Spain, Barcelona: taking it day by day

The first thing Jackie (Steph's sister) said about Barcelona was, 'I like Barcelona'.... it was the first of many astute comments the three of us had to make during our 3 days there.

Other such observations included 'whoa, the Olympic stadium track is blue' or 'that's a big cathedral' - 'huge museum' - 'market!' and 'footprints!' These were regularly interspersed with other very thoughtful comments such as 'it's hot' or 'i'm sweaty' or 'i'm really really sweaty'.

Because of the heat, we really did see Barcelona at a bit of a slower pace than Paris, picking out the specific sights we wanted to see and not necessarily going on any guided tours. That's not to say we still didn't walk almost EVERYwhere... We just took our time, sauntered, sat in shade, re-filled our waters, bought delicious fruit juices from the market, etc. etc.

Day 1 was spent wandering, and although not necessarily seeing the quintessential Barcelonian sights, walking around to get a feel for the city, wandering through parks, resting in the shade provided by their trees, roaming around the remnants of Barcelona's 1992 olympics, stopping for lunch near the Mediterranean, sauntering up La Rambla, a pedestrian street buzzing with little street vendors and people in costume along the side. Walking through the heat of the city was quite the task and we were very thankful to come home to the semi air-conditioned hostel. In preparation for real tapas, we made our own, from frozen mini pizzas on which we melted Brie cheese. Delicious!

Day 2 saw us off to the races. Spending almost 3 hours sauntering through and learning all about the Sagrada Familia cathedral built by Gaudi. When I saw the inside, I absolutely loved how the columns were like tree trunks and that many of the intricately carved patterns resembled patterns in nature. But in the middle of the tour there was a temporary exhibit showing how exactly Gaudi used his knowledge of nature in these designs and how his study of nature's structure and function was used as a foundation for the church's support system itself. The facades are intricately carved, without a detail to spare, every image, symbol, detail has a meaning or a message, and no detail is left unfinished. Of course, the church itself is still in construction, as Gaudi was killed mid-construction in a 'road' accident and the people have taken to following his plans as closely as possible to finish it. 'Hey, future offspring, I'm really excited to send you off on your own euro-trips so that you can take a picture of the Sagrada Familia 25 years later and show me what it looks like :) '

To continue 'Gaudi Day' we sauntered through Park Guell, a beautiful park full of paths and trees, originally designed to be a self-contained community, until thenproject flopped. It's been decorated by Gaudi with tiles and other beautiful ornate statues also made of tile, etc. All really really cool. Except not 'cool' because it was apparently 37 degrees and we had opted to walk UP the hill to the park instead of taking the metro...

That night we met up with one of Steph's friends from school (and her family) and got shown around some lesser-known parts of Barcelona, taken out for wine and tapas, and finally to a grungy but awesome which had absolutely delicious sangria. Mmmmmmm it tastes like juice :)

Needless to say, day 3 would be a beach day. Sunscreen and beach and water. Sunscreen and beach and water. And swimming out to those big cemet blocks (used to stop the tides) to look out over the Mediterranean. Of course I missed sunscreen on one tiny little spot which makes today's train a liiiiittle bit more uncomfortable... Or am I uncomfortable from the hangover of the 1,99 euro bottle of wine we split on the rooftop patio? Or our 'must have a last' sangria pitcher before leaving Spain? Or the fact that I actually didn't end up sleeping before leaving the hostel at 5 am to catch the first of three trains to... Marseille !