Barcelona, I'll miss you

Short summaries, lots of pictures

Day 2

• Attempted to go the Picasso museum. Line was way too long. Instead, we walked around the Gothic Quarter for a while just looking at stuff. It was at this point that we discovered Placa Sant Jaume, which we got pretty sick of because every time we tried to get anywhere in the Gothic Quarter we ended up back there. In our wanderings we saw the Barcelona cathedral and some odd stores.

• Walked to Parc de la Ciutadella, a huge and really nice park. Canoed on the man-made lake there for only 2€! and had tons of fun.
  

• Walked back towards Las Ramblas along the water, looked at the boats, and searched through a tiny flea market where I bought an incredibly tacky model of what Sagrada Familia will look like when it's done. Tried to eat lunch at the market on Las Ramblas, but it was closed!
• After lunch, took the bus up to Parc Güell, a park designed by Gaudi. Walked up to see something Joy called the three crosses, basically three crosses on the top of a hill (Parc Güell is already on a hill, so there was a great view). Wandered around the park and went in the very small Gaudi museum in the park, housed in Gaudi's former residence.

• Went back to the Gothic Quarter and finally were able to go to the Picasso museum. The main exhibit traced his evolution from "normal" painting to cubism. Definitely one of the highlights of my trip. Unfortunately we were only able to spend about an hour in the museum.
• After the museum, we ate delicious paella! It was a little expensive for budget travelling, but worth it.

Day 3

• Started our day off by going to Casa Mila, one of the two more famous Gaudi-designed houses in Barcelona (the other one cost 16.50€ to go in, so we opted for the one that was onlz 8€). Spent the whole morning in there. Really awesome house, plus an interesting exhibit about Gaudi's designs and methods.

• Spent most of the afternoon wandering around the Gothic Quarter looking in the weird and funky stores, and searching for some of the Gaudi buildings scattered around that area. Finally ate lunch at the market since it was open--the cheapest meal I had on the entire trip. 2 euros total for watermelon and bread, which we split.
  

• Walked down to the beach so that I could see it and say I'd been to the beach. I managed to stick my hand in the Mediterranean! And get some Mediterranean sand in my shoes.

• Went with Joy to pick up her girls from kindergarten and school, and then said goodbye. Afterward I went to see a few more Gaudi houses and the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. Tried to visit the Palau Reial, but the grounds were closed by the time I got there.
  

The end!

To sum up, Barcelona is amazing. And so are student discounts. If you go to USC, use that sucker anywhere you go! Since it has no date on it, I'm gonna use that thing until someone turns it down.

If you want to look at all of my pictures, click on my Picasa link to the right. I just spent an enjoyable afternoon looking through a bunch of my old pictures. All of my pictures from my trips are posted on there.