Barcelona Weekend!

Where do I begin? For starters I absolutely love this city. It is beautiful and I love the markets and performers everywhere. With that being said I ran into a bunch of crazies. On Las Ramblas (the main street in Barcelona) there were street performers that were cool to see. My friend got picked to go in and part of a street performers act. She and six other people (including a man wearing a pink wig and very sluty women’s clothes) were asked to stand in a line while a performer did flips over them. Also, we went to a fruit Mercado and while we were walking around a guy wearing a thong and a facemask was walking around as if nothing were wrong. To finish off the crazy while four of us were walking down the street we experienced a naked bike parade. There were at least twenty naked people slowly biking around Barcelona. All I can say is ‘only in Barcelona.’
For those of you who want to go to Barcelona let it be known that it cannot be done in a weekend. Although I had a fantastic time, the entire weekend I was overwhelmed because there were so many things to do and something’s just had to be crossed off the list. Friday night we walked around the city and got gelato at a place that was ridiculously over priced, but was so much better than any gelato that I have ever tasted. I had mango, coconut, and nutella gelato. We got to pick three flavors and they would make it into a flower. On Saturday, we woke up early and did the longest and at times boring four-hour tour of the city. I got to see a lot of things, but in a sense I did not really like the bus tour because I feel as though I did not get to experience the city. I only got to see it through a window. I got to see some of the works of Antoni Gaudí and I have never had more appreciation for architecture as I do now. The ideas and the work that this man did are incredible. I was able to see two houses that he designed, park guell, and the sagrada familia. It was incredible. This man truly did his work for the people. The Sagrada Familia was supposed to be a place for people to go worship, but this place is still being constructed. Its estimated to be finished by the year 2030 and was starting to be built in the year 1882. I think that my favorite thing that I saw on this trip was the park guell. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the park.
On Saturday night a group of around ten of us decided that we wanted to watch the U.S. vs. England soccer game at a pub that the concierge recommended to us. After being lost for 30 minutes we finally found the place and the 50 person long line that went with it and this is when the journey truly began. How do you make ten people in a group happy? The answer is that you can’t. It is absolutely impossible to get ten people to agree on a restaurant within a certain price range and with a T.V. to watch the game. After asking many locals of some places that they would recommend that we go I have learned something about Spaniards. Spaniards have no idea what the names of roads are or the names of places. Therefore, when they say that they know of a really good place that they ‘think’ has a T.V. and is reasonably priced that is a few blocks over and is in front of a bakery do not believe them. You will not find such a place. Do you know how many bakeries are in Barcelona? A lot. And something that does not help narrow it down is that you do not know the name of the bakery or the fictitious restaurant that is supposedly so amazing. After visiting several restaurants that were either to expensive, did not have a T.V had to long of a wait, or they would not let us sit at a table because we were only ordering tapas we had had enough. So where did we end up? Reliable subway. We took the food back the hotel and watched the game on the big screen in the lobby. It was the best decision we could have made.
Overall I had a very good weekend in Barcelona, but honestly I am glad to be back in Valencia. Barcelona is way to busy for me and I feel too uneasy walking the streets. Also, I had another uncomfortable meeting with an old man over here. The old men here are in Spain are very creepy. I tried to let the old man walk in front of me, in which case he paused and said, ‘no guapa tú pases primero.’ Translation: No beautiful you pass first. Then he grabbed my wrist and put his arm around my waist and guided me across the street. F.Y.I people here have absolutely no boundaries.


I could not post a lot of pictures on here from Barcelona, so instead I made a web album to put more pictures. It is http://picasaweb.google.com/berrygm/Barcelona#5482998964144078578 I hope that it works!