Barcelona

We seemed to have a problem that everytime we get off a train its raining, and Barcelona was no exception. It was very rainy and ugly out when we got there. Our goal was showers and sleep because most everyone was sluggish from the night before. I couldnt nap so i washed clothes and caught up on life while everyone else slept. When they got up we walked along La Rambla, the main boulevard in the city where there are tons of shops, restaurants, and tourists. They love their pet shop stalls along there-interesting. We walked to the Plaza famous for the fact that there are so many pigeons they eat right out of people's hands. Gross. We went to eat at a restaurant called La Fonda that Eyal recommened it was gosod food at a good price. Then we called it a night. The next day was Gaudi day. We started with the Sagrada Familia. The most impressive building ive ever seen, and the only construction site ive ever toured without a hard hat. Its planned to be finished in 2025, 150 years after its inception. From there we saw the Casa Mila (an apartment building) and the Casa Battilo which we spent a long time on in design history class. We spent a long time walking throught it and learining more about it. From there we went to see the Gaudi museum in Parc Guell. The park was full of tourists and street performers and it was high on a high over the city, we had to take outdoor escalators to get up there. The park was really beautiful, and the museum which was his home, was filled with a lot of his furniture designs. From there we headed down towards the beach and the city zoo, walked through another park and headed home. We grabbed a quick dinner on La Rambla and had a quiet night......until our brazilian roommates woke us early the next morning when the came in from being out at 730 am. That morning Justine, Kristin, Katie, and I went to the Picasso musuem. That was way cool because it was all the work from when he was young so it was really neat to see his developement as an artist. We got kara and headed over the the Summer Olympic sight, stopping to see Mies Van Der Rohe's Barcelona Pavillion on the way. All of the stadiums and buildings are still in a park that overlooks the whole city. Its a bit of a trek up the mountain to get there. We came back down and headed down to the beach, which worked out ok because the sun finally came out after we had been there for an hour or so. We then grabbed another dinner of Paella, this one not nearly so good as the first. We went out to a few bars and clubs but were feeling a little out of it after so much of that in Madrid. The next morning we headed to the beach and spent 7 hours baking ourselves in the sun, which even with spf 55 turned into a nice crisp burn. Which make for a not so comfortable train ride overnight in a reclining chair to interlocken, but it was an issue for all 5 of us, it wasnt just me. No one slept much in our chairs, so we were all pretty out of it when we got to switzerland.