BARCELONA!

We LOVED Barcelona.  It has all of the ingredients of a great city, but it's the vibe that we really responded to.  On our last day, we walked around a great, little neighborhood, and this is what we came across... a beautiful square, a big band, and lots of dancing people.  Amazing.

The weather wasn't great on our first day.  We call these pictures "Rain on La Rambla" and rain on a random street.  

On Good Friday, we had the pleasure of witnessing Semana Santa.  Uniformed horseman led a procession of floats, carried my men (supposedly, weighing up to a ton), adorned with candles (with real fire), lots of flowers, and religious statues.  The men took small steps of progress, moving across the city, ending at the cathedral.  You could only see their feet shuffling under the base - their whole bodies were hidden.  Between floats, there were women and little girls wearing all black (including lace veils), clergy, bands, and "hooded penitents," which would NOT go over well in the US.

The festivities continued, as the next day was Saint George's Day (the patron saint of Catalunya, known as Sant Jordi).  This brought TONS of people into the center, and they celebrated by exchanging books and flowers.  We thought this was odd, and yet, I was the only girl in the city without a flower, and there were hundreds of book stalls lining La Rambla.  They apparently love the tradition.

That night, we got tickets to an FC Barcelona game.  We assumed buying tickets would always be as difficult as our experience in Milan, but apparently, outside Italy, you can just go to the team website and pay with a credit card like a normal person.  And, they gave me a rose when I entered the stadium, so I got my Sant Jordi flower.  At one point, the crowd went crazy, even though nothing had happened in the game.  Then we realized Messi was warming up on the sidelines.  They LOVE their Messi.  He was pretty incredible to watch.

 We were blown away by Gaudi's Sagrada Familia.  We always visit churches in other cities, but there is NOTHING like this (Ryan said it was his favorite).  We took a lot of pictures.  Look at the top, left image.  I'm pretty sure those are stormtroopers (remember, you can always click on the pictures to enlarge).  The church is full of natural light, natural colors, and brightly stained glass.  It's incredible.

We visited another Gaudi original, Casa Batllo.  It was an apartment full of crazy.  There was not one single straight line - the windows, ceilings, baseboards, doors, were all curved.

The food was amazing.  We had one ridiculously nice meal where I had bouillabaisse soup (I didn't even know what that was until it was on my plate - served out of a fancy tureen by not one, but two waiters) and Ryan had cochon de lait.  Other meals included incredible tapas (we ordered chorizo cooked in cider, ham croquettes, a spanish omelette, and pan-fried green peppers).  They always serve thick bread smeared with tomatoes - it's yummy.  And the only meals we photographed were burrata with tomatoes and the best paella we've ever had, ever.

The last day was spent walking around a really cool neighborhood called Gracia.  This area has no hotels, very little attractions, and so remains a fairly quiet.  We only went there to visit Parc Guell, which was insane and very crowded.  We stayed about five minutes before venturing out to explore its surroundings.  We were bummed at first... the park was supposed to give us a nice, relaxing last day activity.  It turned out to be the BEST thing that could have happend.  We loved the neighborhood.  We stumbled into a great coffee house, bought some art (for 14 Euros), and found that band in the square I showed you in the beginning of the post.

We also found a lunch place in the area where we had our last pitcher of sangria.  I was so in love with this whole day that I wanted Ryan to take a picture of me outside the restaurant, which is hilariously named El Glop.  I wanted to to mime El Glop by making some sort of interpretive pose (this is what day drinking will do).  Ryan was giving instructions, and I was laughing so hard I cried.

We settled on this.  It's not a Glop at all, it's a Twin Flame.  Maybe in a later post I can explain what that is.  For now, just know that it's not a Glop, but we felt that a pose needed to happen, and this is the only one that came to mind.

  

All in all, an amazing trip.  Interestingly, Ryan first told me about his company's relocation opportunities about 6 years ago, right when he got back from one of his out of town trainings.  Immediately, I told him I would do it, and he said Spain might be fun.  We didn't talk seriously about moving abroad until a few years later, and by that point, our focus had changed to Switzerland.  But I remembered that first conversation on our trip, and it sort of added to us feeling connected to the city.  

We love what Lugano has given us (which is amazing friends, being centrally located for travel, extreme cleanliness and safety, and a beautiful lake).  However, when we visit a place like Barcelona, we're attracted to the grit, the unique culture, and the energy of the people.  We don't have that here, and when we find it, we love it.  For now, we'll take cleanliness and safety.  In about five months, we'll have all the grit and culture we can handle.