Barcelona

We arrived in Barcelona on Thursday night and made our way to the hostel, which is a crazy old converted building in the old part of the city. It has 20-foot ceilings, crown molding, and a giant wooden door with an old school key. So that night we went out to get some food, and the city looked creepy as hell. Everyone was dressed in drab colored ripped clothing, with multiple piercings, dread locks, and crazy eyes. We were a little bit creeped out, but all was well the next day.

When the sun was out and we are in any other area besides Barri Gotic, the city is really welcoming. We went to visit the Parc Guell where Antonio Gaudi had built two houses. We also saw his La Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo, and La Pedrera. The guy must have been existing on another plane to build those structures. It looked like he drew inspiration from a gingerbread house for the building in Parc Guell.

We have also been doing a lot of museum hopping. We went to the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture, the Picasso Museum, and Disseny Center for design. Today there are a few more on the docket in Parc Montjuic.

We also went to Barceloneta, which is the area by the marina that has little fish eateries along the water. It started to pour so we ducked into one and ordered some croquettas.

The first two nights, we saw two movies in the Barcelona Asian Film Festival. The first was called "The Mountain Thief" which was about this town in the Phillipines that survived on picking out cans and plastic from the garbage dump there and the hardships they go through every day. The other film was a comedy about Beijing and the modernization of the city.

Basically the city is really cool. There are little boutiques everywhere you turn and every restaurant is extremely well decorated. If you don't like chain restaurants or department stores, you would love it here. The people are young and artsy and innovative. Compared to Seville, Barcelona seems to want to be more European rather than embracing their historical Spanish roots. I guess Catalonia has always been quite independent from the rest of Spain so it makes sense.

Also, the food here has been great. There are a ton of veggies restaurants and non-veg places serve more than just meat!! Finally.