Me Amo Barcelona, M'encanta Barcelona, J'aime Barcelone

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.

A Not So Good City Called Marseille

I don't really know how to describe my disappointment in the city that is Marseille. I was expecting it to be this fantastic city: I mean it is the French Riviera, after all. 

So, we walked to our hostel and then decided to get food, and it was later, probably like 11. Anyway, we see a freakin' fetish hooker getting picked up. As we later found out, this was par for the course that is the dilapidated city that is Marseille. Unfortunately, a lot of our down time was spent in the hostel either playing cards or talking or just lounging around.

We went to a beach our first full day, which was fine. I mean the water was beautiful, but the beach was pebbles instead of sand. The unfortunate thing was just how unsafe the city itself feels. We were walking down the street, and Mona whipped out the map to make sure we were going in the right direction. Lindsey and I both literally looked at each other and told Mona to put away the map before we got killed in the middle of the street in broad daylight. The men across the street looked like they were about to jump us in the street. Anyway, on our second full day, we went to Cassis, a small city on the coast.

Cassis turned out to be everything I think of when I think about Mediterranean cities. It had a bunch of outdoor cafes, tiled roofs, bright blue sea, and a sandy beach. We weren't able to stay long, so we wandered down by the beach and walked in the icy-cold water before searching for lunch. 

We found an outdoor cafe for lunch, and the food was pretty good. I had seafood pizza, and the three of us split a bottle of vine from a local vineyard. It's true; seafood in a coastal city is absolutely amazing.