Barthelona

The last weekend of May I my aunt and uncle and my two cousins in Barcelona. They were going on a cruise starting from Barcelona and I took some days off of work to meet up with them and help the out and show them around alittle.

Arriving in the BCN airport was very impressive. Aparently, the Madrid airport is one of the biggest in Europe..but not the busiest. The BCN airport is so much cooler. They have shops and restaurants and it looks cool and new inside. After meeting up with my relatives in the airport and taking the train into town we made it to the apartment. It was right between the Barrio gotico and the Barrio Born. It was an old builidng that had been reformed and completely furnished with things from IKEA from the knives to the beds. That afternoon we went to the Parc Güell and walked around the Paseo de Gracia. When using the metro we used a 10 pass and as many people as you want can use a 10 ten so we all lined up and passed the ticket to the person behind us. It felt slightly illegal and daring all at the same time. In the afternoon we passed by the Casa Batllo, which is another Gaudí creation taht is AMAZING. It was built for one of the richest families in Barcelona back in the day and is tiled and has rooms that look like the supports are artsy Ribs. That sounds horrible, but looked amazing. The top of the house is shapped like a dragon and you can see themes of water and animals all over the place. Its funny to think that Gaudí lived more than 100 years ago, but his artwork and his designs look so modern and fluid and not stuffy at all. To top off the day we went to the Mercado de la boqueria. It is right off the Ramblas and has an amazing selection of food and fruit and products. We bought some fruit packages and some amazing spicy chorizo and lomo and cheeses for dinner.

Day 2 was spent in Girona. We met with my aunt and uncle´s tenent´s parents, who are French Catalan and they showed us around the older part of the city. However, them being French Catalan, the wife only spoke French and the Husband spoke French, Catalan, and Spanish, but Spanish was the worst/most rusty of all of his languages. Communication was difficult to say the least. When my aunt wanted to talk to the wife, she told me and the I told the husband and then the husband would tell the wife and then the wife would get it and the cycle would reverse to my aunt could understand what was going on. They were a sweet couple and we had a good time despite the language barriers. Girona boasts the church with the widest unsupported ceiling in the world. It is 33.something meters wide without supports and took around 700 years to complete. The architects had to convene 2 over the years to evaluate the feasibility of the project and now there was an architect shcool next door to facilitate the building ot the Cathedreal. Girona is pretty, but not extra special for me. It reminds me of a lot of older Spanish cities. The city used t ohave a sizaable Jewish population and there are aparently tunnels that run all over the city that allowed the Jews to move around and escape during the Inquisition.

On Friday we saw the cathedral and walked around the neighborhood and we had tapas for lunch. Amazing tuna. In the evening we met up with some friends of my family and we walked around the Pueblo Español which was built for the World Fair in 1920...or something like that. It represents the 19 autonomous reigons of Spain. After dinner we saw the Magic Fountain and we arrived just in time to see the last show of lights and music and water. They played three songs including ¨My Heart will go on¨and the Star Wars theme. It was GREAT. Sounds cheesy, but its actually AMAZING.

Saturday was spent seeing the Sagrada Familia and having lunch by the ocean. We got to eat right on the water and the weather was perfect. In the evening Carlos and I met with his aunt and her partner and they showed us around. Albert, his aunt´s partner is very into the history of Barcelona and he gave us a lot of information and they showed us around to some very cool things. I got to see more of Barcelona that I hadn´t seen before. Being with them was very interesting because they are hard core Catalunyans. EVERYTHING is different and from a different perspective that was both interesting and funny at the same time. They are probably the most regionally proud people I have met in Spain.

Sunday morning was spent at the BEACH!!!!!! it was really nice. There were a lot of people but we still got a spot. We enjoyed the sun and people watched for a little and then we did some beach clean up...mostly picking up cigarete butts and plastic bottles and then we went for a swim. The water was quite cold, but I took full advantage and swam anyway. The Medditerranian is an interesting body of water because it doesn´t smell like ocean or water. It really doesn´t have a smell. Carlos´aunt took us to the airport and while we were waiting and being hungry we found the same restaurant that we had had dinner in the night before and sat down and had one of the fastest dinners at a sit down restaurant the I think I have ever had in my life. I ate the exact same thing and it was exactly as yummy as it was the night before. I thouroughly approve of the Barcelona airport!

This trip was actually one of the best trips to Barcelona I have had. It probably has something to do with going with people who treat you to things, and also with having more time to see things. I saw a lot more of the city and while I still don´t like how they treat you in terms of customer service, I like the city a lot more than I did before. There are a lot more restaurants and the food is more varied and fresh than in Madrid. I liked walking around the older neighborhoods and I REALLY liked the beach. This might call for a repeat trip...