Cruising in Cataluña

Ahhhh! My blogging game as been slacking lately!

Well here we go, a couple of weeks ago I went to Barcelona to visit some family friends. Since I do not have work on Fridays, I decided to take advantage of this three day weekend to see a different part of Spain.

Although my trip only lasted 3 days, Barcelona seems like an incredibly different city than Madrid. Firstly, every prefers to speak Catalan, not Spanish. If you walk into a restaurant and start speaking Spanish, the waiter immediately knows that you aren't from Barcelona. Of course they all speak Spanish, but it seems like they identify more with the Catalan language. In my experience, the people of Barcelona preferred to speak Catalan, English, then Spanish. I really had to force the issue when I wanted to speak Spanish. But alas, I still had a good time. There is so much to do in Barcelona so I simply didn't have time to do everything. But I sure tried.

I hit the ground running when I arrived Friday morning. I left Madrid at 5:30 am and took the high speed train which is called AVE. I arrived to Barcelona around 9 and since my family friends were all at work or school, I decided to talk a walk around the city. I saw the Arc de Triomf (below), Antoni Gaudi's La Catedral, and a whole bunch of signs in Catalan. After walking around Barcelona for a few hours, I had a very relaxed day just chatting with my family friends and eating some quality food.

Arc de Triomf in Barcelona 

 Saturday included more exploring and eating. I got a personal tour of all of Gaudi's famous architectural masterpieces (albeit I didn't have enough time to wait in line and buy tickets, so my tours were of the outside of the buildings). Nevertheless, the experience was pretty incredible. It was a great introduction for when I go back to Barcelona next year. I realized that even on a slow day Barcelona is jam packed with people. So you really need to spend time waiting in line in order to actually see the inside of these masterpieces.

The outside of the La Sagrada Familia

Finally on Sunday we went to the beach for a nice little boat ride and to have some amazing seafood. I had the mussels, just in case you were wondering. It was actually the first time I ever tried mussels, and I've gotta say they were quite tasty. However I am pretty sure butter and salt can make anything taste like Heaven.

Next blog topic? Andorra, details at 11.

Until next time you stay classy, blog readers.