barcelona

so it's been awhile since we left barcelona, but it was fantastic. the reason i didn't update from there, was because i was too busy having a great time there. i'm in paris now. i should be able to get all caught up before we leave. (haha)

so we got to barcelona on the evening of the 23rd, checked into our hostel, Sun & Moon. The hostel was in an excellent location: on c. de Ferran, right off of La Ramblas just north of Placa Reial, which is a beautiful square with lots of restaurants and cafes. after checking in, we headed over to the square and got a pitcher of sangria and a lobster paella. all i have to say about that, is that catalonians know how to eat. it was amazing. from there, we went on to walk around the city some more, before heading to bed early.

We arrived just in time for a festival of theirs, called San Juan (Saint John), wherein lots of people lit fire crackers and then there was a big bonfire on the beach and fireworks. lots of fun.

Saturday we went to La Pedrera, which is a Gaudi museum along with a model apartment from the 20's to complement the way his design of the building. i should of course mention that he designed the building, intending it as an apartment building for wealthy people. the museum was very well done, and included a fantastic audio guide which took you step-by-step through everything there was to see.

Sunday we didn't do much, except for shopping a little (mostly for dinner, and browsing) and then a little time on the beach.

Monday we made our way to Parc Guell, another one of Gaudi's masterpieces. this is a big park that he intended to be used a sort of city for the rich, although it was never completed due to lack of funding. the park is beautiful, but very hilly. one thing that i haven't mentioned so far, is the heat in barcelona. it is obscenely hot there, especially around 3-6pm. climbing up the hill ot get there was really tiring, even though it was morning. i'm glad that we had plans for the afternoon, because it kept us out of the hot mid-day sun. we also went to the gaudi museum at the park, but it was pretty lame. if you go to barcelona, skip it. there are lots of better ways to spend your time there. the afternoon was actually spent at a spanish cooking class, where we had a lot of fun making sangria, tapas, paella, and gaspacho. i really enjoyed it. supposedly they're supposed to email us the recipes... they haven't yet, but it hasn't been a week yet, so i'll be patient still! we met some really nice people there too, which was cool.

that evening we had some hostel drama... apparantly the people running our hostel can't count to 8. that's the number of beds in our room. amazingly, they tended to manage to overbook them. i don't really get it. i remember the first or second night, a guy came in and looked around. i didn't really know what he was doing. on second thought though, i think he was actually physically checking if any beds were free, because they don't know how to keep track of that stuff.

but let me tell you - there is nothing quite as fun as people having melodramas about where they're going to sleep at 12.30am in your room, and having the staff pretend to understand what's being said to them (although they clearly didn't!) ah, good times. thank god it's such a nice city; otherwise i'd be pissed!

Tuesday we saw the Sagrada Familia, which was gorgeous. we also went into the tower, which was gorgeous but scary. it was extremely high up and cramped in the tower. Kevin, in all of his sensitivity, pointed out a crack in one of the bricks to me on our way up. i just about threw him out of the window. lucky for both of us that i was too scared to take both hands off of the wall at once =)

after that we had to prepare for our departure. we mailed a package home, which my parents can expect within the next week, and did some laundry after which we had a nice dinner before heading to bed.

Wednesday we just walked around the city for the last time, before taking a bus back to the airport. we saw the Arc de Triomphe (Barcelona edition), the Botanical Garden, walked by the zoo, and saw the olympic garden, as well as the beach. sadly (and i know my family will scoff), we didn't make it for a proper day at the beach with bathing suits and swimming. however, i'm sure that there will be more than enough time for that later on in the trip.

We are now in Paris, and although we set up a tentative itinerary for this part of the trip, we are way ahead of our plans and will likely just end up lounging around tomorrow, or spending more time planning for switzerland as we've left it up in the air for now.

other than that, i hope everyone is doing well, and that my mother has mailed my international driver's license which i forgot at home =) and that my dad has called his friends in Vienna so i don't have to worry about booking a hostel =)

more about Paris probably tomorrow.