Barrrrrrcelona

THIS POST IS UNFINISHED. I don't have all the pictures and I can't until I get better wifi. So tomorrow night, in about 24 hours, I will have more pictures on here. Thank you. 

Wednesday, July 8th: So I started off today at 3am to catch a bus to Barcelona with Andrés!

But it was six hours long. And I slept for about 45 minutes total…

But this day was a great day! The weather in Barcelona is milder than in Logroño and Madrid, but only by a few degrees. 

Upon entering the city, we decided that one of the first things we wanted to do was see the Picasso Museum, which was pretty interesting. Lots of his stuff. Like the drawings and paintings from when he was just 15 are astounding. Why can't I be that good at it?? Like they looked mostly real. 15 years old.

One of the best things, however, was to see his progression- rather, decline (in my opinion)- of his work. I mean, yeah, his style is very unique and catches your attention, but what he was doing at 20 was just so amazing. Anyway…

After that,we walked around the city a bit. Walked around a cathedral, saw an ever-burning flame for the fighters in the civil war, and we saw the beautiful Arc de Triompf:

It's pretty cool. We a,so walked down Diagonal Avenue, which is one of the longest streets in Barcelona, but also one of the most packed with attractions. First of all, and in order of appearance, we saw La Pedrera, by architect Gaudí, who we will get back to later. La Pedrera is a really curvy, cool building that has become one of the icons of the city:

Andrés and I continued walking until we got to the Sagrada Familia, one of the most famous cathedrals in Barcelona, and probably all of Spain. It's completely funded by the public’s donations, so it's still incomplete, and has been for a really long time. But it's massive. Mind bogglingly massive. And it looks super amazing and I wish it will finish in my lifetime. 

Oh! And then I got some really good Patatas Picantes, or Spicy Potatoes, which I've had in Logroño but they're really good. 

We finished off the day by visiting another cathedral in town, but it has no special name. But it looks cool!

Dinner was some salad and fruit from Carrefour. Quite a bit of food for pretty cheap. Nice. 

And that was Wednesday… Ugh this is going to be a long post…

So Thursday, July 9th, a very uneventful day in history… Just kidding… We celebrate the birthday of someone very special and someone very dear to our hearts: Tom Hanks…

So I did my usual morning. Teeth, face, hair. You get the idea. Come out to my bed and start putting on my socks and Andrés starts laughing really hard and I'm not sure why. It's clear he was laughing at me but I couldn't figure out why. After about 2 minutes, I finally figured out that it was because I sat down right next to a bright, hot pink present he wrapped and I didn't even notice. 

We had some breakfast down at the hotel lobby. Croissant. Milk. And then we embarked on our journey to Güell Park. So Gaudí, who I mentioned before, lived here and designed a huge park out of mosaics. And it was really beautiful:

It looked super nice and really well done and it was all beautiful. It was crowded, but still nice. I had a really good time, except for when we saw the guy who had bright pink pigeons he dyed and was using to make money off the tourists. I don't know. I think it was kind of lame to let people take pictures with them, and then not tell them that that had to pay €5 until afterwards. Oh well. It seems to work. 

So we headed down to a pier near a port of the Mediterranean Sea, where Andrés just HAD to wait 30 minutes for a ferry to leave so he could get a picture with some rope which apparently looked very Summery. I guess. 

We continued down Las Ramblas street, another huge street full of performers, until about 7:30 when Andrés decided he wanted to try some real good food to celebrate my adulthood:

(He liked it. A lot more than other fast foods, he says.)

Came back to the hotel and watched Alice in Wonderland, because hey, it was on. Also we got more fruit cups. (The fruit here is so cheap it's amazing. There's a fruit/veggie stand on every block.)

Also there was a giant cat statue and I'm not sure why, but I won't question it. Because cats. 

Friday, July 10th: Okay, so looking back on today, there was nothing bad. Everything that happened was amazing. We started off at the beaches. The Mediterranean beaches. Warm water, soft sand, really blue water… And a buttload of people. Ugh so many. But oh well. The weather was amazing. Only slightly cloudy, windy, and not too hot. (At least next to the water) 

We just walked along beach after beach after beach, looking for whatever sparked our interest. That happened to be this very large hotel, which we then sat by later to take more pictures. 

After getting lost in the city center for a bit, we stopped by an AMAZING PIZZA PLACE. Like wow it was so good and cheap. €2.95 for what would cost like $6 at an American place. Deep dish. Peppers and sausage. Ugh it was so good. I think we're going there for lunch tomorrow before our bus back. And it was so delicious oh man. Greasy food is where my heart belongs…

Walked around a bit more before taking a quick 45 minute nap by ole Columbus. 

We slugged on over to Plaça Espanya (that's the annoying thing. Everyone here speaks Catalonian, which is basically a mixture of French and Spanish, so it's not quite Spanish and very annoying…) and spent some time in the mall, where it was, thankfully, air conditioned. Walked up onto the roof, where we could get a 360 degree view of the city. Pretty cool.

We then walked back toward the city center to get me to try a new food: Kebabs. Which were the best things, I swear. Like they're a taco? But made of bread? And chicken and spicy sauce and GARLIC SAUCE WOW I LOVE GARLIC SAUCE. I NEVER GET TIRED OF IT.  And that was super good. 

Bought some watermelon. Well, a quarter of one. Probably going to go eat some now. I'm back at the hotel right now. The Internet is only available in the lobby, and that's where I have most of my pictures, so I have to go down there to get them on here. 

I might not post for a while. On Sunday morning, we are leaving for a couple weeks to Noja, a beach in northern Spain, and I guess there's not any wifi, except for at a bar which they go to every other day or so, so maybe I can post. But it probably won't be every other day like I'm trying to here. Plus, a lot of days will be the same: beach. If there's something eventful, I'll try and write it on a blog before I forget. So just a heads up.