The many magical fountains of Barcelona

Palabra del día: Es la leche (Ok, it's actually another Frase del Dia but close enough)
Literal translation: It's the milk
Actual translation: It's the shit
Frase: No he visto nada como la Sagrada Familia.  Es la leche!
Translation: I haven't seen anything like the Sagrada Familia.  It's the shit!

Comida del día: Pincho (or in Catalan, Pintxos)
This is a form of tapas unique to Barcelona.  Pincho literally means stick or toothpick.  In this type of restaurant, there are platters of different appetizer-sized foods and you help yourself to whatever looks good.  Each portion has a toothpick in it, so when it is time to pay they count your toothpicks and you pay a certain amount per toothpick (usually between 1 and 2 euros).  I went to a great pintxo bar in Barcelona called Euskal Extea where I ate some delicious tortilla Española, bread topped with brie and tomatoes, and bread topped with some sort of fish, though I'm still not quite sure what it was. It was lots of fun to try some new foods!

Foto del día: Las Cahorras

This is from a hike I went on two weekends ago with IES to a place called Las Cahorras, which is a popular day trip for people from Granada for picnicking, hiking, rock climbing, beautiful views, and this slightly scary, never-ending hanging bridge. 

Ok, so now to tell you a bit more about last weekend's very fun trip to Barcelona!  I went with four friends Thursday through Sunday, though we packed a lot into a few days.  Barcelona almost felt like a different country from Granada.  Barcelona is in the Catalunya region of Spain, where the official language is Catalan and not Spanish.  People do speak Spanish, but for most restaurant menus and museum descriptions the first language is Catalan, the second is Spanish, and sometimes there is a third in English.  There is a lot of controversy in Spain right now because there is talk of Catalunya receding from Spain to become an independent country.  This is partly due to the economic crisis and the fact that Catalunya is the most economically successful region of Spain.  There a lot of Catalan cultural pride, especially since the language and culture were repressed under the Franco regime.  There is also recent controversy about the language taught in schools.  Right now the primary language is Catalan, but there is a movement to make the schools trilingual between Catalan, Spanish and English, though there is local opposition by people who want to preserve their Catalan culture.

In any case, the unique language and culture made it a bit difficult to practice my Spanish while I was there, although we did have a great conversation the first night with our cab driver from the airport.  He didn't speak much English so he was very happy that we could speak Spanish.  We also found out that he's from Morocco, and when we told him we were going there he started teaching us some Arabic and put on a soundtrack of some great traditional Moroccan music.  It was by far the best cab ride of my life and an excellent start to our trip.

Here are some other highlights:

Day 1: We wandered around the Gothic neighborhood and toured the cathedral where I saw this duck:

Or is it a llama?  If you don't know what I'm talking about you should download the llama or duck iphone app immediately.

Then we walked up and down Las Ramblas and drank from this fountain, which is supposed to ensure a return trip to Barcelona:

For lunch we ate at the Bocería market, which is definitely the best market I have ever been to.  I decided to go to a few different stations, so my lunch consisted of a spinach empanada, gazpacho, fresh raspberries, fruit salad with kiwi, figs, mango and papaya, and a chocolate banana smoothie.  So much good food!

In the afternoon we went to the Picasso museum.  There was a great exhibit about Las Meninas, a Velazquez painting that I saw in Madrid that Picasso adapted.  It was a really neat way to see the evolution of Spanish art!

Velazquez Las Meninas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Las_Meninas_(1656),_by_Velazquez.jpg

Picasso Las Meninas: http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitxer:PabloPicasso_Meninas.jpg

In the evening we explored the El Born neighborhood around the Picasso museum, a very cute neighborhood with boutiques, cafes, little tapas bars, and not too many tourists.  I love tiny cafes so it was my favorite neighborhood that we visited.  That night we also tried out the Barcelona nightlife and went to a discoteca that the hostel paid for us to get into.  It was full of tourists and had terrible music, but it was right on the beach so we left and went for a very pleasant late night stroll.

Day 2: This was Gaudí day!  We started at the Sagrada Familia, his famous cathedral that's still a work in progress.  Thankfully we planned enough in advance and bought tickets ahead of time, because the line outside was a mile long and we got to skip the whole thing.  The building is absolutely amazing and unlike anything I've ever seen before.  My pictures don't do it justice, but I loved the nature/ forrest theme and the stained glass.  In the afternoon we walked by two apartment buildings that Gaudí designed and then we went to his park, Parque Guell, which had some really neat benches, a lizard, and two little houses, as well as the house that Gaudí lived in which was converted to a museum.

An attempt to capture the Sagrada Familia in a single photograph

In the evening we went to the Magic Fountains.  They light up every evening with colored lights illuminating tons of water, and the Spanish Disney music added to the truly magical atmosphere.

In front of the magic fountains, right before the wind blew towards us and we got a little bit wet!

Day 3: After two busy days of sightseeing, we had a very chill day walking through Parque Ciutadella and ending at the Barceloneta beach.  We also happened upon some street performers making human towers (literally 3-4 people balancing on top of each other) and the sardana circle dances outside of the Cathedral, which are apparently a Barcelona Sunday midday tradition.

A Gaudí designed fountain in Parque Ciutadella

I loved Barcelona for it's unique culture and it's distinct neighborhoods, and of course the beach didn't hurt either.  Thankfully I drank from the fountain, so I know that I will be back!  It was nice to come home to Granada for a few days, and tomorrow I'm leaving again for a 5 day adventure to Morocco.  I will be sure to let you know all about it when I return!