Welcome to Barcelona

     Due to constant requests from friends and family members for pictures, stories, and updates on my life here in Spain, I thought it might be easier to streamline the communication lines and put it all in one location that everyone can check at their leisure.

     I have just completed my first week in Barcelona, and it was awesome (once I eventually received my lost luggage from "AirEuropa"-- do NOT ever use this airline.) 

The first touristy thing that I did here was a bike tour of the city. We took about 4 hours and biked about 7 miles. Here are some pictures taken from the tour:

On the tour we stopped at a tapas restaurant where they have all kinds of different tapas (appetizer type of food) This purple stuff is actually crab meat.

This is our group on our bikes in front of "El Catedral"

The Barcelona coast... that ocean is the Mediterranean

"La Sagrada Famiglia" is a church that was designed by Gaudi (the most popular reknowned architect in Barca) They began building it about 150 years ago, and the construction is still going to continue for many years. You can see the difference in color and design between the parts that were built long ago, and the new ones.

The next day, I went hiking up mount Tibadabo, the mountain that sits behind the city. We hiked up to a church that is on top of it and got some great views of the city and the coast.

View of the coast from the top of the mountain

A large part of the Barca experience is having one of the world's best soccer teams so close by. A group of us went to the game vs. Malaga, and it was definitely my favorite thing that I've done here so far.