It's something famous!

We made it to Barcelona, and after having such a wonderful time in Madrid, had very high expectations for the city that everyone seems to love. We got a little turned around on our way to Sant Jordi Alberg Hostel, but when we finally got there, were warmly greeted by the awesome people who ran the hostel. We were shown to our 8-bed room and met our roommates, a girl from Bulgaria who was looking to find work in Barcelona, a guy (Harvi) from England on vacation from work, and a girl who was visiting her friend who was studying abroad in the city. They were all really cool, and really fun to talk to and hang out with.

Rachel and I showered up and went to grab some food. We decided on a Chinese restaurant after meandering the streets form a while because we had both had enough of the traditional cuisine, but afterwards wished we had stuck with what we knew. An empty Asian restaurant in Spain is not the best place to get a good bite to eat.

We went back to the hostel, stopping in a grocery store on the way to get something real to eat, and curled up on the couches in the common room. We were soon joined by a group of guys who were spending their last night in the city, and who eventually convinced us to go to a local club on an excursion that was being led by Mauro, the hostel owner. We had so much fun meeting all of the fellow travelers from Canada, the States, Austrailia and England and had a blast dancing in one of the local clubs.

We made our way home and the next morning were looking forward to some great architectural sightseeing. We went directly to the most famous of the Gaudi buildings, the Sagrada Famiglia, stopping at Starbucks on the way. We paid the pricey entrance fee and decided to split the cost of an audio guide—a good cost saving, but not time saving technique. We walked around the amazing church that is still under construction and is not expected to be finished for another 50 to 80 years. It was different from any of the other churches I have seen in Europe and it was amazing to learn about Gaudi's innovative modeling techniques and where he pulled his inspiration from.

It took us about 3 hours to go through the entire thing, sharing the audio guide, and we were really excited to run into some people from my study abroad program outside the gates who were staying in a beach house near to Barcelona. We chatted for a few minutes and made our way to La Pedrera, another famous Gaudi Masterpiece. This time the audio tour was included, and we made our way through a museum dedicate to Gaudi's life and inspiration, before going to the rooftop terrace at sunset to see the amazing views of the city on the oddly shaped roof construction. We continued through the apartment, mocked up to how it would have been to live in Barcelona in the 1920's, and eventually made our way back to Sant Jordi.

We showered, dressed up, and did some research for a restaurant that we knew would not disappoint us. We walked a few blocks to La Flauta, where the lines of locals indicated to us that we had indeed chosen a restaurant that would have a good menu. We split an order of the Tapas del Dia and loved the Calamari, Clams, Friend Peppers, and Potato Croquettes that came with it, but could not stomach the HUGE shrimp that required too much de-shelling work for the nasty-flavored meat that we got out of it. We split a dessert and walked back to the Hostel.

We found out that the guys we had hung out with the night before had missed their early morning flight, and convinced us to join them, our roommates and the friends we had made that day to go out again. We were definitely starting to live the Spanish lifestyle. We called it a fairly early night and wished them luck in actually catching their rescheduled flight the next day.

We got up the next morning and decided to make our way toward the beach. Though we never made it there due to our lack of motivation to go to a beach that would be too cold to spend much time on and fear of pickpockets that we heard numerous accounts of while talking to people at the hostel. Instead we metroed to Park Guell, a park that Gaudi designed and looked exactly like Candy Land. We relaxed there for a while and enjoyed the city views. We left and made our way to the German Pavilion, a famous work that Rachel had learned about in her architecture days, the Font Majic, which was not so magical as it wasn't even running, the Santa Maria del Mar, and the Vuell Marina. It was a leisurely day and we chose to take the metro several times because we had been walking so much the whole week.

We again went back to the hostel to get ready for dinner, where we got a pitcher of Sangria and some pasta, and put our foot down on joining the group for a third evening in a row of going out. We stayed in and enjoyed some of the fellow hostel guests in the common room, before going to bed at a decent hour.

We woke up the next morning and checked out. We were sad to be leaving the amazing hostel that we had such a great time in, and sad to say goodbye to our new friends. We had a few hours to go to Gaudi's Casa Batillo and the Arc de Trionf, before gathering our things and taking the train back to Madrid.

We stayed in a hotel that was supposed to be near the airport for our last night in Torrejon de Ardoz. It was nice to have our own room and bathroom, and we relaxed by watching Spanish TV until we decided to go to bed early so Rachel could get up for her early flight.

We woke up at 7 so she could leave. I was sad to see her go, but was so happy that the trip turned out to be everything I thought it would be and more. I am going to miss her on the rest of my travels!

I flew out on a later flight and arrived back in Lugano Saturday night. I woke up Sunday morning and walked to the Lake, where I enjoyed the beautiful weather and FINALLY caught up on writing my blog!

I will try to stay updated from here on out!