After a super-long flight...and a newfound (pretend) hatred for the city of Frankfurt due to their airport, my family arrived...very tired. Jess is afraid of flying and didnt sleep a bit so she missed out on most of today, but I managed to drag Mom and Dad around a bit to the areas near their awesome Aparthotel...or rather the apartment/loft that they are renting for the week. We grabbed some bocadillos at the fast-food chain called Bocatta, where Mom and Dad got to try out not only our typical meal, but also tried out Patatas Bravas, a common tapa. SOOO GOOD. haha.
Clearly they needed to see Placa de les Glories...because they are living so close AND it has been the focus of my life for the past few months. We took a long walk around it and I showed them where the market, aka my site, is. They already seem to really appreciate this city and it makes me really excited!
I decided to take them up to Sagrada Familia, just to give them some sense of the major tourist and architectural attractions of the city. Along the way we marveled at the Bullring, for which Barcelona and the rest of Catalunya are not known for.
Apparently, though, against the popular culture of the region, bullfights do still take place here.
Mis padres a la Sagrada Familia!After a bit of exploring and an intro, we returned to the apartment so Mom and I could get food in case there was mass closure of stores for Holy Week, and to bring the hermanita some food. When Jess finally got up, she Mom and I headed into Ciutat Vella to see the sights.
One of my favorite places at night has to be Ciutat Vella; the narrow streets filled with music from street performers and the mood lighting make me feel 100s of years away from present day.
The home of the Bishop(?) is connected to the Cathedral and is a great example of ancient residential architecture in the area. The main entry to the house leads not to the interior, but to an exterior courtyard meant for ventilation. It still maintains lots of charm with its vegetation and calming fountain.It was a long day...and then some Sabres. The fam is finally wide awake and I feel like I've been up for 48 hours!
