First Day in Barcelona

As stated previously, we slept in today until about 4pm - The time change so far has been hard to get used to. In fact, I am writing this blog post at 5am local time.

Today was a great day. We got to see a lot. We hopped on the hotel's shuttle and headed downtown. They dropped us off at a place with some wonderful fountains - and, of course, a Mc Donalds.



We then ran into a city worker who was hauling trash. He spoke English fairly well, and was excited to tell us all about his city. He recommended that we go on a short walk down to the boardwalk area - by the ocean. So we did just that. On the way, we happened to pass this store - not sure what it was all about, but I thought it made for a good photo op. Unfortunately, it was closed, so I was not able to get my happy pills for the day. A lot of the stores were closed today.



The area around the ocean was really neat - lots of boats and little huts selling jewelry and other touristy stuff. We continued to follow the ocean and eventually found the beach.

We discovered a lot today, from a Casino, to the Zoo, to a lot of awesome 'green spaces'. This is the first city I have ever been in that really integrates nature into the city. Numerous times we would be walking and then, out of the blue, there would be a beautiful park - additionally this town has a TON of awesome water features - it seems like everywhere you look there is a fountain, creek, or waterfall. Very cool and very easy to forget that you are in a city that is home to 1.5 million people.

The area by the Zoo was extra nice. Very well kept up. - See previous posting about that.

Interesting things - the people seem to be in love with crepes with chocolate sauce on top of them - they sell these things EVERYWHERE. We have not tried one yet, but it is on our list for tomorrow. Also, the native Spanish people are kind of hard to identify - they really just blend in with everyone. Often times it is very difficult to determine if someone is American, British or Spanish.

We ate dinner at a nice outdoor seafood place on the ocean. Beautiful view. The food was okay - I had Spanish rice mixed with assorted seafood. Abby chose rice with assorted veggies. Hopefully tomorrow we will score some good food. Lots of KFC, McDonalds and Dominoes pizzas here.



On our way back to the hotel, our taxi passed by the Palau Nacional - which is located on top of a magnificent hill called Montjuïc, the views from the Palau Nacional are unmatched anywhere else in the city, and the museum is surrounded by a handful of other museums. Barcelona’s Palau Nacional appears, at first glance, to be a very grand, old building. Looks can be deceiving! This sprawling structure that houses the National Art Museum of Catalonia was actually built in 1929 for the International Exhibition. This thing was lit up like a Christmas tree. It was truly amazing - and this picture does not do it justice. Will visit and photograph upon our return to Barcelona in a few days. There were water fountains galore as you approached the building - and then this amazing sunburst of light behind it. Really something.

Alright, well it is 6am here now, I am going off to lay down for a bit and hopefully catch an hour of sleep. The shuttle bus leaves for the airport at 9am then off to Ibiza on the 11am flight.