Barcelona

This past weekend I went to Barcelona and met up with some people from GTL who I went to college with. They are studying in France this semester and took a weekend to come visit Spain. It was a great weekend filled with lots of sightseeing, walking, eating, etc. We took a walking tour of the Gothic area and learned a lot about Barcelona- it's history, it's language (which is Catalan, not Spanish, although most people know Spanish as well but as a second language), its patron saints, etc. It was packed full of information. [As a random side note I heard a lot more French walking around than Spanish.] We went to the famous La Boqueria market and got some delicious food & amazing fruit drinks. After walking along the main strip Las Rambas we went to a park on top of a hill and saw the sunset from the top of the old military fort. We also saw the '92 Olympic Stadium, a ton of statues and fountains, several of Gaudi's works, his house, La Sagrada Familia, and the park he designed, Park Guell. There is a picture above taken from the top of Park Guell overlooking the city. Park Guell is one of the coolest parks I've ever been to! There were people running on the dirt, extremely hilly paths (I was jealous I couldn't join them), there was amazing architecture, random bridges and overlooks, a few lemon trees, great views, etc. We also took a cooking class and had homemade tapas, amazing paella (pictured above), and sangria. There was also a Barcelona soccer game while we were there. Some people went to the game, but since I had already been to a Real Madrid game and didn't want to spend the money, I went with the rest of the group to a bar to watch the game. It was still a good, strong Spanish passion filled soccer game. Plus Barcelona won. Another bonus was that although it's farther north than Madrid it was in the 70s and sunny still (compared to the 40s and rainy this past weekend in Madrid). We walked along the boardwalk next to the "beach" (the sand is from Egypt and the palm trees are from Hawai'i, both brought in for the '92 Olympics), saw some incredible sand castles, and seemingly random architectural structures. There were some people playing beach volleyball, roller skating, and of course running (which again I was sad not to have been able to join them). While it was a quick weekend trip it was a nice getaway from Madrid.