Barcelona, Spain

So for the first part of my trip to Spain, I decided to meet up with my co-workers, Andrew and Tom, in Barcelona (Barca), for a raging good time. Barcelona is located in the region of Catalunya, where they consider themselves a separate country from Spain. They love their region so much that some natives actually get mad if you speak to them in Spanish. All in all, the city is beautiful in that it is has a really nice beach areas along with alot of history and architecture. The sights are some of the best in the world and the nightlife is renowned near the areas of Olympic Port and La Rambla, the site of our hotel. Be advised if you do happen to visit Barca: There are pick-pockets everywhere, especially on La Rambla since it is the most crowded and filled with many tourists and shoppers. Come night time, the street will swarm with large black prostitutes, drug salesmen, and lone beer vendors who are trying to make some money. Each group looks relatively harmless but are very experienced at what they do. The prostitutes are very strong and will aggressively try to earn their day's pay. I made the mistake of talking to one of them. This was a bad call. And no, I didn't do what you may think I did. That's just dirty.

In the city there is alot of architecture that is inspired by Antonio Gaudi, such as the temple, La Sagrada Familia, shown below. Personally, I think Gaudi was a flamer who liked making art about trees and insects.

Spanish people are very intimate with each other (what Europeans aren't?) and also very lazy. Pretty much all of the buildings you see are under construction with various cranes around it (picture above). I assumed they just used the time to work to go on extended siestas in the day. Spain does have some really good food as well. Tapas, paella, and sangria are very common for everyday meals. I had the vegeterian paella below:

We had the opportunity to visit the FC Barcelona football stadium as well. Football is king in Europe and Spain is no exception. They love their football club there and pride their team especially against their arch-rivals, Real Madrid. Barcelona was definitely a highlight of my time in Europe.

Barcelona