Sophocles has been enrolled in doggy daycare at the Downtown Dog Lounge. We are trying to socialize him, as he doesn’t really care to deeply for other dogs. It has been a little traumatic for him, but he seems to be improving. Here is the latest picture of him:
I apparently have too much time on my hands…
1) Coffee in Barcelona
2) Waiting to go up the tower of La Sagrada Familia
3-5) Siting in our Living Room
This is visually what the text of my website looks like…
How are you supposed to react to this?
In the inaugural parade, for the first time ever, an openly lgbt group was invited to participate. It was the Lesbian and Gay Band Association. It is great to see this group acknowledged at the celebration. My absolute favorite part is the flamboyant man with the baton. He is being authentically himself and the media didn’t shy away from him. He, and all his wonderful queerness, were celebrated!
Anthony and I made a side trip to Paris for new years. I have heard so many negative things about this city and the French. Anthony and I didn’t experience any of them! People were super nice to us, the city is amazingly beautiful, and there is just SO MUCH to see. We were there for two days, so we obviously only got to see a bit. The only negative experience about the trip was that it was FREAKING cold! We were so underdressed. But, we really want to go back now!
Last night, we went to a Neapolitan pizzeria, called Gusto. We were seated next to this elderly Italian couple from Napoli, who just happened to be the parents of the owners. They were hilarious! We had a two hour conversation with them (in Italian, so I didn’t get all of it…) about their children, us, how we liked Barcelona, etc. They even got the brothers to give us a free appetizer (and semi-forcibly made me eat a rice-ball)! It was so much fun!
Today, we accidentally slept in until 11:30, which sort of foiled our plans to be the first people at the different Gaudi attractions. We got to La Sagrada Familia first, which is spectacular!! We spent about two hours there, admiring this amazing place! We then went to Casa Batllo, which is a beautiful house (more like huge mansion!) in the middle of the city. The pictures below are, obviously, not taken by us (we will post later).
La Sagrada Familia
Casa Batllo
I woke up VERY sick this morning. I was incredibly nautious until about 6PM. It took a bit of convincing, but I finally got Anthony to go out on his own (I didn’t want to ruin his day). He had Thai food for lunch, which cracks me up. Finally, I went out with Anthony and walked around Las Ramblas, shopped a bit, and am now back at our place. We are going to go grab some food in a bit… something mild! 
Here is a a cute puppy we saw in a pet store:
Today, Anthony and I met up with a friend of a friend, Anna. She is from Barcelona, but now lives in Berlin (but is visiting family). She took us through the Gracia neighborhood, which is still very community oriented. We then went to Park Güell, which is spectacular! Afterwords, we went to a really great cafe (I cannot remember the actual name, but it translated to “Shhh, don’t tell anyone”) and chatted for a couple hours. It was a really fun day!
Here are a couple pictures from Park Güell:
Our first morning in Barcelona has been a bit wet. We walked around, found a bunch of really fun looking stores, but all are closed on Sunday. Who knew?
The funniest part of the day has been my morning run. I got up at 8AM and planned to run for about 30 minutes. A little over an hour later I finally found my way home, after attempting to get directions from several people. Everyone kept pointing me in the wrong direction (I, apparently, was not pronouncing Carrer de Comte d’Urgell correctly).