Playing Ketchup, Part I: Barcelona

Well, this splendid semester in Brussels is very quickly approaching its end, and I am scrambling to do many things: savor my time with Exki, visit the Atomium, write a bunch of term papers, and just kinda soak it all in. And of course, I want to finish documenting our adventures. So let me begin what will hopefully be a series of abbreviated posts covering all the things I neglected to tell you about before. If you nag him enough, maybe Ceej will join in too.

First of all, it doesn't feel worthwhile to write about Paris when my lovely (vegetarian) friend Lauren has already done a superb job of it. Check out her spring break post and then wander around the rest of her blog. It's an excellent read.

Okay, so, after Paris was of course Germany, which Ceej has already written a bit about. We spent the last weekend of spring break in Barcelona, where we met up with Emily Rose Insetta! It felt good to see a PSU friend. Em's been enjoying herself in Sevilla, Spain this semester, and her Spanish is fabulous. I was a little jealous, but mostly just proud of her.



With my stomach just recently back in working order, I was ready to eat all the delicious food that Barcelona had to offer. We spent about 60% of our visit at La Boqueria, a lively market bursting with candies, fruit, veggies, and fresh juices. There were gross things like fish and other dead animals, but we avoided that section.





Another tasty concoction not to be missed in Spain is sangria. Every place we saw served it in these terra cotta pitchers, which looked nice and rustic but didn't pour very well. Our tablecloth had many pink spots.



When we weren't eating or drinking, we were hopping from one Gaudi sight to another. Wikipedia could provide you with more substantial information, but for brevity's sake, let me just say that he is the architect version of Dr. Seuss.

First we saw the Sagrada Familia, the drip castle of a cathedral that Gaudi designed but never saw finished. (He was fatally "knocked over" by a tram, as the poorly translated museum sign told us.) In fact, it's still being built, and is now the most visited construction site in the world.



You know it's a good church when there are sea turtles involved.

Next, we climbed a mountain of steps to the Park Güell. After wandering around for a half hour or so, we finally stumbled upon our destination: a massive, tile mosaicked park bench.



Tile mosaics were Gaudi's thing, and he was cementing together broken teacups decades before HGTV was even eating solid foods. My favorite was this little building at the lower entrance to the park. The clothing on the line is a funny reminder of the fact that real people actually live right next to this fantasy world.



I'll end this post with a charming picture of Ceej devouring his booty from La Boqueria. In the background is one of the bug-infested beds! If only we had known. (Speaking of that, I am happy to report that I have been biteless since the exterminator's visit two weeks ago. Phew.)



p.s. With enough encouragement, Ceej might finish his post entitled "How to Bring Down a Small Crime Ring." It tells the enthralling story of our afternoon on a Barcelona bus with a band of pickpockets!

p.p.s. See many, many more Barcelona pictures in my album. The link is in our handy album box on the right.

p.p.p.s. (Now this is just getting obnoxious.) Muchos gracias to Emily Rose for the pictures I borrowed (without asking) from her album.