Barcelona Baby!

So far April is proving to be a whirlwind of a month!  The first week some friends visited and then the next week I left for Krakow, Prague, and Berlin (currently updating my blog from Prague!).  On the 5th, Emily (a friend from high school) and Mara (a friend I met through Emily) arrived in Madrid! That afternoon we headed straight to Barcelona for two days!  The night we got there, we got settled in our apartment (we splurged just a little and thus weren't in a hostel).  Then we went out to a Basque bar where you pick appetizers and then count the number of toothpicks you have at the end, and that's the number of tapas you pay for!  All of the ones I tried were delicious!  The next day we went on a walking tour and saw some interesting sights and learned a lot more about Barcelona's history.  We got extremely lucky because that day a group of people were building castelles, aka human towers!  So we took a little detour and watched a few being completed! 

It was quite interesting seeing the towers form, but also very nerve-wracking watching very young/small children climb way up to the top! However, being able to see this very Catalan tradition made up for the fact that our cooking class got canceled! 

After the walking tour, we went to a paella restaurant that our guide recommended.  It was the best paella I've ever had, but I've also only had paella maybe twice in my life.  Then we made our way down to the beach.  Unfortunately it was a little cold, but we still put our feet in the Mediterranean Sea! After that we got some sandwiches and sangria for dinner and headed back home.  

Monday was our day for Gaudi!  We started our day at the Sagrada Familia.  After learning about it in high school, Emily and I have always wanted to go there.  So it was a bit of a dream come true!  And it definitely lived up to the hype!  We decided that in a few decades, all three of us would come back to Barcelona and see the finished basilica!

Then we headed to Park Guell and saw some fabulous Gaudi art/architecture!  Unfortunately now you have to pay to get into the famous parts of the park, so we passed since we had other Gaudi buildings to see!

Unfortunately the first house we went to was under construction and we couldn't see any of it.  But thankfully the one I wanted to see the most, was open and visible!  

  

Then we went to La Boqueria, a famous street market, and got some fantastic tapas for lunch.  We enjoyed some meatballs, patatas bravas, and prawns!  All of them were amazing!  Barcelona was a fantastic trip and I am glad I was able to share the experience with Emily and Mara!  

I could probably write much more detail about this trip, but I had grandiose plans of writing this blog, one about their week in Madrid, and Krakow.  But my bed is calling me.  I haven't gotten too much sleep this April and I've definitely caught some type of cold.  I'm going to use Prague as an excuse to get some sleep and not feel bad about early nights!