Barcelona, Spain

When we arrived in Barcelona, it was actually quite a beatiful day, but we decided to go directly to the Hostel without first dragging the Rolly Suitcase around the city. The Hostel turned out to be a great place, complete with internet, Food, maps, and FIVE ridiculously long flights of stairs to our room. My friends, lets just say I had thighs of steel and four asthma attacks by the end of our stay.

After a wild goose chase for Lunch that ended up in mayonnaise covered potatoes, we visited the Barcelona Cathedral, some public Park, the outside of the Zoo (we could smell the animals, but not see them), and then climbed back up the Stairs of Destiny to our rooms where we slept. For a long time.



The next day, we pulled out my handy Guide to Spain and tried to look as much like clueless Tourists as possible (which we pulled off quite well with the ultra large map, the ultra large Camera, the scary reflective sunglasses, the ultra large "Bag of Necessities," and the ultra large fanny pack). Okay, so we didn't have the fanny pack, but that was all that was missing. We did a "Do It Yourself" tour of Antoni Gaudi's most famous works, including some really crazy Buildings. During our wandrings, we stumbled upon an awesome market filled with fresh Veggies and Fruit, Candy, and lots of scary meat. We stopped to look at some crabs on ice that were quite large, and upon close inspection, discovered that they were indeed ALIVE, despite the fact that they were rubberbanded and on ice. We almost lost our eyes to very cold and angry pinchers.



Luckily, we escaped the market of scary meat products and promptly found that one of us had misplaced her Metro ticket. I don't want to embarass the loser of said ticket, so I won't mention Laura's name here. Since we had already worked our leg muscles to rock-hard Walking Machines on the Stairs of Destiny, we decided to walk the 47 blocks to the Sagrada Familia. My usual happy temperament turned into a veritable Temper Tantrum by the end of our trek (and, if you're reading, sorry LB) but the Sagrada Familia at the last block was Awesome.

After some tasty Indian Food and a good night's rest, we spent the next day touring the Palau de Musica (which was Gorgeous), and hiking the seventy three Uphill miles to the Parc Guell (also Beautiful, but just so far far away) where we got a great view of Barcelona from above, and another taste of my Bad Temper (my knees were about to explode at this point). Finally, our time in Barcelona was done, which was actually kind of sad. But, I did take away some valuable lessons. For example, I learned that lots of walking in Foreign Countries in uncomfortable and unfashionable Shoes while trying to speak a Language that is nothing like it was promised to be results in me getting Irritable. Who knew?