Hola Barcelona!

Just got back from four fabulous days in Barcelona, Spain! Here are some of the highlights:

Our trip began with a 2 hour drive to the airport, a pleasant surprise after being told it could take up to 4 hours. So, now we're at the airport at about 5pm and our flight doesn't leave until 11pm. After standing in line for a few hours, and being told we were in the wrong line about 5 or 6 times during those hours, we got checked-in and were set to go. We spent the next several hours in the over-priced (a standard element in Nigeria) restaurant with our fellow colleagues who were traveling to Munich for the tail-end of Oktoberfest.

At some point during the many security stops, and before the full-body pat-down, Britte' was asked what the bulge in her pocket was, and to everyone's amusement in the near vicinity, she innocently pulls the bulge out and says "socks" like it's an everyday occurrence:) This got the attention of the Scottish guy standing nearby who became our buddy throughout our flight and navigation through the London airport. If you didn't think that was funny, you really needed to be there to witness the scrutiny and facial expressions of this exchange:) And of course, we bee-lined it to the Starbucks for our first taste of home in 2 months! It was delicious.

Finally got to Barcelona, and had to manage the Metro system on 2 hours sleep in the past 30 hours. The funny thing is, it didn't get much better even after no sleep-deprivation. Every time we got off the subway, we inevitably chose the wrong exit to leave from and found ourselves on some random street corner looking around with a big, fat "I'm a tourist, and I'm lost" tattoo on our foreheads.

We stayed at a fantastic little B & B away from the tourist zone for the first couple of nights. They served a great breakfast, and there was a fan in our room to help drown out my loud snoring that Britte' had to endure for four days! As luck would have it, I came down with a nasty cold almost simultaneously with our arrival in Barcelona. So, not only was I a great companion to hang-out with, but their was further sleep-deprivation in store for Britte!

For those of you who haven't been to Barcelona, the one must-see is La Sagrada Familia. It's the famous cathedral in the middle of Barcelona, designed by Antonio Gaudi. It is by far, the most unique and beautiful church in all of Europe (at least in my opinion:)!

Me in front of La Sagrada Familia.

Amazing interior of the cathedral.

Alternate facade of the cathedral.

During our visit, we also tried to tour the Picasso Museum, but the day we chose to go was the one day of the month that is free to all visitors and hence, the line was 1/2 mile long and we chose to instead go shopping in the neat little shops surrounding the area. This is also when we had the opportunity to try "churros and chocolate", a snack or breakfast food that is basically doughnuts and thick, pudding-like chocolate. It wasn't very good, although, I should mention that this is more traditional in Madrid, not so much in Barcelona, so next time I'm in Madrid, I'll have to try it again!

Churros and chocolate

Salvador Dali is also a pretty important artist in the Barcelona area, so one of our days was spent riding the train 2 hours outside of town to enjoy? the Dali Museum in Figueres. For those of you who don't remember who this guy was, think of the famous paintings with the melting clocks. His work is bizarre! I've included a few pics (the tamer works). 

A picture of ??? Can you see?

An upside-down boat raining glass tears.

One-legged person with dancing croc.

We did more shopping than anything else while on our little holiday. The main street in Barcelona is called Las Ramblas and it's a series of designer shops in a one-mile stretch. It was a lot of fun to people-watch. It seems as if Spaniards all have great style, and all the women have terrific hair (a sore subject with Britte' and I who in our present environment/climate can't find the right way of "doing" our hair - we look pretty scruffy most of the time). We found the time to frequent Starbucks a few more times and even stopped in at  McDonald's once or twice:)

We made it back to Nigeria right on time, stood in their "customs" line for a long while, and then panicked a little when we realized we forgot our immunization cards which you are required to carry in addition to your passports in order to get back into the country. The female guard stopped us on our way out the door and tried to inform us that without our immunization cards she'd have to take us to the hospital to get immunized, at which point, we grabbed our passports out of her hand and told her "absolutely not, good-bye" and then we walked out the door. Phew! She was really just hoping to intimidate us into giving her some money to pay her off, but we handled it like pros, and our driver was waiting just outside the door, so away we went! 

It was actually a relief to get back to our flat and exclaim "We're Home!". Weird how it actually feels like home even with our completely barren, white walls, and lack of decor. We were welcomed back with running water and power, clean dishes, and clean laundry, so things are looking up!

Thanksgiving will hold another trip - this time to Ghana - just a short hour-long flight west. Stay tuned for more adventures!