El fin.

Tonight is my last night in Barcelona. It is pretty unbelievable that I will actually, finally be leaving this place that has been so important to me. During the months I spent here, I had some of the best times in my life, and I really love this beautiful city. I will carry the experience with me forever. But I have resigned myself to leaving, and honestly I am ready. 

My dad and Ba (my grandmother from England) have been here over the weekend and their trip has been a whirlwind "Best of Barcelona" tour. Or perhaps "Barcelona: the good life." They got here Friday evening and the first place we went was Sagrada Familia, since it is right by (literally 1 block away) from our apartment. We had tapas at Cerveceria Catalana. (Making my third visit in one week, but it is just too good a place for any Barcelona visitor to miss it, and obviously I did not mind going again.) 

On Saturday we got up and had coffee and croissants at the bakery next door to the apartment, Supan. We then went to Plaça Catalunya, Plaça de l'Angel, and La Rambla. We spent a lot of time at the Boqueria picking out jamón ibérico and three kinds of cheese. After the Boqueria we went back to the apartment to change for lunch at Cinc Sentits. This is a very posh restaurant where we had an 8 course tasting menu. It was fabulous--easily one of the top meals of my life. We were there for 4 hours and had wine with every course, so all of us were buzzed the entire afternoon. We had great conversations and it was a super experience. I took pictures and when I can, I will post a full review on the blog. 

After that we went to the Arc de Triomf and walked down the promenade to the Parc de la Ciutadella and UPF (my university in Barcelona). We walked to the Frank Gehry fish at Ciutadella Vila Olímpica and along the beach, stopping at the Princesa 23 drink stand. It was a lovely evening but Ba was pretty exhausted and we headed home from there. We had our ham and cheese from the market with a baguette from Supan and drank champagne from the Duty Free to celebrate Barça's trouncing of Real Madrid. There were people celebrating the team's victory into the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday we had a bit of a late start, repeating our café con leche and croissants routine. We went to the Cathedral, where since it was Sunday a large group of people was gathered dancing the Sardana, or traditional Catalan dance. It is like a Greek wedding dancing-in-a-circle sort of thing. The Cathedral was free so we went and explored the cloister, where there is a sort of garden with geese and fountains surrounded by individual chapels. We got gelato in Plaça Sant Jaume.

We walked from there to Plaça Reial, where there was a market--or junk sale--being held. The weather all weekend was perfect and sunny. We then went to the Museu Picasso. Since I'd already been twice, they went ahead (they got in free since it was the first Sunday of the month) and I wandered down the Passeig del Born to the Parc de la Ciutadella. It was the same walk I had taken two weeks before when all my study abroad pals were still here, and it made me very nostalgic. 

I met back up with my dad and Ba and we walked around Santa María del Mar and had lunch at Taller de Tapas. We went back to the apartment, then my dad and I went to a concert at the Palau de la Música Catalana. The building is really stunning and it was a wonderful experience. It was somewhat randomly the Ukraine Symphonic Orchestra. Ba had a night in experimenting with rioja, tonic and oranges to make her own sangría.

Tomorrow morning we will pick up the rental car and drive to Valencia. From there we are going to spend a day in Alicante, a day in Granada, and finally fly back to the U.K. from Málaga on Thursday. A few days in Sussex and London, and then my dad goes back Tuesday and Alex arrives to travel with me for two weeks. It is going to be great!