After Paris I caught a train to Barcelona and stayed at Tara's apartment for a couple days while I took in the city. Some MIT students had all rented out an apartment for the summer and some had already left so there was a little extra room.
The first night they took me to see the Magic Fountain show at Montjuic. It was a fountain coordinated to music and a light show, this time they had a Queen song playing but I think they rotate it out during different seasons. It was cool for the 10 or 15 minutes that it lasted.
One of the first things we did was go to the beach. It was nice to sit in the ocean for awhile and relax but I didn't bring my camera. Relaxing on the mediterranean was never a bad state to be in post-graduation.
La Boqueria is the big market in Barcelona with a bunch of fresh produce and meats and other foods. Here I'm holding a mango/coconut aqua fresca, my two favorite fruits combined!
Barcelona was also really into their meats, particularly jamon. Tara bought some that had been fed solely acorns which was supposed to improve the taste. It was a lot better than beef jerky and much different than salami or prosciutto.
Wandering the streets also showed that Barcelona was an interesting city. There were a number of different neighborhoods with their own feel.
The most popular piece of architecture to see while in the city is La Sagrada Familia, which is a modern cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi, who was a prominent architect in Barcelona. This was by far the most abstract cathedral I'd seen in Europe. They are still in the process of building it too, going off of the plans that Gaudi left when he died.
Apparently much of the design was supposed to have been inspired by nature. The columns inside were supposed to look like a forest.
I also visited El Parque Guell, which was also designed by Guadi. Up at the very top of a hill you got a nice view of the city.
Just like San Sebastian, Barcelona was interesting in that it was part of its own region, Catalunya, which had a culture distinct from the rest of Spain. They had their own language too.
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