Day 2: Barcelona

Our host's apartment was in the Gracia district, a criss-crossed network of tree-lined streets full of bars and boutiques and pedestrian-dodging scooters. Last night we wove our way back to the Fontana metro station where we met Juliet and Harriet. We headed off to a bar, four girls of varying heights in varying shades of blonde, wielding varying levels of Spanish and varying volumes of laughter. We chatted over mojitos, white wine and daquiris. The bars were ambient, the drinks cheap and delicious. Later we sleep-walked home through the long dark streets, art-nouveau balconies and fragrant trees conspiring, jungle-like, to get us lost. We found our way home and collapsed, head-to-toe in a single bed.

We woke today from a strange sleep spent trying not to kick each other in the faces. Showered, dressed in ambitiously summery clothing, and ate sliced apples and ginger tea on the balcony.

Met Juliet and Harriet in a café for brunch, a baguette grazed with tomato and filled with Spanish omelette. Then Juliet, Megan and I left for the Sagrada Familia, whose spires had teased us the day before.

The building was cloaked in scaffolding, delicate at a distance, raw and ugly closer up. The cathedral itself was beautiful, the whimsical sandcastle of a juvenile giant. Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece. Eleven euro to see inside. We were undecided, stingy yet curious. We skirted the perimeter, looking for a way to sneak in. And we found it; through the gift shop, quick as a flash. Walking through the exit door. Salmon swimming upstream. And we were in.

The interior was like staring up at the sky and seeing the future. Like angel's bones. Like mechanical wings. Rainbows prismed in and glanced off pods of quartz, embedded high in ivory columns. All churches should look like this. Heaven should look like this. Nothing has worshipped the Almighty in this way, never before or since.

Back out into the unexpected cool breeze. We wove our way to the port down wide boulevards lined with trees and found ourselves in a covered food market. Then we lost ourselves in it. Fruit and vegetables in kaleidoscopic abundance; charcuterie and seafood glistening under warm light or spread out on sparkling ice. We bought cherries and gave one to a still-alive crab to hold.

Later we found ourself at the sea-front, grey and cold-breezy, unwanted weather but beautiful, teal-grey water. We stayed till we got goosebumps then took the metro home, two weary kings bearing gifts of pizza, and beer, and watermelon.