Goodbye to Dublin, Benvinguda a Barcelona

I had seen this tower from halfway across the city, and decided to make the hike to see what it was.  Turned out it was a monument to some guy in WW2.  It's large.

My last day in Dublin dawned sunny and beautiful.  I took a last walk around to enjoy the weather.  I really wanted to get a picture of the famous colored doors in the Georgian area of the city.  As usual when you have a particular idea of something you want, something that seems like it should be easy, it's incredibly hard to find (seems like there's mailboxes everywhere, but try finding one when you need one).  So after great frustration I finally managed to find three doors that were all different colors, close enough together to get in the same photo, didn't have cars parked in front of them, and didn't have "for rent" signs all over the buildings.  Then I just had to wait for the sun to come out from behind a large cloud and try to time a shot in between all the cars, motorcycles, buses, and pedestrians going by.  Photography sucks.

After my morning wandering about, I headed back to the hostel and got all my stuff packed up, ran a few errands, and generally made ready to vacate the country.  Took the bus to the airport, walked a long way out to the terminal where Ryanair flys out of, then got on a plane with seats packed as closely together as you can possibly get them.  The seats don't even recline, because if they did you'd hit the person behind you in the face.  Well, at least it was cheap.  I did grab a window seat and got some beautiful views of Normandy and the coastline along the Bay of Biscayne.  Arrived in Madrid just before ten, then had to take the metro to the hostel, which took about an hour.  I spent a sleepless night in an upper bunk in a crowded dorm room with an obnoxiously overweight woman coughing all night in the bunk next to me.  Probably the swine flu.  Got up early the next morning to ride the train out to Alcala de Henares, where my apartment is.  I arrived, dropped off some of my luggage, paid rent, then hopped back on the train to Madrid.  Another metro trip took me back to the airport, just in time for my flight to Barcelona.  I was in Madrid for barely over 12 hours.  Got another window seat on another overcrowded plane.  Definitely worth it as the views were amazing.  The area around Girona (where Ryan flies into, which is about an hour north of Barcelona) is covered with lush green rolling hills and dotted with farmhouses with spanish tile roofs.  Gorgeous.  A long bus ride followed by more metro riding took me to my hostel.  After many hours of traveling and few hours of sleep I wasn't in the mood for much adventure.  I got some food, got a hold of friends and family back in the states, and generally relaxed.  Which meant that I got up this morning ready to go.  I had a map of the city with all the attractions, but I decided to just go where my feet took me.  I ended up climbing to the top of Montjuic (literally "Mountian of the Jews") which overlooks the city at the southwest corner.  The views were incredible, and I spent most of the day there.  Shot a few photos as well.

Barcelona.

Oranges and the harbor.

The harbor with the Costa Brava extending in the background.

At the top of the mountain is Castel Montjuic, which is actually a fort.

The main courtyard.

I don't know why, but I like this shot for some reason.  Stairs.

An archer's view of the city.

The tower at the top of the fort.

All in all, a pretty good day.  I'm looking forward to seeing more of the city, but I'm also looking forward to just relaxing and living the Mediterranean lifestyle.  Tomorrow, maybe the beach.