Barcelona, Spain

Next stop on the Euro experience was Barcelona.  Once again, this will be one to remember for the rest of our lives.  We’ll shake it up a little bit this time and take one out of fellow blogger Ryan Carlson’s playbook with a segment of “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.”  To all the non Linfield Wildcat followers out there, Ryan puts together his post game thoughts in three categories breaking down the weekly Wildcat performance during the football season.

 

The Good:      

·       First off, Barcelona is a beautiful city with much to do over a three day span.  You may ask, “why Barcelona?” Good question.  The local airline German Wings has a “blind booking” deal that gives you 8 possible destinations and chooses for you after you pay.  All of the options were worth going to and is the price is an absolute steal compared to other means of travel.  We will most likely be a repeat customer needless to say. 

Taylor and Ryan doing their best Columbus impression at night

·       The beauty of the city started with the taxi ride in.  We were greeted by a large statue of Christopher Columbus pointing out to sea which is located in the middle of the two main streets in downtown Barcelona.  Columbus sailed the blue in 1492 under contract from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain when he discovered America.     



On top of Park Güell enjoying the view

       Much like Paris, we hiked around the city all day checking out Sagrada Familia, Arc de Triomf, Torre Agbar, and all that the city had to offer.  Our favorite part was making it up to Park Guell and admiring the city from one of its highest points.  This vantage lets you overlook the Mediterranean Sea and all of what Barcelona has to offer including the site of the 1992 summer Olympic games.

Sagrada Familia is an incredible church started in 1882 by Antoni Gaudi and has been under construction since his death in 1926.  Estimations ares that the 170 meter tall church will be complete in 2028. 

 

·       The nightlife in Barcelona is one that nearly rivals Vegas; however, Vegas is in a league of its own and I can’t put them both in the same category.  The two biggest disco techs are Opium, which is right on the beach, and Razzmatazz, which stood three stories tall with enough flashing lights to almost throw you into a seizure.    

·       Huge thanks to our roommate Ryan’s friend and teammate from Holy Cross, Ricky, for letting us stay in his apartment for the weekend.  Those who have travelled know the importance of finding a cheap and safe place to stay.  Anyone who provides a roof over our head in exchange for a fridge full of Heineken is a true man in my book.   
 

The Bad: 

·       Immediately after checking into our hostel, “Bedcelona” (the name sold us), we took it to the beach and got fried.  For a couple of northwest natives who haven’t seen a ray of sunshine since September and lost their only sunscreen to airport security in Stuttgart, it was like jumping in a pool of gasoline and proceeding to playing with sparklers.  We simply did not stand a chance.  The next day Taylor was walking around in the shadows through the city and my face was already peeling.

 

The Ugly: 

·       Prior to the city hike on Saturday as soon as we stepped foot outside of Ricky’s apartment Taylor was super soaked with mud from a city worker pressure washing the sidewalk.  Luckily this was no indication of the rest of our day.  As the night grew later, we found ourselves hungry and somewhat hopeless Americans when the food started to close.  For a desperation Hail Mary we settled for ordering pizza in a dark alley from a Turkish gypsy.  What received was nothing more than two floppy, mystery meat, microwave pizzas and then charged a ridiculous amount.      

 

Next order of business is to take care of Amiens again on our home turf this Saturday.  The Ami’s and the rest of the Unicorns are eager for some more football.  From here on out is the meat and potatoes of our schedule, as there aren’t too many bye weeks left the rest of the season.  We hope to fill the few bye weeks we have with Euro bowl games as we make our way through those playoffs.

 

Go Unicorns,

Drew and Taylor