I apologize for the long delay in writing this blog but I have been travelling for the past 10 days and have not had the access to internet that I now enjoy. To begin, I planned a 5-day trip to Barcelona with my friend Vanessa from Canada. Only she didn't make it the first day because she forgot her passport back in Angers! We made it all the way to the check-in line at the airport in Paris and they wouldn't let her on the plane. So she had to go back to Angers to get it, and I had to go to Barcelona all by myself. The first day I explored Las Ramblas, the main tourist drag, and saw a few street performers. One breakdancing group was pretty impressive. I even gave them 20 centimes (I'm a poor English teacher!). I saw the statue of Columbus pointing to the Americas and some very intricate art nouveau (or, as the Spanish call it, Modernista) architecture. There were birds and flowers for sale all up and down Las Ramblas as well as a huge open-air food market down the street from my hotel. I had a picnic of fresh fruit and bread with cheese the first night I was alone.
Vanessa finally got in the second night, after a long trip of her own, but I should have stuck with the fresh fruit because after our first meal together I got very sick and had to stay in bed the whole third day! When we finally ventured out together on Tuesday, we went straight to Gaudi's Park Güell (his Sacrada Familia and most other buildings were under construction till summer!) to see 
the colorful mosaics and the longest bench in the world (see left). That night, we took an escalator (at right) up the side of the Montjuïc to see the tiny Spanish village that is perched on the edge of the hill. There was a beautiful sunset, a sculpture park, and a giant museum of famous Catalan and Romanesque art. 
That was my favorite day mainly because bad things happened the next, and last, day. We tried to go to the zoo but it was 16 euros (Berlin's zoo was 3)! Also, our plane was two hours late and it rained. We did see some naturalized parrots in the Citudella Park that same day though, which was fun. They did not talk but one posed for a picture for me (at left).
Normally I don't rate cities but Barcelona is one of my least favorite of all the cities I have visited mainly because the food made me sick and later meals weren't too impressive either. Most all of the fountains in the city were turned off for winter, and with all the constuction that was going on things weren't as lovely as they could have been. Looking back at my pictures though, I remember that were quite a few beautiful (or at least creative/interesting) buildings (see example at left). I'm a big fan of Art Nouveau too, so I'm glad I had the chance to see some of the most commanding and influential art of that period. So, after a big, relieved farewell to Spain, I headed back to France to await Ryan and the start of our trip to Rome and Paris...
