David and I decided that the best way to report on our trip is to take it day-by-day. As you can see by the title of this post, we'll start with...
DAY 1--Travel & Barcelona
Day 1 is actually 2 days--Friday and Saturday. Mainly because we never really went to sleep. We left home at 10 AM on Friday morning (Nashville time) and arrived in Barcelona at 10 AM Saturday morning (Barcelona time). Everyone told us to avoid going to sleep that first day to try and defend jet lag, so that's exactly what we did.
We did have a little excitement on the way over. David, who has been known to get motion sickness and have trouble sleeping on planes, had been prescribed some light sleeping medicine by his doctor to help combat this. Apparently the mix of the medicine, bad airplane food and some turbulance didn't set well with him. About an hour prior to landing, he got sick. I will skip the graphic details, but I can't go without saying that the plane we were on had failed to replace the barf bags in each seat and as he was about to lose it on himself and me, I remembered I had CLEAR ziploc bags in my bag. You can only imagine what that looked like. We were very close to both being sick.
Needless to say the next couple of hours created high anxiety for both of us! David doesn't remember getting from the airport to the hotel, which means, I became 100% responsible for getting us and 3 bags in a taxi and to our hotel. Normally I would be fine with this responsibility, but my first time abroad, new money and new language...slightly stressful!
David took a little nap, more to recouperate than to rest, once we checked-in and he rebounded like a champ. I have to admit, I was relieved beyond belief. I wasn't sure what I was going to do if he got very sick and at the same time couldn't imagine spending the next 2 days in Barcelona in our hotel room, which was nice, but not luxurious!
That day we saw:
The Statue of Christopher Columbus, pointing more towards Asia than America!
La Rambla, a street that reflected the activities of Mardi Gras 24/7
Playa Catalunya, a very happening and beautiful plaza
Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's cathedral and unfinished masterpiece
Placa Monumente, home of bullfights
Arc de Triomf, Barcelona style
Beautiful, winding streets and scenery along the way
Our first dinner in Barcelona, or Europe for that matter, was fittingly at Picasso Restaurante, we both had pizza with the coolest, most effective pizza cutter ever! We really wanted to steal one, but opted not to.
A few observations from Day 1--no one spoke any English...the beginning of that realization! PDA (public displays of affection) is not discouraged there. Basically everyone was making out around us...for those of you that know me, this was a little uncomfortable to watch! Finally, when you leave your hotel room in Barcelona, you leave the key. Talk about having to immediately trust someone! We had no idea what they were saying to us or why we needed to leave the key to a room with all our belongings, but we weren't going anywhere until we did, so...!
It probably goes without saying, but we were zonked early the first night. Between the travel, the stress, the walking and the touring, we slept very good that night!
Below are some pictures from Day 1. I am not posting many because tomorrow (hopefully) I will post a slideshow from the trip as a whole.
In order...1. At the airport...and we're off! 2. "Look, I'm here!" 3. @ Arc de Triomf in Barcelona 4. @ Sagrada Familia 5. David with Christopher Columbus
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