Barcelona

We flew Air Canada to get to Barcelona including a flight from Denver to Montreal on a plane that had seat-back entertainment, standard power outlets and USB power outlets for every seat. We briefly had the exit row until the flight attendants made us move based on the boys ages. When I selected seats online they were supposed to be 2 rows ahead of the exit row but I guess they didn't have this new plane in their system yet.

In Barcelona we began the process of getting over the jet-lag. First we slept all day before finding out we were missing one swimming suit. We just forgot to pack it. There was a pool on the roof of the hotel but not really enough sun to swim by the time we woke up around 6 PM. I had planned to get up early and lay in the sun all day.

It's a pretty standard thing as a traveler that a certain amount of time is taken up with problem solving. Something that isn't a big deal in your hometown becomes a difficult task in another country. Our Amazing Race task for the day was to find a place to buy a swimsuit in the center of Barcelona. The hotel staff directed us to a crowded area of the city around Placa de Catalunya where I was almost certain we wouldn't be able to buy one. This is an area with lots of boutique stores selling shoes, dresses and handbags. I thought I found a department store but it was more like a Tower Records store. We had difficulty finding a way out of the store without going through the checkout.

Finally I spotted a Zippy Kidstore that at first looked promising, then, not so much. It was an expensive looking store with mostly cute clothes for 3 year old girls. One hook by the entrance inexplicably had boys size 12 swimsuits. It was just like the Amazing Race, we had found the needle in the haystack. I was worried about how much it would cost but it ended up being only 5 Euros.

Placa de Catalunya had some unusual tents and permanent looking tree-houses made from found materials. We saw a guy climb up a rope to get into one. I need to get more information on this. Is it an art installation commenting on affordable housing or squatters building a kind of Dignity Village in the center of the city? There were various other tents pitched around the square also. Maybe I'll get pictures later, not for poverty porn's sake, but because those tree-houses looked very cool. I wanted to go inside too. It was an interesting juxtaposition of expensive shopping next to a squatters village. Or maybe it wasn't. Random traveling first impressions are almost always wrong.