Que Paso?

Whoop! Whoop! It's Barcelona time! Which means I only then have Paris, Rome and Florence to do before I'm all caught up on my travels. And I leave for home in about three days now, so it looks like there won't be any current posts, so I'll just have to keep writing about my travels even while I'm sitting at home enjoying summer break. This post will hopefully be shorter since I was only in Barcelona for two days, so let's get started shall we?

Luckily, I had no airline problems and flew in safely into the Barcelona airport where I then got into a cab (all by myself because I'm a big girl) and went to meet up with Amanda and her dad. They had been in Spain during the time I was in Amsterdam starting first in Granada and moving on to Barcelona. Her dad was nice enough to let me stay in their apartment for the two days before our voyage to Paris. I might have done some miscalculation and thought I was staying in Amsterdam for an extra two days, so Barcelona was like a little mini vacation surprise. I was super excited to go to Spain because it was suppose to be a happy and sunny little wonderland... and it was. It was so nice to go from Amsterdam, which was fairly chilly and I almost always needed my coat, to a place where the sun beat down and I could go around in just a cardigan. I like to call it sweater-weather (pronounced so both words rhyme), and it's my favorite climate. Anyway, the apartment we stayed in was my first experience with airbnb.com. If you're traveling on a budget, I highly recommend you check it out. We were in a three bedroom apartment with 1 1/2 bathrooms pretty much in the middle of Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia was basically in our back yard, and we really just walked everywhere.

After I put my bags down and breathed for two seconds, we walked right out the door to do some exploring. There's just so much neat architecture around the city so we basically just went wherever we wanted. I was just astounded by the ironwork that was everywhere. Each of the mini balconies had these intricate iron rails that I was in absolute love with. So we walked around a park and saw a triumphal arch (Europe sure is full of them). We then thought it would be nice to nip down to the beach and see the ocean. While the day started out nice and sunny, by the time we had eaten lunch and walked around a bit, it had started to rain. So we got to the beach with a few rain drops, like that's going to stop us. We then decided that an hour was long enough to wait before having dinner. So we sat outside in the sun again (way to go bipolar weather), drinking sangria and eating paella. It was really a perfectly Spanish day.

We then decided to go home and rest a bit to get ready for the next day. That is the nice thing about all this travel; we've always managed to find time for a little rest to give us that extra energy. I've never been too run-down or tired for an expedition. Anyway, we ended up staying in for the night and just talking and eating doner (don't fret, there were a lot of Donner Party jokes so everyone was having a good ol' fashion time).

Reunited and it feels so good.

The next day we got up and went exploring some more, but this time we went more in the direction of the Picasso Museum. Now I've been to the Musee Picasso in Paris (it was closed for renovation this time around) and I wanted to see how it compared. It dealt a lot with Pablo's time in Barcelona (duh) and showed a lot of things that I had never seen before. Like at the Van Gogh museum, it had a bunch of his earlier works. They were not the cubist pieces that people would recognize today, but you could definitely see his progression as an artist. Since he lived so long and had such a public, and risque, love life, I think he's  one of the most truly interesting artists. I might not always like his work, but I love him as a man.

After the Picasso Museum, we walked around, had some hot chocolate and churros, and headed into a cab over to the Park Guell. It might be a bit of a climb to see it all, but it was well worth it. It was like a mosaic shop drank too much LSD in the 60s and threw up all over the hills of Barcelona. Your eye never tired from all of the colors, mirrors, and shapes that surrounded the park. The higher you climbed, the better the view of Barcelona became. Everything was just layed out like a little jewel set against the ocean. After walking around the park a bit, we then decided to head out towards home so Amanda and I could finish packing before our flight for Paris the next morning.

For dinner we decided that we wanted paella and sangria again so Amanda and I shared a pitcher of the heavenly nectar. After our super delicious dinner, we walked back around the Sagrada Familia at night time to take it in. I'm gonna go on a little rant here so sorry about that. It's an amazing building. All of the details put into it make it look very organic and full of life. With that being said...WHY IS IT TAKING SO LONG TO FINISH!!!!!!!??????? Really? You've been working on it for well over one hundred years and it's still not done. Yes it's a piece of art that is also being used daily as a worship site, but still. When people think of these grand cathedrals around Europe you know what's usually missing from their mental picture? Scaffolding and cranes. This is something the Basilica has more than enough of. You keep on wanting to take pictures of the thing, and there's just metal in the way! While I desperately want the cathedral finished, I feel like it's now a running joke so they can't finish it. If they do, the world might come to an end (hello it is 2012). Sorry, that's it. Do you have any thoughts about the slowest construction site ever? Especially with technology today! Phew. That felt good.

Let's sum it all up shall we. I loved Spain (especially the weather) and would love to spend more than just two days in Barcelona (and definitely Madrid with all of its museums). On the third morning (this was April 12th now) Amanda and I flew over to Paris to start a whole new adventure. That's the next large post I'll be putting up. Present-day Carly is actually leaving Italy in 2 days. I'm going home! I've had the time of my life while traveling, but I'm really ready to spend some time with friends and family back in the good old PA.