Mis padres me visitaron!

Don't tell anyone, but I was super excited that my parents came to see me! SHHH!!!! Now you can't ever bring this up again....

They got here on Friday afternoon, I was lazy and ended up not meeting them at the airport and made them fend for themselves to find a taxi and get to their hotel. Finally around 4 I met up with them. It felt so good to have a hug from them. Once again, don't tell anyone. I can't be known as the mushy type. We decided to take it a little easy that day since they were tired from flying all night and mom was recovering from crapping her pants over their landing in Zurich - although she did have a legitimate reason to be scared because even Big D was scared! So I took them on the metro and we headed to Las Ramblas. Its a touristy pedestrian street and there are always street performers trying to make a few extra euros and its just fun to walk down. There were soooo many people there, it was ridiculous! Barcelona was full of tourists this weekend because it was Easter weekend, which is huge in Spain considering the strong influence of the Catholic church. So we pushed our way through the crowds, down Las Ramblas. I felt like a mom and I had to keep an eye on my parents to make sure they were right behind me, I didn't want them getting lost in this big city where they don't speak the language! Wow- role reversal for sure. I should have put one of those leashes around their wrists like they used to do to me when we would go to Disney World when I was young! Sweet revenge!

As we were walking down the street we noticed people starting to gather around the actual street where cars drive. I got super excited because for the past few weeks we've been hearing, from natives, about these Easter parades in Spain where a local Catholic church brings out all of their big decorative things ( I don't really know what, whatever Catholics use to decorate their churches and use during services and ceremonies) and put them on floats - except the floats aren't pulled by motorized vehicles, they are carried by about a dozen people. Its crazy! These people start training months in advance to be in good physical shape to carry these heavy floats. So we joined in with the people lining up along the street and waited for it to begin. It was worth the long wait. It took a while for them to get to where we were standing because they would walk about ten feet then stop for about 3 or 5 minutes so people could get a good look at the floats. The first one had Jesus carrying the cross and was lavishly decorated with lit candles and flowers. There were also a lot of people, who were part of the parade, dressed in all black carrying banners and incense, little kids too! -Who were adorable by the way. The second big float was one with Mary on it. It was also lavishly decorated and you could even see tears on her face! It was intense, but so cool to witness because its a huge part of their culture! People were throwing rose pedals on the floats and clapping and yelling things, so interesting!



So then we decided we were hungry, and my parents weren't on Spanish time yet because it was a little early to be eating dinner but oh well. So I took them to a restaurant on Las Ramblas that I heard was good, and it was! We all got salads, well kind of. Dad decided it would be a good idea to order scrambled eggs with ham as his salad, what a weirdo! I had a chicken dish, mom had fish and dad had veal and we all shared a bottle of wine. It was a good meal! None of us could clean our plates, which is odd for a Spanish meals and the normal small portions. Even though we didn't finish all of our food we had to get desert! Good parenting skills mom and dad! We all split a chocolate moose. After dinner I took my parents to see a flamenco show. It was a half hour set and the lady was a really good dancer. I think they enjoyed it! After the show, dad was ready to go get another beer but mom was about to fall asleep while she was walking so we hoped back on the metro and I made sure they got tucked in bed.

The next morning I woke up early and got ready because we were supposed to meet at 10 for breakfast... well it was 10:15 and I still hadn't heard from them... so I called them and they were still sleeping! Glad I woke up early for nothing! So finally we got going around 11:30 and stopped at a nearby cafe for pastries and coffee. I had just planned on walking around the old part of Barcelona on Saturday so that's what we did. We just strolled around the narrow streets of the Gothic area and stopped in shops along the way. My parents really enjoyed seeing all the narrow, old streets with the European facades. For lunch I wanted to do traditional Spanish lunch so that meant paella and sangria. My mom and I had chicken paella and dad ordered a salad and a "Spanish ham" bocadillo (sandwich) and of course we finished a jar of Sangria among the three of us... we were all feeling a little buzzed. By this time it was about 3:30 so we decided to make our way back home. On the way I took them to La Boqueria, the market. It was packed! I have never seen so many tourists in Barcelona as I did this weekend. We also stopped in the official FC Barcelona (futbol team) store and got some jerseys. Then my parents went back to the hotel and I went back to my apartment where we relaxed for a while and got ready for dinner.

