Barcelona Part IV - The best hosts!

The Family Photo! Andreu and Arnau were our lovely hosts, who I found through the website couchsurfing.com and I feel like I won the lottery! They were so hospitable and we shared so much in common- especially music! Andreu put our names on the guest list for this awesome party for the website he works for: indiespot.es (check it out)! It was so fun, though I felt like a lame-o for leaving so early (3am). Everything in Barcelona goes very very LATE, but the nightlife is incredible.

The view of the Temple de Sagrat Cor from their front balcony

    

View of Barcelona from their terrace. Incredible!

One evening, we went to the grocery store to buy ingredients to make a nice Catalan dinner! 

Wanna buy a pig leg?

the "natural" family photo

chestnuts! delicious!

 We ate the chestnuts for dessert as we watched the Barcelona soccer game (they won, of course).

 We sang songs together.

I am definitely bringing this Catalan tradition back home with me- make a piece of toast (with some good bread), slice a tomato in half, and rub the inside of the tomato onto the toast. Add a bit of olive oil, then put some sliced cured meat, or maybe some cheese on there, and BOOM! Catalan breakfast. SO GOOD!

(the view doesn't hurt, either)

Anyway, we all became good friends, and I could not possibly thank them enough for how good they made the trip. We ate traditional Catalan food, they showed us places we should visit, and they taught me a lot about the situation in Catalonia, which I think was the most important thing I took in, and I would not know about it if I had not spent time with locals.

People from Catalonia, which is a kingdom in Spain, do not identify with Spain. They speak Catalan instead of Spanish (though they can speak Spanish if needed), they have their own traditions, and they have been trying for the independence of Catalonia from Spain far a very long time now. But what I thought was especially cool was that they didn't have any bitter animosity towards Spain, everything they talked about was constructive. This was so refreshing having just come from France, where everyone is making a huge fuss, breaking stuff all over town, blocking schools and public transportation,  and causing various other barbaric damage to their own land, just to "show" the government that they are unhappy. The people in Barcelona had the best attitude, they were all friendly, intelligent, hospitable, and constructive. It was so good to see people who were so knowledgeable and proud about a cause they were participating in. Then, when I got back to France and saw a torched car in front of my school, I wanted to go back to Catalonia!

You often see the Catalonia flag of independence all over the city:

So if you ever ask me how my trip to "Spain" was, I will get all sassy and tell you that I did not go to Spain, I went to CATALONIA!

Thank you to Andreu and Arnau for the best time in Barcelona!

Barcelona Part III

This church, the Temple de Sagrat Cor, sits upon Mount Tibidabo, very close to where our hosts lived. It was built in 1806 and renovated in 1902. There is also a small theme park up there, which was built in 1889 and still contains original rides from that time (cool but yikes). To get up here you have to take this cute little tourist trolleys up the mountain. (By the way, one of these tourist trolleys ran over Antoni Gaudi and that's how he died. He got run over by a tourist trolley in the city he made famous. Damn.) Then another train-type thing takes you up a very steep incline to the very very top. The views are spectacular. The weather was a little bit overcast, but still not bad, a good jesus-died-for-my-sins kind of day. 

I LOVED this mosaic of the ship in rough waters, really really cool. Plus, I never thought I'd see a rainbow in a Catholic church. Nice!

 (watch the hands, father.)

The "upper" church.

 

With the rest of the day, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona and had our minds blown.

Barcelona Part II

The next day, we walked around and saw some sites. This fountain was in a big park near the water, and it was really spectacular. So grand and busy with details of all kinds. It was lovely.

 You can climb the stairs and go up above the fountain which is really awesome to see it from all angles.

I am a tourist.

 So the next stop was the Picasso Museum, which was so awesome. I normally think of one style of painting when I think of his most famous work, but it was so interesting to go through this museum, because the path you take through it went chronologically through his life. You were really able to see the progression of his painting as he grew older. (I didn't know photos weren't allowed, so these we the shots I got before I got yelled at)

Then to dinner! So one thing you see A LOT in Barcelona is the hanging of pig legs in restaurants all over the place. It's pretty cool! (I think the farmhouse should adopt this style... best soundproofing technique yet!)

 Trobador was so good I went back the next night, and it didn't disappoint.

 salad with sliced apples, oranges, chicken in the middle, under a slice of herbed chevre.

This seafood soup will haunt my dreams until I come back to Barcelona and eat it again. It was one of the best things I've ever eaten.

This is an old hospital building near where we stayed. Barcelona is full of stuff like this- crazy intricate colorful designs on so many buildings. It makes you keep your eyes wide open at all times because there is always some beautiful piece of architecture wherever you look in Barcelona.

Barcelona Part I

The bus ticket said to be there at 10:45 pm, to "register" for the bus which was supposed to leave at 11:45 pm. The bus showed up at 12:35am, and the driver was a total dick. yeah france!

 We arrived in Barcelona at about 6am. One may assume that I slept on the bus, but I had the tremendous fortune of sitting next to an Australian backpacker (who didn't wear socks with his sneakers) who felt the need to take his shoes off and put his feet up for the entire bus to smell. I had my scarf over my face, but the pungent aroma seeped its way into everything. His friend sat behind me, and was one of the loudest snorers I've heard in a while. But it was that kind of snoring where you can actally HEAR the snot. You could hear all of what was going on in his nasal cavity. I was a bit disgruntled.

So... it's 6am, do we find a 24 hour hotel and try to get some sleep? orrrr do we wait it out until noon when we can check in to a hostel for the following night, thus saving ourselves a night's worth of lodging money? We chose the latter, and walked around the town. We decided it would be cool to walk down to the water and see the sun rise, so that's what we did!

The first thing that will catch your eye in Barcelona (other than the fact that it looks like a level from SKATE) are that all the fountains and monuments are decorated with so much detail is such a non-regimented kind of way. It's really something to behold, even at 6 am when you haven't slept at all.

Made it to the harbor:

 It's the place to be.

Oh hey just filling up a few plastic bags with water...

I saw on a balcony "dali tribute free 3rd floor" so we went up to see it, and it was just this guy's house and all the rooms were FULL of all these huge paintings he did of either Dali or naked women in S&M attire... or both... sometimes he would put his own face in there too with a diamond on his forehead like shining out into the painting. It was pretttyyyyy nutssss. 

The entrance to the hostel was pretty cool:

 Here's a church

 Here's that church from our hostel's balcony

 If you go to Barcelona, go to a restaurant called "Trobador" and feast upon the best seafood this little vermonter has ever tasted...

 batter fried squiddsss SO FRESHHH

 steamed muscles- soooo good

(now on to the bar)

OLDE ENGLISH ON TAP! BAAHHHAHH (it's cider... but still... it's OE!)

 This is the beer of Barcelona. They love it. Heck, I love it.

 There were enough americans in this bar to play some ruit, so we did. As I discussed rules with the others before the games started (2 racks, rebound over the table behind the back, island cup, etc.) My English friend experienced serious culture shock. It's like when I try to understand cricket...

Alex got pick-pocketed by a salsa-dancing thief about 60 seconds after taking this photo...

YAH!

Night one adjourned.

In the following days we will come to find the most wonderful hosts in the world, Andreu and Arnau, who hosted us for the rest of our journey, which will be up shortly...