Hola Barcelona

Barcelona, Spain, the land of flamingo dancing and bullfights. Well little did I know that both of these could not be further from the main events in this city. Though Barcelona is part of Spain, it is in fact the capital of Cataolonia, a separate community inside of Spain. This city refuses to have bull fight arenas and has very few places that perform the flamenco dance. Basically, Barcelona refutes any stereotypes that Spain has to offer (except for sangria). In fact, they even imported palm trees from Hawaii (and rented some too!) and bought sand from Egypt to make beaches. They used the Olymics as a cover story, but my opinion they just wanted to make their city remind them of vacation. The first day we got there we went on yet another walking tour learning about all these wonderful facts I just shared, along with many others.

Since I've heard that many of you enjoy my food pictures so I thought I'd throw on (of my 50) in of the food market we went to every single day. Imagine Saturday's Market, but filled with only fruits, vegetables, bread, and sweets. Literally at every turn there was a new stand filled with every and any fruit you can possibly imagine. Of course we all loved it and went back every day (sometimes twice) to get a little snack. Possibly my favorite part of Barcelona was this market; so colorful, so lively, so delicious!

We also went to the beach one day (and got incredibly burnt! that sun is no joke). Like I said the sand was all imported so it was very dense and hard to walk on. The only disappointing part of this beach was that literally every 3 minutes a vendor would come by asking if we were interested in massages, coconuts, or scarfs. But that didn't matter, because it was 75 degrees, we were on a beach and in Barcelona, we couldn't complain. 

Not really sure what this palace was, but it was so beautiful! There is a magic fountain in front which is apparently spectacular to see, but we were a month too early. After climbing about 5,000 steps we finally got to the top stairs of the palace, which was absolutely amazing. We then kept going up and found the Olympic stadium (pictured below)!

 Our next stop....the Sagrada Familia! This is by far the most breathtaking intracite church I have ever seen in my life. The whole outside tells the story of Jesus from birth till death, every nook and cranny with some type of symbolism. I was in awe of this church.

After the Sagrada Familia we went to Gaudi's park. Gaudi seemed to have a love of gingerbread houses and mosaics because this entire park was filled with them. Gaudi also designed many buildings around the city, each more famous than the next. One was right by our hostel and we fell in love with it. It was so subtle compared to his other work but still so so cool.

 Barcelona: beautiful sights, weather, friends, and city. Even though my hand was constantly on my purse (Barcelona has high petty crime rates) we saw so many sights and had such a fun relaxing vacation. Trip two was definitely a success!