Barcelona

Good old Barcelona

As most people might say, and as I'm sure you may have heard at some point in your life (especially if you've been), Barcelona is an amazing city. So to spare you repetition from cool, typical touristy sites that you can look up on your own, I'll explain some highlights of our 5 nights here:

The first night was insane. We had the opportunity to celebrate Halloween in Barcelona which, believe it or not, is actually somewhat festive and starting to catch on across the pond. I knew Halloween was kind of just a U.S. thing but it's gaining popularity over in Europe, mostly because it gives people a good excuse to go party somewhere. We knew we were going out for this first night, and in order to avoid disturbing our next couchsurfing hosts during our stay here we decided to live it up and use some of my points to book a nice little hotel room at the Hilton Barcelona for the first night. This was a treat to say the least. We felt like kings. I mean, we definitely didn't look like we belonged anywhere near the Hilton, being just a couple young backpackers that probably looked a little weathered from traveling for almost a couple months, but we sure got excited after seeing how nice this place was. We had a great time relaxing there and getting ready for the festivities that would be taking place later that night. We obviously didn't have much to wear costume-wise, so we had to improvise. We decided that taking a couple of the complimentary bath robes from the hotel room would do, so we sneaked our way out of the hotel and put them on in the metro, on our way to one of the largest clubs in Barcelona. To make it short, this place was nuts. Probably one of the biggest clubs I've ever been in and just a maze of different stages, music, and people everywhere. Of course, Alex and I got separated and ended up getting home at completely different times, each with our own little stories to tell from the night, and it was certainly a great way to kick off our stay in Barcelona.

Beautiful view from Park Guell

The following day was horrible, as expected. Trying to recover from last night, the lack of sleep, and coordinating with the meet up of our hosts and logistics was just kind of a pain in the ass, but we got through it, and boy did it pay off. Our experiences with different hosts just keep getting better and better. I often find it hard to describe how incredible some people can be, and these guys fall into this indescribable category. Patrick and Mireia are quite the couple; inspirational, motivating, genuine, kind, positive, welcoming, and generous are a few words I can use off the top of my head to describe them. After about 15 minutes of introducing ourselves to Mireia (Patrick was working), she handed us a set of keys to their apartment and we had a place to stay and let ourselves in and out of at any time we pleased. This caught me by surprise, that she could suddenly trust us like that. I mean, obviously she could but it's not like she knew us very well at all, which didn't necessarily matter. She was familiar with what kind of community couchsurfing is and what kind of people use this system, and we weren't her first surfers at all. We just hadn't had anything like that happen to us before, and it was definitely a kind gesture for her to do that and we obviously greatly appreciated it.

La Sagrada Familia (with it's beautiful cranes)

I really wish we could've spent more time with these people. They were so busy with their lives in such a great way. They were both working and studying so much, and not just studying for the need, but studying for the desire to learn new things. Both of them were pursuing degrees purely out of their own self interest. They already had degrees and jobs and decided that they just wanted to learn more about certain subjects. So they took more classes and now they're pursuing these extra degrees purely out of interest. I really respected this and it kind of brought the whole education system into perspective for me. Granted it's quite a bit cheaper over there to get a degree; I think they were definitely taking advantage of it, because they could.

What was most impressive and inspiring was Patrick's story. A few years ago, he set out on an adventure of a lifetime and rode his bike around the world. He literally rode his bike around the world and it took him two and a half years to do it. I had so many questions for him and he was an absolute pleasure to talk to about it. He had so much to say, answering our questions and explaining details of the trip to us like it was the first time he spoke about it. I really connected with his adventure and was so moved by what he had to say, not just about the places he went to but the people he encountered, the lessons he learned, and how he views his own life because of it. When you meet people that have experiences like that and have such a positive outlook on everything in life you can feel that energy and connect with it, and it inspires you. A little bit of deep blogging there, but definitely wanted to get that out. I could spend hours typing about things he had to say and how much it inspired me to go around the world someday ;) But it was so great to speak with him about it and hear about his travels.

Aside from again meeting some incredible people, we spent plenty of time seeing the city and getting some of the history behind it all. Of course, Barcelona is an amazing city with a lot to see, a lot of history, and some very scenic views. Other highlights include a spur-of-the-moment hike up a massive hill and coming across a random amusement park at the top, an unexpected 360 degree view of the city that blew our minds at a local park, and walking through a random pikachu-anime-gathering-festival-thing on our way to a museum. I obviously recommend visiting Barcelona for all of it's famous sites as well.

After an incredible time in probably one of the best overall cities in Europe, it was off to another large one on the other side of the Iberian peninsula: Lisbon.