We landed in Barcelona late at night when the airport was emptied out. We proceeded to catch the train that took us into town. On the Metro map that I had downloaded showed that the train from the airport ended at a metro station in city centre, but boy was I wrong! The train kept going, and since the map did not show me any station names on the train, we stayed on until I got the sense that we were far from city centre as the buildings became more scarce and the lack of city lights also gave me a hint we were no where close!
We finally got off the train at a random stop but luckily, a metro station was nearby and so we were headed to our hotel.
When we got off at the station where the hotel was, we were met with the equivalent of what East Hastings looked like, minus all the people! The place looked sketchy! For the first time on this trip, Maps on my iPhone failed me! We arrived at the red drop pin, but there was definitely no hotel in sight! Grr technology! Oh and I forgot to mention, we were hungry and it was 11:45pm!
Finally after asking around a bit, our hotel was a block away from where the red pin dropped on my map (remind me to take this up with the Genius Bar when I get back!).
What a difference a block makes! Our hotel was nicely finished, and was huge in size!
Even though we were hungry we decided perhaps just staying in would be best and wait for the morning before venturing out.
The next morning, I dragged Matt a few stations away to see the famous La Sagrada Familia. Exiting the metro station, the church immediately towers over you! It was quite the amazing sight! What was even more amazing though was the amount of people in the line up to get in! We did not want to wait, so decided to come back later as a lady informed us that later in the afternoon the crowd dies down.
So instead, we decided to walk around and look for one of Gaudi's masterpieces, the Casa Mia.
Before getting there, we came across the FC Barcelona Shop and went in for a look. At the back of the shop, Matt spotted the ticket sales booth. He decided he was going to treat us to watch the best team in the world play. Now I am in no way a fan of watching football, have actually always founded it to be boring, but went with it anyway. I guess the saying goes "when in Rome (Barcelona)".
The Casa Mia, one of Gaudi's masterpiece, which supposedly has an amazing rooftop, but at a price of 18 Euros? Forget it! We took a few pictures outside of it and visited the gift shop. We were once again on our way.
We then took a trip out further north of the city to visit Park Guell. Gaudi took over the unsuccessful commercial residential sight and designed it into a park. The park stood out for its unique design. I have to say, context is everything. Being in Barcelona makes this park unique and special. If you relocate this park to say, Las Vegas, I'd probably think of it as cheesy and lame.
Oh and did I forget the mention, there were a lot of people? At the entrance of this park was the famous lizard statue that everyone takes a picture with. There was no sense of order, just seemed like you get by the lizard, you get the picture. So I went for it. I got through the crowd and Matt had the camera ready, but before he could snap a shot, some lady shoved me aside, and said something in Spanish. Not knowing what was going on, I tried again to pose for a picture. This time, a harder push came with her hand.
I have always thought of what I would do in certain situations such as this, probably not appropriate to post here, but when it actually happened to me, I was in shock. I thought "Is this really happening?!". Looking back I probably would have told her "Touch me again and DIE!"
The rest of the park was truly worth exploring. You walk through some spectacular designs.
At the top of the hill, there is also a great view of the city all the way to the beach.
I have been warned how late dinner started in Spain, but even after adjusting and getting to a restaurant at 8:30pm, the place was still empty. Since it was empty, Matt and I sat down at a table. Before we could get comfortable a woman asked us in Spanish and signing "two?". We replied "Yes" and then were abruptly commanded to move to a table for two as we were sitting at a table for four on an empty patio. I thought, "sweetie how about you fill this place up first before being rude to your only customers!" 30 minutes later, the place was packed. LOL.
Mmmm spicy tripe!
Oh and be careful when ordering sangria here, a pitcher is huge! When there is only two of you, LOOK OUT!
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