Spanish Outlaws

Hola amigos!

After a week of dreary weather (55 degrees and rainy), we finally have some sunshine! Because of this, we have spent much of the last week lounging by the villa pool and the local beach. Now we both are tan (Alex) and sunburned (Kirsty).

However, we haven´t been 100% lazy as we made plenty of time to continue our Barcelona education. We walked through the Cathedral de Barcelona and saw tapestries and sculptures from the 1300´s. It´s hard to conceptualize how old that is when we live in a country that is only a few hundred years old! We also got to climb to the top of the cathedral to see the Barcelona skyline. Unfortunately, we are discovering a pattern in Spain as many of the sights are under construction before the huge summer tourist season. The cathedral was no exception so instead of seeing the gorgeous facades of historic buildings, we are left to use our imaginations as many buildings are covered with scaffolding and construction material.

This past weekend we were able to acquire tickets to see FC Barcelona in action. For those less familiar with soccer/english football, FC Barcelona is the best professional team in Spain. Its stadium, Camp Nou, is the largest in Europe and holds around 98,000 people. The energy in the stadium was amazing and the game was super exciting. Americans don´t exactly appreciate the sport of soccer so it was pretty special to be in a place where everyone feels extremely passionate about the sport. We even got into the spirit by wearing fabulous FC Barça uniforms and joining in the cheers of ¨¡Viva Barça!¨. Who knows? Maybe we´ll even become hooligans!

Speaking of hooligans, we´ve developed a bit of a rebellious streak. Faced with the aforementioned construction and unpredictable train schedules, we´ve taken to a life of crime. We found that it´s both easy and fairly common for Spaniards to avoid paying for trains. Some simply walk through the broken gates without buying a ticket, while others sneak through bushes to get on to the train platform. Sorry parents, but we have done both. Hopefully, we won´t be calling you from a Spanish jail in need of bail money.

On another day of law-breaking, we decided to take a trip to Park Güell which is famous for containing an amazing array of Gaudi´s work. Unfortuately we entered the park from the wrong entrance, and without a map, we found ourselves lost and without a sense of direction. We knew we were supposed to be in a park with people and art, but all we saw were trees and German hikers. We followed said German hikers who led us to another entrance, but were dismayed to find that the entrance was blocked by a huge steel gate and a sign that said something in Spanish, but looked like it meant "Do Not Enter. Under Construction". Undeterred, we got skinny and squeezed and climbed our way through a narrow passage between the fence and a rock wall. We thought we were victorious when we finally saw many tourists and crowded walkways. Too bad we were in a construction area that had been completely fenced in from all directions. We had to squeeze through another fence, this time trying to hide the fact that we were clearly not where we were supposed to be. Oh well, we did it! Park Güell was beautiful and amazing, and it was definitely worth becoming Spanish outlaws to see Gaudi´s art.

We hope everyone is doing well and surviving the end of winter. We send you our love!
- Alex + Kirsty = not arrested (yet)