The second major section of our trip was spent in Barcelona. I noticed immediately that, despite the old architecture, that Barcelona was a much "younger" city. It seemed much more relaxed and liberal overall. Maybe that's because it's a beach town? I'm not really sure, but the vibe was much different than in Madrid.
We took a tour of the city in a bus that used to be used by FC Barcelona. I noticed that it was a pretty fancy bus, but I didn't realize it was fancy enough to haul around a famous soccer team. The city had some very unusual and interesting architecture. La Sagrada Familia was pretty incredible. It was bizarre and really beautiful at the same time. Europe definitely spares no expense when it comes to enormous cathedrals... We also visited the mini town (the name escapes me at the moment) designed by Antoní Gaudí. I felt like I had stepped into a Dr. Suess book walking around that place. Sometimes I feel like the world would be a better place if everyone was able to live in really funky and cool looking houses...
Other than the beach, another area we spent the most time in during our stay was La Rambla. Somehow we always ended up walking up and down it to get from one place to another. The one thing that annoyed the hell out of me in both Madrid and Barcelona were the guys selling those bizarre squeaker toys. They had some unusual plastic film that you can put in your mouth to create a weird helium voice. I swear to God there was a salesman every five feet in Spain selling those irritating toys. I know the economy is bad in Spain, but of all the things you could choose to sell on the street, why squeak toys?
Anyway, the last day before we got on the ferry to Italy was a beach day. I was excited to spend some time near the ocean because, as a Nebraskan, my beach opportunities are rather limited. It was fun and relaxing, but also not as glamorous as it sounds. First, I greatly underestimated how irritating all of the sand would be. It got everywhere and you couldn't get rid of all of it if you tried. Second, it was not blazing hot in Barcelona like it generally is in home in early June. It was under 80 and felt rather chilly. Third, it was unbelievably crowded. I've never seen so many people come to one place to just chill.
I basically took a nap in the sun for a short period of time (it's easy to get drowsy in the sun for some reason), and I spent some time walking along the beach. I'm not an amazing swimmer, and the water intimidated me, so I didn't go in very far. The waves started getting rather large, and I really didn't want to get knocked over. All of the women sunbathing topless threw me off just a tad. It didn't bother me that much, I just can't imagine feeling comfortable enough to have it all hanging out in a public place. I thought it was somewhat odd that walking around town in shorts is frowned upon (at least from what our tour guide told us), but it's totally cool to take off your shirt at the beach. I'd love to hear the reasoning behind that because I thought that was quite contradictory.
Anyway, here are a few pics from various places in Barcelona:
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| A far-away view of Barcelona and La Sagrada Familia. |
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| A closer view |
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| Flowers around the outside |
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| Our tour guide said Star Wars helmets were inspired by La Sagrada Familia. I'm not even sure what the people in this statue are supposed to be. |
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| Gaudí and some larger structures in Barcelona |
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| Part of the longest bench in the world |
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| Candy land houses... |
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| They sold tiny and adorable plants along La Rambla |
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| A convincing Johnny Depp lookalike... |
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| Bambi! Made entirely of chocolate at the chocolate museum. |
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| Crowded beach looking one way |
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| That looks...terrifying... |
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| Some people were getting owned by these waves. |
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| Crowded beach the other way. I'm not sure what this statue is supposed to be... |
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