Barcelona. Barcelona? Barcelona!

Passeig de Colom, Port Vell.  April 29, 2008.

 It's really no secret that I'm obsessed with Barcelona.  I've never tried to hide it, I've never tried to ignore it.  It's just one of those things I feel defines me for some reason or other.  I'm not really sure when it became my "schtick", but ever since it did, I've had tons of people say to me "So-and-so has been talking about Barcelona and I thought of you!" or "They showed Barcelona on Such-and-such TV show and I thought of you!"  Barcelona, and my love and adoration for FC Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernández (it's borderline creepy is what it is), are the two things that people who know me really well define me with.

It's all a compliment, obviously.  One friend took a trip to Spain and Italy shortly after I got back from Spain (she left the US the day I left Spain, actually) and after visiting Barcelona she said "Now I know why Elizabeth loves Barcelona so much."  It's contagious.  Add that onto the amount of times other friends who haven't been there have told me "Okay, so if I ever go to Barcelona, I'm taking you with me to show me everything!"  Of course, then I always feel bad because every single time I've been to Barcelona there's always something I don't end up seeing or doing for some reason or other.  Like I still haven't taken the tram up to Tibidabo, and it's been on my list since before I went the last time.  And I haven't been inside any of Gaudí's buildings either, but that's mostly because I didn't want to spend the money to get in.  And considering the last time I went I nearly emptied my bank account doing cheap things, I'm really glad the only splurge I made was visiting the Palau de la Música Catalana.

Sagrada Família.  May 1, 2008.

The other day on Spotify I did a search for all songs with "Barcelona" in the title and created a playlist.  Due to the amount of songs that only mentioned Barcelona once with no context of the actual city (I guess the name Barcelona just sounds nice or something...) I ended up deleting the playlist, but the fact that I actually did that search says enough.  I just can't stop.  Anytime I hear someone mention "Barcelona" in a sentence I feel my nose start to itch and my eyes start to water and I want to bust into the conversation and say "Oh my gosh, I adore Barcelona!"  Anytime it appears on a TV show or movie I'm watching I want to pause it and just repeat the person saying "Barcelona" over and over again to take it all in.

I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it until I die.  Barcelona is magical.  And I don't care at all that I'm obsessed with it.  Because of my obsession with Barcelona I've met some wonderful people, learned another language, discovered amazing literature, amazing music.  Barcelona és, senzillament, màgica.