Mojito, mojito, mojito?

Mojito, mojito, mojito? Our third day in Barcelona (july23) we got up bright and early (allowing us to actually get some cold milk at breakfast!!!) and headed straight to the sagrada familia. I've seen a lot of cool churches since the start of the trip, and I've appreciated each one, but I didn't expect to be blown away by this one a much as I am.  It's unfortunate that the whole outside is under construction ( they're adding spires I think) because ive seen photos on postcards and it's jaw dropingly stunning. Plus, you can easily spot it above the other buildings from look out points in the city, and it would've been nice to get a shot of it finished (I guess I'll be back in 2030... Or more likely it won't be finished even until after that).  It's so gorgeous inside because there's windows so strategically placed that so much natural light floods the room.  I couldn't pull my eyes away from the stained glass windows, and my camera failed to capture just how beautiful the colours are. We paid the extra 3 euros to take a lift up one of the spires.  There was a small bridge linking two of the towers and a lot of spiral steps with some landings that you can go peek out of again.  Needless go say, baye and I went nuts with the photos on this one!   After the sagrada we first visited the fcb football stadium (that means soccer)   They were charging way too much for a tour of the stadium, and there were no upcoming games we could go to so we didnt stay too long.  after this we walked down la ramblas, a street similar to shopping streets in Paris, but with a wider variety of things to buy as it's a market all the way down the middle. We saw flower shops, paintings, whole pig legs, and even a market pet store that had CHiPMUNKS in cages, among other cuddly things. We followed la ramblas back to the beach and spent the remainder of the afternoon there before setting off to find a good restaurant for tapas. With recommendations from my 'let's go student guide book', we found a place called bar bitacora.  I ended up getting an apple walnut salad and a typical Spanish  of deep fried hot peppers.  It was really good!!! On our last day in Barcelona, we hiked up montjuic to see the castle at the top.  The castle's moat is now all gardens, and the cannons are fake, but it overlooks the harbor, the beach, and the entire city.   We could spot all major landmarks that we use/see when getting around, such as the dildo building, the sagrada church, and giant pieces of art around the beach. On the way backdown the mountain we passed the old Olympic stadium too. The hike took a good part of the day, so we got back to the beach relatively late (330pm), prioritizing our books and suntans over a couple other things we wanted to do, such as browse around the streets of the Bari gothic region or go back to parc guell (because we didn't tour the whole thing the first time, it was so hot) We went for dinner at a place recommended by bayes parents, called cerveceria Catalunya, where the line was an hour long and we arrived before it opened at 8pm.  Everything coming out on the dishes to other tables looked so incredible I thought I'd never decide (my family will know it's true, I dont make up my mind easily), but there was a slightly more expensive option to order a sample of the tapas, so I got that.   The plate comes out and it's got the deep fried hot peppers in the centre, and four seafood dishes around the outside. Gulp.  I've never been much of one for seafood, so it was lucky I was so hungry (we've been living off the bread rolls they serve at breakfast). I ate prawn, clams, tempura little fishies, and something similar to a crab cake, very heavy.  I ate it all. :) and liked it.   The plan was then to go to free salsa lessons at a bar back near the beach. It took us forever to find because our maps can't fit the words onto every tiny little side street, and this place was down a dimly lit alleyway, just like my travel book described.  When we finally found the bar called sanga, she said the lessons started at 1130, not 11 like we thought, and we had to leave by 1130 since the metros and busses stop running at midnight, so no salsa for us :(  Met some cool people in our room, but we left at 7am on the 25th so we barely got to chat much.  The new Aussie girl had her phone stolen at the night club that night...   Very glad I've been so paranoid of pick pocketers!!!  In fact, we had a close call two days earlier, where I watched a shady looking guy walk too close to people.  He quickly realized baye was a bad target cause I had her back so closely, but I watched him follow one of our new London friends soon after.  In the crowd if people exiting the metro, he walked right close behind and swing his arms in sync with our friend in front I'd him.  His fingers would stretch each time until I called for joe's attention and tried to get between the two of them.  close call.  Adding to Paris, Barcelona makes the list of places I felt there just wasnt enough time to see it all, and I know I'll be back :)