Barcelona, here we come!

We're getting packed for our late night flight to Barcelona (and by "getting packed" I mean facebooking and watching TV). Our flight leaves at 1 am. Yes, 1 in the morning. Like the hour after midnight. It's funny because when I told my co-workers my flight time they said, "Oh, you got an early flight, *mashallah!" They didn't mean early in the morning, they meant early in the usual flight schedule. Most flights to Europe take off from the Middle East crazy late at night. It's not unusual to have a 3 or 4 am boarding time.

Anyway, the Mister and I are both super excited to be going to Spain, land of beautiful architecture, green landscapes, and Sangria. We've booked an apartment with airbnb, the same service we used when we went to Amsterdam. We were beyond thrilled with how things turned out in Amsterdam, and we plan to use airbnb as much as possible in our future travel destinations.

We're going to be seeing the Sagrada Familia, la Pedrera, Casa Batllo, Parc Guell, the Mercat de la Boqeria, and lots of local haunts. Our main objective, however, is to SLEEP as much as possible and not have a set plan. The only thing that is set in stone for sure is our audio tour of Sagrada Familia, but that's just because we pre-purchased tickets to avoid the line.

Our only complaint is that this break is only a week long. We're both pretty starved for a more Western way of doing things (read: a hard drink now and then and programs that start on time), so I don't think 6 days in Spain will cut it. It'll just have to last us until April (that's when we go to Berlin).

Vicariously yours,

*mashallah is an Islamic blessing. It basically means "Praise Allah." Muslims believe it wards off the evil eye. Not the metaphorical evil eye that teachers give students who act up. Muslims believe there really is an evil eye that will curse you if you don't give Allah props for all the good things that happen in your life