Vacation is for eating, right?

This almost feels like cheating because very little was accomplished on our next day in Spain, but hey - when you're struggling to get recap posts done, you'll take any excuse in the book to get something on the blog. I'm also currently getting curb stomped by whatever annoying illness is circulating through central Indiana right now, so for today? Less is more.

You know it's a stretch when a train ride is a highlight on...

Day 5

 Madrid -- Barcelona, Spain

Highlights: Chocolatería San Ginés, train to Barcelona, Casa Batlló

Originally, Wheat and I had grand plans to wake up early on our last day in Madrid and tour the royal palace. But when our alarm went off, we gave each other a knowing glance and promptly fell back asleep. That's alright - I'm always looking for reasons to go back. A couple hours later, we finally roused ourselves from bed with the prospect of one final churro with chocolate for breakfast.

We made our way to San Ginés on foot, which was actually a perfect way to say farewell to Madrid. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we took our time savoring both the food and the atmosphere. When we returned, we packed and said goodbye to my parents, who had a flight back to the States the next morning. As it turned out, Hurricane Irma had other plans for them and their flight to Atlanta was canceled. They ended up spending another night in Madrid and getting rerouted through Paris before finally getting home.

After lugging our bags through the metro to the train station (which I don't advise, by the way), Wheat and I boarded the train for our three-hour journey through the Spanish countryside to Barcelona. The time seemed to fly because the views were stunning. I kept taking what looked to be the same picture out the window of the train because VIEWS.

When we arrived in Barcelona, we quickly noticed that the public transportation system was swamped with people clad in coordinated t-shirts and carrying flags and posters. Unbeknownst to us, we arrived in Barcelona on Catalonia's national day, the Diada, which was quite a big affair this year. Shortly after our trip, the people of Barcelona voted to secede from Spain, which caused massive, somewhat violent protests and counter-protests. The secession issue is still being worked out today - with Barcelona and its unique culture, language, and traditions on one side and the rest of Spain (especially the domineering capital city of Madrid) on the other. I'll get into that a little more later.

After another lengthy walk with our luggage, we checked into Hotel Constanza and were completely blown away by the accommodations. The room was huge and had its own balcony overlooking the street and the hotel had a gorgeous rooftop bar. We were starving by this point, so we ventured across the street to Più, a cozy Italian restaurant in the heart of the Eixample district. We had pizza and pasta (duh) while soaking in the trendy atmosphere.

After dinner, we determined we needed to digest our food a bit with a nice stroll through the Eixample. Although it was late, there were plenty of people relaxing on cafe terraces and admiring the architecture. I had my first taste of Antoni Gaudí, the renowned Barcelona architect, when we accidentally stumbled upon Casa Batlló. We probably spent a full half hour just staring up at the dreamlike building. I'm not a huge architecture buff, but I was relieved to know we had much more Gaudí on the horizon...