Oh my Gaudi

First of all, I’d like to start by apologizing for the very long absence in my blogs. I went back to the States in December following my last blog and since I’ve returned I’ve had problem after problem with my computer and a mean bout of laziness. But, now I finally have my act together and will hopefully start pumping out a few blogs because I have a LOT of catching up to do! First on the agenda of catching up is my family’s trip to Barcelona, way back in October!

Barcelona’s beautiful coastline from Park Guell

It had been almost 5 months since I had been able to see everyone, the last time being in May when I returned for my mom’s birthday and my friend Garrett’s wedding. I was lucky enough that time that Alicia had come down with Russell so that I could see him then as well, and I was extra lucky this time because Russell was making his first overseas flight and I would get to see him in Spain! But first… I would have to get to Spain as well, and as usual when I travel lately, nothing seems to go quite right.

My flight to Barcelona was supposed to leave Friday after work, I would fly to Munich first and then on to Barcelona from there. I got to the airport on time, went to check in, and was informed that “your flight to Munich was well overbooked and a few passengers would have to take a different flight.” I should have guessed how that would have turned out, and sure enough, an hour later I was informed that I would not be able to fly on that flight to Munich due to the overbooking during Oktoberfest. But, the very nice lady at the desk informed me that they could fly me to Frankfurt instead. Not Frankfurt to Barcelona, just Frankfurt… After a little while though, Lufthansa realized that Frankfurt was in fact not Barcelona and that that option would not work… But, we soon worked out a flight the following morning (in 1st class) that would have me to Barcelona around lunch time. All is well that ends well.

Fast forwarding a bit now, I had just landed in Barcelona and called my parents to double check the plan to get from the airport to the Airbnb that they had rented. They informed me that the lady who owned the Airbnb had actually scheduled us a private pick up at the airport and that there would be someone waiting for me with my name on a piece of paper. At that moment, I was actually standing looking at the line of drivers looking for their pick ups and there was only about 10 of them. Most of them worked for a travel agency from Asia and then 3 or 4 had Spanish names on them. Not a single Vince… I waited around as some drivers were still showing up, hoping to see “Vince” on one of their papers.. But with each passing minute it became harder and harder to see them as the concourse was filling up with what seemed like 500 flights from Asia… I became curious about how they were all going to fit into the 5 drivers cars or buses and I unfortunately didn’t get to stick around long enough to find out as I saw a driver with a name card that said “Vicente” on it and I decided that was close enough and took it. Either he had my name wrong or there was a very disappointed Vicente at Barcelona airport that day.

 

My driver was actually a very nice man, he didn’t speak much English which I expected and understood, but he knew where the address was and soon enough we were on our way. He tried talking to me in Spanish multiple times and I tried to remember what little high school Spanish I “learned” but all I could remember was, “no hablo Espanol.” He must have been thinking, “what kind of Vicente doesn’t speak Spanish?” Oh well, eventually we arrived at the Airbnb where my parents were waiting and we were able to catch up for an hour before Alicia, Andrew and the Russellman showed up.

He’s the star of the show these days (rightfully so) and we were all excited to see them. Once they arrived we all sat around for the afternoon catching up, sharing some stories and pictures of what we’ve all been up too. We had some lunch and saw on the news that interestingly enough that very next day was the Catalan Referendum on Independence. Of course, after months of planning our trip, it lines up perfectly with that, but it turned out to be a pretty neat experience. That night we went out on our street to get dinner, I was excited to try some tapas and seafood in Barcelona for sure. I can’t remember what I had for every meal as it has all blurred into a fantastic memory of spicy potatoes, prawns, steak, paella, sangria, and Estrella. But that night we all went to bed happy ready to take on whatever Barcelona had in store for us over the next week!

My first introduction to the wonderful world of tapas!

On our first full day in Barcelona, my dad and I had actually been lucky enough to get our hands on some FC Barcelona tickets and I was very excited for the opportunity to get to go to Barcelona’s famed stadium, the “Camp Nou,” and to watch the best player in the world now and arguably in history Leo Messi. On the very same day, the Catalan Referendum was taking place. As we watched the news in our airbnb reports started to come in about Madrid Police raiding the poling places and attacking would be voters. Just before the Referendum was set to take place it was deemed illegal by the Government and no matter the results, the Spanish Government would not recognize an independent Catalonian State. Yet, that didn’t stop voters still attempting to make their voices heard. We didn’t see any riots personally, and from what I could tell from the Spanish news in Barcelona there were no riots, there just seemed to be peaceful protests and the Madrid Police’s overly aggressive attempts to shut it all down.

