Where are we exactly?

In an effort to figure that out, we have begun exploring our surroundings. Last night, without much direction, a group of us set off to figure out what the nightlife is like in L'Eixample. We walked — for a long while — before sitting down at a cafe briefly. Walking in the direction of our Residencia, we stumbled upon a fish-themed bar (the bartender had a plastic fish attached to his hand and the bar was lined with shells), where we hung out for a while.

For some reason, the entire group had been following Paige and I, assuming we knew where we were going. In fact, we just walk really fast and so wound up at the front. Nevertheless, confident in our new sense of direction, we left the bar and immediately found c/ Sardenya, the street our building is on. We weren't entirely sure which way to turn, but both Paige and I had an "intuition" that left was the way to go. So left we went. And went. We were getting suspicious of our route when all of the sudden we looked up and found ourselves dwarfed by La Sagrada Familia.

In the dark, Gaudi's church looked even more imposing — and amazing. And we were truthfully quite surprised to have found it, making the moment all the more unbelievable. After staring at the structure in awe for a bit, we decided it was time to go home.

Today the whole group met up for an organized lunch. The midday meal is a marathon in Spain — especially on Sunday, when there is effectively nothing else to do but eat and nap. We sat down around 1:45 and didn't finish until 4. After appetizers we were all full, but the food just kept coming. Water was hard to come by — service is not Spain's specialty — but as we have now learned, wine is a non-stop all-day affair.

The view from the restaurant:

Unlike the locals, we did not follow lunch with a siesta (a 3-hour meal is actually exhausting), and instead took a walking tour of the old part of the city. We had our first real lesson in the design of Barcelona. More to come on that (we start a class on Tuesday all about the city as part of our orientation), but below are a couple pictures from the tour. Once I accumulate more, I'll start putting them up on Facebook too.



Barcelona has its own Arc de Triomf! (Home to the nearest Metro stop and park)

Plaça Reial, one of the many city centers, and a gateway to Las Ramblas, one of Barcelona's more bustling streets.