Barça, Barça, Barçaaaaaaaa

I'm going to star with the highlight. Joely and I went to a regular league  Barça game. And, I'm not saying this because it was on our bucket list, but it's my favorite sporting I've ever been to. Let's start with the anthem:

 

We sat towards the bottom of the third tier and we were surrounded by season ticket holders, these old guys who know each other from sitting at the games. My favorite was the guy sitting to my left, he was all  FC Barcelonad out!  Barça bracelet,  Barça shoes and socks, Barça polo, and  Barça backpack. He had a grim look on his face, mainly reacting when he saw  Barça make a mistake and or lose the ball, he clearly felt they could have done  better. It was fun to hear the old guys criticize Neymar, hehe, just like I like to. What also made me love this match was the crowd. At American baseball games, for example, a section might start a cheer but it seldom makes it throughout the whole stadium and if it does it is usually initiated by the stadium sound system, not the case here. There is a section named "Supporters Puyol" who officially take charge of the cheers. A man stands at the front of the section with a megaphone and calls out cheers that the entire stadium participates in. And, they cheer, constantly, throughout the match, not just when the team does well or during a lull. We got to see Messi play, he almost scored a hat trick! Watching my favorite team, favorite sport, with my favorite husband; life is good.

Moving on, we flew from Paris to Barcelona. Between the moment we landed and arrived to our Airbnb one hour later I was already loving Barcelona. A lot of it had to do with the fact that it was sunny (it had been raining and overcast everywhere for the last several weeks). We stayed in El Raval, a neighborhood that I would describe as the international neighborhood of Barcelona, and it was great. Close to La oveja negra, the Black Sheep, that serves the best and cheapest sangria we have come across. Don't like wine, but looooove sangria.

4 stripes for the Catalan flag 

Barcelona is so beautiful, we spent a good amount of time just walking around different parts of the city. We also binged on the Gaudi buildings. As Joel mentioned, we can't think of a city that is so full of the creations of just one person. We learned that Gaudi was very inspired by nature, which wasn't obvious to me but once it was pointed it out, I see it all over his work. For example, the famous Sagrada Familia was designed in the image of Montserrat (jagged mountain). Sagrada Familia is still under construction, has been for over 100 years, but wow, the lighting inside is breathtaking.

This brings me to our day trip out to Montserrat. There is a church and monastery tucked away in the mountains.

Check out some Gaudi goodness:

We also were able to get a beautiful view from the old Spanish Civil War bunkers.

So, I am writing this blog, about a month later and I can't remember all the awesome things I wanted to say, but here's what I know, I would love to return Barcelona.