We are on a plane headed to Paris as I type. I wanted to share with you the highlights of the trip thus far...and hopefully I won't bore you silly.
We went down one street and a lady said something in Spanish while looking straight into our eyes, drops her pants and begins to pee in a bucket...ew.
1. ate dinner in a restaurant directly on the Mediterranean Sea. Looked like any body of water, really, but to picture myself on a map was crazy.
2. apparently the Spanish version of water is the Sangria. They are constantly bringing you one/constantly refilling your glass.
3. the city is gorgeous...far prettier than I imagined. We took a day tour of the Gothic quarter and touched walls that were constructed in the 13th century by the Roman's who founded Barcelona. There are stones in these walls with linear divots in them where the military sharpened their swords. one word two words: WOW and old
4. In the oldest part of the city, the streets are uber-narrow...maybe 10 feet wide, and the there are rows and rows of homes that look a bit like brownstones, but much older.
It looks like a movie set or Disneyland (could I be more American?).
We went down one street and a lady said something in Spanish while looking straight into our eyes, drops her pants and begins to pee in a bucket...ew.5. We ate lunch at a place called 4 Cats. It was opened in the late 1800s and was a haunt for local artists, including a 17 year old Pablo Picasso. The venue was where he showed his work for the first time ever (I actually liked these paintings...they weren't the "mangled Mr. Potato Head look" that he's more famous for)
6. saw a HUGE cathedral designed by Guadi. It has been under construction for over 120 years and is still going with a "projected" finish date of 2030 (and I thought the Sparks brothers were slow when they remodeled our bathrooms). Totally funded the entire time by private donations.
The architect (Gaudi) was only able to complete one side of four in his lifetime but he's known to have said. "my boss (God) is in no hurry." There may be some wisdom in that, huh?
7. Barcelona is the land of tapas. It's like they live off of finger foods. Some were tasty, and some were, uh, gross. It's just not the same as pizza rolls and taquitos.
8. we brought electrical adapters and converters with us, but even so, our travel steamer is toast (literally) and my flat iron is like a weapon...hot as all get out and slowly frying my hair to a slow painful death.
9. the people here are beautiful! light eyes and hair a lot of times and very exotic. I have seen more designer jeans on men than I could ever imagine, as well as crop pants and "man-bags" (which apparently heterosexual European males rock the way American guys wear Under Armour)
10. the time change is tough. We call the boys at 10:30 pm our time, and catch them right after their school day. The two very brief phone calls we have made cost us $75...I am considering learning Morse Code...all I need to learn to tap out is "we love you and miss you"---right? Couldn't be that difficult. :)
That's it in a nutshell. I REALLY loved Barcelona. I hadn't given it the props it deserved, mostly out of ignorance. NOw we head to Paris for the last leg of the trip. I am really trying to roll with things and get into the culture. You'd be proud...I hugged our tour guide goodbye yesterday and we did the cheek kiss thing...granted it was only unilateral, but I still felt very and cultured!
Love to you all...Mindy
2 comments:
Ah I LOVED reading this. I spent a week in Barcelona during my backpacking days and must say it was such an amazing city. Seeing all of Gaudi's work, throughout the city, was breathtaking. It has been a dozen years now since I was there and you took me right back in time. And I agree with your comment that I never gave it much thought until I was there and it blew my mind. Would love to go back one day with hubby so he too can see the beauty. SO glad you had such a wonderful experience. ps - I remember they sold Sangria in boxes, much like juice boxes, crazy!
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