Barcelona

My tour of Europe continued today to one of my favorite cities. Actually, I've only met a couple of cities I don't like, which will remain nameless, so maybe that isn't saying much. However, Barcelona holds a special place in my heart.

Late last October, M. and I planned a two week visit to Munich and made a decision that we would determine whether we would continue our relationship and make the next step or if we would be better off leading separate lives. We hadn't seen each other in five months and the long distance was putting a big strain on us that nearly broke us. We knew the clock was ticking and if we didn't make a decision to move forward, the distance would make a decision for us.

M. had planned a special surprise for us to go to Barcelona for several days during the visit. The surprise lasted about 12 hours from the time he planned it before he told me but I was thrilled nonetheless. Men are not known for their planning abilities and anything that a guy does that takes into account that there are more than five minutes in the future is appreciated.

I arrived in Munich feeling so nervous since it had been so long and the stakes felt high for this visit. As always seems to happen with us though, we quickly felt at home together and were blessed with beautiful Golden Oktober weather. My first visit to Munich couldn't have been any better.

We made our way down to Barcelona for the latter part of the trip with much excitement when disaster struck. As a couple who lived almost entirely apart from each other, we lived for our pictures and emails. In my excitement when we arrived, I jumped out of the cab and stupidly left my digital camera and all our beautiful pictures from nearly two weeks of our visit in the cab, never to be seen again.

Sappy as it is, I cried at the thought that in a few days I would go back to the States with no pictures from this all too brief trip. M. tried everything he could including bribing to get the camera back from the cab company but to no avail. Although our mood was dampened, we started to explore the city and shake the mood that had overcome us.

As we walked through the city and dusk approached, we found ourselves wandering down all these crooked little side streets, which eventually opened up to a church, The Santa Maria del Mar. We walked in and took a seat. The glow of the candles gave the austere church a coziness that didn't seem possible for such a large building. I sat next to M. and felt without words that he felt the same sense of peace and calm that I did. We didn't say much but the discussions and doubts about making the move to Europe seemed to fade away and I knew for sure then what I wanted. It was time to stop living in pictures and emails.

We walked out to the courtyard and grabbed a little table to share some Cava and a cheese plate and listened to a street performer sing her beautiful songs.



Posted from Barcelona