Barcelona - Yup, As Good As They Say

Well, Barcelona lived up to it's high expectations. Seriously, every person we talked to about traveling in the last year told us we had to go to Barcelona. So we did, and it was gooooood - the food, the architecture, the super mellow people, the wine, the excellent transportation system, the history.......everything.

Once again photos say it best.

View of Las Ramblas from our balcony.

The Gaudi house.

Sagrada Familia.

Love me an old church.

Oh and the race! I completed the Barcelona Half Marathon in 1:43. I felt good the entire time and maintained a steady pace throughout the race. It helped that the course markers were in kilometers, so I couldn't psych myself out over how many miles I had left the way I normally do. I just ran at a consistent effort and enjoyed the day.

As an aside, the Spanish are really mellow racers. First of all, everyone was just so polite - and there were lots of men with colorful neckerchiefs running. Why not be stylish! True to stereotypical form, none of the Spaniards lined up until about 30 seconds before the start. Everyone was simply smiling and chatting away, and there wasn't a mass pushing rush when the start cannon fired.

Also stereotypical perhaps, after the race you got an orange, a banana, and a bottle of water. No corporate sponsors pushing weird BS supplements, no bagels with cream cheese, no burritos, no bags of chips, no pizza, no beer (OK I missed the beer part) like you get in the US. It was refreshingly simple and nice.

You eat at MEAL times in Spain, not ALL the time. This is something we should all try to emulate for the sake of our waistlines.

Dave chose to sleep-in on race day. The bed was adjustable, who can blame him.

After the race, we accidentally stumbled upon the La Laia Festival, which is a celebration of the feast day of Santa Eulàlia - the ancient patron saint of the city of Barcelona. The festival is a few days long and is Barcelona’s biggest annual event for kids. They all dress up and parade down every street in the Gothic Quarter with drums and instruments and weird gigantic Papier-mâché statues that honestly freaked me the eff out. 

Weird and creepy gigantic statues.

Also, there were lots of Catalan cultural events, dancing, and music associated with the festival. It was a nice weekend to be in the Barcelona, and normally I really hate festivals and the hype and crowds that go along with them. It is just too many effing people for me. But February is low season in Barcelona, so it was pleasant and mostly locals.

Dancing, man I wanted to join in.

Old ladies making lace in the square.

More creepy festival weirdness.

This was Dave's favorite part of the festival, the fireworks marking the end.

You can do this shit when you have national healthcare, can you imagine the lawsuits in the US.

Now, these are not the professional kind of fireworks you see 100 feet in the air, but rather the halfass kind buy at the store and light yourself and hope not to set your own limbs on fire in the process. Seriously, I have never seen anything like it - check out the video below. And these are little KIDS all having the time of their lives with discount fireworks. The entire square just exploded as everyone lit their fireworks at the same time. It was crazy, I thought my hair was going to catch on fire......

I do feel like you need some time in Barcelona and the surrounding area to really figure things out, a long weekend was NOT enough. There is just so much history and culture, you barely get a sense of it in a few days. I definitely hope to make it back for a longer trip at some point in my life.