Holy crap, I'm in Barcelona

After several hours of night driving, my parents and I made it to amazing Barcelona! 

 

Salmon balls with cream cheese

Since we stayed up 'til 3AM, we slept in late and chilled in the apartment while it poured outside. Once the clouds had cleared, we headed out to find lunch. Nothing was open! All of the stores and many restaurants were closed due to Good Friday, an official holiday. We did manage to find a fancy bar/restaurant that served up some delicious grub! I tried pumpkin ravioli, salmon balls (filled with cream cheese) and chicken tempura. Yummy!

The sugar packet says "Cafe Sagrada Familia" with a picture on it.
Of course, I am holding it upside-down...
Note the FCB flag in the background.

We walked to la Sagrada Familia, the famous, unfinished cathedral built by Antonio Gaudi; another top item on my lifelong Bucket List.

Mom is so excited to enter the Sagrada. Do we look like sisters?

It was even more amazing than I could have expected. I felt so lucky and humbled when I looked up at the huge, almost bizarre-looking Cathedral surrounded by towering cranes. Though I don't know if everyone shares my sentiment, one of the most charming ideas about the cathedral is that it will continue to be constructed over 100 years after the architect's death. They make a big deal about Gaudi's "dream" finally being completed. Even more charming is the fact that he spent the last several months of his life toiling over his life's masterpiece, sleeping in his basement workshop, and was eventually buried underneath in the crypt.

 

Sadness on the Passion Facade

Shadow play

The golden triangle in the middle stands for the Holy Trinity

Holy Trinity up close

Gaudi was only 31 when he was commissioned to do the Sagrada Familia!!!
Makes me want to do something with my life...

One of my favorite things that I learned was that Gaudi was obsessed with perfecting the amount of lighting that entered the cathedral. While many people think that cathedrals should be streaming full of light, Gaudi thought this could be just as blinding as darkness. For the perfect religious experience, the Cathedral had to have just the right amount of light.

Shadow of the crucified Christ against stained glass windows.

Although I'm not a religious person, the Sagrada Familia had me completely in awe. Gaudi's story and ideals made it so much more interesting than just seeing the building (although that was damn awesome too).

The more joyful Nativity Facade

The brown parts show what has been finished; the beige is pending construction

We came home to grab some jackets, then headed back out to La Rambla, the must-see shopping and eating avenue in Barcelona. On our taxi ride there, I chatted up the driver; a much more succesful exchange than I had expected.

• I asked him about Semana Santa and if the stores would be closed on Saturday. He explained that not too much would happen here on Sunday and that stores should be open on Saturday (even Corte Ingles was closed on Friday!).
• I asked him if there were many people here that spoke Catalan but not Spanish. He told me that those who spoke Catalan usually also spoke Castellano (Spanish), but there are also a lot of Spaniards who only speak Castellano. There is suprisngly a lot of writing in Catalan here; I thought it would be mostly Castellano.
• When I said that I didn't know/understand any Catalan, he asked where I was from and told me that my Spanish was awesome. After constantly feeling self-conscious about my "sub-par" Spanish, that was such a great feeling! He reassured me, like 'No, really!' 
• I then asked him if he could recommend some places for us to eat dinner. He was so friendly! He recommended a ton of places. He told me about 4 Gats, a restaurant in the Gothic Quarter where Pablo Picasso had two art exhibitions! I made reservations for Saturday.

We weren't starving after our fancy lunch, so we headed out in hopes of finding a few tapas to fill us up, but not over-stuff us. We were in for an interesting surprise when the check came...

Yes, that cloud was legitimately pink!

We knew that the waiter was trying to screw us over when we entered (I can feel my blood pressure raising as I write this). He tried to order us the huge, over-priced tourist meals after louring us in with reasonably priced tapas on the menu outside. I eventually switched to Spanish and explained that we weren't that hungry and were just interested in a few tapas. After we got to the point where we thought he had backed down and was going to just give us what we wanted, I asked if we could order some cheese (Dad wanted some). At this point, I had let my guard down, so I stopped asking how much each plate would cost; we saw that most tapas were under 8 euros.

The meal was tasty: we had calamares a la romana (fried calamari), patatas bravas (brave potatoes--potatoes in a seafood-esque sauce), bread with tomatoes & olive oil, and our cheese plate. The sangria was some of the best I have had since I came to Spain! When we got the check however, we found that the waiter had charged us over $50 for the cheese plate. We all got pretty angry and my dad chewed out the waiter. Keep in mind that everything else we ordered was 4-7 euros each...NEVER EAT AT Restaurante Amatxu if you go to Barcelona. They gyp the tourists! >:( It was a relief to check them out on TripAdvisor. One star and all horrible reviews; everyone gets gyped there!

We left, pretty angry, but tried not to let it ruin our awesome first day in Barcelona. When we got back to the hotel, Aparthotel Acacia, we were greeted by our very friendly concierge. When he found out that I spoke Castellano, he asked me about how long I'll be in Spain, if I'm enjoying it, etc. It was quite a relief to speak with a nice Barcelonian after our dinner fiasco. When we asked him what would be going on for Easter Sunday, he explained that Spaniards are less religious here than in the South. No wonder Murcia's Semana Santa processions were so elegant! It does seem strange that the sweetest cathedral is here though.