Barcelona

Barcelona is magic.

It's perpetually sunny and warm enough to shed some layers, even in November.

In some cases, a lot of layers are shed.

I instantly fell in love. The people lived to be social and eat good food well into the night. Unearthly amounts of food. They put the shame on the Italians as far as meal sizes go. I ate more good tapas then I ever thought possible. It's just a leisurely and fun way to eat- sharing and chatting and drinking wine well into the evening.

It was a fantastic place to explore. Having five days was not enough time here.

I kept my schedule open...it thought that if I didn't love Barcelona, I could mosey on to another place by train. Five days here flew by, with nowhere near the coverage a city properly deserves.

The crowds on La Rambla, the main tourist street, were a little much, but there were lots of little old streets and neighborhoods to explore and quickly get away from that.

I'll get to the Gaudi stuff in a bit, but they had a really crazy architectural aesthetic here- a nice existence of new, ancient, and weird and artsy.

You can't really call the Barcelonans "Spanish" (it's akin to calling Scots "British". You just don't.)- they are Catalans, and intensely proud of this.

I do love a good beach-side city.

It was a bit cool for a dip, but perfectly pleasant otherwise. There's lots of bars and nightclubs along this stretch of sand, so I'm sure this is an absolute mad place in high summer.