Barcelona

I will have been in Spain for three weeks today (Sunday), so I suppose it is time to start a blog. I haven't been writing down anything that I've done, but I do have some photographs, so I will start with Barcelona, where I arrived on September 20th, and continue to Madrid and finally to Logroño. I won't go into too much detail because otherwise this first post would be dreadfully long. (Actually this turned out to be really long. I'm going to have to add Madrid and Logroño later today or tomorrow.)

I don't exactly remember all of my first day in Barcelona because I don't think I slept on the plane, or at least not very well. I met Shannon (a former roommate from Georgia who was visiting Spain) and her boyfriend John at Hotel Regencia Colon after an uneventful arrival at the Barcelona airport. From there we started trekking around the city. Our first stop was MACBA, the contemporary art museum in Barcelona. I think the language barrier inhibited any appreciation of the art they had to offer. Then, I ate a chicken crepe at a cafe before we ended up at the Sagrada Familia.

MACBA

Skateboard art outside of MACBA (for you, Will!)

A dark picture of Shannon in MACBA.



chicken crepe

Sagrada Familia

The Sagrada Familia was absolutely incredible. They still have a ton of work left to do on it, but we were able to go inside (for the price of 12 euros, I think) and we climbed one of the towers, from which you could see a great view of the city. On our way down, we encountered a slightly terrifying spiral staircase (I have now encountered 3 terrifying staircases here) that were really narrow and long with no interior railing. But we're still alive, so I guess it wasn't that bad. I think we had pizza for dinner that night and went to bed early.

John, Shannon, and me

inside the church

the view from one of the towers

construction

The next day we walked to Port Vell and got caught in the rain without umbrellas. It was one of the less fun days in the city, but that night we ate tapas at Quimet i Quimet. They were good and very adventurous for me. We had salmon, cream cheese, and honey on bread. The waiter was very patient with my lack of Spanish food vocabulary, and I think John ordered an apricot with a anchovies and honey on top. Then we walked down La Rambla back to our hotel room. We encountered a band of hippies with bongos on the way that were making some sort of impromptu dance parade. It was neat, but I don't have any pictures.

me, Shannon, and Picasso on the way to the port

Port Vell and rainJohn and tapas at Quimet i Quimet

The next day, we went to the Picasso Museum. I really liked seeing his early works and drawings. It started raining right as we left, but we fortunately stumbled upon a store that sold only umbrellas, so problem solved. We then went to the Catalan history museum, where Shannon tried on armor. After lunch at the Maritime Museum restaurant, we trekked to Park Guell. It was quite a climb, and I found out later that there is an escalator from one metro stop to the park. The park was less green than I expected but still cool. The second terrifying staircase was here. At the very very top of the park is a round stone structure possibly 2 stories high with a narrow spiral staircase running along the outside with no exterior railing. It was a trick to get down. We met a friend of a friend for an Iraqi dinner that night. I had meatballs in yogurt; very good but also incredibly salty. Then we went to a bar whose name I can't remember but reminded me of an Athens bar. They played Madonna music videos on a projector screen.Shannon in her armor

the view from the park
entering the park

Our last full day in Barcelona we went to another park and then Shannon and I went to Museu Frederic Mares, a man who basically collected for a living. There was soooo much just stuff in there. Everything from gothic archways taken entirely out of their original location to hundreds of novelty tobacco pipes and ladies fans and these weird bouquets in bell jars with flowers made of shells. I didn't know what alot of the stuff we saw even was and all of the information was in Catalan. It was interesting, but we didn't make it through the whole thing due to museum exhaustion. I'm not sure what else we did that day, but for dinner, we went to Barceloneta (by the ocean) and had paella (mine was with lobster) at an outdoor restaurant. Then we walked through a carnival and got gelato before going to bed.