We first went to Paris for Bastille Day. I didn't manage to get any good pictures of the parade (too many people, but I got some good video), so I just substituted it with a picture of a gorgeous car that we saw while finding our spot for the parade. We also saw a pretty cool air show. We were kind of bummed we couldn't stay for the fireworks, but we also saw huge crowds and sort of feared for our lives at the same time, so heading to Barcelona that afternoon didn't seem to be such a bad idea.
We saw water-isolated zorbing! Woohoo! We didn't have time to stick around to find out. We did have time to grab a delicious strawberry-banana slushie on the go, though.
We spent the night in a town just on the French side of the border. Our friend booked the hostel for the wrong night, but luckily we found a (cheaper?!) hotel for 8 euros a night! It was probably one of the nicer places we'd stayed in, too (though I can't saw the walks around the nearly inhabitless city were as pleasant that night). Lesson learned -- double-check hostel dates!
Barcelona itself was awesome. We visited a lot of Dahli stuff and mainly just perused the streets. We also tried paella with traditional Spanish sangria. It was a pretty amazing combination. I loved getting seafood in Europe -- it was about the same price as meat and was really good!
We got to go to the Barca soccer club stadium/museum/'shrine' (the latter term would probably be the most appropriate, if it didn't have an old-age feel that undermined the sophisticated technology like the touch screens, multi-screen videos, and well-kept stadium). I don't even watch soccer and I become an addict after a few hours in that place!
We spent a lot of time by the water, especially when Andy and I had to wait up for the rest of the crew to get out of the Harry Potter movie. Who would've guessed there were actually 2 IMAX theaters near the beach and we had picked the wrong one to meet up at? Oh well -- we got to show them the dock the next day (Andy and I headed back to the hostel after we heard they were several miles away because we were wiped!). On our way back, we noticed that the streets were more crowded at 4am than at 4pm! It's true -- Barcelona never sleeps.
If I had to go back to a place for vacation and typical European city feel complete with the food, night life, and language (communication is awesome when you actually know how to ask where to find a bathroom), I'd definitely pick Barcelona.
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