BARCA BARCA BARCA!

At a Irish Bar in Spain named after our President, Obama's.

It's a tough balance between traveling so much and putting pen and paper to document the craziness that ensues and that balance was thrown even more out of whack the past three weeks.  We started the three weeks off by hosting my Deutsch classmate and her husband for dinner, followed by hosting our friends from Chicago one week and then with my family the following week.  Seeing friends and family is always great but hosting and being a tour guide is no easy task, no easy task indeed.  In a future blog, I'll tell you all about how we cooked a very traditional American meal, salsa burgers, chicken fajitas, and chocolate cake, for my classmate and her husband and how we took our visitors to the Alps and our favorite local gastronomy spots but now it's finally time for Barcelona.

Yes, Barcelona, where the Mediterranean Sea provides some of the freshest cuisine, where folks don't go to lunch until 2pm, where those same folks don't even think about eating dinner until 11pm, where the term "Gaudi" originated, where Tapas are really Tapas, and where Sangria flows like Sangria should flow.  I could go on and on and on and, yes, on about Barcelona...so I will.  Barcelona is really pushing Ireland as one of my favorite visits thus far.  Like my portfolio, Barcelona is strong to quite strong.  I reserve the right to change my vote, especially with Rome, Croatia, Pamplona and possibly a train tour through Deutschland still awaiting.  But I have a feeling that it's going to be similar to all those other gymnasts that followed Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10 at the '76 summer Olympics.  Speaking of Olympics, all I really knew about Barcelona is that the Dream Team, a team of professionals assembled to play in the Olympics for the first time, went to Barcelona in 1992 and took the world by storm.

How did Christian Laettner make this team and not Shaq?

You can thank the Dream Team for inspiring other countries to invest in basketball, giving us foreign players like Peja Stojakovic, Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming and a slew of other foreign born players and thus expanding the NBA brand.  I also knew that the world's greatest Footballer, Lionel Messi (all 5'7 of him), plays for FCB.  FCB is one of the world's best soccer teams, having won the Spanish La Liga three years in a row and they also have pending match with Manchester United for the European Championships later this year.

Typically, when the wife and I venture to a new city, we just put our walking shoes on a wander, meander, get lost, find ourselves, lose ourselves and find ourselves again until the point of exhaustion.  In Paris last year we walked around for nearly 8 hours, only stopping for beers and bagguettes.  On our first day in Barcelona we walked along La Rambla, a very long and wide Pedestrian walkway, and very touristy destination.  Because it was Easter Weekend, we figured many things would be closed and not many people would be visiting Barcelona.  Wrong, wrong and more wrong. La Rambla basically goes for a few miles and leads directly to and from the Harbor and it was amazing to walk along the tree lined Ramblas (every so often the name would change from La Rambla this to La Rambla that) and marvel at the people, shops and great architecture.

The wife on La Rambla

La Rambla

La Rambla

Every so often my wife would say, "Oooh, what's that, let's go over there!"  That's how we stumbled upon Placa Reial, right off La Rambla, with it's famous Gaudi light-poles and palm trees.  I'm not going to lie, it was quite odd seeing Palm Trees in Barcelona.

Place Reial

Chilling on the Fountain at Place Reial

Placa Reial - I believe these light-poles are famous or so the guidebook tells me

View, exiting Placa Reial

 And then the wife said, "I wonder where all these people are going and coming from?, Let's go that way!"  And so we went to what could have been a Brazilian circus, or a man juggling fire but it turned out we were following the crowds to a famous Cathedral.  The Cathedral was pretty legit, with quite a few prayer stations, gold encrusted architecture, and a real confessional.  It also had some amazing architecture features that I don't know how to describe but when you have palm trees surrounded by light INSIDE a building, that's a pretty cool feature.

On the way to the Catedral

Catalan government building

Path to Catedral Santa Eulalia

An amazing Catedral

Bling Bling...gimme the Gold

Someone taking a real confessional

Both La Sagrada Familia and the Catedral were under construction

 We eventually made our way to the Mediterranean and saw this interesting piece of work.  It's famous but since it was raining and we didn't wanted to bother the young kids "smoking" next to the piece we kept it moving very quickly.  We definitely weren't buying what they were selling!

On the Mediterranean Sea

Christopher Columbus pointing in the wrong direction

Turning around walking away from the Mediterranean, we stumbled upon of Gaudi's many works.  In a sea of structured conformist type buildings, his works always stand out.  I imagine that Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Antoni Gaudi would have gotten along very well, if you know what I mean.  Those guys are seriously out there with their craft.

One of Antoni Gaudi's buildings on La Rambla Catalunya.

 It was easter weekend and also the celebration of St. Jordi. April 23rd is St. Jordi, the day of lovers.  Men give their "lovers" roses, and women give their "lovers" books.  UNESCO was so moved by the holiday that they made April 23rd the World Book day.  Our hotel gave us a rose and book during our stay as well.  The rose has always been a tradition of the holiday for the past four to five hundred years but the book was a fairly new idea for the purpose of selling books and honoring the day that two great authors died.  One is a spanish writer and the other is William Shakespeare.  Each year, famous spanish writers line the streets signing books to adoring fans.  We saw a few but had no clue who they were.
 

St. Jordi's Festival - Women give books and men give flowers

More Gaudi

 La Sagrada Familia is the world famous church that is still under construction after nearly 130 years.  This was Antoni Gaudi's masterpiece.  He spent the final 15 years of his life dedicated to only this project.  Even with modern building technology, this project isn't expected to be completed until 2025!  We didn't wait the 8 hours to get a look inside but legend has it, from the internet, that it's absolutely breathtaking.

La Sagrada Familia - The Sacred Family

Look who showed up?

And me too!

View from the restaurant across the street, while drinking a beer.

A few of our friends recommended that we try La Paradeta, where the cuisine is fresh, still alive, and made to order for you.  I literally ate my food and my wife's food unintentionally...well so she things.  Ooops!

Highly recommended hole in the wall

Fresh seafood, made to order and still moving

Get it while its Fresh!

It took some convincing, but my wife agreed to a guided bus tour, the hop on and hop off type.  What a great concept.  We found another Gaudi masterpiece.  Park Guell, named after the family that donated the park to the City of Barcelona after a failed real estate project (see, real estate busts aren't a new concept) is one of Guadi's greatest works.

Guell Park...one of Gaudi's other masterpieces and Taylor's favorite friends in their visors.

Park Guell

Taking a break from all the glorious architecture

Columns, curved mosaic benches, and my wife.

Whoa, look tat that!

Yes, I'm man enough to drink this drink.

Happy Couple before dinner.

Wasn't expecting this in Barcelona.

Bus Tour - Hey Christopher!

Spanish Royal Palace...one of them.

Paella with Spanish Beer

Paella anyone?

Get in my belly.

Barcelona is an amazing place.  As you walk around, you can't help but be moved by how grand the city is, with it's tree lined Ramblas, palm trees, Mediterranean Sea and attitude, fresh food and amazing tapas.  After four days and four nights of eating Tapas and drinking Sangria at 12pm for dinner, we were all Tapa'd and Sangria'd out!   To be clear, the city was more than Cathedrals, Churches, Parks, Gaudi and Spain, it was a truly Catalonian experience with it's rich pride, people, and traditions.

Next up...visits from friends and family.