Barcelona! The City that Never Sleeps.

Barcelona!

Barcelona is a city that never sleeps! Over the past three days I have gotten into the “local” routine: Late dinners past 10pm, late lunches, siestas, and falling asleep around 4am. I LOVE IT.  The food is delicious! Fresh fruits and veggies, TAPAS, freshly squeezed juice, street sandwiches and chocolate.

So here is an overview of what I’ve done the past three days

Day 1:
•       First person of the ship in Barcelona!
•       Drank café leche..DELICIOUS
•       Monserrat! Unfortunately the boys’ choir was already on vacation, so I was unable to hear them sing. The place was absolutely gorgeous! It was on top of a small mountain and it took about one hour to weave our way up.  The pictures are stunning
•       LAS RAMBLAS! Postcards and stamps
•       Quick Siesta ☺
•       Hit the town for dinner around 10pm (TAPAS) with around 18 people
•       Went to a club and walked along the beach

Day 2:
•       Walked to the gothic quarter and took pictures of the beautiful gothic arthitecture.
•       Gaudi Buildings!
•       Stopped at the Chocolate Museum with Emily, Sammy, and Tina. The ticket was a chocolate bar
•       Have a very interesting shopping experience…apparently it was a wholesale store, you had to buy 20 items, there were no dressing rooms, no sizes, and you weren’t able to try anything on. Props to Emily for being able to speak Spanish and translating for everyone
•       Ate an amazing ham and cheese sandwich. The ham is right off the pigs leg and cut so fine you can see through it. In fact, there are pig legs that hang over the bars in most restaurants.
•       Went shopping at cute little shops and department stores
•       Saw the protestors at the end of Las Ramblas (major street in town). The protestors have been staking out for over a month bringing attention to a 20 percent unemployment rate (40 unemployment rate for those under 25) and funding cutes for education and multiple other areas. They built tree houses in the square and some  even have small gardens growing. It’s insane. These people really know how to protest.
•       Got back to the ship for a quick siesta
•       Ate dinner at two great tapas bars
•       Stopped at a super market for some snacks to take back to the ship

Day 3:
•       Walked to the famous market right off Las Ramblas. This is the best market I have ever seen…fresh fish, meat, fruit, candy, nuts! EVERYTHING. I bought a fresh kiwi and orange smoothie and a chocolate croissant with custard. Then to top it off I had a mixture of pineapples, mangos, kiwi, passion fruit,  and some mysteriously unidentified fruit.
•       Walked with Sammy, Emily, Taylor, and Frannie Everywhere.
•       Finally made it to La Sagrada Familia…the famous church started by Gaudi and set to be completed in 30-40 years. The church is a blend of multiple different eras known as modernism including: gothic, romanesque, and baroque. The pictures I took don’t even begin to do it justice.
•       Walked all the way to Park Guell. The park was designed by Gaudi and was suppose to be a house community/park for the upper class. Now it is a public park and is to the north of the city on a hill/mountain. Great views of the city!
•       Took the metro. WHOOP! So happy to be able to figure out all the transfers
•       Siesta

Tomorrow I have a bike tour of the city from 0730-1100. The ship leaves tomorrow at 2000…it’ll be sad to say goodbye to Barcelona, but even more excited to say hello to Italy two days later.

Hopefully I’ll be able to figure out how to resize some photos and add them to the blog.