Barcelona, Spain!

Barcelona was the first city that I traveled to on my own. I spent 3 nights there and met a lot of lone female travelers and random people while sight-seeing. I've decided that I don't enjoy traveling on my own, especially when it's raining. It's sad when the sky is grey and you're standing underneath a too-small umbrella... alone. *Sob* j/k. I was extremely homesick by this time. Can you tell?

Impressions that Barcelona left on me: 

- Everyone here speaks Spanish with a lisp. Welcome to Barthelona!

- Catalunyans are even MORE patriotic than Taiwanese people and are as anti-Spain as the latter are anti-Chinar. 

- They have the best fruit and it's inexpensive! Apparently most of Europe gets its fruit imported from Spain and Portugal. 

- I learned never to talk to strangers, because anyone that's being nice is trying to rob you. Which I realized AFTER a man tried to lure me into a smaller street. If I were more naive, I would've been in trouble.

- Spanish food is only okay. Tapas is not my favorite, and paella (if not from Valencia) is never fresh, but frozen.

- People here eat and play LATE. I never saw one of my roommates face-to-face. That is, whenever I was awake, she was asleep, and when I went to sleep, she was not home yet. On the morning that I left the hostel at 4:30am to catch a flight, she was still out! Crazy Europeans. I felt a little bit like a loser going to bed at midnight.

- Spaniards are not that friendly and didn't tolerate my broken Spanish.

 Prawns, patatas bravas, and calamari

 Barcelona Harbor

 Senior dance event beach side

 This man could totally shake it

 These women obviously got a kick out of it

 This woman was all dancing seductively in front of this young guy while he was sitting down, so he joined her in the hip-shaking. Afterwards, she was tired and sat back down in her walker. I guess if you can't walk, you can still dance! =)

In front of the Sagrada Familia church. Building was commenced by Gaudi in 1882, and still has an estimated 50 years or so before it's finished.

 

The passion facade, where Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss.

 In squares of order 4 where the numbers run sequentially from 1-16 the magic constant (the sum of a single line, row or diagonal) is 34, but Subirachs' square does not contain the numbers 12 or 16 (see image, above). Instead, 10 and 14 are included twice, making a magic constant of 33, the age of Jesus Christ at the crucifixion.

 Inside the church. It seemed like I was in a forest of concrete, stained glass and light. Beautiful.

 The Alter

 Design studio

 Sample Sketches

 Casa Battlo (on the right) by Gaudi on the Block of Dischord

 Beach front

 Street performer

 Tapas at Taverna Basca Irati, where you can choose what you want to eat, and they calculate your bill via honor system by counting toothpicks.

 Parc Guell, another of Gaudi's works

 View of Barcelona from Parc Guell

 

Las Ramblas

Fountain of Montjuic, they played Disney songs and 80s rock. Loved it.

 I became really good at self-timed shots