Barcelona por Tercera Vez

​Spain was the first country that I ever visited in Europe, this was my fifth time to the country, and my third time in Barcelona.  My original itinerary for this month included time back in Madrid (which I haven’t been to since I was 15!) and the Basque Region (I’ve always dreamt of seeing the Altamira Caves!) and even a day trip to Andorra (I’ve always been obsessed with the tiny country nestled in between Spain and France).  My trip got off to a late start though so I just started in Barcelona.  

Enjoying an afternoon on the beach

Near the beach, we spotted one of those new rolled ice cream shops that have usurped the frozen dessert throne from fro yo.  It was interesting, but I'm not sure how I feel about the eyes.  Things that don't have faces shouldn't have faces!

How do we feel about the rolled ice cream trend? Cute? Interesting? Creepy?

The city feels very familiar to me and is one of my favourites, despite the pick-pocketing incident last time.

I decided to try a yoga class that was in Spanish and understood about 70% of what was said.  This is a far improvement over when I try to take a yoga class in Icelandic and understand about 20% of what was said!
 
I wanted to use my Spanish a lot more than I did, but most people spoke English and often spoke to me in English right away.  I still spoke it as much as I could and was pleased that it seemed a lot better than my last couple of trips to Spain.  About seven months ago, I started actively working on it again for the first time since high school so it is a lot less rusty.

Despite visiting Barcelona twice before, this was the first time I actually went into La Sagrada Familia.  It was gorgeous, despite being still under construction, 110 years about construction initially began.  The estimated date of completion is 2026, a century after the architect Gaudi’s death.  

The stained glass inside of La Sagrada Familia

​I also visited La Piedra, another house designed by Gaudi.  The towers at the top reminded me of the cave dwellings in Cappadocia, Turkey.  

The towers of La Piedra

A windy view of Barcelona

My time in Barcelona went way too quickly and then it was off to France!