Gaudi Glory

If I could sum up Barcelona in a word it would be “funky.” From the unique and eye catching Gaudi art to La Rambla- the famous green strip down the centre of the road - Barcelona is most definitely a modern and exciting city. The night we arrived we spent some time wandering down La Rambla watching the interesting street performers and hawkers along the side lines. Despite being a huge city, we ran into our friend Jan-Sarel (from Cayman) on the street! Since we were planning on meeting up the next day, it was pretty convenient to catch up with him early. He is traveling alone, doing France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland.
On our second day, the three of us took the metro to visit the world renowned La Sagrada Familia cathedral. Gaudi began building it in 1880, and when he died in 1920 it was still only a tenth finished. They are still working on it today, and estimate it will be completed by 2020! From outside it looks like something off of the Flintstone’s Bedrock, but inside it is breath-taking. Soaring arches, columns and wavy designs make you feel like you are in a dream. After the cathedral we headed up to view some of Gaudi’s other buildings, all of them resembling something from Alice in Wonderland. Afterwards, Blake and JS were itching to go to the Barcelona FC Soccer Stadium. I opted out, but the boys went on an amazing tour inside, seeing the entire stadium including locker rooms, President’s box, and much more. Apparently it is a must-see for any “footie” fan. At the end of the day I wanted to check out the Guell Park, high on the hillside. It was originally planned by Guadi to be a housing coop, but fell flat. Now it is a wonderful park, with great views of the city. We were blown away by the aquaducts, houses and plaza. Definitely a recommendation for anyone visiting. Over paella and sangria we said a sad goodbye to JS that night.
The following day we headed to Mont Juic and climbed the hillside for more amazing views of the city. We stumbled upon the Olympic stadium and had a great time wandering all of the sites. In the afternoon we headed to the beach. Cayman has spoiled all future beaches as we found this one dirty and sketchy, but it was still neat to sit on the sand and watch the naked men and women and the Mediterranean waves roll in.
Our final day we just chilled out, did some laundry and wandered some of the side streets, finding cute jewellery stores, a colourful market where we had mojito popsicles, and sidewalk cafes. We returned to the beach to watch the sun set and then wandered back to our hostel to get ready for Milan the next day!