We left off as we started walking up towards part Guell, the outdoor fiesta of a park Antonio Gaudi designed. It was quite the hike up there. Super steep and you know how I love exercise....
[ from the ground, not a doctored photo ]
I shouldn't really be complaining, half the trek up was escalators, outdoor escalators. Just before we reached the top of the hill we stopped at a cafe and got a pizza to go, we made it to the top and sat on a bench and with the view of the whole of Barcelona in our sights, we ate some park pizza.
[ park pizza ]
After our delightful snack, we headed down to the main center of the park, with a brief break for an air dunk contest of course.
Gaudi loves curves and the whimsical. Nearly everything looks start out of a dream, the park kinda looks like a giant gingerbread structure, colorful tiles with white grout looks like candies in frosting. Really only pictures can describe it and I know you don't want to read it anyway. 
<3
yes I just did the girly little heart thing. Get over it.
After changing our pants we headed back out to go look at the Barcelona Cathedral. We found it after walking around for a bit, Barcelona is a pretty happening place. We passed a free concert deal with a mini orchestra with a big group doing some kind of folk dance. We stopped to check it out and then hit up the cathedral. We walked in, gorgeous of course. Kellen starts wandering around. He ends up inside the cloister just as mass is starting and gets stuck. I think he planned it cause he was telling us about how much he has wanted to go to a mass. So Brit and I sat in the pews just outside the cloister and listening to mass. The first twenty minutes were really cool, I have never been to mass let alone a Spanish Catholic mass. Then after that it got cold and boring and I can't speak Spanish. About seventy or so minutes go by, by this point Kellen has listening, mumbled the Lord's prayer in Spanish, given money to the collection plate and received the Eucharist. He finally got out and we went across the street to eat some paella, which is saffron rice and meat and veggies all sauteed together in a huge pan and is delectable.
After that I was tired and kinda just wanted to go home but we ended wandering around going to this and seeing that they were closed and Katie was right just to get that extra hour of sleep, mind you this is still the same day after the bus from heck (censored it mom).
Saturday February 13
We woke up bright and early and headed out for a day full of adventures! ha. We started out by heading to the Las Ramblas street market. Inside the covered food market there are stands and stands of fresh fruit meat, bread, and candy. We got a bag full of mini croissants, chocolate filled ones of course and fresh fruit smoothie things. I saved mine to eat on the train.
We hopped on over to the train station and headed out to Monserat. Its north and more inland that Barcelona. It takes about an hour and a half to get there. We went there because there is a sweet mountain top monastery there. We rode a little train the winds up the side of the mountain, quite literally. It was really pretty to look down over all the mountains. Its was amazing to go from flat beach to real snow covered mountains in like thirty miles. The cathedral of the monastery reminded me of lord of the rings a little bit, especially being on top of a mountain.
They have a really old relic, a Black Virgin Mary icon. She's black because she's made out of really dark wood, not trying to be racist. She's about a thousand or so years old. That was neat. We spent the afternoon wandering around, eating lunch and taking lots of pictures.
After the park, we ventured over to the pier. This is why I loved Barcelona, the beach, the pier, the water. It was a gorgeous day, still in the fifties, but beautifully sunny. We walked down Port Vell, which oddly has a huge shopping mall at the very end of it. But walking out to it we saw all the sailboats docked and the waves crash. We stopped by the aquarium but no time for that, next time guys, next time. Walking back down the pier to head over to the beach we saw all these people riding these rentabikes. We wanted one. We found a rack of them but they are locked into this bike rack thing and we couldn't figure out how to get them out, there wasn't anywhere to put money or any buttons to push. We were baffled and super frustrated. Then Brit happened upon one that wasn't fully locked in and we may or may not have "borrowed it" for a little while. We rode along the sand, taking turns with the one bike. 
[ me on a stolen bike in barcelona ]
Then we played on the beach. At first we were just lounging and then we decided that hey we are on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea, we need to touch said sea. So we went closer to the waves, that was mistake one, in our shoes and socks, that was mistake two. We went up to the surf and bent down to touch it with our unclothed hands, and you guessed it, the wave was bigger than expected and we pretty much fell into it. The water just went up our legs, so we didn't get completely drenched. But at that point we gave up and just splashed around in the water for a bit. Brit and I were like small children, we ran up and down the beach chasing and be chased by the waves. After all that fun we walked back home, sockless, of course with a brief intermission for crepes, and changed our pants.
<3
yes I just did the girly little heart thing. Get over it.
After changing our pants we headed back out to go look at the Barcelona Cathedral. We found it after walking around for a bit, Barcelona is a pretty happening place. We passed a free concert deal with a mini orchestra with a big group doing some kind of folk dance. We stopped to check it out and then hit up the cathedral. We walked in, gorgeous of course. Kellen starts wandering around. He ends up inside the cloister just as mass is starting and gets stuck. I think he planned it cause he was telling us about how much he has wanted to go to a mass. So Brit and I sat in the pews just outside the cloister and listening to mass. The first twenty minutes were really cool, I have never been to mass let alone a Spanish Catholic mass. Then after that it got cold and boring and I can't speak Spanish. About seventy or so minutes go by, by this point Kellen has listening, mumbled the Lord's prayer in Spanish, given money to the collection plate and received the Eucharist. He finally got out and we went across the street to eat some paella, which is saffron rice and meat and veggies all sauteed together in a huge pan and is delectable.
After that I was tired and kinda just wanted to go home but we ended wandering around going to this and seeing that they were closed and Katie was right just to get that extra hour of sleep, mind you this is still the same day after the bus from heck (censored it mom).
Saturday February 13
We woke up bright and early and headed out for a day full of adventures! ha. We started out by heading to the Las Ramblas street market. Inside the covered food market there are stands and stands of fresh fruit meat, bread, and candy. We got a bag full of mini croissants, chocolate filled ones of course and fresh fruit smoothie things. I saved mine to eat on the train.
[ Inside the Market ]
We hopped on over to the train station and headed out to Monserat. Its north and more inland that Barcelona. It takes about an hour and a half to get there. We went there because there is a sweet mountain top monastery there. We rode a little train the winds up the side of the mountain, quite literally. It was really pretty to look down over all the mountains. Its was amazing to go from flat beach to real snow covered mountains in like thirty miles. The cathedral of the monastery reminded me of lord of the rings a little bit, especially being on top of a mountain.
[ Building on the left is the exterior of the Cathedral ]
They have a really old relic, a Black Virgin Mary icon. She's black because she's made out of really dark wood, not trying to be racist. She's about a thousand or so years old. That was neat. We spent the afternoon wandering around, eating lunch and taking lots of pictures.
That afternoon we rode the train back and wandered through a park and along the pier again before we hopped in a cab to the airport.
To make a very very long story short our flight was delayed four hours and then cancelled. The next available flight was Monday morning, remember this is Saturday night. After spending two days being shuffled around to and from the airport and free hotels we finally made it onto our flight, once again delayed on Monday, but only an hour, and made it back to home sweet home London.
Don't worry, folks, that's the end of the show.
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