That First Barcelonian Day.

Our first day in Barcelona was full of ups and down - literally and emotionally. After receiving an email from Andrew, confirming that we could have a place to stay that evening, we set about our day. We decided to hit the town and do a bit of exploring. First stop: The Mercat de la Boqueria. In the middle of the bustling city centre lies this incredible gem. Rows of stalls and merchants all bursting with life and colour. There are the fruit & vegetable stands. Candies for the sweet tooth and rich morsels for the chocolate lover. We pass by rolls, Baguettes and Croissants and I spot a chicken's head from the corner of my eye. It's neighbour holds beds of sleeping fish and a few crabs still pinching away. Anything and everything is crammed into this space and we are swept into its crowds with the sounds and smells swallowing us whole. I could stay here forever.

Post-Market we did a quick tour of one of Barcelona's Cathedrals, and decided to make our way to a park that we saw on our map. After having spent 20 hours on a bus, the prospect of lying in a beautiful park, eating some snacks and having naps seemed glorious. How quickly these dreams were dashed! We ended up walking for ages, our map not really agreeing with our actual surroundings. We climbed a few massive hills only to arrive at the "Botanical Gardens," which had an admission price. Frustrated and tired we continued on trying to find our little patch of heaven. We eventually found the park, the FREE park, and it was under construction! (*as a side note: Parks in Spain= dirt paths winding through perfectly landscaped greenery. NOT a big huge piece of lawn with trees and puppies and kids.) Exasperated we sat, sweaty, angry and on the verge of tears. "What are we doing! Moving our bodies here and there!" We ate some cheese and crackers and this cheered us up a bit so we kept walking. As we were waiting on Andrew to come home from a conference, to meet and eat and see our home for the evening, we decided to go on a mission to find some books! We managed to navigate our way to the Spanish-equivalent of Chapters and were absolutely delighted to see an entire English novel section!! This made our entire day - the disappointing park experience gone in the wind! We eagerly browsed the books and selected one (for Nick, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdi. For Me, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts). We nestled into a little nook in a nearby cafe and sipped coffees and cracked open our novels. It was perfect. After a quick call to our new couchsurfing host, the plans for the night abruptly changed. Our host informed us that he will not actually be home until 10:30 pm - at which point we can come by drop off our things and then go PARTY! Under normal circumstances, this would have been a blast. We, however, were running on high emotions and all we really wanted to do was sleep. So we rescheduled on Andrew, checked into a private hostal room, ate some cereal, and slept like it was going out of style.