Barcelona = Sun, Tapas, and Cava = Amazing

'"If we walk far enough," says Dorothy, "we shall sometime come to someplace."'

From The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Caitlin and I had decided we were going to fly on the cheap for this trip. And that meant no checked luggage. We both had no difficulty packing light at home but now that we'd completed the first leg of our journey Caitlin found herself having a little trouble; all her belongings refused to fit. Unlike all American airlines, a lot of cheap (I'm not going to dignify them by saying inexpensive, they are cheap) European airlines only allow one piece of hand luggage - no personal item. It was with this that Caitlin struggled. She shifted, squeezed, pushed, and pressed but her belongings wouldn't compress into her suitcase. After a hour and a half she admitted defeat and put some of her stuff in my bag. This would become a tread and growing issues with each flight.


With great sadness we headed to the airport and Barcelona. Our greatest hope for the future was the promise of warmth. Barcelona more than delivered on this. I have never been happier to see the sun as I was when we landed in Spain. Our hotel was on the coast so we took advantage and went for a walk on the beach. It was with great bliss that we left our coats behind.

Barcelona is a very old city and that is reflected in it's layout. It clearly did not have a city planner. We spent most of our time the first day lost. However, except for a few occasions, we didn't mind because at every turn we found beautiful buildings, flowering trees, and delicious food. I know, shockingly we again ate our way through this city too. Spain is known for tapas. Tapas is amazing, I'm a major fan. If you don't know what it is let me give you a picture: have you ever gone to a restaurant, looked at the menu, and thought, 'I want to have more than one of these!' You can't because it's 1. too expensive and 2. way too much food. Tapas is the answer to this problem. You get small portions of a range of things and share it with the table. The first one we went to was recommended to us by a friend of Caitlin. It is a hole in the wall place just down the street from the Picasso Museum. It's only open from 7pm. We arrive at 7:!5 and it was already packed! We got the last table. People hovered around and swooped in as soon as a table freed up. We got the house Cava (a form of sparkling wine that primarily comes from Catalonia - where Barcelona is located) and our waitress just brought us different plates of tapas filled with some of the best food I've ever tasted. By the time we were done we feared seeing the bill but were pleasantly surprised.

One highlight for both Caitlin and me was visiting Olympic Park from the 1992 summer Olympics. We're both a little Olympic crazy (okay, not just a little, we get wild about the prospect of the Olympic Games). The Olympic Park and surrounding area were beautiful. There were massive columns, pounding waterfalls, and - best of all - outdoor escalators! In general I love escalators. They are the best of both worlds, you don't have to walk stairs and you aren't trapped in a metal box that could plummet you to your death at any moment (I may have watched too many action films over the years, because really how often does that happen in the real word?). The fact that there were outdoor escalators was something we couldn't get over. I don't know why they are there, or how they don't break all the time (maybe I'm thinking like a Minnesotan where anything with moving parts breaks if left outside for too long) but they were great. And yes, I admit that it's sad that I've just raved about escalators for the last six sentences and said escalator five times. Bite me - this is my blog, I can talk about what I want! So there.

The biggest surprise for me was the science museum. Like in Paris, we had gotten a Barcelona Pass. And, again like Paris, we had every intention to use it as much as we could so we got our money's worth. Usually I don't visit science museums in other cities. For the most part they are the same and I'd rather see things that are unique to the location. But both Caitlin and I got interested in this one because of a single thing: it said they had an indoor flooded Amazon rainforest that's over 3,000 square feet and filled with over 100 living animals including a Capybara, pythons, piranhas and more! It totally lived up to our expectations and brought out the little kids in us who spent hours of our youth in the Minnesota Science Museum.

Though Barcelona is an extremely walkable city we did use the public transportation system to get to and from places that were farther afield like our hotel, the science museum, and the airport. It is the most wonderful transit system I've ever experienced. When I travel I prefer public transit to cabs or coach buses because you really get a feel for the city. Because of this I've used trains, buses, and trolley in over ten cities in a range of different countries. I'm not bragging, I just want you to understand that I have a depth of knowledge in this area. So when I say Barcelona has a great system I have an idea what I'm talking about. The buses are clean and have a screen telling you the next stop and what you can transfer to at that stop (I truly don't understand why this is such a novel idea to bus companies, but they seem to feel people want to be confused and fearful that they'll miss their stop and have to walk a mile or more in a sketchy neighborhood to get where they need to be). The metro has maps of the line that light up - solid lights if the train has passed the station already, and a blinking for the next stop! Plus there are arrows telling you which side the platform is going to be on. What! Could it be more amazing? What I don't understand is why more cities don't have these features in their transits. It just seems dumb. Oh well, it's just another plus for Barcelona.

Our best find in Barcelona was the little place called Florentine Cupcakes (are you really surprised that the highlight of our trip is food related? Yes? I'm disappointed in you). Caitlin bought two, one to eat right there and one to eat later. They were to die for. I got a Chocolate Marshmallow - it was a chocolate cupcake with marshmallow frosting, dipped in hard chocolate. You drooling yet? You should be, it was beyond any cupcake I'd ever had in my life. Check out the link above to solidify your obsessive need to taste one.

 Overall Barcelona is a place I must visit again, maybe at a time of the year when I can enjoy the beach? Just putting it out there in case anyone wants to join me ;-)