Barcelona & Andorra

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Hello, we´ve now moved onto to our 5th country of the trip, the small principality of Andorra between France and Spain. We only plan on staying a few days as we head through towards the vineyards around the Bordeaux region.

Our visit to Barcelona was a blast. The city was amazing plus any city with a metro system is good news for those of us on foot. The first night we checked into a hostal with a balcony overlooking the main street in Barcelona, La Rambla. The nightlife was hopping, the street was so full of people and street performers, until the wee hours of the morning, you couldn´t even see any pavement. It was an actual sea of people. The night was long and loud and the place wasn´t particularly nice for the cost so we moved into a backpackers hostel nearby the following day.

As far as sites go, we went up Montjuic where the Estadio Olympico and much of the olympic venues are. It was a neat area, with a metro line heading straight up the hill. We´ve decided we want a picture with every olympic stadium we see to honour the next olympics in a city we all know. That night we took advantage of the free admission to the Picasso museum in the Gothic district. It was amazing to see what that guy could do at 15. I was still drawing creepy round stickmen with arms coming out of their belly buttons at 16.

The next day we toured around the L´Eixample district where all the moderniste architecture is and where Gaudi´s Sagrada Familia is half-built. Now we really know what Gaudi means. It´s taken over a century to build it because there isn´t a stone on the building that isn´t intricately (or is it strangely) carved. That night we caught some Flamenco dancing that blew our minds. Pretty wild dancing.

Our 2nd hostel also had a rooftop terrace with a ping pong table, and if you know the competitive streak Jay and I have you´ll know that we probably spent too much time sweating out epic battles up on the terrace. An american and a brit tried to play us for the table but of course they were quickly disposed of.

Now we´re in Andorra planning a hike up to a lake in the Pyrenees tomorrow. Should be nice to see some nature again. Although we had to put on long pants tonight as it is a little colder up here. There should be plenty of pictures to come.

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