Barcelona, Spain

May 16th
On our list of things to do after arriving on Saturday afternoon: sit by the pool and drink sangria. Hopefully simultaneously.

We checked these off of our list, but separately. After buying a bottle of wine to chug by the pool (we're pretty resourceful), we showered and headed to the little (read: less touristy) neighborhood of Gracia, where we found decently priced sangria and tapas. We ordered a vino sangria (made with red wine, as opposed to sangria cava, which is made with champagne and spells headache to me) and three tapas: potato wedges drenched with a spicy-ish mayo/ketchup, pork kebabs, and (allegedly) barbequed chicken wings. Tapas = win. The sangria rocked, and I'm so pleased that it has been dubbed 'the drink' for our upcoming summer.




May 17th
Since Rob had been to Barcelona, and I was a newbie, we took the place by storm. Sorta. If getting out of the hotel at 11am counts as storming. Anyways...

We've done a lot of walking on our trip, and this city would be no exception. We walked and walked and walked to get to a main plaza and the beach. We walked by hookers and druggies, all selling their goods in broad daylight (note: we only walked through this area once...duh.)

safely through hooker-ville

We wandered toward the beach, stopping to people watch as tourists bought counterfeit bags/wallets/sunglasses from guys on the street, and the guys tried to stay one step ahead the cops. Between that and the various fashion faux paux at every turn, its like watching a train wreck...and I love it.

its not often that I'm so moved by an outfit that I actually document it, but there was so much happening here that it is forever ingrained in my memory...and this is the back!

proof that there is an ocean with a sandy beach in Barcelona! the walk was so long, I wasn't sure it actually existed

Craving more sunshine and wanting to make good use of the pool at our hotel, we bought a bottle of rose´wine and a refrigerated pizza, and headed for the pool. I'd never completely understood the point of going on vacation to simply sit at a pool in another country, but I was feeling it in Barcelona.

After a gourmet dinner at McDonald's (hey, sometimes you just need a burger), we headed toward the National Theater to check out the 'Magic Fountains', a huge choreographed (holy crap I spelled that right on the first try! I can't even successfully spell weird on the first shot...) water show, complete with music and lights. Here's a pretty shot and a snippet that I recorded, for memory's sake:

note: the video is like 2 minutes long...I couldn't find a good point in the music to stop recording!

May 18th
Our flight to Lisbon wasn't until the evening, so we slept as late as we could before meandering around along the Ramblas and in the Boqueria. The Ramblas is the shopping area in Barcelona, and you float along down the pedestrian lane, past such beauties as Zara, H&M and Carrefour. The Boqueria is a farmer's market-style outdoor store that hosts stalls and stalls of vendors hawking fruits, veggies, meats, and booze.

Our flight to Portugal may have been stewarded (is that a word?) by the most cheerful staff of all time. TAP Portugal Airlines will get my business in the future, which is more than I can say for RyanAir and Olympic Airlines.

Overall opinion: While I liked Barcelona, I fear we're approaching the point on our tour where everything turns into "just another city". I'm beginning to appreciate the slower pace of travel, even if it means visiting fewer places on each trip. Sangria is a hit with me, and I liked the tapas, too. I enjoyed my visit, but nothing exceptional sits with me. Perhaps I'll visit again to get a better feel for the city...