We finally were able to put Marseille behind us and take an 8 1/2 hour bus ride to Barcelona. Even our hostel was better. Even being in the city so late was better. We walked around and found pizza at like 11:30 at night and felt totally safe. Definite improvement.
Barcelona is such a great city.
It was strange because most things were in at least three different languages - Spanish, Catalan, and either French or English. Catalan seems almost like a combination of French and Spanish, which makes sense because Barcelona is pretty close to the French border.
We found a really cool market - tons of fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, candy, etc. Plus really delicious and fresh orange juice and raspberry juice. It was the largest market I've ever been to. Everywhere you looked you saw fresh food. Other than the meat stands, it was cool to just walk around and take it all in. The meat stands were quite gross - pig's face literally hanging up and sheep's heads laying out to be bought.
We wandered through the city center and saw some of the Gaudi buildings. We walked down by the harbor and sat in different gardens.
We went into the Sagrada Familia cathedral, which is still a work in progress. Gaudi was wicked ahead of his time for architecture. His buildings literally look like they're growing out of the ground.
And the food.
The food was amazing. I had a fantastic cheese and vegetable panini for lunch. We went back to the hostel's neighborhood - it was an upper-class residential area - for dinner. Our hostel was super cool. It had a roof terrace and a garden. And the staff were friendly and helpful. We went out for dinner in our hostel's neighborhood. It was such a stereotypical Spanish dinner - seafood paella and sangria. It was delicious.
My whirlwind tour of Barcelona definitely left me wanting more. I can't wait to make a return trip to this city.
