"To travel is worth any cost or sacrifice" - Elizabeth Gilbert Eat, Pray, Love I am just a little behind on the updating of this blog, so unlike me... I've learned how incredible, but entirely exhausting, traveling to a different country every weekend really can be. So needless to say, the weekdays have me running around like crazy juggling classes, laundry, and all that other fun stuff. No complaining here though, don't know that I will ever be in this predicament again... soaking it ALL up. So the weekend of November 7th, a group of gals got together to celebrate Madeleine's 21st birthday! Where was her pick to spend the special birthday weekend? Barcelona, Spain! Saturday we arrived, settled into our hotel and our stomachs were already grumbling for some tapas and definitely thirsty for the Spaniards infamous sangria, too! There's nothing more synonymous with Spanish cuisine than tapas, the tradition of eating small dishes to form a main meal is huge here. What could be better than mixing and matching all different little foods in one sitting? For a food lover like myself, nothing beats it! After dinner we went to a couple different bars. Friends that have visited Barcelona before, mentioned one in particular... Bar Dow Jones. Think 'New York Stock Exchange drinking game' -- As drinks are purchased, the values of the drinks begin to fluctuate. Once the sirens go off, warning of a Stock Market crash, everyone snags their drinks at their lowest price! The concept of this bar had us all laughing and playing along; we certainly had a perfect night out in Spain. And OF COURSE we had the bartender play a birthday tune for Mads at midnight! It seems I've been traveling with a rain cloud over my head the last month! Better than snow though, in my opinion. We always make the best of it anyhow and find something to do to stay dry! Sunday morning we had breakfast and headed out into the city. We spent the rainy Barcelona afternoon walking around and exploring the Picasso Museum. The Museu Picasso reveals Picasso's relationship with the city of Barcelona, a relationship that was shaped in his youth and adolescence, and continued until his death in 1973. Very cool place! The remainder of Sunday consisted of walking around and stopping into tons of little shops and boutiques. We bumped into a poem shop, EXPENDEDURÍA POÉTICA , Barcelona Take Away Poetry. They call themselves a "poetic retail shop: art gallery/ poetry shop / poetic space." Anyone can walk in and create an original poem called "Take Away Poetry" which basically works like this: you walk in and grab a sheet of paper, write your name and home country, then stamp up to 3 words at the top. Once you hand the document to the poet, he or she will begin your poem based on the words of your choice. The poem goes next to another poet who continues the poem. Once the poem is finished you put it in a little box and can take it home or anyone can buy them for a small donation. I just fell in love with the whole idea, so darling! The poem I purchased at random reads... "Possible. Laugh. Create. This many never be possible again, so I sit down and laugh; like insanity brewing and the people who look will laugh as well; to be unwound like this inside the jasmine scent of summer. Tastes of ginger of tomorrow of the possibility that all of this can be laughed away. Breathe deep and begin anew; this was always an option; so let's stand tippy toes on the brink of today." Beautiful, right? The last few stops of the busy day... Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell. Sagrada Familia was such a unique church, nothing like those I've seen before. It almost looks like a giant wet sand castle; so interesting. Park Guell was stunning as well. In order to get to the park you must climb this hill, which seemed almost vertical. We definitely got a nice workout making our way to the top just before the sun completely set. There is a large stone staircase in the park in which you can view the entire city; it was such an incredible panoramic view and great way to end our weekend in Spain! Lovely trip celebrating a wonderful friend's birthday- Happy 21st Madeleine!
Shine On -KRIS10
1 Comment
Aunt Nikki
11/18/2014 04:24:29 am
The architecture of the church is wild!
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