Gracia, your typical neighborhood

Today was another fun day of exploring, this time in a totally different barrio of the city. Barcelona has many different barrios similar to any other city. I live in Gracia, which is a more quaint, non-central, and non-turisty area. Before today, I hadn't really seen the real Gracia, but after getting to know my surroundings a bit better today I can say that I'm definitely glad I chose to live in Gracia because I love it.


I feel like I have accomplished so much today, and it is still early afternoon! I came back home because my feet were hurting again from all of the walking. Hopefully I am going to man up and take another adventure later on because I still have many places on my list to see!

My first adventure of the morning was to make a "trial run" to my work. I didn't want to get lost on the way on my first day. I'm starting on Monday! I kind of have the "first day jitters", but I'd say I'm more excited than anything. I am so curious what business here is going to be like! Anyway, the walk that I take to work is really easy. I have a straight shoot down my road for about 20 minutes and then about a 5 minute walk once I take a right hand turn. I saw the outside of the office, but I'm excited to see what's on the inside! I live on a pretty main road, in that there are constantly people walking around and people driving by. But surprisingly, after walking for about 15 minutes on my road, it all of the sudden turned into this really narrow street that cars could no longer go down. It was super cool because it almost came out of nowhere. There were tents lined up everywhere with people selling things, and restaurants also brought out tables and everything to sit down and eat. I'm not sure if this is just a weekend thing on this street, but I guess I will find out on Monday!

After finding my office, I decided I would go and take the metro to Parc Güell. I still find myself saying "subte" a lot in my head instead of metro because I'm still stuck on castellano argentino!  Parc Güell is a famous park here in Barcelona that has a great overlook of the entire city. It is also home to some Gaudí architecture. I arrived at the park, but not before a very steep climb and about 15 flights of stairs! Ok, there were some escalators in between, but it was a hike nonetheless. The view was really cool, and there was even a bride there that had just gotten married!

I'd say I'm getting more accustomed to Catalan, even though the road names make no sense to me still. I'd say I'm also an expert now at pointing out foreigners! I spotted a tourist crowd outside the metro and gave them directions to the park, and I also had a Russian woman come up to me and ask for directions inside the metro too. Obviously, I'm not the only one unable to understand Catalan! But it is a small world we live in. When I got on the metro I ended up sitting across from two women from Arizona, one from Phoenix and the other from Tuscan. I quickly added that I knew the area and have several friends that went to ASU :-)

On my way back I spent more time exploring in Gracia. I think I found my favorite street here. Carrer Gran de Gracia might be my favorite spot thus far, mainly because it is exactly what I pictured Barcelona to be like. The street was lined with cool architecture, trees, shops, and tons of locals. On either side of the street, you'd find narrow streets with tents and tents set up with clothes, food, entertainment, and the whole nine yards. I dipped in and out of many of these streets, and each one had their own different vibe. It was really neat.

Below are some pictures from today. Not really sure what my plans are for the rest of the day, but as always it is bound to be something interesting! Chau gente!

Steep climb to Parc Güell!!

View from the park - notice the Guadí architecture

View of Barcelona from the park!

Here comes the bride!

Hike back down

Street sign... see what I mean?

Typical Gracia!

More shopping!

Carrer Gran de Gracia 

Notice all of the Cataluña flags!!

That's ham they are selling!