Our adventure started on a red eye flight out of Newark at 11:30pm. We landed in Barcelona around 1pm. It was an uneventful flight, which sort of flew by. MyLisa and Mom slept on the flight, and I probably slept about 2 hours. After disembarking going through Visa and Passport lines, we arrived at baggage claim just in time to see our luggage on the belt. We easily grabbed a taxi and within 30 minutes made our way to our Airbnb apt in Gràcia. Gemma showed us around the place, which didn’t take long, it’s rather small.

We wanted to walk around the neighborhood to see what’s close by. The street we’re on takes you one way to the Park Güell and the other way to the metro yellow line which gets us to many places in the city. We had a leisurely stroll towards the metro taking in the residential architecture, bakeries, small supermarkets and a bunch of tiny restaurants serving tapas and all varieties of cuisines. I was in love with the baked goods, patisseries. We decided to stop in Vermuteria Lou, a nice tapas restaurant near by to have a late lunch. They didn’t speak English, and there was no menu, so we ordered tres muy bueno tapas and hoped for the best. It was a gamble but paid off. The three dishes we “think” were Huevos rotos, potato tuna and white bean salad, and croquetas (otherwise know as fried balls of deliciousness). Not a light lunch, but a good one.

We found the Metro station, walked around the neighborhood looking for cute squares, which seemed harder to find then we expected, bought some liquids and fruit then made our way home. We unpacked, got comfy, then MyLisa and I decided to head to the Xocolata Museum. It was supposed to be open until 8, but it closed right after we arrived. Instead we walked around the area and happened upon a few interesting sites:

• Arc de Triumph
• Photo exhibit from Saul Leiter (born in Pittsburg, most of his photos were from when he lived in NY)
• Hivernache – iron and glass structure that looked like botanical gardens
• Parc de Citadelle
• Castell dels Tres Dragon

We ended our day with gelato and a cab ride home.