I've been back from Barcelona for like a week and a half now.  I just never get around to emailing because...well...it's expensive and I'm lazy.  Barcelona was an unimaginably odd city.  I saw so many odd and sometimes terrifying things that I don't know if I will ever be the same. We stayed for a while in a hostel overlooking La Rambla, which is sort of the main drag of Barcelona.  Out our window we saw human statues, break dancing street performers, guys hitting each other with bats for money, and street vendors selling everything from postcards to parakeets.

One area of town is called something like Barre Gotic (I don't remember, plus I can't speak Catalunyan), or the Gothic Quarter.  It is full of buildings from the 1400s, which was pretty damn cool.  In one museum we went down into the basement and they had excavated an entire neighborhood of the ancient Roman city of Barcino, which is buried underneath the city.  There were the ruins of 2000 year old shops, houses, a church, and a winery.  Perhaps my favorite place was the nearby Temple of Caesar Augustus, built in the first century AD.  All that is left is four pillars, and they are completely surrounded by an apartment building (what is this world coming to?) but they were quite impressive.  I said my "Hail Caesar!" and left the oldest thing I have ever seen.

The number one tourist attraction in Barcelona is La Sagrada Familia, or the Church of the Holy Family.  It is this terribly odd church that was begun 121 years ago, but is only about half finished.






 I simply cannot describe the awesome dimensions of this church.  There is not a flat surface on the whole thing.  It is just one huge sculpture.  It is simply the weirdest place I have ever been.  Imagine if H. R. Giger built a church. Keep in mind that the impressive towers are only the sides of the building; the front has not been built yet and will be even taller.

The internet cafe is closing, so I'm out of here.  Don't worry everyone,