste to it unlike the sauce in Italy. The first place we visited was Casa Mila. Barcelona has a lot of architecture by Gaudi, which is all pretty strange and unusual. We aren't quite sure what this house was built for or who lived there, but we took a tour anyways. Here is a picture of the exterior.

My favorite part of the house though was the top that had a scupture garden of absolutely weird figures. We took lots of crazy pictures, but here is a nicer one.

That evening we ventured to see the beach, we were all a little anxious. We smelled the salt water and sat in the sand for a bit then went to find dinner. A popular thing to do for dinner there is get tapas which are small dishes that you split with everyone you are eating with, sort of like appetizers. Our favorite was patatas bravas which is jojo like potatoes topped with mayonaise garlic sauce and a red sauce with a bit of kick. So delicious and making my mouth water as I write it!!

The next day we went to see the church by Gaudi called Sagrada Familia. He started the church in the late 1800s and it was never finished. Today architects are debating on what he would have done to the church, which is why construction is taking forever to finish the building. The church is really neat though and nothing you would expect to call a church.

The interior reminded us all of a magical forest, or something like that, where unicorns would prance around. Strange, I know, but that's how intense the interior is. We aren't sure what religion is practiced there, but there are regular services that go on. The stain glass didn't represent anything in picture form, but is really beautiful.

After the Sagrada Familia, we took the metro to a park that overlooked the entire city. There is also sculpture created by Gaudi here. We hit up some of the street vendors and I got some great earrings to give as gifts for my friends! Lots of people were here hanging out and enjoying time with their children as they played on the play grounds.

When we first arrived to Barcelona, we thought we had one less day than we really did! So we took advantage of our time for a nap! We ran around so much in Paris that we needed a break. After some rejuvination, we walked along the popular street called La Ramba. This is where a lot of name brand shops are located along with bars and restaurants. Matt, the guy from Seattle, told us to try a typical Spanish dish call paella, which is a Spanish rice with a seafood mixture. We also drank Sangria, which is typical to the area. It was a fantastic meal! So much flavor and great to finally get some seafood!!

The next day we spent some time on the beach and walking around the city just exploring. The water was ice cold, but I stuck my feet in just to say I did! The water is really pretty, but once getting out of the buildings it was pretty windy and cold. So we didn't stick around as long as we planned for, but it was still nice to sit and listen to the waves crash! That evening we made pasta in our hostel to save some money and also met up with a friend of Charlotte's who was studying abroad in the city. We met at a really cool bar that was designed to look like you are in a forest. It was awesome!! Barcelona was great too because the entire time we were there, people would come up and ask us if we needed help finding where we were going while we looked at a map. It was a nice change because we didn't get that in Florence when we first arrived, and definately didn't get that in Paris!