12/08/04

We awoke to sunshine. It was nice to see the sun as opposed to clouds, for a little while at least. Emiliano and Alessandra want to have pancakes for breakfast so I happily obliged them. However they didn´t have all the correct ingredients available so I had to wing it a bit. They turned out very good but htye were more the consistency of thick crepes than the American pancakes we are accustomed to. After filling up our gastro tanks we were ready for a day of site seeing! First we walked through a main street full of commotion in Barcelona called the Rambla. Because it is a festival still today there were many people out and about. There are markets selling flowers, books, antiques, animals of every kind, magazines, clothing, souvenirs. You name it. Then we walked to the Plaza Catalunya. We wondered looking for the main Barcelona Cathedral but got to the Port Of Barcelona First. We got to see the Mediterranean Sea up close this time and hoards of boats. Then we saw the Cathedral, (gothic in style-my (Ang) art history degree is really paying off hehe, finally. Only they are reconstructing 90% of the face of the church so you can´t really "see" it. Plus there are big Christmas markets (read, millions of different representations of the nativity scenes for sale for blocks) parked right in front of the Cathedral with hoards of people packed into every available space (can you say claustrophobia?). We also walked through the Gothic part of of Barcelona (Barrio Gotic) in the midst of all this. Next we went to see Barcelona´s most famous church (and most modern) called Sagrada Familia. This church has been in construction for some time and will continue to be in construction for at least 20 more years or so. Guess we will have to come back to see the finished product:) I really dig Gaudi´s work so we went around Barcelona´s downtown (in heavy rain at this time, what troopers we are!) to see a few more of th ebuildings he designed. What a genius! Apparently Gaudi died crazy as a bat. Aren´t you glad you aren´t burdened with genius now? haha We returned to our temporary home and made dinner. Emiliano and Alessandra´s friends Luca and Daniel (also from Italy and Luca is studying with Emiliano at the University here in Barcelona) came over to visit and to watch their favorite television sitcom. Of course it was in Spanish. Even so, it was like every other sitcom in the US so we got the gist. We are researching our next travel step. We are having trouble motivating ourselves to move on from Barcelona for a couple of reasons. It is a great city with warm people and lots to see and do. Also we have a sort of home with Emiliano and Alessandra (and their cat Talus-a crazy siamese cat) who have been very welcoming and accomadating to us. We have talked about Valencia further down the coast, Ibiza islands, other southern Spain cities like Cordoba and Granada and Malaga, and even the Canary Islands off the African coast. We shall see where our road leads us. Until then ciao bellas, or should I say Adios amigos y amigas!