Locals showing support for Catalan Independence

While this was all going down, my dad and I were on our way to the game. When we arrived we saw an unusual amount of people standing around outside of the stadium, I thought this was a bit odd, but as I had never been to a game in Spain I thought that maybe there was a rule about when the stadium could legally open its gates for the fans. With an hour to go until game time, I began to realize that something was indeed off about the entire situation and luckily I was able to connect to wifi and see if there was any news. There were reports stating that in response to the aggressive behavior of the Madrid Police and Spanish Government, FC Barcelona was going to not play their game that afternoon in protest. As the game time drew nearer photos began to be leaked online of the players warming up inside an empty stadium, and with about 20 minutes to go before kick off, an announcement was made that the game would indeed be played… behind closed doors, in an empty stadium. My dad and I hurried out of there in case anything started with the 100,000+ fans that were just denied entry into the stadium, luckily though nothing did.

Fans stuck outside of the Camp Nou..

I personally didn’t understand the motive to play the game behind closed doors. I understand why Barcelona wanted to protest the game and not play as a response to the Government and show their solidarity to the Catalonian people. But playing behind closed doors just takes away something those very same Catalonians love and live for. Whatever their reasons were, Barcelona went on to win the game and Messi scored 2 goals which I got to watch from our living room with a cold Estrella in my hand.

It’s tough to get a good photo with all the construction equipment…

The following day, we planned to go straight to La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona’s famous half-finished cathedral, designed by Antoni Gaudi himself, or, as my dad called it, el Sangria Famila. My mom made sure we were all ready to leave to make our tour reservation at 11, shouting may or may not have been involved to get all 6 of us out and into two taxis. We arrived just in time though and got in the long line waiting to get in, even with a reservation. When we got to the front the man took our tickets for the reservation and said “you’re early, these tickets are for 1:00…” We all got a good laugh at that at my mom’s expense but it turned out to be nice, as we were less rushed and we had time to go across the street and have some lunch and a pitcher of sangria in the shadow of Gaudi’s church.

 

Laughing off our delay with some sangria

When our time came back around to go into the church it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The theme it seems for the entire cathedral was nature and the earth and all of its beings, along with a massive tree of life above your head as you walk through the doors (see the picture a few paragraphs above). The massive columns inside the cathedral were designed to look like trees, with their branches holding up the ceiling, while colorful fruits and birds topped the spires around the church. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to visit some amazing cathedrals around Europe, but this was something else. While it was incredibly stunning and visually overwhelming it didn’t really have a “cathedral” vibe to it. Don’t get me wrong, we were all speechless at the sheer size, and intricate details on every single surface, but it felt more like a piece of modern art than a house of worship.

Insane details inside La Sagrada Familia

Nevertheless, we thought it was unbelievable, and with the “proposed” finish date placed way off in 2030 or so, I made a mental note that I needed to see it completed. But… considering they’ve been working on it since 1882 and aren’t even halfway through, I don’t think it’s going to be finished by 2030.  Here is a photo of what is completed so far and what still needs to be completed!

Much work to be done…

As we woke up the next morning, news came in that Catalonia had indeed voted for independence and that the entire city of Barcelona was going to go on strike in protest against the Madrid government. We decided not to try to do too much this day and we took a walk up “las ramblas” to do a bit of window shopping and see La Catedral de Barcelona. The weather was a bit overcast so we soon found ourselves pulling off the main drag a bit to grab a bite to eat. We found a small pizza place and it turned out to be quite good! But the really exciting part of lunch was just beginning.. About halfway through our meal, a few protesters started to make their way past us… then another group, and another and soon it had grown into a massive sprawl of Catalonians with flags and signs, peacefully protesting and marching as one, and it was really great to be able to witness that first hand.

Catalonians marching after voting for their Independence

The Catalonians really impressed me with how they handled the referendum and response by the Spanish Government.  There wasn’t violence or rioting, besides what the Spanish media reported, there were just peaceful protests and a few strikes… The city of Barcelona and the people that call it home still continued on in its usual happy fashion, they didn’t let the governments response get them down.  It really was a neat experience to be able to witness, even if it was just from an outside perspective for a week.

