An eventful day of site seeing and my first missed site due to long lines. Apparently formula one is here and there are a lot of tourists - maybe even a holiday of some sort.
I hit the cathedral on the way to the Picasso museum and didn't really see much difference in this cathedral versus the other many cathedrals I've seen. All of them are so rich and grand it definitely tells you that religion was very important over the years and through the countries.
The line for the Picasso museum was huge - I'd imagine a few hours, the biggest line I think I've seen. Having seen where picasso went to school I felt sad but content with skipping his museum- I was looking forward to it but not enough to waste hours of my time, time is precious for me at the moment. The museum is closed on Mondays (tomorrow) so I won't be able to see it.
Instead of waiting in line I headed to the boqueria which was recommended by basically everyone for food at least once. I arrived and it was closed on Sundays. I felt like maybe I had some bad karma or something.
I took a taxi to Barcelonetta beach district and had a nice dinner near the beach at a place my taxi driver recommended based off how many people he takes there - it was not that great, but at least he tried ?
I walked the beaches recalling a story our tour guide told us about Barcelona importing sand from Egypt and palm trees from Hawaii. I looked for empty tree slots as supposedly Hawaii was taking back trees each year due to lack of payment. I didn't see any tree slots but I did see a lot of pretty women. Many of the people here have told me they love the sun so much, and they enjoy laying on the beach as a way of life.
After Barcelonetta I headed on a bus to park guell. I had no idea what bus I was jumping on and figured I would just wing it, using iPhone maps and navigation.
The bus driver told me to jump on another bus and I got off the current bus. In front of me was gaudi house, I knew it right away and there were a lot of people taking pictures - no line! I walked across the street and paid a huge entrance fee of 20 euro. I think it was worth it - the house was awesome. Nikki would have absolutely loved this house!! I hope my pictures do it some justice or maybe just google it : la casa de batllo.
After the gaudi house I waited for a long time at the bus stop telling myself a few more minutes and I would grab a taxi. A pretty young Spanish lady walked up and I asked her by pointing at my bus number written on the wall. She responded in near perfect English and said she thinks something is going on, due to formula one. We walked up a bus stop and caught our bus - it was rerouted due to the holiday / formula one and did not stop at the stop I was at.
I arrived at guell park, it was not the worst walk (and I was in dress clothes now opposed to running clothes) and quickly I arrived to the top. I had about a 15 minute conversation with a local who had traveled to San Diego and gone to school in Michigan for a year abroad. What a great conversation and a very nice person. He helped me with my goal of going to that castle I've been talking about but was not sure it could be entered. He said there was a cafe in front of it with a great view and architecture, I was very interested but knew it was getting late, maybe tomorrow or some other time. I need to get back and figure out how to get into sagrada familia tomorrow.
I think I have all my checklist complete including extras with the exception of Montserrat and sagrada familia, that is my main goal for Monday and hopefully all the tourists leave tonight!
In closing today was productive, a run, park Montjuic, the two best views of the city, lunch at a palace, a walk on the imported beach, a ride in a ski lift, a Spanish dinner, gaudi architecture, the old cathedral, a stop at the Picasso museum, and tonight the hostel is going to the most talked about club in Barcelona, supposedly real nice and the best night of the week.
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