Always choose sangría - Notes from Barcelona

There are gifts that give you instant happiness. And there are gifts which make you not only instantly happy, but put you into a state of excited expectation which, at last, turns into an amazing experience. It all ends in lovely memories that stay with you for a long, long time.

So I got the second kind of present from Alba for Christmas. I unwrapped my voucher for a trip to Barcelona on one of those winter evenings with ice-cold wind blowing outside and snow-rain falling from the dark skies.

Fast-forward to a few months later. The plane with me and my amiga is taking off from the Prague airport and after a slightly turbulent flight landing under the Spanish sun.

It was a fast-paced trip where mornings where early (surprisingly early, given the fact I was surrounded by Spanish people) and dinners were served at times when I usually lie in bed already. The days were filled with both intense talking and quietly admiring the beauties of the city. (We met some of Alba's friends there.) And also the sights were lovely. You know, Gaudí and stuff.

These are the notes I took in between the things we did, saw and ate.

~ There is a theory which divides Spanish people into the colder ones and the hotter ones. The further you go south, the hotter the personality of the Spaniard is, the further you go north, the colder the person is. (Any resemblance to Game of Thrones is purely coincidental...) The coldest ones are the Galicians, who hug a lot, occasionally kiss you on the cheek and welcome you to their lives as if they would have known you since forever, making you forget about all the emotional walls you might have built up in your relationships in your home country.

And the ones from the South? I heard only legends about those guys, but being with them must be like what Olivia Newton-John sang about in Physical.

~ I've often wanted to become a bird. This desire has never been stronger than when I was told the streets of Eixample follow a neat grid pattern. The manzana-style made my jaw drop. So. Damn. Symmetric.

~ The manzanas might be also the reason why it's sometimes not really worth using public transportation. Google Maps can indicate your route may take 25 minutes by foot and 24 by bus. Another nice excuse why to walk as much as you can through those lovely streets.

~ Oh, but protect your eyes during those walks! I've never been to a city where air pollution was so feelable for me. Often, micro-dirt ended up stinging me in my eyes, in some streets it was hard to breathe and I kept having unstoppable coughing or sneezing attacks. Take care of the air, people of Barcelona!

~ I will never get tired of citrus trees growing everywhere.

~ Sagrada Familia! I've never been too much of a church-fan, but this piece of magnificent architecture is amazing. It's like an otherwordly building melting into our world. You walk through the streets and you feel like somebody's watching you. You turn your head and there it stands, quietly tolerating all the construction works going on.

~ Churros and chocolate. The best dish to dig into when talking about communism and socio-political differences in various countries.

~ Street-food festivals look kinda the same everywhere.

~ Spanish people get a tan. I get a very inconsistent sunburn and the skin on my face looks like a ripe tomato.

~ Art exhibitions, where towels hung on a string is considered art, do indeed exist. ↓↓↓

~ Just like there are designated drivers, you might end up a designated non-napper protecting your sleeping Spanish companions when they fall asleep in a park or other public spaces. If you can siesta you can join the local crowd, if not... Take a book and protect your siesta-sisters.

~ "I made sure the cooks washed their hands twice, just in case they have touched tomato before and I monitored them when they prepared your dish." Honestly, the only words I need to hear from a man.

~ Life goal No. 127: Find a place which would replicate how it must have looked like in Gaudí's microcosm.

~ If you associate vermouth only with family celebrations, it's time to reshape your world! Add some lime, ice, olives, take your glass outside and rebuild your universe around this fresh summer drink.

~ There is no sea too cold for Alba for bathing in it. Like a goddess of icy waters she swam in the waves, together with five more people who dared stepping into the cool water. And you guessed correctly - I was not one of them.

Photos by Alba. 
Observations by me.