 

Dancing in the streets

That night we had reservations to a restaurant down by the beach, that luckily wasn’t participating in the city-wide strike. It was known for its paella and I had put off ordering it the first few days in anticipation of this restaurant. We ordered some small tapas for the table before the main course arrived. I think we had some calamari, ceviche and fresh tuna to start before the main dish arrived…. The waiters needed a cart to get our Paella dish to the table…. A CART! A massive pan full of vegetables and rice and spices was placed in the middle of all of us and we were all given a serving spoon and that was that… It was an unreal amount of food and even though we just ordered for 5 it could have served 10. It was incredible and well worth the few days wait I had given myself.

Pure joy at our massive pan of Paella..

The following day, we visited both the Basilica de Santa Maria Del Mar and Santa Maria del Pi (Saint Mary of the Sea and Pine) and again explored La Catedral de Barcelona a bit more in depth. We got to meet the geese in the courtyard behind the church and then shop a bit on Las Ramblas. Russell was well behaved in all of the churches and was a trooper as we pushed him along in the stroller or carried him throughout the city.

 

Catedral de Barcelona

At this point, I was beginning to be a bit of a wiz with the tapas. I knew which were my favorite and which to stay away from, I realized that I loved the prawns but unfortunately they were too much work to eat compared to how tasty they were.. There is a fine line in my mind of how tasty something is compared to how much work it takes to eat “said item” and the prawns tiptoed just beyond that line and I had to cut them out of my tapas regimen. On the other hand, the patatas bravas (spicy potatoes) were becoming a hit with Andrew and I, we seemed to order them every meal at this point. Besides the food, I really liked sangria and my dad and I were enjoying the Spanish beer as well, Estrella was great, as well as a local beer called Moritz.  Honestly, I hadn’t tasted anything I didn’t like, and every meal was looked forward too, more so than usual.

Estrella and some Spanish style pizza

That night we celebrated my birthday, which was pretty special. Even though it was a month early, I really appreciated everyone traveling so far to see me. I was given a few shirts and button downs and allowed to choose the restaurant for dinner. For some reason, I was feeling like Italian, so we searched and found the number 1 Italian restaurant in Barcelona according to tripadvisor and made a reservation. It wasn’t much more than a tiny store front restaurant but the food was possibly the best we had our entire trip. I ordered a caprese salad to start and when the dish came we all realized how much trouble we were in. Each dish was big enough to almost serve 2 people… and that was just the appetizer. It was delicious though and I ate the entire dish, next up was penne arrabbiata, which is my absolute favorite pasta. I was in heaven, the dish had a mountain of pasta on it and it was absolutely a birthday dinner to remember. In fact, we all enjoyed it so much that we returned to eat here again on our final night in Barcelona!

A taste of the architecture and nature combined in Park Guell

On our second to last day we had a pretty busy schedule! First on our agenda was a visit to Park Guell, the “park”/residence of Barcelona’s favorite architect Antoni Gaudi. He completely designed the park, from the structures inside to the walkways, benches and foliage. It was his vision and his residence that he viewed as a merge between nature and civilization. It was really different from anything we’ve ever seen before, similar to La Sagrada Familia, and I’m sure much of Gaudi’s other works as well. The park provided some fantastic views of Barcelona and the city’s Mediterranean coastline. We wanted to be able to visit the famous colorful benches that overlook the city, but found that there was a line to visit them. Apparently you needed to reserve a time-slot to even view the benches and that only a limited amount are allowed to visit them every 15 minutes. The next available slot wasn’t for another 6 hours and as we could see from a distance that they were completely under construction (for restoration I assume) it didn’t seem worth the wait, let alone the money… But it doesn’t surprise me that there would be a charge to be able to see the benches up close even though they were being worked on, considering Barcelona’s main tourist attraction is a half finished Cathedral… Oh well, I bought a small print and saw them from a distance, as far as I am concerned that’s checked off the list.

Really bummed we couldn’t go down to the benches.. but close enough! (you can see la Sagrada Familia in the background and just how massive it is compared to the rest of the city!)

After this, my dad and I hopped on a tour bus and returned to FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou for a stadium tour, as we didn’t even get to go into the stadium the last time. The tour of the stadium was fantastic, the Camp Nou is the largest stadium in mainland Europe, fitting 100,000 fans into the stadium. We were able to walk out the tunnel that the players use as well as sit on the “benches” were the teams sit during the game. I say “benches” but each seat was a leather bucket seat that would be incredibly comfortable to watch a game from.

