Lu here reporting from our hotel room in the middle of "pedestrian way" (do not know the spanish/catalonian). Dad and I arrived very early Tuesday (12/18) morning and spent the day wandering the streets near our hotel and adjusting to life 6 hours ahead. We began our journey at 7am when Mom (Cathy) picked us up and brought us to the train station. We took the train to NYC, cab to JFK, and sat in the airport for close to 5 hours. miserable. Just so you know, we took AeroMexico to Spain, why? I am not sure myself. It was through Delta but gave us something to laugh about for our 5 hour wait. The 7+ hour plane ride went fairly well except for a few 50-100ft. turbulance drops in which an announcement was made to "buckle your seatbelts tightly and hold onto/secure all infants". We enjoyed Mr. Bean's Holiday as entertainment along with some movie called StarDust which I do not recommend.
Anyway, Marisa & Ed arrived earlier than we expected and surprised us at the hotel! They smell like Europeans and I'm pretty sure the smell of Ivan's house will be with them forever. Upon entering their room here in Barcelona, one is overcome by the smell of smoke/meat/horses. It's really rather remarkable the smell one can contract when spending a week in the woods of France. Marisa would like me to clarify that they do not have the body odor issue many true Europeans seem to encompass, rather smell differently than normal and right now mostly of a wood-burning stove. Just for clarification.
When Marisa & Ed arrived we were all tired and hungry from traveling so we walked until we found a place to eat and ended up at one of the best places we've been all week! It is a famous restaurant visited by hollywood megastars and we had our very first tapas! We were not sure how to order them and there was only one english speaking waitress, but we loved them and might even return to this restaurant for a second meal! This concluded our technical day 1 but we were satisfied to be settled and looked forward to our week.
Barcelona is an amazing city though not a great place to learn traditional Spanish. The language here is Catalan, from Catalunya which is the northern region of Spain, and is vastly different than traditional Spanish. We have been able to get along fine language wise, but Dad simply pointed to an item on a menu without any clue as to what he was ordering and it ended up being like chicken cordon bleu with fries, great luck! This luck was much appreciated when we realized there was a very large octopus in the front viewing area which could have been his meal. Whew! This was the only restaurant where nobody spoke any english and it was a struggle to make it through the meal. We are trying to speak the language but find ourselves speaking Italian or French more frequently than not, odd.
Our first day was cold but beautiful and we spent the day in Barceloneta which is an area of the city surrounded by harbors. You will never imagine the number of boats we saw docked but we have some pictures to give you an idea. After finding the bathroom and looking at lots of jellyfish on the surface of the water under a boardwalk, we moved on to visit a beach and walk through a weird circus I could have lived without. For lunch we ate at the oldest tavern in the city and everyone had a fantastic meal, me especially with a simple green salad without dressing. This was the ONLY item on the menu that did not have seafood or some part of an animal I'd rather never know people actually consume. Dad and Marisa split a paella which is a seafood extravaganza! It was served dramically and enjoyed by all, except me. I should mention that lunch is a big deal here and is eaten around 2-3pm as dinner is 8-11pm. Many restaurants are not open for dinner until after 8pm and most shops are closed from about 2-5pm. After lunch we walked to a large park equipped with it's very own Arc de Triomf. It looks a lot like the original only it's pink! After taking glamour shots, we went to the Picasso museum which was very interesting spanding Picasso's entire life and works. We tried to get into a cathedral and a music hall but both were closed for siestas so after sitting in a cafe and enjoying pastries and warm beverages, we return to our hotel for a few hours to rest. Marisa, Ed, and I watched YouTube videos and Garfield's Christmas to pass the time, very enjoyable. For dinner we walked to a restaurant that was recommended but ended up next door at another fantastic place that is a chain over here. It's called La Quinze Nits and it was one of our favorite meals (you will hear this a lot) in which we enjoyed 3 full courses of somewhat American somewhat Spanish dishes. I had pasta with meat sauce and a chicken and ham plate, but everyone else tried something new! The atmosphere was perfect and we spent a very long time just sitting and talking, a great night!
