Columbus Day aka Día de la Hispanidad

Suck it, Columbia. You'd think you could give us a day off for your namesake, but you're way to liberal to celebrate anything that has to do with the conquest of indigenous peoples. Luckily, I've found a country that takes the time to remember this special day, and I celebrated accordingly. Apparently, every joven español was also celebrating last (Tuesday!) night -- there must have been thousands of them, literally swarming the streets, outside a few of the bigger bars and discotecas near our residence.

Surprisingly, after very little sleep the past couple of nights and a late Tuesday night out, I woke up around 13h ready to start my day. We went to an American brunch place (can you say juevos benedict) to start our afternoon. It's a cute little place called Milk, and it's near the Barrio Gótico:

Note that the "Recovery" brunch menu has been moved from only weekend/quasi-weekend days to every day, presumably according to the needs of American study abroad students.

First time I've seen sour cream here; obviously American food can make anything fatter.

After brunch, I wanted to go to the beach, since it was beautifully warm and sunny for a change. I was convinced into making slightly more ambitious plans.

Remember when I went to Montjuïc? From the top of that mountain, you can see this other mountain and castle-y structure across the city. We'd heard it was some sort of theme park (with, in typical European fashion, absolutely no safety regulations), and we decided to make a spontaneous post-brunch trip.

The park is called Tibidabo, and the castle is actually a church called the Temple of Atonement of the Sacred Heart. To get there, you take a train from Catalunya, then a bus up a hill, then a funicular up a shockingly steep slope to the top of the mountain.

 The funicular (so FUN and unairconditioned).

 View from the funicular.

The views from the top of Tibidabo were without question the best I've seen thus far of Barcelona, and the scenic beauty is playfully punctuated with kids' rides (for example, the classic childhood favorite of...human hamster balls?):

Really weird. 

More traditional but less funny children's rides. 

Casual castles, rolling hills, etc.

Being away from Columbia has put a lot into perspective for me. Holidays back at school -- well, just MLK Day, because that's the only time Columbia gives us a real day off -- mean a day to maybe sleep a little later and play catch up on work. Caught up in the breakneck pace of life in the city, I would never think to take a breath, get out, take advantage and explore. Today, my thoughts were as far from school as they could possibly be. In fact, I think I might have left them somewhere between the mile-high carousel and the beach...