Friday
Last day of school, YAY!! A quick lunch with the ladies at school, quickly go to the train station and leave from there! Best last day of school ever!
Highlight of the day: after struggling up the many, many steps to the apartment where we stayed I was told that at a place across the street they had falafels. Properly done falafels, in a wrap. This may not seem like a big deal to anyone in the world other than me but I have not had one since I was in London during my undergrad so this was a BIG deal! I had three in the space of 4 days.
Saturday
After having a late night flight, and delicious falafel snack, I had a wonderful lay-in. We walked to the beach and had snacks at a cute little spot right down on the sand. At night we went to a birthday party for a friend of who I was staying with in Barcelona. It was held on a terrace about half-way up an apartment building. It was definitely the perfect spot for a gathering. The terrace was surrounded on three sides by different buildings and the last side was open to the alley below. There was mini-lights strung around the terrace and candles around the sides. A bbq and delicious snacks made it perfect!
Highlight of the day: This is easy, the terrace birthday party. Both an english and spanish version of 'happy birthday' was sung and the mini-lights cast an almost magical glow over everyone. It was perfect, like the set of a movie.
Sunday
After another lovely long sleep we had a picnic in Park de la Ciudadella. This park was breathtaking! A huge, almost Aztec, monument type sculpture surrounded by fountains and pools of water was definitely the highlight. There was also a huge statue of a mammoth (RANDOM), a man-made lake where you could rent boats and a few museums. Lots of perfectly manicured grass made a perfect spot for a picnic!
We then went home for a rest and had a stir-fry for supper. We then ventured back out to see the 'Magic Fountain'. It is a fountain show with different coloured lights, all done to music. Beautiful! Afterward we climbed up to the Palau Nacional and got an absolutely perfect view of the city at night.
Highlight of the day: Enjoying the view of the city at night. It was very close to being perfect!
Monday
Woke up in a decent time, aka before lunch, and jumped on the metro to the Sagrada Familia. It is a huge Roman Catholic Church started in 1882, construction is expected to be completed in 2026. For many years construction relied on private donations. The intricate design was amazing! However, the line to tour the inside of the church literally stretched around the block....not a chance I was standing in that!
After the quick decision to leave the church behind we climbed up to Park Guell. Now when I say climbed I actually mean took the wonderfully placed outdoor escalators. If they were not there I can honestly say that the climb up to the top would have killed me. Knocked me down dead. It was a steep incline to say the least! The view at the top was definitely worth it, so beautiful! The park was designed by Gaudi, the same architect as Sagrada Familia and another museum, Batllo house, that we visited later in the week. It was so cool, everything was done so creatively. Near the top of the park there was what appeared to be a large, sand-covered floor completed surrounded by a bench. Now this wasn't a normal bench, that wasn't Gaudis' style. It was swooping, no straight lines, completely covered in a colorful mosaic. We sat on this bench and ate our pack-lunch in the scorching heat of the direct sun. Afterwards we followed a path to the bottom where we discovered that underneath the square was a wonderfully shaded area, with huge stone pillars and mosaics in the ceiling. Then we walked down from the park, had a snack at perfect little cafe and walked into the city center.
Highlight of the day: 3rd falafel supper in a row. Delicious!
Tuesday
This was meant to be a beach day but when I woke up I discovered that mother nature had other plans. So instead it was another day of art! Off to the Picasso museum we went. It was here that I discovered that Andrew is quite the art critique. What an awesome new development. He spent his time in the museum developing a rather detailed explanation for the changes in Picasso's art technique. It would take years to describe it and I simply don't care enough to do so.
Lunch was from a little cafe, we chose our food from a Spanish menu. Andrew had a wonderful lunch and I ended up with fried fish skin and a cold prawn-slimy mushroom number that left me more hungry than when we started. The worst part was I tried to order words that I recognized. The mushroom-prawn mush was what I thought was going to be pasta. Turns out Spanish isn't my forte.
After lunch we walked up Las Ramblas, a big 'street' for only people. There were lots of vendors and artists doing sketches of people. There was also enough tourists to make me wonder if there were any left in the world at all. Afterwards we sat down by a fountain in a big square which turned out to be pigeon paradise/my worst nightmare. After being dive-bombed by many a bird I left with what was left of my dignity.
Highlight of the day: On the subway on the way home there was a man with a portable karaoke machine singing his heart out. Hilarious!
Wednesday
An early start to Casa Batllo, a house designed by Gaudi for a very, VERY rich family in 1877. This house was amazing, there were no straight lines in the entire place! It was supposedly designed to represent the sea and everything underwater. Very different but very cool! I would definitely recommend going! While here Andrew again decided to become an artistic interpretation, coming up with 'creative' explanations for the designs around him.
As this was my day to choose the activities I forced us to traipse around until we found pizza for lunch (I did NOT eat the entire thing myself....okay, fine, I did). It was delicious! Then it was home for a nap, chili for supper and chatting with friends.
Highlight: Being able to order off a menu that was not entirely in Spanish, and therefore know what I was getting to eat! I do not want surprises on my dinner plate!
Thursday
Two words: BEACH DAY!!!!! We made a huge lunch and walked down the beach for the day. A perfectly relaxing day, couldn't have been better! Swimming in the ocean, reading on the beach, life is rough!
Highlight: doing simply nothing all day long. That and Andrews sunburn. Turns out that sunscreen works after all!
Friday
Last day....went to Sephora (makeup HEAVEN) and stocked up on supplies. Then we went for a last lunch at a cafe and packed up. Birmingham will not be able to compare to Barcelona, that's for sure!
I had an absolutely wonderful trip, I will be back to Barcelona for sure! :)
