BARCELONA!

While Natali and I are here in Europe we want to make the most out of our time being here so we planned a weekend trip to Barcelona. I found some really cheap flights, some good prices on a few hotels, we rented a car and we explored Barcelona for the weekend. We stayed at 3 different hotels and I found something new about myself; I enjoy trying out new showers. The first thing I think when I walk into a hotel room is "I wonder if they have a good shower..." Yes, weird but true.

We flew into Spain around 9:00 Thursday night and were able to go out to eat and walk on the beach before heading to the hotel room. Friday we enjoyed the hotel room then headed to Barcelona in the rental car. We ended up checking into our hotel room on the way into Barcelona (Natali still thinks we were lost for an hour or so, I say we were just enjoying the scenery). We ate and by the time we actually got to Barcelona it was 6:00. Luckily it doesn't get dark until about 10:30 so we enjoyed our evening and the whole next day in Barcelona. Here are the highlights of our trip:

LAS RAMBLAS

There is a street called La Rambla that is one of the most famous streets of Spain. Thousands of people just walk down it and go to the little shops or restaurants or just enjoy the "scenery" (You will see what I mean when I say scenery)

On one end of the road there is this huge statue thing called the Barcelona Colon Monument and supposedly Christopher Columbus is the statue on the top.

On the other end of the street is the Placa de Catalunya. It had fountains, statues, and what every good tourist attraction has, pigeons everywhere. If you look at the picture below you will see a kid glaring at the camera. He thought Natali was sneaking in the bushes to take a picture of him... I guess it didn't cross his mind that there was a castle and other cool things behind him.

Here is some of the "scenery" that can be found on Las Ramblas. There were human statues everywhere trying to get money in bizarre ways. I don't know how many people think, "When I grow up I want to be a human staute." There is nothing wrong with it, I just don't see how trying to sit in the same position all day without moving would be appealing.

I don't know if this was her actual pose of if she took a lot of smoke breaks but every time we saw her she was smoking in this position.

I gave this guy 50 cents and he went from statue to cowboy killer and shot me (Luckily his guns weren't loaded) and then he let me wear a hat and pose with him. There was a cowboy here too but the cowboy statue got a phone call.

We found a mime... except he didn't really do anything besides pose for a picture, take our money, and he didn't even say thank you.

We found these drawings. We couldn't believe how real they looked. Crazy.

We even found animal rights people there petitioning against the Running of the Bulls. I guess letting them run through our streets is much crueler than keeping them in a cage until they are fat enough to be taken to the slaughter house.

The Works of Gaudi

Antoni Gaudi was a famous architect and his works are some of the most famous in all of Barcelona and even in all of Spain.

Park Güell

This whole park was created and designed by Gaudi. There are houses, stairways, bridges, walkways, buildings, and monuments all designed by Gaudi. Pretty neat stuff.

Sagrada Familia

This is another work of Gaudi. It is a huge cathedral that is still under construction. I guess it is a never-ending project. What is done looks really impressive but the pictures just don't do it justice. It is really huge and there is a lot of detail in the building.

MILÀ HOUSE, LA PEDRERA

Gaudi also built a bunch of houses and other buildings around Barcelona.

Natali makes fun of me because she says my fingers are disagreeing with each other in this picture.

Casa Batlló

This house was deffinately interesting. If you look at the balconies it is said that each balcony is a skull and the pillars are bones.

All of the houses and cathedrals we could have gone into for a fee but we decided not to. We deffinately regretted not going into one of the houses later. By the end of the day we were so bummed that we had left the houses without going in we decided we should go to something. We were by the Aquarium and so we decided on that. The aquarium just made us regret our decision even more because we paid more for the aquarium than we would have paid for one of the houses yet there really wasn't anything special about it.

L'AQUARIUM

We made the most out of the sitiuation still and had a good time. All of the member of Nemo were there to greet us.

This poor little guy was there too! We named him Herbert. I just found my new favorite fish.

There was a large tank you could walk through and see all the sharks and other fish. I wanted to see a shark eat a fish or something interesting but nothing happened.

On the way out of the aquarium there was a submarine and this guy wouldn't get out of my way... how rude.

Montjuïc Castle

Luckily on Friday night we decided to check this place out. There is a big castle on top of the hill that is also an art museum. The castle alone is pretty neat. What is the coolest part is what is below it. Natali and I would say this is the one thing you would HAVE to see if you ever went to Barcelona, and make sure you go at night!

Font Màgica de Montjuïc

Coming off the hill there are a series of waterfalls that leads to the Font Magica. It is this huge fountain that plays music along with a light show every 30 minutes. We took some amazing pictures but even those cannot capture the real feeling. Even the video doesn't get it either. Being there and seeing is the only way to really enjoy it. This is exactly the type of thing that Natali just can't get enough of. She loves music and beautiful things so putting the two together made it perfect for her. Natali loved it so much that we went back on Saturday night to enjoy it again.