Barcelona!

I'm back in the hostel, relaxing just a bit after a great first full day in Barcelona. Yesterday we came in, (after a 1 and a half hour delay on our flight due to protesting air traffic controllers in France!) and got settled in the hostel before setting out for a bit of food. It was about 2 in the morning, so not a lot was open near us, but we found some sandwiches and walked around a bit.

Then, today, Nick and I went to a little breakfast place on our way to La Sagrada Familia this morning, and then headed the rest of the way to the cathedral. It was AMAZING. I have honestly never seen anything like it. Unreal. It was so many different things all at once...religion, art, architecture, light, strength, height, weight, humor, reverence...wow. We also paid 2 extra Euros to take an elevator up one of the towers and got this amazing view of the city from up there. Kind of dizzying, but also completely worth it.

After that we hiked up to Park Guell, which was SO cool. We stopped for lunch along the way and I got this delicious fish simply drenched in herb butter. Mmmmm. Lovely. So, then on to Park Guell. I am all about La Modernisma, honestly. Gaudi is fabulous. The weather was great and we just walked around and took lots of pictures. The park is up above the city, so the view was amazing, we could see all the way to the sea! It's not a park in the traditional "open air and grass" sense of the word, but rather is a rambling series of pathways and staircases, half-covered and plazas, and lots of amazing architecture and sculpture. A lot of good people watching too. And many tourists. :) We also toured the Gaudi house/museum, which was nice.

Then, a quick metro down to La Placa Catalunya, where we hopped off and walked down La Rambla, a pedestrianized street, and a great farmers market next to it. Tons of strange pets for sale, some street performers, plenty of fruit and meat and cheese and chocolate. I treated myself to a little chocolate and it was lovely. Then we took the metro back to our hostel because our feet were aching after almost a full 9 hours walking around! In a few hours we'll go out to dinner and then to a club with the hostel; they organize night-out-events for the people staying here so that we can all be in a group and go to cool places. Yesterday our room was shared by a couple guys from China and Japan, today we have three college students from Texas. Nice to speak the same language! Adios for now!