Before we went to dinner I took my parents to Plaza Espana where there is a fountain/light show to music. It was a lot of fun minus the fact that it was windy and cold - so weird for Barcelona! I think my parents brought the wonderful Indiana winter weather with them. Mike met us at the light show, yes, my parents met Mike.... I wasn't nervous for them to meet him, I knew they would like him and Mike is so outgoing I knew he wouldn't have a problem meeting them either. We then headed to dinner and since we did a big lunch I decided to take them to a dinner of tapas. I was told of this really good tapas restaurant that isn't as intense as the typical Spanish tapas bar where there are tons of people and standing room only - I didn't figure my parents would enjoy that so much. We ordered a bunch of different tapas and some wine and had a really good time. When we left the restaurant it was raining. Boo. There was a guy standing outside of the restaurant selling umbrellas for five euros. Dad, being the sucker that he is, threw down 10 euros and bought two, but they were well worth it because it started to pour. We made it up to a main street and caught a cab back. It was 11 and my parents were tired so I sent them to the hotel and Mike and I met up with some friends at a bar.

The next morning we went for breakfast and then headed to La Sagrada Familia, the big Gaudi church that still isn't finished after 100 years. It is absolutely unbelievably gorgeous. But once again there were a ton of tourists there so we had to wait in a long line to get in, but it went pretty fast. Once we were in we decided to take an audio tour which was so good and informative. We spent about two hours walking around the church and the museum in the basement. Mom was obsessed with the church and is now obsessed with Gaudi and that's all we heard about the rest of the trip. When we were finally able to drag mom out of Sagrada kicking and screaming (just kidding) we went for lunch at a restaurant nearby that has amazing goat cheese salads. After lunch, dad wanted to go back to Plaza Espana in daylight because he thought that one of the buildings was "so cool." So we headed back over there and walked around for a while. We then decided to go back to the apartment and chill out for a little bit because around 5 we were going to head to a Irish pub that I know of to watch the FC Barcelona game. We tried to get tickets but they were all sold out. So we went to the pub, but Chelsea (the Irish futbol team) was playing so they had that game on and not Barcelona - oh well. We still had fun. We ordered some appetizers and had some drinks. Mike met us again, he couldn't get enough of my parents I guess... haha. We had so much fun though. We were there for like four hours. I´m surprised they didn't kick us out. At 8 they started karaoke. I tried to get mom to do it with me but of course she wouldn't!

On Monday we once again met for breakfast and then went back to my apartment to pack a lunch for a picnic in Parc Guell, a Gaudi park. Mom was so excited. We made tomato and mozzarella sandwiches and took grapes and pears. We walked around Parc Guell for what seemed like forever had our picnic and then left. On the way back to the metro we had to stop at a Guadi souvenir shop for mom. It literally took her about 30 minutes to decide which campaign glasses she wanted to buy, my patience was running thin... imagine that! I wanted to show my parents the beach and the port but no one would make up their mind about when they wanted to see it, right after Parc Guell or later at night before dinner. Finally we just decided to go right after the park. So we walked around the beach and port for about an hour and by this time we were all really tired... or maybe it was just me? So we went back and took a long siesta. Very much needed.

For dinner we decided to just stick around the area near my apartment. There is an Italian restaurant two blocks away that we went to. It was really, really good. Since it was the last night they were there and my diet officially starts today, we all splurged. We all got salads, a meal and dessert! What fatties! It was a nice last dinner though. After dinner we went back to my apartment for a little but my parents had to get up early this morning for their flight so they went back to the hotel around 10.

I´m so glad that they fit me into their busy schedules and came to visit. We had a great weekend and I´ll always remember it. Thanks mom and dad! I love you!

First Cafe con leche in Spain

A store named after Grandma!

Enjoying some Sangria

True Tourists at La Sagrada Familia

All of us at the Irish pub

Our picnic at Parc Guell

At Parc Guell