We woke up bright and early on Thursday, missed our classes, and headed to Barcelona via plane. We made a killing, 32 € round trip. That's unheard of anywhere else. So we land and we take the metro, which is super easy to use, and find the street near our hostel called Las Ramblas. This is actually one of the main streets of the city and it had lots of street vendors and La Boquería, a marketplace where they have fresh food every day at low prices. This became our new favorite spot and I even got to try out some pitaya, or dragonfruit. The first thing I bought was a dragonfruit slushie.
Next, we had heard about this Museo de Chocolate, or in Catalan (a dialect of Spanish) Museue de la Xocolata, or in plain English: The Chocolate Museum. A quick side note on Catalan: Barcelona is in a section of Spain called Cataluña and their official language is actually Catalan. This means that all of their signs are in Catalan, which I can make out some of the words because it is so similar to Spanish, but there are definitely words that threw me for a loop or two. There was (and still is) a time when Cataluña wanted to be separate from Spain and be their own country. Nowadays, if you see a bandera, or flag, with 4 red and yellow stripes with a blue triangle and white star, it is someone who supports the nation of Cataluña. The official flag of Cataluña is without the blue triangle and star.
Let's return to the Chocolate Museum. Upon entry, you receive a free mini chocolate bar, which was good because I was getting tired. Then we walked through where we found out about the manufacturing, the history, and what chocolate can be used for. We also saw exquisite art made entirely by chocolate. There was Spongebob, Tom and Jerry wearing the two Barcelona team shirts, and even a model of the Sagrada Familia. We'll talk about that beautiful thing later.After we finished in the museum, we went to their cafe and sat down and drank a coffee. After about 20 minutes, la camarera, or the waitress, came over and brought us a pile of broken pieces of chocolate. They were going to throw it away, but because we were there, they gave it to us.
Then we went to Park Guell, a Gaudi creation, on a hill that overlooks the entire city. It was simply amazing. We stayed there for hours and even made friends with a kid from New York. We just talked and watched the shadow come over the city. Then we took the metro back to our hostel. 
That was essentially our first day. Now, onto the free tour.On our second day, we went to this plaza where we utilized Runner Bean tours, a "free" tour group that asks for donations at the end. On this Friday we chose the Gaudi tour. He is the most famous Spanish architect and has constructed plenty of the buildings in Barcelona. Gaudi really is a genius. At every stop your breath would escape in awe. But the cherry on top of the cake is the Sagrada Familia, which means the Sacred Family.
The Sagrada Familia is a huge cathedral that is still in the process of being built. Estimates say that it will be completed in 13 years for the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. The reason that it has been taking so long is because Gaudi was meticulous in his execution. There is so much detail on the outside depicting the nativity scene. But the outside is nothing compared to the inside. The inside has brilliant stained glass and columns that reach all the way to the top an then branch off giving a tree like sensation. It looks so modern and is definitely the best church, and even basilica that I have ever seen.
After we saw the basilica as thoroughly as possible, we went to the pier. Here, we started to hear music, so obviously we followed it and happened upon a free concert. We stayed and chatted with Spaniards and listened to this alternative rock band that the audience loved. Though we ran into two French people who thought that the band stunk.
So that was day two, and with all the walking and metro, we were exhausted. But we still had one more full day, so we had to take advantage of it. We did another Runner Bean tour where we explored the old part of the city. This is where they had the cathedral and other churches and the Jewish quarter. We saw roman ruins built right into walls of places where people currently live and, since it was wedding week in Barcelona, we saw future grooms dressed up in dresses.
After the tour, we went to the Picasso Park which is right next to the museum. It was really relaxing, but we actually almost got attacked by a family of geese. The little geese-lings were walking around and eating near where people were sitting and the parents were hissing at all of us and at one point it looked like they were rearing up to attack us.
When we were done with the park, we started walking back to our hostel, but we came upon a wine tasting. For 5 € we got 6 glasses of wine from all over Spain. It was a lot of fun and I realized that it would've stunk to have gone to Europe and not have done a wine tasting.
Later that day, we returned to Park Guell and drank some beers and played cars and looked at the city. We met up with our friend from New York and he joined us in a game of President. Everyone has their own rules on how to play, but mine are definitely the best. And since they were my cards, we played my rules that have been passed down through the Cotton family. Unfortunately, I didn't represent and the girls we were playing with were dominating, but it was still extremely fun.We got a little tired and decided to go to the hostel to nap for an hour. Unfortunately, we napped too long and it turned into a 9 hour sleep. We woke up and got packed and went to the airport to fly back to Granada.
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