Barcelona

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We arrived in Barcelona around 8:30pm, but it was still bright out. I absolutely love that it stays light in Spain until around 10pm. We easily found our shuttle bus downtown and walked a few blocks to our hostel. We ended up with a small apartment that we shared with a couple other early 20 something girls. It was in a great area, near the cathedral and in the gothic quarter. After a quick little walk around the gothic quarter and down las ramblas, we were exhausted and ready for bed.

The next day was busy busy busy, with a ton of walking. Who knew that Spain would be SO hilly? Anyway, first stop, La Boqueria. I love markets, and this one was fabulous. You can seriously find anything there. The fresh seafood was amazing and made me really wish I could grocery shop there every day! Then more walking to a couple of houses designed by Gaudi followed by the metro to Parc Guell(also by Gaudi). The park was somewhat interesting, but we enjoyed all of the hiking trails much more than the architecture that all of the other people seemed to think was fabulous. I'm not so in to Gaudi. It's a little over the top for me, but I suppose that's the style. The hiking and views from the park were completely worth it. Its located up a hill and the views are overlooking the city and the sea. The trails were SO hilly(this would become a common theme/complaint/reason I lost 5lbs), I'm glad I was in decent shape. I was exhausted, but it was time to trudge on. I was looking forward to riding on the metro back downtown, but Andrew wanted to walk... the probably 3-4 miles to La Sagrada Familia.... ugggh... but I agreed. When we arrived, the line to buy tickets was so long, it would have taken hours to get in. We really didn't care too much. That may be horrible, but we saw it from the outside and headed for the beach. When we got there, Andrew saw a pretty young topless girl, and couldn't believe that the beaches were actually topless. But, after about 10 minutes of seeing lots of not so attractive topless people, the fun was over, and he decided topless beaches were overrated. Fresh seafood tapas dinner, short walk after dark for ice cream, and then to bed.

Our last morning in Barcelona consisted of lots more walking. I, of course needed to go to La Boqueria again. Then we took the cable car up to the fort at the top of montjuiic. Beautiful views, fun ride, then more wandering around El Raval. Then, back for our packs and on to a train for Girona.

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