Thursday, or what we liked to call Wednesday due to our lack of ability to retain any sort of time reference, was another great day in the city. I forgot to mention that we have a very large buffet breakfast included in our hotel rate which usually takes us about an hour to consume and is the time we spend planning our day. So as I was saying, we had a great second day taking a gondola up to the highest point in Barcelona which features a large castle. It was fun to take the gondola ride up and Ed commented that it made him want to go skiing and Marisa responded by exclaiming that this ride made her never want to ski again. When we reached the top we took a right which brought us all the way around the castle when we could have gone left and been right at the entrance, silly Americans. It was a nice walk though and we had great views of the city throughout it. When we finally arrived at the front of the castle, we were able to play on some war machines and paid 1 euro each to go up to the roof of the castle for more pictures. It was amazing and we were able to see where we had been and where we wanted to go. After coming back down on the gondola, we walked up another hill to see the Olympic stadium and area that was used during the '92 Olympics. We decided to go to the Olympic museum and were all glad we had. We took pictures inside the stadium then went to find out what this very grand, breathtaking building was that we had seen from the mount. It ended up being an art museum which was not something we were interested in but we took funny pictures infront of the palace and continued on our way. For lunch we ate at the previously described non-english speaking, giant octopus eating cafe/restaurant/bar for lunch. Need not discuss this experience any further. We walked back to the hotel exhausted and got cleaned up for dinner. Once again, we were not able to get into the place we wanted to go but we went to our second choice, LA FONDA, for obvious reasons. For those of us who do not know, "La Fawnda" was the girlfriend of Kipp Dynamite, brother of Napolean Dynamite, of the box office smash hit thriller that bears his name. Many pictures were taken and added to the joyful experience of the night. I should mention that on our way to this restaurant Maris and I found many stores we wanted to shop in but are now unable to retrace our steps down the few of a million tiny streets that graph Barcelona. La Fonda was another hit and 3 course meal.
This morning we decided to revisit the music hall we had tried to tour previously and booked ourselves for an English tour at 2pm. This gave us enough time to visit the most repulsive cathedral, if one can even refer to it as such, built by Gaudi. Gaudi is pronounced "gawdy" which gives you, the reader, a clue to his style. His work decorates the city but this structure is by far the most dynamic to say the least. He died before he finished it so the entire inside is scaffolding, but the 14 spires he wished to have are in the process of being completed. We will upload pictures of this place so all can enjoy its grotesque qualities and frightening expression. George Orwell was quoted saying he wished it had been demolished in the civil war and was astonished to see that nobody had demolished it themself since then. After spending more than half the day walking, we went to our music hall tour which has certainly been my favorite place so far. It seats upwards of 2000 people and is entirely tile and mosaics. We were not allowed to take pictures but will be returning to the shop to buy pictures, that's how incredable the hall was. I cannot describe it's beauty and refuse to try. When a preview of Bach's feud was played it was several notches above that of the glorious organ playing we fondly remember from our youth at St. John's. Similarity though, both scared us greatly but for drastically different reasons. This organ has over 3,000 pipes, I guess that's a bit larger than St. John's as well. We went to a cafe for drinks then a humongous outdoor food market with skin of sheep, body parts that should certainly NEVER be consumed, and other mysterious goods that made me want to vom (as in vomit). This place was on the Travel Channel as a highlight of the city. I was glad to get out of there but everyone else greatly enjoyed the experience, they have much stronger stomaches than I. Marisa and I enjoyed a fantastic experience at a small candy bar called "Happy Pills". You are given a medicine vile to fill with your favorite candies then can pick out your own label. It was cute and we loved it! We are now having our own siesta which typically includes checking emails, watching short videos, reading, showering, running, etc. whatever one desires and is a great part of the day. We are heading the Le Quatre Gats which is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in the city, it sure will be hard to beat our previous places! Picasso frequented this restaurant while living in Barcelona and designed the menu, so maybe it will be better. We are going to do a bit of shopping/wandering since it is still far too early for dinner, 6pm here currently. We had planned to go to the top of the Barcelona cathedral which is practically outside our door, but realize that it will be too dark for pictures and so I guess we'll do that tomorrow.
I should say that we had been planning on taking a bus tour every day but decided to wait and today the bus drivers went on strike until after the holiday. Great. Just our luck. We are better on our own anyway.
It should be noted that the forecast has been for rain everyday and we have only seen a few drops and the television has never been turned on for there is just far to much else to do!!
We shall see what the rest of the trip brings which can only be more great times and amazing places. I would recommend that each of you come to Barcelona at least once in your lifetime, if not for the highly attractive males then for the food/sights/people/culture.
Au'revoir, Adios, Ciao.
Lu
