Adios Praha, HOLA Barcelona

My Spring Break vacation has finally arrived and on April 30th, Sarka and I headed on Wizz Air to spend a week in Spain. We checked in at the Prague Airport and read in Rick Steve's what to do in Barcelona and started mapping out ideas. While reading our tour book, to our surprise, the guy sitting in our row, whose name is Alberto was from Barcelona area. He gave us lots of helpful suggestions, even wrote them in my Rick Steve's book of foods to order and places to stay away (too touristy). When we landed, Alberto helped us find the train into Barcelona and told us the stop to get off of. He was so VERY helpful, especially since we arrived at 10pm. Our hostel was off the big street Ramblas. We walked down Ramblas and overwhelmed by all the tourists and street sellers trying to sell you junk. May I add they are quite aggressive so we had to be cautious of making eye contact. We found our hostel and dropped off our baggage. It was tempting to just crash for the night, but we are in Barcelona so we HAD to explore. We walked down the busy Ramblas street towards the harbor. I must have great visual memory because I saw the Christopher Columbus statue I watched on Rick Steve's tv show. I told Sarka the history of the statue and how it was a memorial for him (even tho he destroyed the trade market in Barcelona. ) We walked down the board walk and stumbled across a concert! They had beer booths and lots of people just hanging out enjoying the music. We grabbed a spanish beer and stood and listened. It was a lot of fun as things like that always are when they are unexpected. Around 1 am we headed back to our hostel to sleep anxious for our Barcelona travels the next day.

We woke up early and headed to the Sangrada Familia Church. Being in Europe for almost a year, I have seen a great deal of churches but none like this one. The line (as Rick Steve's predicted) lined up around the church. While we waited in line, I read all the information Rick Steve's had about this Cathedral. Gaudi built this magnificent Cathedral and like all great pieces of art work, he died before it was finished in 1926. To this very day, they are still constructing this masterpiece. You have to pay a 10 Euro enterance fee to go in but what is neat is that you can say you helped contribute to the building of this Cathedral. We walked inside and it was amazing. The style was something you can hardly imagine. We walked around marveling and went outside to find a little festival. They had entertainers outside and music to entertain the large crowds. We then explored the museum downstairs and learned more about Gaudi and all the artists after him to help finish his dream. It is very fascinating and if you look at my photos, you will see what they want the finished building to look like. Hope I get a chance to see it when it's complete!

After touring the Cathedral, we walked to Park Guell. It was a beautiful warm sunny day and we decided for lunch we would have a picnic in the park, so we grabbed two sandwiches. The buildings at the park were built by Gaudi and of course, his style is very eccentric. We sat and people watched in the shade while enjoying our sandwiches and also enjoyed the stunning views. After lunch, we walked around climbing higher in the park. We got great pictures of the landscape of Barcelona. It was a great first day in Barcelona!

For dinner, we went back to Ramblas and walked down to the harbor. We ate at a restaurant Tapas and Tapas. We ordered lots of different tapas and shared Sangria. It was delicious and oh how I've missed fresh seafood.