Beautiful Barcelona

My husband and I just visited Barcelona and were overcome with how gorgeous it was. Architecturally, we knew Gaudi was going to be impressive, but we were not prepared for the everyday beauty of ordinary buildings. It makes the city feel like a walking museum.

One of the first things I noticed (besides the buildings) was that motor bikes are as common in Barcelona as bicycles are in Copenhagen. People smoke more, it's still allowed inside restaurants and bars, and the food is small but very fatty. Our modest Danish systems were shocked into vacation mode after the burst of flavors of our first tapas dinner.

There are two differences I noticed that were my favorites. One is that they eat really late. I prefer our 7pm Danish dinner time to the 10pm Spanish time to be honest, but what makes this one of my favorite things is the fact that 6 or 7pm is still considered "the afternoon" in Spain. Even the ATM's say: "Buenas Tardes!"

My favorite experience of all though was how warm the Spanish people were. They don't speak a lot of English but that doesn't necessarily matter to them. They will continue to talk to you in Spanish thinking that somehow you will magically understand them. What ends up happening is a lot of funny moments and shared laughter after "deer in the headlight" stares. Embarrassing at first, but endearing in the end.