Barcelona

New country, new friends, new us! Barcelona is quite the vibe.

After the disastrously disasterous travel day, we finally made it into Barcelona after a one train three hour journey took five trains and eight hours. We settled into our hotel, and to Ty’s delight, we were steps away form a highly rated gelato shop. We didn’t stop there though, our first destination was the vegan paella joint a block away. The paella was good, we also had some gnocchi ( the food finally had some spice) the sangria was heavenly. We also tried horchata liquor, a nut milk based alcohol. That was lovely too.

We then met with Grahams childhood friends Matt and Marissa, who decided to join us for a week in Spain. All of us caught up with each other, sharing stories of our adventure so far, as we strolled dos Las Ramblas towards the water. Las Ramblas is a large walking street, flanked by single car lanes on either side. The middle comprises of massive patios of tourist trap restaurants, with hosts aggressively approaching you to sell you their menu for dinner. The street was crowded with thousands walking it.

We finally arrived at the harbor, and it was a fantastic view. A large cable car stretched across the skyline. There clearly has been a recent redesign of the walkways, with a massive mall seemingly floating above the aquarium. To the right was a view of the mountains crashing into the sea, and a fortress atop it. That would be a destination for tomorrow. We wandered around the harbor for a while, until we reached Graham’s favorite Barcelona destination, humpy dog park.

We have no idea what humpy dog park is actually called. We do know that there are no dogs allowed at humpy dog park though. The scene was wild, and everywhere you looked, there was more stuff occurring. To our left, there was a women’s workout class (public workout classes appear to be very common in Barcelona. We ended up seeing a lot of them), with the instructor constantly yelling at the other 10ish women of various fitness levels, counting down the time to do another run up the shallow slope and back. She was doing this all all while filming the class for social media, walking up and down the row of sweat drenched regretful women doing their best attempt at bicycle crunches. The right featured a massive sparkly light blue super yacht.

But right in front of us were at least 30 off leash dogs playing with each other. Their owners were sitting on the nearby benches oblivious to the chaos before them. We gave the most rambunctious dogs names to try and follow their actions. A small yorkie that kept snapping and barking at every other dog, endlessly defending the territory around its owners bench. A horny Pomeranian was trying to make love to a shepherds (our best guess on breed) leg. A mini-poodle watched that action way to closely. A poodle fulfilled the Pomeranians dream. The whole thing was strange to watch, especially with the no dog sign in eyeshot.

We all went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, and the dog woes continued. A small wiener dog ran into the restaurant, sniffing around for fun. It got caught by the waiter, who brought it to us asking “is this yours???” We laughed, said no, and the waiter went on an adventure to find this dog’s owner. There are a lot of dogs in Barcelona. The dinner was good too, Cam and I shared a shrimp risotto and a truffle meatball rigatoni. Matt, who had requested a “restaurant with meat!” ordered a vegetarian risotto.

We started the next day at Mercado de La Boqueria, a local food market. Many vendors were selling cups of fresh fruit and fruit juice! There were lots of cured meat stalls as well, some butchers, nut and candy shops, a whole arsenal of delicious choices for food. We got some fruit cups, and settled at a seafood tapas bar for breakfast. We ordered the octopus, calamari, and the scallops with mushrooms. Spanish food has a lot of flavor! The octopus wasn’t chewy at all, the scallops were seasoned with purpose. It was fantastic.

We then took a walk to the castle on top of the hill for a lookout point. We got drenched in sweat, but our conditioning has greatly improved since the start of the trip. Neither Cam or I felt any sort of muscular or cardio issues up the steep hill. Ty on the other hand… he did good. The castle at the top didn’t seem that interesting, so we didn’t enter. The views were intense. It was a smoggy day in Barcelona, so the city to the hills faded into the distance all turning greyscale with the distance. The cruise ship harbor had two docked for day trips. The cargo harbor was loading multiple ships, with many more anchored at sea waiting to be used. And the oil harbor was massive as well. 30 or so humungous storage tanks lined one large shore. The view was really lovely on the gondola ride that we took down the hill too.

We stopped by a produce market after, but both Cam and I were icked out by the meats, so we left quickly. Ty purchased himself a FCB Ansu Fati jersey, and we went back to the hotel for lunch and a nap.

Barcelona has one major international attraction, La Sagarda Familia. This is a cathedral that has been under construction for 140 years at this point, and has many more to go by the looks of it. It dominates the small height Barcelona skyline. Going into it, we thought the cathedral was older than is was, so we got surprised when we got close to it. Up close, the exterior almost had a cartoony feel to it. It was clear that this cathedral was different. There were fruits upon some peaks, and much softer lines than the classic gothic cathedrals this design was inspired by. At the entrance, there were many impressive statues telling the story of Jesus. There was also lots of noise in he façade, little points that stuck out form the wall with little explanation, as if to fill space. The interior was huge. Coulorful stained glass windows beautifully let in the evening sun, colouring the floor various shades of warm colours. Massive pillars stretched up 80m or so to the ceiling, branching out near the top. The whole thing was very unique. But to Cam and I, the interior felt incomplete. From the exterior of the structure, its clear this cathedral is aiming to be a flagship worldwide cathedral. But the inside seemed so plain, devoid of the rich storytelling the outside had. The stained glass windows consisted of abstract shapes, which is more standard in Spain. The pillars, while apparently each unique, all blended into each other, as smooth as someone’s granite kitchen countertop. The audio guide was also somewhat lackluster. It just told us what we were seeing, “The pillars are all different to represent different trees.” Which trees? For the hefty price that it was to enter, the experience felt like it set itself too high of expectations, and failed to meet them.

We met up with Matt and Marissa for dinner again, going to another tapas place. Cam had a beef cheek. Matt and I split a lamb thing with onion ice cream, and a tuna dish. Onion ice cream is great for one bite, but gets old quick. We both though the half plate we each had was the perfect size of that. The dinner didn’t leave everyone full, so we set off for some pizza by the slice. Pizza Pazza came in clutch, some half decent thin slices. Matt and I got gelato instead, and ended up with too much. We had a great time standing on our street corner chatting, watching the night life go by us. For a Tuesday, tourists made the area teem with people looking for a night out. We had walked by a basement bar that looked like a convenience store. You disappeared behind a wall of Coca-Cola to get in. It wasn’t that good apparently. We chatted with some British gals who got kicked out to make room for someone else’s birthday (“Well THAT was an experience,” one of them said just as they had exited). The drinks apparently were super weak.

Our final morning we got Ty to the airport, said our goodbyes, and he dissapeared through the security gates, never to be seeon again (for a little bit). It was a tough bus ride to the airport, knowing this would be the last time we see him for many months.

We’re off again now! Party hats on! We will see you there.