The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Plain

It actually didn't rain while we were there, it just seemed like a fitting title. Barcelona is a very interesting city. Parts of it are very dirty, smelly, run-down, and crowded, and then other parts are unique, beautiful, and worth exploring. Unfortunately, after our time in Paris, we just simply didn't have the energy to do much while we were there. We arrived at our first hostel (I say first hostel because we actually stayed two different places on the two nights we were there) around 10 PM only to be greeted by a boar. Seriously, a wild boar and its babies. Not a pleasant site. We were reassured by someone who worked there that it was safe, but it was still slightly unsettling. 

The next morning we headed into the city to do a little site-seeing. Near our hostel was the Montjuic Castle, which was quite a climb from the bottom of the hill. We walked around up there for a while, but I think we had just hit a wall; not a lot of energy, our hostel wasn’t close to much else, and we were in a…err, less nice part of town. One redeeming quality of Barcelona was that everything was cheap. Cheap food, cheap transportation, cheap wine. So we got dinner at the grocery store (pizza, wine, and gelato for under 10 euro), took it back to the hostel, and watched a movie. And it was wonderful. The following day we had a flight leaving for Zurich in the evening, so we walked around the city to see a little more of Barcelona and also La Sagrada Familia, a church famous for its unique architecture by Gaudi. Here are a few pictures:

Montjuic Castle

The gardens in front of Montjuic Castle

More of the castle

A watch tower

Looking down on the coast from the hilltop

Our delicious and cheap dinner!

A random church in downtown Barcelona

Inside of said random church

La Sagrada Familia

Pretty interesting architecture

We are learning. We’re learning how to travel, how to decide when we need rest and when we think we can keep pushing, and how to approach a new city. We’re learning to be flexible, to try and not regret anything, and to make the most of every situation. Which can be tough, and we haven’t always handled it the best. For instance, we wished we would have skipped Barcelona entirely to spend more time with the Hintons in Paris, but we had to get to Barcelona eventually since we’d already booked a flight from there to Zurich. We’ve had other moments where we wished we would’ve done something differently, but you just have to accept that hindsight is 20/20, and there’s nothing you can do to change what you’ve already done. It can be incredibly easy to let that get you down, to be discouraged and dwell on what could’ve been, especially on a trip where you wonder if you’ll ever come back to some of these places. But because you wonder if you’ll ever come back, you have to learn to focus on the positives and make the most of the choices you’ve made, because you will enjoy yourself more, and positivity can truly make or break an experience.

Switzerland is next! Be on the lookout for another update. Love you all!