Barcelona

Last month Matt and I took a trip to Barcelona, Spain. It was my first time to Spain and I was very excited to be going. After spending four days there I have to say I did not feel like I was in Spain but rather felt like I was in just some big European city. It was somewhat disappointing. The weather was nice and we had some good food (yay for Spanish paella and tapas!). We also got to see a Spanish guitar duo play a concert in a cathedral one night which was just amazing. Other than that I found Barcelona to be a rather mediocre city for my taste. There is endless shopping and a number of sites to see (the Gaudi cathedral being the best) but it can be frustrating as it is a very expensive city. Every attraction you go to you must pay to get in whereas every other city in Europe I have been to each have a handful of things that are free.

While in Barcelona we visited the Gaudi cathedral, the Picasso museum, Mountjuic Castle by cable car, the harbour, La Ramblas, the block of discord, and two places connected with Christopher Columbus. The first was the Royal Palace where Columbus came to greet the king and queen of Spain upon his return from the New World and the other was the Barcelona cathedral which holds the chapel and baptistery where Columbus brought the Native Americans to be baptized who had returned to Spain with him. These places were very cool to see as an American. The churches and cathedrals of Spain were architecturally beautiful but more cold and dead feeling than any others that I have been in so far.

One of my favorite things to experience in Spain was the famous Spanish rice dish, paella. Since neither Matt nor I like seafood we opted for the chicken and vegetable paella and were able to have it twice at 2 different places and it was outstanding! So even though I wasn't as crazy about Barcelona as many of the other places I have been it was worth going to just to eat the paella and tapas and to hear live Spanish guitar!