Barcelona

I really wanted to keep a daily log of how our trip was each day but we foud ourselves so incredibly busy and exhausted that it was hard to find the energy every night to write what our day entailed. Well go ahead and skip the gory details of how we got to Barcelona a day late and just start with my grand negotiation skills and a little something called a little white lie for which I was told at a young age is ok as long as it doesn't hurt the other person (yes mom, I was impressionable when I was 6 and we didn't pick up mike Meyers because you told his mom you had the flu and didn't). Anyways, the hassle of the events the da before and the fact that it was our "honeymoon" got us bumped to our first ever first class flight. We we're finally on our way!

Our hotel ended up being perfect. A modern, clean, little boutique hotel with a hard bed that was surprisingly super comfortable (or was that the jet lag and exhaustion).

Since we lost a day I think we tried to win the record for most miles walked in half a day in Barcelona. We managed to walk Las Ramblas where we saw street performers, shops and plenty of outdoor restaurants. Along the way we stopped at La Boqueria - the most amazing outdoor supermarket. We were met my an array of colorful candies and fr fruit of every kind. I'll admit I had to plug my nose to avoid nausea as we walked through the fish street but oh, what sites! They had everything imaginable and the mass about of people really proved how popular a place it was.

Per the recommendation of a friend we found a small alley way bar where we enjoyed our first sangria and practiced our embarrassingly terrible espanol. The sangria was amazing- so fresh a fruity, nothing like I have ever had at home. We made our way to the Christopher Columbus statue and the the port. We tried to find a specific restaurant but gave up and found ourselves touring the gothic quarter. The streets and architecture are too stunning for a novice writer to easily describe, but I felt like I had been transported back in time, amazing.

We stumbled upon St. Paul? Church in the gothic quarter and it was a church freak like myself's dream. There were separate places for prayer with with different saints at each one. It was stunning, I regret not documenting which church it was exactly but am sure I can find it on google. We then headed to the Barcelona cathedral which is what we were originally trying to find and that was equally as stunning. It's incredible to me to think how long these structured have been around nearly undisturbed and perfectly preserved.

Stopped for lunch - maso menos - i had a ham and Gouda crept that was good but not worth the price and Steve had what would be his first of many disappointing hamburgessa. We decided that the only way to best jet lag was to push through the exhaustion and just keep going. Soon we went to the 45 minute walk uphill the the playa espana and montjuic where we saw spectacular views of the city and the remains of Olympic sites from the last time Barcelona hosted.

We ended our evening at Tapas 24, a recommendation from a friend who studied in Barcelona. Steve was relatively adventurous at dinner. We had sangria again which there was different than most places. We had roasted chicken and also ham croquettes. The roasted chicken was delicious, they reminded me of a roasted chicken with gravy - Steve really liked those and we ended up ordering a second serving of that. We also ordered "bikini comerc" which is like a small, grilled Iberian ham and Gouda cheese sandwich with truffle oil - another delectable dish that we ended us ordering second of. The truffle oil really gave the sandwich is flavor and I'd have to say that was one of my favorite dishes I had in Barcelona. We had pan con tomate which is basically a crusty bread with a garlicky olive oil and tomato spread. I think this Steve's favorite - I liked to dipped the bikini sandwich in the tomato spread. The final item we ordered was "ous estrellast al gust" which was a deep fried potato with chorizo and fried egg. This was surprisingly delicious and very filling. I think that I will attempt to make something similar one weekend for breakfast because I enjoyed it so much. Thanks for the recommendation Vanacker - definitely our favorite place in Barcelona!