The bus ride was long and the driver played really weird music, but we finally made it to Barcelona this morning. Early in the morning. So, we waited at the train station for dawn at least before lugging our bags around town. It took us quite a while wandering through the Old City looking for our hostel, during which we began to get a feel for the city. The narrow streets and charming architecture make our area quite pleasant to walk through.

After check-in (our room has a balcony!), we walked to the Barcelona Cathedral, which has a unique jungle-esque courtyard in the middle. Very gothic and ornate, as most cathedrals are (certainly not La Sagrada Familia, see tomorrow’s post). Then we proceeded to wander around the city, taking in all the romantic scenery of such a strange place.

It was tough to hold back and not to take a photo down every street we came to—we got enough as it was. Like Paris, the city was a bit slow to wake, with most of the shops still unlocking at 10:00. The best parts about Barcelona are the narrow, winding streets that are crowded with people, shops, and cafes. The worst parts about Barcelona are the winding streets that are crowded with people, shops, and cafes. Barcelona seems to be a city of sharp contrasts, a palimpsest of old and new, Western and North African, bright and clean and filthy, filthy, dirty. It is exactly as one might imagine Europe to be a thousand years ago with its vine draped balconies, flower markets and hanging laundry, yet all of this is juxtaposed with advertisements for sunglasses, and coca-cola, and night clubs. Beautiful from the waist up, just don’t look at the streets filled with trash and smelling of sewage.

The Picasso museum is a virtual monument to the contrasts of Barcelona. Dedicated entirely to one of the masters of the modern avant garde, it is housed in a crumbling 15th-century stone house. Yet inside, the walls are clean and white—and display a large collection of the artist’s work in chronological order.

Since we were in Spain, we naturally had to take a siesta in the early afternoon to recharge. Refreshed, we took a long walk down to the beach, which was, in a word, gorgeous. I’ll let you check out the photos for yourself, but the weather was great and the breeze was wonderful. The Mediterranean was a bit chilly at first, but not bad once you were in there for a spell. It was so great, we spent most of the day there relaxing with a bottle of wine in the sunshine. We do recommend it highly, if you’re ever in town.

By nightfall, we headed out to find some supper and ran into some sort of political rally; people where banging pots and pans and making all sorts of noise. No idea what it was about, but eh.