Friday we slept in a bit more than I would have liked to, but that's the consequence of basically missing a night of sleep. As soon as I was up though, I was up, and Kelly and I decided to hit every touristy thing we could on our maps. We saw a lot of Antoni Gaudí's architecture, which was really impressive to see, though I am not personally the biggest fan of the style, though you can't argue against the genius and creativity behind it.
 |
| From Fall Break - Barcelona |
Anyway, it was a perfect day out, and I was actually hot in a t-shirt, which is amazing. We lucked out with weather again. Walking around the streets of Barcelona reminded me of Santa Barbara, Mexico, and Italy all at the same time. Mom and Dad, other than the whole Spanish thing, I think you'd love it here. And I haven't even gotten to the bit about "the water" yet.
We stopped inside a small church in between the touristy things.
There were only a couple of people here, but I witnessed one of the most personal moments I've seen, and it was so inspiring and touching that I just have to share it here. There was an older man who was praying at a large crucifix statue toward the back of the church, and after he finished praying, he kissed the feet of Jesus. So powerful, no matter what your own beliefs are.
After more of our walk through the city, we decided to stop in a small produce market for apples. We each took two apples and when we went inside, there was a large line to purchase them. We weren't really sure how it worked, and kind of stood around looking confused for a bit. Some of the people who worked there started talking to us, but we had absolutely no idea what they were saying. We thought maybe they were telling us we could just take the apples, but we weren't completely sure and besides, we wanted to pay for them anyway. Eventually one of the men working there just pointed at the apples and then gave us a thumbs up. Somehow, this made the final connection that yes, we could leave with our apples without paying, that it was a gift from them to us. We waved and said "gracias" and "thank you" probably more times than however many cents our apples were worth, and left with two apples and a large smile each. You can't put a price on that.
One of the highlights of the Gaudí architecture for me was the most famous, as well, the Sagrada Familia, which has been under construction for over 125 years. We purchased tickets to go inside the church and the Gaudí museum, both of which were just astonishing. Definitely check out my Barcelona album for more pictures.
Eventually, we made our way through the Olympic Village to the sea! We walked along the beach for a while and then sat down at a nice spot where we wouldn't leave with sand in our back pockets.
By the way, I might mention that my trail of clumsiness continues. While walking in the water, I'd always end up too far out and would get my rolled up jeans wet and sand on my legs. One time when I was trying to brush off the sand from my legs and out of my jeans, an even larger wave came up and soaked me up to my belt. Yep, imagine that, me being a klutz.
We headed back to the hostel right before the rain really started coming down and headed out with the group to a tapas restaurant. Tapas is seriously ingenious and the way that I would always like to dine; basically, you order different appetizer-type dishes in a group, so you get a variety of foods. I can never decide what I want to eat anyway, and appetizers always sound better to me than main courses. Perfect. So tasty.
When dinner was finished, we got some wine and cheese and headed down to Port Vell to sit up on the docks and look out at the sea at night. It was a perfect last night to an amazing fall break.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment