Day 10: Barcelona

Day 2 of being in Barcelona we were a bit better about getting up with our alarm clocks.  This time my clock was set to the right time zone and I seem to usually be the one who starts the day first.  After another egg breakfast we headed out the door in search of the Gaudi architecture that can be found along the main road.  I had been in side one of them on the previous trip and this time we decided to not go in because of the high. Entrance fee.  In my opinion it's worth going inside at least one of them but since I had already done that I followed what my travel companions wanted to do. Our next stop what the Parc Guell.  Here you can find a lot of Gaudi statues.  It's named after Guell because he helped pay for Gaudi's work.  In this work you can find the house where Gaudi himself lived for 20 years along with statues and benches designed by him.. His house is now the Gaudi museum.  We were more interested in getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city than seeing the museum so we climbed the hill to get a view of the city.  The park is usually crawling with people and take takes away from the park but is still a great place to visit, well worth going the distance to hang out there for a while. After the park we made our way back to our room for a mid day siesta and lunch. With so much sun exposure and walking, these siestas continue to be a great day to keep spirits high. After our siesta we went out to once again wander around the old town piping into cute little shops filled with artistic little things along with the standard tourist things also.  Yesterday we had spotted some skirts in a market style booth but she had limited supplies there so today we decided to find her store and there we made it big.  She was having a deal:  one skirt for 30euro or two for 45 euro.  We looked at each other and found the skirts we wanted.  An amazing buy.  I like supporting independent people like that because you know that no one else you know will have something like that.  Well now Kaija and I have them. Yesterday when we visited a church they were having mass so we decided to come back at another time.  We had headed out with this spot in mind so we once again went into the Santa Maria del Pi.  I tend to like to sit down to get the feel of a church. Sometimes I like to walk around and e the church but most often I like to just sit and take it all in.  It's nice when the other visitors are milling around quietly but this crowed was the opposite but yesterday we had the chance to sit and hear what a mass would be like in a huge church as this one.  There is also a courtyard area that has these pretty white ducks wandering around or swimming in a gated area. Eventually we made our way down to the beach, because how can you visit Barcelona without going to the beach?!  It felt night to walk in the decently warm waters of the Mediterranean and to once again get away from the city even if only for a bit.  Once again our stomachs began to ask for food so we made our way to a few places that were ranked as budget restaurants.  Right up our ally.  Since we had already had tapas and paella it didn't really matter to us what we ate so we settled for some good pizza and beer/sangria ( no not mixed together, Kaija and Pecis had beer while I stuck to having sangria).  Since we ate early, well earlier than other nights we visited the food store to pick up a few snacks for the evening.  We finished off the day with a bottle of wine and a few games of gin rummy.  Tomorrow afternoon we leave Barcelona to go to Sevilla.