“More than a Club”

Along with the stadium tour we were allowed to tour the museum and trophy room as well. FC Barcelona has won so much in their history and their trophy room didn’t seem large enough to contain all of their “silverware”, and because of this there were random trophies spread across the stadium along the tour. The main trophies in the tour were Barcelona’s Champions League trophies… All 5 of them lined up and gleaming under the spotlights. Only Real Madrid and AC Milan have won more Champions League trophies than Barcelona with 12 and 7 respectively, and it was the first time I was able to lay my eyes on the Cup first hand.

Barcelona’s 5 Champions League Trophies

They also had a replica that you could stand next to and have your picture taken with, but the lighting in the room wasn’t very “photo friendly.” As well as the club trophies, the trophy room also housed all of Leo Messi’s “Balon d’Or’s,” or, the “World Player of the Year Trophy.” Again, there were 5 of them, tied for most for any one player in history. He is tied of course with Cristiano Ronaldo. Along with winning the trophy 5 times, Messi has also finished 2nd in the voting 5 times and 3rd once.. He finished 3rd in 2007 and every year since either him or Cristiano Ronaldo have won the trophy. Incredible..

1 of Messi’s 5 Ballon d’Or’s

That night, Alicia, Andrew and I all reserved a place at an “escape room.” I had been bugging them about it all week and they finally gave in. We reserved a place in a “secret agent” style room and we weren’t sure what to expect. We went to the adress and knocked on the door.. No answer at first and then knocked again.. The door swung open and a man with a heavy Catalan accent says “Are you de asians???” We were all taken aback a bit and we weren’t sure what to say, he repeated himself and again I thought I heard “are you the asians??” I looked at Alicia and Andrew who weren’t saying anything and I kinda stuttered out, “no, we’re not asian…” To this he responds “no! The asians!” And at this point Alicia and Andrew are laughing uncontrollably behind me and I still have no idea what he is trying to say as I was pretty confident I wasn’t asian. Just as he is about to close the door he tries again and very slowly says, “are you the agents?” And FINALLY we understood what he was saying and we all were relieved to be let into the building after that misunderstanding..

The rooms were a large puzzle and we had 60 minutes to solve it, we were all given our secret agent ID’s (Alicia was Svetlana, I was Gregov and Andrew was…. Natalia) and we were given the task of hacking a computer before poisonous gas was released… or something.. I honestly can’t remember because we were all laughing through the entire hour. From abandoning Alicia in the first room when Andrew and I found the key to unlock the second room, to me being scared to crawl through a small hole into a dark room to Andrew tripping and diving across the room as he crawled back out of that same hole. Unfortunately due to ur ridiculous-ness we ended up needing a couple of hints to be able to finish but just over time… Agents, Svetlana, Gregov and Natalia weren’t the best team, but we did have a lot of fun. We laughed the entire way back to the apartment and it was definitely a fun time.

 

On our final day in Barcelona we did some shopping and headed down to the beach, this was Russell’s first ever trip to the beach, and the lucky dog got to do it in Barcelona! While shopping we picked Russell up a Leo Messi jersey as well felt it was only appropriate in Barcelona. Russell actually seems to have a bit of a knack for soccer and has quite the leg on him! We had some drinks in the shade and a great lunch before heading back and having a quiet afternoon as a family playing with Russell and relaxing before dinner, which as I said earlier was back at our new favorite Italian restaurant.

 

Russell Messi(ck)’s first beach trip!

It was such a great week and it absolutely flew by, luckily the next time I would be seeing these guys was only two months later for Christmas! It meant so much to me that everyone came out to Europe for my birthday and that we got to explore another part of Europe as a family, just like we did in England, Italy, Germany and Austria. And this time we got to include two “new” members of our family in Andrew and Russell. These trips with my family are always my favorites, as they really leave a lasting impression on the places we have been. I don’t believe it is a coincidence that my favorite places in Europe are all places I have been with my family. London, Rome, Munich and of course Salzburg. These were all first, family vacations and those memories we made in those cities make me just as happy as any memories I have made in the past two years in Europe, and now I get to add Barcelona to that list. I am so lucky and grateful for this amazing family that I am a part of and I can’t wait until we’re all back in the same country finally and visiting each other isn’t too difficult! But, until than, Auf Wiedersehen!