Barcelona reminds me a lot of Southern California. So, obviously, I loved it.
I spent most of my first and last day here at my favorite place: the beach. I couldn’t have asked for two more perfect beach days. The temperature was hot, but it was balanced out with a cool breeze. The sky was bright blue. The water was turquoise up close, and a deep blue far away. It was beautiful.
I spent the other two days walking around a lot, and I saw some really cool architecture and street art. I ventured down Las Ramblas, a famous tree-lined street; saw the famous Sagrada Familia, a large and beautiful cathedral; and went to a park on a hill, from which I had a great view of the city.
I was a bit museumed out by the time I got to Barcelona, but I made an exception for the Chocolate Museum. Apparently, Europe has Barcelona to thank for the introduction of chocolate on the continent. The museum led its visitors through a detailed history, and it featured lots of really cool sculptures made entirely of chocolate. The admission ticket was even made of (delicious dark) chocolate, which I thought was a neat touch.
I also spent an afternoon at another cool park and in the adjacent zoo. I saw lots of animals, but my favorites were the flamingos, peacocks, giraffes and (as always) the tiny poison frogs. (The peacocks freely roamed around the zoo, which was awesome — see the picture below.) It’d been a while since I’d been to a zoo, so it was a neat opportunity to do something a little different. And having been a science-loving kid, I was really interested in everything.
I had this really interesting ice cream to conclude the trip. The ice cream was shaved off this cylindrical chunk of it, and I could choose two toppings in cups for it. The lady then put two sugar googly eyes on it. It looked like this:
It was a nice way to conclude the relaxing week. Now, I’m off to Brussels!