I really like the vibe of Barcelona. It kind of reminds me of Pattaya, but the good parts. Meaning it's full of restaurants and bars near the beach, while being super laid back. It just makes me slow down and enjoy things, and I am enjoying it.

Plus the shops in Spanish (or Catalan?) are called "super mercat", which makes me imagine a cat mermaid superhero. That's always worth a chuckle.

We started not doing anything too notable in Barcelona. Having embraced the laid-back vibe, we wandered around the city, seeing buildings, drinking coffee, and eating things. Fortunately things are about 30% cheaper than Paris, which is much appreciated. Speaking of buildings, a lot of Barcelona's attractions are based on this fellow named Gaudi, although maybe some prefer to call him "Gaudy". He has about half a dozen buildings around Barcelona, and they all have a weird, organic style to them. To me, it almost feels like you asked insects to make a building. They look cool from the outside, but all the pictures we've been seen of the inside seem pretty normal and not worth the price of entry. Who knows, maybe next time we'll take a look - certainly there were people lined up for them, so I guess something is interesting in there. Then again, people lined up for that cable car in Paris that goes 50 meters, so I learned that people will line up for pretty dumb things.

But one of Gaudi's projects is worth the line, and you've probably heard of it. The Sagrada Familia is a big church that has been under construction for like 100 years, and won't be finished for many more. It's the top tourist attraction in the city, and here I go seeing a church after spending the last few weeks seeing dozens. But this one is definitely worth it. Sitting here, writing this, it has such an odd style. Ella said it looked like it was from Star Wars, and it does almost have an alien look to it. There's a lot of sharp angles, which look out of place for a church. But other parts have an almost organic, plant-like appearance, yet still symmetrical. Of course I'm going to add a lot of photos, but I really think this is one place you need to see for yourself. Looking at individual photos makes it appear odd, yet normal enough. But when seeing it in person, the contrast between the different parts sort of breaks my brain, like I'm having a holiday on Coruscant or something.

But most of Barcelona's other attractions are located in its Gothic Quarter, which is honestly an attraction itself. It's a very unique looking part of town, and I can't help but to compare it to Florence. They are different though, as Florence looks like a castle courtyard. Whereas Barcelona looks like a church courtyard. See? Totally different. But it's pretty neat, because like Florence there are few cars, and it's full of little shops and bars to find. We spent the entire morning just kind of wandering around, dodging the sun while drinking coffee and sangria. We also stumbled on the Barcelona History Museum, which I was initially pretty unimpressed with. However as it goes on, you go down into the basement, which have the remains of the streets and walls back when Barcelona was a Roman city. I remember wandering how old some of these things are, so I looked at a sign to see they were built in 10. Like, 10 as in 10 AD . So, that's pretty cool. It's a bit of a labyrinth down there, and definitely worth it. But you can skip the city museum upstairs, bit of a snoozefest.

But Barcelona is also near the coast, so we of course need to see the ocean. Well, I guess the sea would be more accurate. Still, it seems like a nice enough beach, although certainly a bit crowded. I guess that makes sense since it's practically downtown, but I had found more rural and probably nicer beaches online. Still, we walked along the beach for a bit, which is actually in another very cool neighborhood. It's got a nice square in the middle that had some nice outdoor restaurants and a lot of kids playing by themselves, so it seems like a safe place, despite it looking pretty inner-city. Actually according to the previously mentioned Barcelona museum, the Barcelonetta neighborhood actually has one of the cheapest rents in the city, and I cannot understand why. Maybe the buildings are too old and need renovated? But a walkable neighborhood, with little car access, full of bars, and next to the beach? I mean, sign me up.

 

Also, cool rocks.

 

Overall, I have a pretty positive impression of Barcelona. It has a fair amount to do for a city of its size, and is pretty affordable. It also has a bit of its own thing going on, with lots of locals out in squares chilling, and a pretty great food scene. Plus everyone seems to be bilingual in English, I guess due to the all the tourists. Nice for us, but I've tried my best to speak Spanish. I'm actually not terrible at it, although I hear the locals prefer Catalan. But that won't be a problem for the next destination on our European tour, Madrid. I really don't know what to expect there, but hopefully tapas and cheap coffee will continue to make an appearance.