Hasta La Vista España!

Author:  Brandon (Dad)

Like the first two stops on our trip, Barcelona was amazing and our time spent there was too short. What an amazing city. We spent hours and hours just walking the streets and alleyways of the Gothic Quarter, but even after four nights of doing so, we would still stumble upon sights we hadn’t encountered.

Instead of long rambling sentences, I thought I’d just bullet point some highlights and observations from Barcelona….

· Every souvenir shop is exactly the same…and there are a lot of them. It is also a requirement that you display a child’s size Messi kit on the front door.

· Many (most?) people who live in Barcelona don’t see themselves as Spanish. They identify themselves as Catalonian. We saw countless Catalonia flags hanging and more than a few demonstrations/marches. This is a bit similar to the feeling in San Sebastián, where they identify as Basque.

 

· Along major pathways you’ll see immigrants selling their wares on large white sheets. There are about five different types of vendors and their inventories do not differ: 

• Football/soccer jerseys (knock off) 
• Purses (knock off) 
• Shoes (knock off) 
• Sunglasses (knock off) 
• Trinkets/Keychains, etc.  (not sure there's such thing as a knock off keychain, but if there is...)

· Luke has put me on a strict “one meal with seafood in it per day” limit. It’s not for my health or anything, he’s just very sensitive about sea animals and hates to see me eating them.

· We found an American style brewpub while wandering near the port. It featured some really good beers. One thing the Spanish (and English for that matter) seem to do well is produce quality low alcohol beers. I had a 3.2 ABV session IPA that was fantastic. The place was called Black Lab Brewhouse and they had a brewery dog that was part shiba inu. It reminded me of a shiba inu that I know (hey SDB!)

· The celebration surrounding the Festival of St Joan is no joke. An entire night of fireworks and loud explosions. Our flat over looked a square in a bit of a 'shady' area. It was a fun night from our balcony.

· Luke has had more soda in the past week than a seven year old should ever have. He seems happy about it though.

· Luke also endured a one-day ban from screens of any type (computer, phone, etc.). Hardest day of his life. 

 

· The World Cup has been a lot of fun to watch. I think we’ve seen at least half, usually close to all, of every game. Always more fun when we could find a lively crowd that was into the game.

· The Maritime Museum of Barcelona is a completely underrated attraction. Hardly anyone was there, it was fairly cheap and was VERY well done. Far better technologically and more interactive than any museum we’ve been to, in England or Spain.

· While there are two top level (La Liga) football teams in Barcelona (FCB and Espanyol) the area is completely saturated with Barcelona jerseys. Of boys between the ages of 5 and 15, I’d say about half were wearing a Barca jersey. Of those, probably 75% were Lionel Messi.

· Livi has been reading a series of books called “Heroes of Olympus” non stop. While in the security line at the airport prior to our flight to Dubrovnik, she finished one book, then seamlessly transitioned to the next one. Little concerned about finding English-language books in Croatia though. We’ll see how this goes.

· Luke bugged us pretty much non-stop for about 4 days about getting this pre-packaged ice cream treat called the XXL. They are advertised in every little shop. We finally gave in last night and after taking a look at one up close, he said, “no thanks, I’ll have this one”, and grabbed a Cornetto (think Drumstick). 

· Prices were much higher in Barcelona than San Sebastián. Also far more people. Too many people for my taste. While it is exciting for a while, I look forward to the more serene life that awaits us in Croatia. 

· The city has absolutely amazing architecture.  If you like some of the photos on our Instagram page, you'll want to look into the work of Antoni Gaudi.  Pretty amazing stuff.

We are entering the final stage of the “planned” portion of our trip. After around three weeks in the village my relatives reside (Cilipi), the future is unknown. We have a lot of ideas, but nothing is set in stone. Any advice for me to convince Tiffany to extend our stay for another, oh, I don’t know, nine months or so?