Barcelona Day 2: Sunday

After a nice night of sleep at our apartment, I woke up early (okay, early for vacation) and headed out to the International Church of Barcelona for their Sunday service. The church really is international with an American pastor and assistant pastor, but a Spanish worship leader, British woman's ministry leader and Spanish men's ministry leader. Most of the church consists of immigrants from India, China and Africa. It was truly a lovely time worshiping with the Church. I met one girl, Elizabeth, who is studying at Clemson U and is spending the summer in Barcelona for an engineering project. She was surprised I knew where Clemson was and I told her about attending Newspring online which is near Clemson. Small world.

After church, I met Christine at the cathedral where we watched the sardana, a traditional Catalan dance that expresses Catalan unity and patriotism (if you didn't know already, Catalan is basically the main language here in Barcelona, not Spanish). There is a big band at the steps of the church and groups of people gather in a circle holding hands, put all their belongings in the center of the circle and start a slow-moving, but purposeful dance around the circle. It was mostly older people doing it (some rather enthusiastically), but it was still fun to watch. We managed to come into the cathedral just as the service was ending so we could see the gorgeous and intricate woodwork in the choir section without paying the 2 euros normally charged when services are not going on.

Next, we enjoyed a European staple: falafel. Falafel is a Middle-Eastern vegetarian dish of yumminess. Basically it's ground up chick peas or flva beans that are made into balls and deep-fat fried. Then you put them in pita bread and cover with salad, marinated veggies and a yogurt or tahini sauce. Mmmmm...We went to a great falafel place called Maoz where we also had another European staple, french fries served in a paper cone with ketcup and mayo.

Strolling along La Ramba, the main strip in Barcelona, we found a side street and made our way to a gelato shop where we had dark chocolate gelato. Sitting on a local fountain, we enjoyed our gelato and then had the convenience of washing off our hands and filling our water bottle in the fountain.Now this is not a decorative fountain, but rather a fancy looking water fountain found in town squares. The assistant pastor of the the international church even mentioned when a water main broke several weeks ago, his whole neighborhood went to the local fountain to fill water bottles.

Since we were close, we made our way down to the harbor and after walking around there, found our way to Barcelona's biggest park which also houses their zoo. They were having a street fair with booths, concerts and games to promote a group of organisations working with disabled people and championing disabled rights. The mood was festive yet laid back and we sat on the grass to rest our tired feet before moving through the Arc de Triomf (apparently every major town is obliged to have one) and made our way back to the apartment.

Now we are enjoying our siesta...not sure what we'll do tonight, but Barcelona is turning out to be a very livable city...not terribly flashy, just comfortable and very homey(especially to me with all the Spanish elements that remind me of San Diego). Hasta luego!