Well, that was our big trip to Barcelona and Spain. Before this trip we had met people from both Madrid and Barcelona, and both would tell you their city was better. Back in February we visited Madrid, and all in all we liked it. The people were nice, and the surrounding villages were awesome. So going into this trip we were curious how Barcelona would compare. Well, I would say we all liked Barcelona much better. The sunshine, the coast, the people. We enjoyed it all. Barcelona is much more of an international city than I expected. Even more so than Madrid I thought. I don't think we would ever make a return trip to Madrid, but we would definitely visit Barcelona again. You get all of that "old world" Europe that you want to see, but you also get the ocean and the warm beaches, which provide an interesting contrast of the two.
One interesting side note. On our last day Ben and I were waiting for Jenny and Megan to come out of a restaurant. Ben was sitting on some steps and I was standing next to him. Then a man came up to me and started saying something to me in Spanish. I thought he was asking if the space next to Ben was taken and could he sit down. I said that it was okay. He then realized I was American and spoke again. He said, "No...I was asking if I could sit down and smoke near your son." I was shocked. We've been in Europe for a year and a half and that was the first time anyone in Europe has ever asked if it was okay to smoke around my kids. I was pleasantly surprised, and even impressed. Most people in Europe are like chimneys and they light up no matter where they are. They don't care if kids are around or not. But this guy had the courtesy to ask. Really made an impression on me. Anyway, before that happened I had already thought the people in Barcelona were warm and friendly, but that pretty much iced it for me. We really enjoyed Barcelona, and we would love to go back sometime.
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