Barcelona Day 1

Caroline and Lucas, my friends from Germany, flew to Barcelona so that we could meet up for a few days. Despite having gotten only about 2 hours of sleep on the flight over, I did pretty well with them yesterday and we stayed up past midnight eating, drinking and catching up. They continually complimented my Spanish, which made me feel really good – a feeling that was only slightly diminished by the fact that they don’t know a word of Spanish.

I woke up at 6 a.m. today and, oddly, felt pretty rested. I decided to go for a run and then noticed that it was 9:30, meaning I had fallen asleep for 3 ½ hours while I was deciding to get up and go for a run. I would probably still be sleeping if Caroline hadn’t called me to tell me that they were waiting for the three of us to have breakfast together. 

They’re only here for three days and wanted to see all the Barcelona highlights so it’s been a whirlwind.
Sagrada Familia, check. Montjuic Park, Boqueria Market, the beach, Ciutadella Park, Palau de Musica, check, check, check, check and check.

Tomorrow is our last day together at which point I can resume my typical travel role of sullen loner, something I very much look forward to.

I believe Barcelona is finally running out of new ideas for things to sell to tourists, judging from the duck store and the business that takes high resolution pictures of your iris and then gives them back to you to hang on your wall as a conversation piece. The eye thing doesn’t seem like a terrific idea to me, something that was borne out by the fact that I have never seen anyone in one of those stores.