Barcelona--Sun, Beaches, and Gaudi things

We had originally planned to stop in Dublin for a day or two before heading out to Barcelona, but we cancelled those reservations in favor of another couple of relaxing days in Belfast. Not too much to speak of during these two days, so we'll begin with our time in Barcelona. Our plane left for Barcelona in the evening and after a frantic rush for seats on the budget airline Ryanair, we took off into the cloudy sky of Ireland, arriving a couple of hours later in the clear blue Spanish skies. A bus took us into Barcelona, where we were mapless and clueless as to how to get to our hostel. We convinced ourselves that splurging for a taxi ride would be well-worth the investment as it was already 11pm and we were unsure of safety of the night. We walked up to the taxi line, and an anxious cab driver hurriedly rushed our luggage into the trunk. When he showed us a map of Barcelona we saw that we weren't too far from our hostel, so we headed off for a quick 5 minute ride and when our luggage was unloaded, the driver produced a nicely laminated sheet of paper from his back pocket saying the minimum charge was an astounding 20 euros. It was late, we were tired and our minds weren't ready to produce spanish words and phrases so we dumbfoundedly passsed over the money, knowing we'd been had. Welcome to Barcelona!!! Our next 3 days were spent with few if any problems. The sun was warm and the sky was hazy but clear as we wandered around the city of modern art. The first day we chose places at random and just walked there. The first was a beautful park with museums, a stadium, and palace scattered throughout. Barcelona held the Olympics a few years back and many of the new facilities which were built then have been converted to public use, such as the Olympic diving stadium where kids played joyously as the 10 meter platforms loomed overhead. We were hot by this time a had trouble finding a watering hole that had water that tasted like, well...water. Even the water at our hostel had a rather strange taste, but one we could at least drink without a worry for our health. But our money saving method of filling up our water in public bathrooms went awry during these three days in Barcelona. After stopping for juice and at an english book store, we wandered down to the beachfront and along the boardwalk until our bodies signalled it was time for dinner. This first night we shared the traditional Spanish dish of seafood paella, which is seafood mixed with yellow rice and spices and served in a big, black skillet for two. We shared a bottle of wine and bought ice cream on the way home to end our hot, sweaty day with something cool and nice. We woke up in an alley--really. Our hostel room was in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona which is known for its narrow streets and confusing road system. Indeed there are some "streets" that are so narrow that sunlight only reaches them when the sun is directly over head. This would seem to make our night of sleep much easier as we were not woken up by a sun that set at 11:00pm or rose at 4:00am, as in Belfast. However the constant noise of street cleaners, trash pickups and late night partiers, made sleeping here difficult as well. Nevertheless, we woke up on the second day, bought towels and headed straight down to the beach, jelly and nutella sandwiches in tow for lunch, ready to do a whole lot of nothing for the day. We rented two chairs and an umbrella and laid out from 10am to 6pm, when the man came to collect our rented merchandise. We were the last ones still in our chairs, although by this time the beach was still teeming with people. This had certainly been the most relaxing day of the trip as we did nothing but sit, read, wade, and watch the bathers, making sure to pretend to avert our eyes from those topless ones. We made pasta with tuna for dinner that night and went to bed exhausted from all the non-activity of the day.
Our last full day in Barcelona was spent appreciating the archictecture specific to this city--namely the buildings and public art designed by Gaudi. Instead of taking a guided bus tour, we walked for several hours visiting his famous buildings, such as Casa Batllo, and the park he spent twenty years designing, Parc Guell. It was absolutely stunning work. Gaudi was known for making the typically boxy concrete structures come to life with curves, arches, swirls and tile work akin to something out of a Dr. Seuss book. Lisa and I loved his work the more we saw of it, as it seemed as if all buildings had become something not just functional, but fanciful. His Sagrada Familia was of particular interest as this church, which is yet uncompleted after 50 years of work, seemed to be built like a child would a sand castle, by drizzling handfuls of wet sand into various shapes. We dined on a five plate dinner of tapas, which included tuna, mushrooms, a salad, calamari, bread with dressing and potatoes with paprika and garlic mayonnaise. We were stuffed full, and wandered home, slowly winding through the narrow streets for the last time. We went to bed early and woke up even earlier, having to catch a bus to the airport at 5:45 am. But by the time our plane would land, Spain would seem a distant memory as the land of Tuscany opened up new opportunities of beauty and exploration--not to mention driving our own car through the streets filled with Italians doing their best impressions of Mario Andretti. More to come from the land of the Azurri...

By the way, we're trying to post pictures as often as possible, but you have to download them on someone else's computer, so we'll do it when we're allowed and when we can. We'll have some more up soon I'm sure.