Football and Thieves in Barcelona

Near the pier, about to leave Barcelona
Having a wonderfully cold time at the match
Dana is so excited, the game hasn't even started!
Scene of bambi entirely out of chocolate!
Sagrada Familia
Dana at Guell Park
Famous Lizard at the entrance of Guell Park
Entrance of Guell Park

It was a nice train ride to Barcelona, it was a good 40 minute walk to our hostel, but we made it there safely and a little sore from our backpacks. We have been hearing during our travels that Barcelona is a beautiful city, but you need to watch out for the people pick pocketing, and the scams to get your money! Whether it's families we have stayed with, or people we met in the hostel, they have all told us to be on guard. The first night we met a guy named Yan from Paris. Our room seemed kinda small, but behind the curtain was a small enclosed terrace overlooking the main street. We spent the first day at Guell Park. Everything there was in mosaic. The park was created by Gaudi, as are most of the sights in Barcelona. We walked around Barcelona for a bit and then headed back to the hostel to make supper. We ran into Kori (from Nice) at our hostel, she wasn't staying there but a friend of hers was. We met a guy named Neil from Australia in our room (he mentioned that someone tried stealing his backpack the other day). The next day we saw Sagrada Familia, also by Gaudi, it was very cool. This is Dana's favorite church so far, it is still not finished and is a different style on each side, e.g. roman, Gothic. Walking back we checked out Torre Agar and Casa Batllo. From there we went to the hostel to pick up our bags. We had to move to a new hostel. It seemed sketchy from what we heard, it was a little hard to find. After asking, we found it down some dark alleyway. The hostel is connected to a bar so we went in there to check in. The girl took us up numerous flights of stairs to get to our room, it seemed ok. The girl warned us about going out at night because it wasn't safe! The staff and some other people were up all night in the kitchen beside us being loud and blasting music. Finally at 4am Steve told them to be quiet; not a great sleep to say the least. The next morning we bought tickets to the soccer match; Barcelona vs. Mallorca, for that night, then we headed off to the chocolate museum! There were these amazing characters and miniature scenes all made entirely out of chocolate. We also went to St. Monica's Art Gallery, which used to be a convent, and saw some beautiful art exhibits. We got some supper and then took the metro to the soccer match. It was a good game, but ridiculously cold, Barcelona won 4-2. We had a great time watching our first professional soccer match. Again another bad night, it was the same as the last night but louder and for longer periods of time. We were exhausted in the morning, so Dana complained which got us some money back and free food and drink for the day. We did some shopping during the day and went and walked along the pier. There were many tables set up with antiques and jewelry. We had some drinks at our hostel before heading to the train station for our next help exchange. We made it through Barcelona with all of our money, God was watching over us! Next stop L'Ampolla!