Barcelona: The Land of Tapas and Interesting Architecture

Brian and I continued our travel marathon and headed over to Barcelona for a quick weekend. My brother recently asked me why we were traveling so much, and the truth is that 1) we love experiencing different cultures and 2) we are able to do it on a budget because of Ryan Air and because of tricks we have learned to keep travel costs down.

Barcelona was mine and Brian's first time to Spain, and we loved it! The weather was beautiful, especially after coming from cold England. The city was vibrant and energizing - we loved the people, the food, the architecture, and everything else. We actually spent most of our time just walking around the city and taking it all in.

Of course we ate tapas for lunch and dinner, and enjoyed the sangria too. =) We took a city bus tour to hit the highlights of the city and made a great stop at the Olympic Stadium and Museum. Brian LOVES the Olympics so it was cool to go visit where the 1992 games were held. We're trying to figure out how many more "Olympic cities" we can visit on our travels.

Definitely the most interesting building we saw was the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi. It's been in the making for 80 years and isn't expected to be complete until 2030. It is the most random building and collection of design techniques I have ever seen - Brian thought it was interesting; I honestly thought it was very random and a bit of a mess. I'll reserve my final judgment though for when the building is complete. =)

Our Spanish wasn't great, but we did the best we could and we found the people to be very friendly and helpful. We especially ran into bits of language barriers when we ventured out of the main tourist areas to eat at more local restaurants (we always try to do this because the food is usually better and less expensive).

Overall, this was an amazing trip and we definitely want to go back to Spain, especially when the weather gets miserable here and we need some good sunshine. =) Check out our photos here to see beautiful Barcelona.