Wow. Barcelona.

Ahh Barcelona!
We just got back from three and a half days in Barcelona and they were some of the most incredible days of my life.  The city of Barcelona is incredibly clean and beautiful and I could go on and on.  Not to mention it contains a huge collection of famous architectural projects.  Plus the people and culture were awesome and the food was delicious! With perfect weather added in, I didnt want to leave!  If I ever get a chance, I would come back to Barcelona in a heartbeat.

Our first stop in Barcelona was the Pavilion designed by Mies Van Der Rohe.  You may or may not have heard of him, but he is one of the architects we spent a lot of time studying and discussing in school.  The pavilion itself is not a huge project, but the way it deals with spaces, details, and surfaces was really fascinating, and as always, great to see in real life.  Walking through it was cool and it was a good opening to Barcelona.  One of the three architects of the pavilion's reconstruction was even there giving a tour to some Spanish students in English, so we got to listen in for a little.

 No big deal, just chillin in front of the pavilion

"Interior"

Did some pretty nifty stuff

Chocolate pastry = always a good morning

Next we headed to the Olympic area in Barcelona.  The spire was designed by Calatrava and is a fairly famous symbol in Barcelona.  The rest of the Olympic area wasnt super fascinating, but it was cool to see.  They were even having a Shakira concert in the stadium that night (we were sad we didnt get tickets).

Calatrava's spire

You can see Toyo Ito's tower in the distance

 After that we continued our treck to top of the hill and entered the Botanical Gardens of Barcelona.  These were really very impressive.  They had plants from California, South Africa, and all over the world.  It was on the side of a hill and the pathways they designed were really interesting to navigate.  At the top of the hill was the Botanical Institute.  We snuck onto the second floor on accident and got yelled at haha but it was fun.

Botanical Gardens

Botanical Institute

 Our explorations continued down the hill to other new and notable architecture projects.  This pattern below was really pretty and covered the entire side of a building.  They are old misshapen pots and the sun made them really cool.  For lunch we had our first real Spanish tortillas.  What they call a tortilla is nothing like the flour things we wrap our burritos in.  Instead, its an egg omelette kind of thing, typically with potatoes in it.  So we had tortillas sandwiches.  Not anything super special, but a great lunch and it felt good to try something spanish.

Tortilla sandwich!

 Then somehow we made it out to the sea!  We walked and traveled so much over those 3.5 days.  I swear we walked through every part of Barcelona at least once.  Well worth it though.  The water was beautiful and the sun was shining the whole time.  We stumbled upon this big pier thing with the wave structures going along it and a huge crowd of people walking out.  There was a big mall on the end and it was full of cool shops.  There was even a starbucks! (we later found them all over the city).  We were all cold and could use a little more energy so we got ourselves a little taste of home in the form of coffee. mmmm.

mmm ocean

Starbucks coffee! definitely expensive here, but a great taste of home

 Can't believe we did this all on the first day? Me neither! So much more to talk about too.  So we visited some more really impressive newer projects that were right on the edge of the ocean.  I was a huge fan of them.  The first one was just two towers, but there was a unique bridge between them and a huge piece jutting out.  The second one was an oval shaped building clad in wood with a huge part pulled out of the middle.  Also very cool.

super cool medical research center

Christopher Columbus pointing towards the sea

Colorful roof of a market

Interesting side to that same market

Impressive cathedral of the city (we didnt linger long, we werent there for the old stuff, we get enough of that in Rome)

Getting Christmas decorations ready! Cant wait to see them lit up around rome

Theater designed by a contemporary of Gaudi

 Finally, after walking all over Barcelona, our first day had an incredible ending.  My friend's aunt lives in Barcelona and we had a chance to meet up the very first night.  She was incredibly nice and had lived in Barcelona for many years.  So she was able to show us around and help us learn more about the area, the people, the food, the drinks and the culture.  She took us out for Tapas, because when in Spain, everyone should go out for Tapas.  The first place we went to (apparently the usually go to several places) was packed with people.  We had a local favorite that was similar to sparkling white wine and was really good, with some potato chips.  Then at the next place, we each got something a little more.  I had a piece of salmon on bread with a really good sauce.  Plus we tasted some of their cider/wine/idk but it was good too.

First Tapas!

Finally she took us to a bar that she goes to all the time, where one of the owners is from the UK and speaks english.  This place was packed too but we were able to grab a table.  I split the mixed Tapas plate with my friend.  There was potatoes bravas (potatoes with spicy sauce and garlic sour cream), blood sausage, chorizo, onions, peppers, seafood empanada thing, fried cheese thing, potato and zucchini tortillas, and a few other random things on it, served with bread.  This plus some local spanish wine was an incredible meal.  Plus we spent a long time talking to our new friend in Barcelona.  Like I said she told us all about Barcelona and we learned so much.  She made that first day so incredible and I am so thankful we were able to meet her.
I love Barcelona!!

Sooo incredibly good! I am a huge fan of Tapas.

And thats only day 1.  2 more days to come!