Barcelona, the northernmost major city in Spain. We started our stay in Barcelona by checking into our cute apartment, in a neighborhood called Poblenou.
Our host, Paola, met us in the apartment, and my mom and dad chatted with her for a while before she showed us around the house. There were two nice bedrooms and a living room. My parents got the cooler room, with a low-down bed, but their bed was smaller than mine. I found that quite funny. The living room also had a bathtub. This was one of our stranger apartments, but we found it cozy. Our first night (Christmas), my parents went out to dinner at a pizza place, and I was granted some much-needed alone time. I had a delicious piece of pizza for dinner that my parents brought back.
I was also over my head with excitement for my new computer that I would get in two days for Christmas.
The next day my dad and I went for a run along the Mediterranean beaches of Barcelona. We saw casinos, boats, and lots of volleyball players. We came home and basically relaxed for the rest of the day. I had a very hard time sleeping, though, because I was (again) incredibly exited to get my computer the next day.
Computer day was here and I couldn’t have been more exited. I got up at ten (as usual) and nagged at my parents to get ready. Of course, they were mind-bendingly slow and we left the house at noon. We headed to the nearest Fnac (a European technology store) and asked if we could buy a Lenovo Yoga Book (my computer). The man told us that there were none in stock at that particular store, but there was a larger store in the downtown area that had them. It was a particularly windy day, with leaves everywhere and helpless city street sweeper employees trying to pick them up.
Also, when we walked out of the first Fnac, we were hit with a gust of wind that almost blew us off our feet. The metro was fairly easy to find, and we took the L1 all the way to Plaça de Catalunya, where the biggest Fnac was. We walked across the square and into the store. There were tons of people in the technology section and we had to wait for help from one of the employees. When we got a hold of one of the people, he looked at our reservation number and told us to go to the checkout desk. We paid, got my computer, and left the store.
When we finally made it home, I was going bonkers with excitement. I tore off the plastic, and delicately opened the box. Long story short, I loved it and was on it the whole day. I had to do a small amount of work, but it was okay because I was using my new computer at the same time. my parents went out to dinner with Paola at a local resturant and I had pizza at home. I was sad when the time came to put the computer down and go to bed.
The next day, December 28, we decided to walk down the beaches, all the way to the taco-shaped Hotel W.
While we were gazing up at the tall hotel, I saw a large (extremely large) yacht moored in the harbor. I suddenly realized that it was the same yacht (called the Dilbar) that we saw in Antibes, a beach town near Nice, France!
Here’s another picture I found on the Internet.
The Dilbar is actually the largest yacht in the world (measured by volume, not length) owned by a Russian multi-billionaire named Alisher Usmanov. The yacht is estimated to cost 600 million US dollars, but when your net worth is 18 billion, its “cheap.”
We walked past in awe as we made our way to the Christopher Columbus memorial. We then set off down the main tourist street called La Rambla looking for lunch.
My mom also really wanted to get a portrait of me (for reasons I do not know) so we also looked at some of the street artists. We finally decided to sit down for lunch at a café that my mom found on the internet. I had a delicious dish of lasagna con carne, and apple tarte tatin.
Again, we set out and found the Barcelona cathedral (not to be confused with the Sagrada Familia).
My mom and I decided to go back to the tourist street to get the portrait done of me and my dad went home. We found one guy that agreed to do a portrait, and I sat down. It was a very cold day out and after half an hour of sitting and smiling, I had almost frozen my butt off.
We found the nearest metro and made our way home. I was, again, glad to be home and using my glorious computer 🙂
Our second to last day in Barcelona, we saw some of the famous architecture by Antoni Gaudi. We first took the metro to the Sagrada Familia. We took the escalator out of the station and my dad pointed at a random building saying,” Oh! It’s so beautiful!” sarcastically. I chuckled and looked behind me. There it was, the Sagrada Familia.
First off, it was huge. The decorations were incredible. There was detail everywhere. We walked around the whole cathedral in awe. There was color everywhere, unlike most European churches. We did not go inside, as it was an extremely long line, and we had other stuff to see.
We said goodbye to the famous church, and made our way to another semi-famous building, Casa de les Punxes or “House of Spikes” that people actually live in. It got its name from the skewer-shaped metal poles on the top of the building.
We again continued onward to the next architectural beauty. This one, Casa Milà, was designed by Gaudi as well, with unique metal railings and wave-like curvatures on the sides of the building.
We had one more to go, the Casa Batlló. Also designed by Gaudi, this was one of the most famous ones (apart from the Sagrada Familia) in Barcelona. The balcony railings look like carnival masks and are said to be the victims of the dragon that the roof supposedly looks like.
There also were beautiful colored LED lights under the balconies.
Right when we were about to leave, a machine started blowing out bubbles that looked like snow, and for a moment it became a winter wonderland!!
After that, we finally decided to go home and saw a couple cool things on the way, one of which was a cultural center with ruins unearthed below it. We finally made it home, and Iwent to bed.
The next day my dad and I decided to hang out at the beach and relax, while my mom went to the Picasso Museum and saw works of art from all different periods of his life.
Meanwhile, at the beach, my dad and I played frisbee and I stood at the water’s edge, letting the numbingly-cold water lap at my feet. I walked down the beach and asked to leave, as I was tired and we had a big day coming up. We went back to the apartment and I packed for the long flight we would have the next day.
I woke up exited for the long flight to come. Before we went to the airport, Paola came by and checked us out of the apartment and she also brought her dog, a funny Chihuahua named Nilos.
We talked, loved on the dog, and finally got a taxi to the airport. We checked in and boarded our flight at 4:00 pm. We took off and left Spain altogether. Descending out of the sky over Germany, it was dark, foggy, and very turbulent. I have to say it was pretty scary. On one sudden drop one woman even screamed! This led to another ear-piercing scream from a very uncomfortable baby. Despite the turbulence we landed safe and sound in Cologne, Germany and over the course of the evening, something very unexpected happened.
Don’t miss the next post, because it’s going to be a doozie!
Until next time, Mick.