Barcelona, Spain - Sep 28 to Oct 1, 2009

The train we wanted to take to Barcelona was sold out when we got to the station. We even went a day in advance. Sheesh, we only took 2 trains in France, and both of them were full... (the first was from Paris to Brussels). We ended up catching a longer trip, with 3 transfers, which took over 12 hours. It sounds a lot worse that it actually was. We had about a 1 hour wait at each transfer, so we got out and stretched our legs. One of the stops was in Montpellier. We spent about an hour in a beautiful park right across the street from the station. This city was on our original route, but we cut it out after so many people told us there was nothing to see there. Based on our hour in the city, we both agreed it would have still been a nice stop. Oh well...

We were pretty tired when we got into Barcelona. We checked into the hotel; the staff was great and the place was very clean and well-kept. What a relief! We spent some of the evening walking around the hostel looking for a bite to eat.

The next morning we had to catch up on some laundry, Jesse was starting to stink more than usual... We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city, exploring some of the popular areas that were recommended by the hostel staff.

We started with a walk down La Rombla. This is probably the busiest streets in Barcelona. We got a lot of warnings about the many pickpockets in the area. If you are conscious of your surroundings and keep an eye on your belongings it isn't a problem. We spent a lot of time on La Rombla during our 4 day stay and didn't have any issues.

One of the major stops on La Rombla is a giant market, "Mercat La Boqueria". It is basically a big farmers market full of fruit/vegetable/meat stands. There were so many colors and smells inside, definitely something worth seeing:

Here's Caro's favorite booth:


Here's a street performer with an excellent costume. Jesse had to take a picture:


We made our way down to the harbour.



Anotoni Gaudi has some famous and truly amazing architecture throughout the city. Some of it looks like it was pulled up from under the ocean or something.

One afternoon we took in a free walking tour. It was very informational and covered the gothic area of the city. Unfortunately we forgot most of the great facts...





Here's a pretty ironic sight. George Orwell, author of 1984 (Big Brother is watching) helped Barcelona during the Spanish Civil war and a plaza was built in his honour. Unfortunately the plaza eventually became very crime-ridden. Because of its central location with many exits into the gothic area, it became popular with drug dealers. To combat this problem, the city installed surveillance cameras throughout the plaza. The sign explains that you are being watched...


The next afternoon we took a trip up to Parc Guell and visited the house of Gaudi:









Carolina couldn't resist the nearby playground: So graceful!

We had Jesse's birthday dinner at an amazing little restaurant in the Gothic area. We are still raving about the ceasar salad that we were served before our meal. Easily the best either of us had ever tried! It wasn't a traditional caesar, it had apple slices, raisins, and a really light sauce that brought it all together. Yes I just wrote a paragraph in the blog post about a damn caesar salad. It was that good, hahaha.


Another highlight was the Segrada Familia. It is an amazing cathedral designed by Gaudi, but never completed. It is actually still in construction. It was started in 1882 and isn't expected to be completed until almost 2030!




We were planning to hang out with Araceli while we were here, but she accepted a job in France and moved a few weeks before we got here! Congratulations!