Feliz Dia de los Reyes Magos

The past couple of days have crazy busy but so fun! Yesterday, Erin and I walked around the area near Jeff's hotel and ended up walking by Casa Batllo and Casa Mila (two of Guadi's famous works) and then ate some delicious gelato! not as good as Italy's, but still delicious! I was most impressed by the design of the storefronts! They go to alot of trouble to draw in a customer. Unfortunately, it makes me want to take a picture of it more than shop there.

view from jeff's hotel

Casa Batllo


Casa Mila


cool storefronts




Today was our no plan/do whatever we want day so Erin, Lucas and I set off to find this random, supposedly authentic and up-and-coming neighborhood I read about that happened to be on the other side of Jeff's hotel (looks like he picked a good part of time) On our way, we ran to the Arc de Triomf! Then we wandered through these tiny alleys for streets and then after eating a fabulous chocolate croissant, we caught sight of a giant metal building, followed it and found a nice little park with great mosaic tiling and tons of dogs running around! It definitely made my miss Delilah :( After we found the end of the park we looked to our left and low and behold is Sagrada Familia - another Guadi masterpiece that has actually been under construction for a century and hopes to be finished in 20-40 years. Ridiculous! I've definitely learned that this city is small since we keep running into everything. We then broke down from our walking style and took the metro to the amazing market and bought fruit and meat and made ourselves a yummy lunch!

Arc de Triomf


tiny, adorable street


lounging in the park




Awesome! I wish we did this to our retaining walls


Pac-Man (really, the letter C)


interesting planter


Sagrada Familia




the market


After we ate, we took a short nap then headed to the docks to see the Three Kings arrive! The 5th of January is Three Kings Day in Spain where they celebrate the day before Epiphany and the arrival of the three kings to see baby Jesus. The kings actual deliver gifts to the children at night on their camels - they even leave food for them at their windows! So basically, this is akin to our Christmas, which they celebrate as well. After the kings arrived, we waited to see them get into their vintage cars and then drive to Park Citudella to participate in a enormous parade (which, by the way, kicks the Battle of Flower's butt). While we were waiting we stood next to this great Spanish family with an adorable little boy. They were unbelievably nice and gave us all kisses on the cheek goodbye after we chatted a bit and shared pictures. We then walked to the parade, got our very own crowns and enjoyed! It was freezing however!!

cool dock architecture




little kids waiting for the kings


here they come!




the crazy tourist road


waiting for the parade


parade floats - crazy cool!