Barcelona Day One

Well, initially getting into Barcelona was less fun then it should have been. Due to a crappy train station error, my ticket was for the wrong day, so i had to buy a new one while on the train, and only got half of that money back. frustrating. And the train was 5 hours late getting in, due to a huge snowstorm that apparently just stopped everything in southern france. meh.

First stop picasso museum... because it was raining and we wanted to not be outside. got quite intriguingly lost on the way... didn't realize how small it was and how not-far distances on the map were, we made it across the old downtown to the Ramblas before figuring out where we were. Had to buy shoes on sale, happy cool real leather euro shoes, cheap :P. Wandered path the main Barcelona cathethdral on the way, had to go it. It was cool - in the cloister there was a large courtyard with palms trees and geese - very lush, intriguing with the frilly gothic architecture. otherwise, another gothic church, and the steps up to the top were closed due to the rain. meh. but we saw plenty of amazing views over the city later on - i don't think we missed too much.

cool interior market with sweet arcing metal and wood structure - much smell of fish and meat, probably 15 each of fruit stalls, fish stalls, butcher stalls, and food/salad stalls.

The Picasso museum (now third stop) was something of a letdown - covered his developement very well, and just when you're expecting it to open up and give you a huge outpouring of his real work.... it's over. i don't think they had enough money to buy any pieces of importance, or many from even the time of his importance. And the explanation given with the exhibits meshed poorly with the work shown, and didn't give you any sense of his place in art history or reference works you might have known... eh. i'd go to the miro museum over this one, and i'll check out the picasso museum here - apparently it had a larger collection. The bottom of the houses were sweet arched bricks - i would just visit that and skip the museum - and check my bags in the free luggage check before heading out elsewhere ;).

decided to find a place to stay - the hostel we had picked out right by the Arc d'Triumph turned out to be closed, we wondered the old streets where we had seen a few hostels, picked one called Hostel New York. It was fine, unremarkable (although we did get a good breakfast), fifth 10-foot story - sigh. double room for 30euros though, cheep. on our wanderings we went through an amazing park and saw the Parc de la Ciutadella with it's oversized folly monument - all the tropical plants were soothing after austere Paris. very nice spaces.

So - decided the walk wouldn't be too long to the Barcelona Pavillion from the hostel.... but... got a little lost. fun walk along the sea shore, really developed, large swooping/jumpy structure/sculpture impressive. Got to a large hill we assumed was the park on the map, and of course had to climb it to the tantalizing castle-thing on the top.... the hill we climbed is the one in the picture - this is about 3/4 of the way there from the hostel - i guess we're really used to walking by now, it didn't seem too far at all