Barcelona and Other Sundries

Last weekend a few other people in my program and I went to Barcelona.  We flew with RyanAir, because it is cheap, although you get what you pay for.  Also, I guess some of the people in our group had a problem comprehending that RyanAir's rule YOU ONLY GET TO BRING ONE BAG means YOU ONLY GET TO BRING ONE BAG, so there was some last-minute shuffling of possessions into other people's bags.  But it all worked out all right.

When we got to Barcelona (after an hour and a half bus ride, an hour flight and another half an hour on the metro) we all split up because we were all staying in different places.  I ended up at a hostel with four other people right in the middle of the city, about a block away from one of the buildings designed by Gaudí.  That afternoon we just wandered around the city and had dinner.  The next day we took a bus tour around the city.  There are a couple of companies that do the tours; you buy a ticket, and the bus goes in a giant loop around Barcelona and you can get on and off whenever you want to see the different things.

Then that night I was coerced into going to a soccer game, because FC Barcelona was playing Atlético Madrid (not Real Madrid, but Madrid's crappy backup team).  Since we had bought our tickets earlier the same day, our seats were about ten rows from the very back of the stadium, so we were so far away that we couldn't even read the numbers on the jerseys.  It was fun anyway, though.  Barcelona won (I think).

Anyway, next Friday our whole program is taking a trip to the Basque country in southern France.  So I'll probably be posting pictures or whatever.  Maybe.

Some kind of radio tower, I believe

Bottom of a monument to Christopher Columbus

Top of the same monument

Metal sculpturey-thing

Festive Chinese New Year decorations

Friendly lobster sculpture

Roy Lichtenstein sculpture

Don't worry, guys:  McDonald's is that way

The beach

Our view at the soccer match