Living Life To Its Fullest!: You know, I really don't care!

Our history classes throughout high school and college never really focused on Spanish days gone by. The only thing I can really remember about Spain is the Spanish Inquisition, but don't ask me to have an involved conversation about it. Which is why I was curious as to what I would hear about this country when we partook in another free walking tour.

In all honesty, I didn't hear much. Of course Barcelona is a huge city and there was only so much we could see within 2 hours, but it really seemed enveloped within its own city walls, like nothing of the outside world could touch it. And in the spirit of honesty, I didn't do a lot of planning for this trip, so perhaps if I had seen beyond the city walls, I could say more.

Barcelona was another Blind Booking and once we found out that we would be on the coast of Spain, all we cared about was sitting by the beach. Aalen, Germany is a cute town and Germany is a great country, but there is no water to found anywhere, unless you count a small, dirty lake that is a 2 mile walk after a 15 minute train ride. Coming from a coastal state and living right on the Saco River and always having the option of a swimming pool, not being able to lay out by water at a whim has been torture. It's one of those things that you don't realize you miss until its gone I guess! So it was pure luxury being able to soak in the sun by the Mediterranean Sea.

During the time in which Spain was held by a Fascist regime, those that went against the government were executed through a firing row. Those shooting the victims spared no mercy and all of the holes in this building were made from bullets.

A reminder to all about what happens when you live under a Fascist regime and to never forget those who lost their lives to one.

This square we visited was a medley of buildings from contemporary to 1960's ugly to buildings reminiscent of the early century. People living near them hated how they all looked together and formed a beautification coalition and begged that something be done to spruce the square up. So they had an original Picasso painted onto the buildings wall. This is a piece Picasso painted while drunk on Absinthe and was a parody of another Spanish artist alive during his time.

Salvador Dali's museum.

The square in which Christopher Columbus paraded all of the treasures he found in the Americas upon his return.

Barcelona likes to separate itself from the rest of Spain. The Pyrenees Mountains block Barcelona off from Northern Spain and throughout history has been battled over by the Romans, French troops and Germanic tribes. When it finally did reach independence its people identified themselves as Catalonian among a few other provinces.

This attitude is very apparent amongst the Spanish exchange students here. When we were all introducing ourselves, they made sure to make a point that they weren't from Spain, they were from Catalonia.

This is their official flag. It was established after a particularly bloody battle and the leader of Catalonia was badly wounded. His comrade came to him to help and found he had his blood on his hands and he ran 4 bloody fingers down the leader's gold shield. Thus giving way to the flag!

I share a name with the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, Jaume the Conquerer. I love having an androgynous name. Unfortunately my name in Spanish is pronounced "hi-meh," which sounds a lot like hymen and is the exact reason I opted for French in high school instead of Spanish. I was painfully reminded of this fact over and over by the tour guide who I ironically shared a name with - and yes the tour guide was a guy. Somebody has to represent for all the hymens in the world!

Barcelona residents are provided bicycles that they can use for 35 Euros a month. There are bicycle hubs all over the city and you have 35 minutes to use a bike until you have to return it to a hub. If you can't find a free spot then you can swipe your ID card for an extra 10 minutes. If you can't get a bike back in time then your charged something like 50 cents or so.

It's a great idea, but they really screw you with the time limits. Where can you go and what can you do in under 35 minutes? I would love to see something like this instituted in my own town though.

The building where Picasso went to school. It is now closed down, but people have thrown paint against the door to remind everyone that art isn't dead.

In an attempt to be kind of touristy we tried searching for the famous Gaudi mosaic lizard. My first trip to Barcelona was 10 years ago and I drank contaminated water making it so I couldn't leave our cruise ship when we reached Spain. The one thing my mother and other travel companions raved about was this lizard. So I figured this was my second chance to see it.

We traveled 6 stops on the subway, hiked up a mountain and ended up on the other side of this famous lizard and couldn't figure out a way to properly see it. We were so close, yet so far away and after an hour of trying to figure it out, I decided that I really didn't care about the lizard and longed more for the beach so we let it go...after all that work.

It reminds me of that blonde joke where a brunette, red head and blondie are all challenged to swim across a 100 foot river. The brunette and red head make it 30 feet, get tired and decide to turn back, where the blonde makes it 90 feet, gets tired and decides to turn back.