I Plead the 5th... Sangria Style

Next on my list was Barcelona. I arrived, backpack in tow, and managed to find a bus to the city center... Someone forgot to mention to me that my limited Spanish knowledge would do me little good since the dialect spoken in Barcelona is Catalan, which is sort of like Spanish... but not really! Anyway, I walked around with Megan and Sarah for a while, we discovered a gorgeous cathedral and went by Casa Mila, designed by Gaudi, the most famous Catalan architect. That night, we went to have tapas! I didn't realize that tapas in themselves are not a meal. They are like tiny little appetizers and people often go to several places, sampling different types of tapas and drinking as they go. We were a little overwhelmed, so we stuck to one place and got 4 tapas for the three of us. It would have been nice to have a little more food in our stomachs because the sangria was strong!! After having a good time and making friends with the waiters, Sarah and I made our way to our hostel. For a cheap hostel, it was quite nice... free internet, clean bedrooms, quiet safe neighborhood... what a relief!
The following morning, Sarah and I were on our own and we took our first adventure up to an old fort on Montjuic above Barcelona. It was quite a climb... which will become a common theme for my spring break. From the top, we had the most magnificant views of Barcelona and the coast. Unfortunately, the fog from the sea was settled in and my pictures fail to capture the view! Along with the fort, there were several machine gun looking things that Sarah and I had some fun with. We took another montage of pictures, one included below.

After wandering around the top for a while, we met Megan for lunch in the Boccaria, which is a HUGE market off La Rambla, a famous street in Barcelona. They had such amazing things and fresh food ti made us so hungry. So we bought some meat, cheese, and bread, but couldn't leave without trying a vegetable tortilla at the bar... probably one of the best I have ever had!
In the afternoon, Sarah and I went to Park Guell, which is a famous park designed by... you guessed it... Gaudi. It was originally designed to be a market that would bring Barcelona closer to the neighboring towns, but it was too far outside the city to actually be used for that. Now it is a large park that attracts many visitors because of its unique designs and colors! Gaudi's style is very organic, everything it mimicked from nature or water, and you can tell when you look throughout the park! I was really excited to take this picture below because it is a part of the park that was used in a season of America's Next Top Model for a runway show. So I had to strike a pose!

That night, we had our first paella... yummy!!!! but a lot of work to eat all that shrimp! I feel so spoiled having Grandma de-shell all my shrimp for me!!! After dinner, we went to this hole in the wall kind of place to see a cheap Flamenco dancing show. It was a really small theatre, which was fantastic because we sat right up front and got to really see and hear everything! The guitar player was awesome and the woman moved so well!! She was kind of scary because her makeup and her muscles made her seem like a man to me...

There was so much for each city and so many pictures I want to share, that I am going to split up my break by days... so forgive the long posts and how long it is taking me to tell all my stories!