Yo Amo Barcelona!

After a few days at the beach in Sitges, Travers and I took the train to Barcelona! While on the train, one of the conductors came by and saw a young man sleeping on the seats across from us. Apparently, he wanted the guy to move his legs off the seats and told him so. The guy didn't budge. He was asleep and didn't hear him. The conductor nudged him and said "Hey!" but the guy still didn't move. He then shook him with both hands on his shoulders and shouted "HOLA!!!" and the guy still didn't move or open his eyes. At this point, I thought the guy might have been dead cause he just wouldn't wake up, but I looked at his stomach and he was clearly breathing.  The conductor was getting very frustrated at this point and looking at us with a "what do i do" expression on his face. I just smiled and raised my shoulders with a "I have no clue" look.  The man then started to lightly slap the guy's face. Gently at first, while shouting at him, then harder and harder.  Finally, the guy barely opens his eyes and you could tell he had no idea what was going on, he could barely focus his eyes on the conductor and was not comprehending anything he was saying to him.  By this time, the train was coming to its final stop and the guy was supposed to get off the train, but of course was so out of it and asleep that he wasn't moving.  The last we saw of it before we got off the train was the conductor still shaking and yelling into this guy's face.  Wish we could have stayed to watch what happened, but Barcelona was waiting for us...Check out these videos to see how it all went down.

After the train, we found our hotel, Hotel Condes De Barcelona! It was a nice hotel, decent amenities, and a pool and terrace on the roof.  We spent a few hours every day up there. When rested a bit at the hotel, and were very tempted to take naps and just sleep the afternoon away, but we decided that we should get up and go for a walk and see what we could see, at least for a few hours.  We left our hotel and immediately saw our first Gaudi building, Casa Milà.  We didn't go in, but it was amazing to see from the outside. I had no idea really what Gaudi was all about, but I could immediately tell that he was a very intereseting architect.

We continued our walk, getting a snack and a cafe con leche along the way, we made our way to  La Sagrada Familia. What an amazing building! And I can't believe it's been under construction since 1882. It was so cool to see the original building, and then to see the newer construction, as well as the cranes surrounding it. I read somewhere that it looks like wax dripping down the building, and I didn't quite know what that would look like, until I saw the Sagrada Familia and understood completely. It is just such an amazing thing to see. Travers and I sat in the park that is right in front of it, just looking up at all the details, trying to take it all in.


We then headed back to the hotel then via the metro (I love metro systems...still not sure why SF doesn't have one - and no bart doesn't count). Between the metro stop and our hotel, is another Gaudi building called Casa Batlló. This one was so interesting to look at with the skull and bones look in the front, and the blue and green glass behind it. I can fully understand now why Gaudi is so popular.

That night, we took the metro out to Barceloneta, the area by the marina and beach in search of a place for dinner.  We walked down Passeig De Joan De Borbó and passed restaurant after restaurant after restaurant. They all looked the same! They all had similar menus and all had some guy out front trying to get us to come in.  Something Travers and I can't seem to do is to pick a restaurant quickly when we are in a foreign place and have no idea whats good or not. We fear that the one we choose won't be good or is overpriced or a tourist trap. In the end, we usually make ourselves so hungry that we choose the closest one anyway and it usually ends up being decent.  This is pretty much what happened our first night there. We walked back and forth till we finally spotted one that had nice looking decor and an outside corner table away from the main drag.  We got a bunch of tapas and of course they were all delicious. We probably could have picked any restaurant on that strip and been fine, but we were happy with our choice. And unfortunately, we walked by so many restaurants that night that I don't remember the name of the one we actually chose. 

After dinner, we strolled through the old town and down the famous La Rambla in hopes of finding a fun bar/club to go to. We found a few clubs or bars, but no one was in them yet. Again, we were too early. But if all else fails, you can always find a nice Irish Pub to get a pint, and thats exactly what we did.  I got a glass of rosé and Travers got a pint of beer. We also happened to get a flyer out front that got us two free shots of whatever we wanted. So I got a sex on the beach, and Travers got vodka. Needless to say I was getting pretty drunk at this point, so we decided to head back to the hotel and go to bed, but not before stopping at Burger King and getting what tasted like the best french fries ever!