Barcelona, Spain

They say that Barcelona is the city of life and celebration - I couldn´t agree more. I got into Barcelona this afternoon and immediately made my way to the hostel where I am staying for the next few nights. I made sure to get instructions on how to get to the hostel before I left Paris so it was as simple as catching the Aerobus from the airport and then taking the metro for a few stops; I got there without any problems. I am rooming with three girls and a guy. The girls are from New Jersey but are studying in Florence for the semester. It is currently their Spring Break. I havn´t seen the guy yet - he never ended up coming back last night and he doesn´t have much stuff on his bed so he´s kind of a mystery man.
After dropping off my stuff and settling in, I decided to get a few of the sights checked off. Almost everyone who visits Barcelona takes a trip across town to visit Europe's wackiest church which also boasts 2 UNESCO World Heritage sites (the Nativity facade and the Crucifixion Facade). If you want to get close to Gaudi, you can do no better than coming here - literally - as he's buried in the crypt. I decided not to pay the entrance fee to see inside, but the outside of absolutely remarkable. Gaudi was a Catholic and wanted the church to be the people's church, not owned by anyone but the people so all work that is done on the church is funded entirely by the entrance fees collected.
I then made my way down to Las Ramblas - an aray of tiny little side streets surrounding the main drag, La Rambla, and got lost in the zig-zagging streets for almost two hours. The streets are known to have very nice restaurants, bars and shops but still it is geared quite heavily to tourists. I went to the famous Boqueria food market and bought two huge fruit bowls for only EUR2!! I was so surprised - how could it be that cheap? I wasn´t complaing though. It was now dark so I skipped the beach and decided to do that another day.
The hostel organized a night out for all of us tonight. We went to this club right on the beach and because we were with the hostel it was free cover. The club was pretty good - good music and packed. Our tour guide has lived here for a year not (originally from Normandy) and he said that it was one of the more popular places to go on a Thursday. I liked it because when it got too hot inside you could step outside and walk along the beach.
Anyway that´s all for today. Tomorrow is still up in the air but if it´s nice out then I´ll try to head down to the beach or maybe climb the hill to get a view of the city and ocean.

xoxo
Alexis