Barcelona

Not so much to say about Barcelona. I feel like I was somewhat robbed of the real feel of the city being there over the easter holiday since everything (and i do mean everything) is closed for not one, not two, but three days!! Can you imagine? they even made up a holiday - easter monday! I could not believe it. between that and the rain I think I had one day and a half that was beautiful weather and open businesses. It's hard to get the feel of a city when everything is boarded up with corrugated metal doors that are covering up completely unknown entities. They all look like collision repair shops until they roll-up their doors to expose the very varied interiors. I like the people of barcelona. I like their passion. never have i seen so many people making out so vigorously in public during the day. imagine the ravers in a dark corner of a club high on who knows what at 4am going at it and put them at a bus stop or in a pub at 2pm. shocking, but appealing nonetheless with such a care-less attitude. Bicing – the city bikes there completely kick ass. You can pay a nominal monthly fee and get a bike from a bike rack with the swipe of a card – the cool thing being the bike racks are huge (15-30 bikes on each) and every 4-5 blocks! Even though the woman whose room I was staying in left me her card, I must admit I hardly used the bikes – mostly because I like walking and it rained a lot. Tapas. Granted I am not eating gluten right now and all tapas technically comes on bread (or else it isn’t real tapas) but I was able to scrape off the top and eat it anyway. Very, very good and so beautiful to look at. Works of art some of them were. Gaudi. Of course you can’t go to Barcelona without a huge gaudi tour. I spent a fair amount of time traveling to different parts to see his park, sagrada familia, the two apartment buildings. And while I do think I like his work I also find it to be pretty busy (especially some of the tile work in the park) and definitely a bit much, especially the church. It will be a spectacle indeed when it is finally finished. I do think I probably short-changed some other architects though and in hindsight maybe should have checked out some other work, but I did get to walk around nearly all of the old city and saw a bunch of beautiful architecture, especially in the gothic quarter. Smoking. Everyone smokes. Everywhere. It really is awful. the house i was staying at was populated by 5 smokers, and they smoke as passionately as they do everything else. the room i was staying in had a door that didn't close or have a knob so i was inundated by a cloud of smoke every night. I, of course, am a spoiled Californian when It comes to that although London and Berlin are both smoke-free as well so maybe there is yet some hope for Spain following suit? Doubtful I guess as they already smoke in the very few places they are not allowed to - like in the train. I really like the public recycling receptacles everywhere. in berlin they even had a 4th receptacle for used clothing to donate! How cool is that?