After a
uneventful evening train at the border changeover we meet a family of five on
their European vacation, we thought they were pretty hardcore traveling across
Europe on trains and such with three kids!!! We arrived in Barcelona to a
bright and sunshiny day were we made our way through the narrow streets,
shopping, eating tapas, drinking sangria, and buying espadrilles. Today after spending the morning at the
laundry mat (clearly our Spanish/Catalan/Gujarati is not the best, and yes
Sankat’s language is the default after trying Spanish and almost everyone in
stores speaks it, crazy huh?) we headed to the Picasso museum which is in an
old castle where each small room reveals another stage in his life through text
and art. Pretty impressive place. Who knows what Barcelona will have in store
for us over the next few days!!!
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| Sagrada Famalia |
Saturday
morning we woke up to a downpour and decided that with the crummy weather we
would hit Barcelona’s most popular tourist destination, La Sagrada Familia,
Gaudi’s incomplete life work. This
amazing cathedral has been under construction for over 80 years. Gaudi took his inspiration from nature and
created modern art. The church was super
impressive and worth the 45 minute wait, while we were waiting the sun came out
and the stained glass was unreal as the rays shown through into the
chapel. We decided to make it a Gaudi
day and took the Metro across town to his park, which was a piece of land
purchased by a count for Gaudi to make a miniature village. The project was cut short and left unfinished
but still impressive (I guess unfinished was his theme).
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| Reggae Band in Gaudi's Park |
From a hill in the park we could see the
sparkling ocean we realized we had not set foot in it yet and we headed for the
beach. The beach seen was a complete
shit show that makes North Ave beach look like amateur hour. There were tons of bachelorette and bachelor
parties going on, in the States girls usually are the ones dressed up and doing
ridiculous challenges here in Barcelona the men are all about the theme
party. The big deal is for the bachelor
to dress in some ridiculous outfit (usually like a woman) and the attendees
would wear matching outfits of some sort.
We saw an entire Baywatch crew complete with rescue devices with the groom
in a one piece and enormous fake boobs!!
After some people watching at the beach we headed back to the hotel for
some tapas, sangria and bed.
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| Hanging out on the Field |
On Sunday we
headed to Camp Nou where the Barcelona football (soccer) club plays. The season is over so Sankat head to settle
for a stadium tour instead of a live match.
We started in the museum where we saw the history of football then we
saw the locker room, field, press box and the stands. On our way back to the metro we stopped by a
high school football match to watch for a bit. That evening we walked back to
the beach to explore the boardwalk further.
It was Sunday so there was a little less of the drunken frat boy scene
and more of the families enjoying their day at the beach. We walked the full length of the beach and
enjoyed time sitting out by the ocean.
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| Cooking Nerds |
On Monday,
our last full day in the city, we enjoyed a lazy morning of hanging out
grabbing coffee and last minute souvenirs.
That evening we took a Spanish cooking class. We joined four other couples from the US in a
intimate kitchen lead by our Chef Kim (a guy).
We learned to chop vegetables make sauce, soup, a dessert and of course
paella. Hopefully you guys can come over
to our house and have a Spanish meal prepared by us!!!
On Tuesday
morning we tried to navigate the Barcelona metro system to the airport, we got
lost transferring from the metro to the suburban line but ended up in front of
the Gaudi apartment that we had missed!!!
Of course our flight was delayed to Ireland due to a strike in
France. Once our flight finally took off
it was an hour longer than usual due to the airspace restrictions over France
and for only 8Euro
Now onto
Ireland!!!!
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