The Oh Shit Shirt and a Sandcastle Cathedral

As of this morning, we still had not heard from Sharon in Paris.  I could not sleep all night, and I got up at the crack of dawn, took Kirk's laptop, and went to City Hall to use their free wi-fi.  I tried to find a back-up hotel in Paris, but they are all WAY over our budget or only sleep 2 people.  I was in tears, sitting by myself on a bench in the middle of SFG's municipal heart looking for somewhere to stay and cursing myself for paying for our Paris flat in advance.  Thankfully, right before we got on the bus back to Barcelona, Sharon answered her phone and said the plumbing problem is fixed, and we are free to stay in the apartment.  Hello!  A phone call or email with this info would have been nice!

Anyway, we had breakfast with George in the restaurant below our flat.  Let me just say that when we walk in, everything stops.  We sit down at our table, and immediately, one of the servers are there with a whole bottle of juice, coffee, croissants, pain au chocolat, cheese, jams, etc.  It is like we are the only patrons in the place!  Sweet Paquita bustles around us bringing more, making sure everything is right.  I feel like royalty at breakfast!

We headed down to the farmer's market for more coffee and to pass the time until our bus was scheduled to leave.  The girls wanted to go get some souvenirs, and Kyle still hadn't packed.  George, the girls, and I went shopping, and Kirk and Kyle went back to the apartment to get ready to leave.

I have not had the sad, pit-of-my-stomach feeling for a long time, but I had it today while I walked the streets of SFG with George.  I wanted to stay longer.  I wanted to spend more time getting to know him and listening to his stories.  I am such a "family connection" person, that I wanted to make sure this family stays connected.  It saddens me that we live so far away, and I don't know when I will get to come back.  

We met up with Kirk and Kyle and walked to the bus station to wait for the ride back to Barcelona.  I was on the edge of tears, when I heard Kirk say to George, "Does your shirt say, 'Oh Shit'?"

George laughed and replied, "I was wondering if you would notice!"

Sure enough, my dad's 70-something cousin was walking around town wearing a very stylish shirt that had "Oh Shit" written very fancily all over it!  That just cracked me up!

We had a really good laugh over that!  I loved George's sense of humor and his little bit of edginess.  That is something he does not have in common with my dad, and I loved it!

When the bus pulled up, we hugged, and George joked, "Who am I going to have lunch with now?"  It broke my heart.  I wish we lived closer.  I would have lunch with him all the time.  Tears started running, and I hugged him and climbed on board the bus.  I cried almost all the way back to Barcelona...

...We got back to Barcelona about 3 and took the subway to the Nikbor, the same place we'd stayed a few days earlier.  We got the room next to the one from before, but this time, the light was fixed, so it didn't flicker like paranormal energy was passing by.  We were going to eat at Josie's again, but we wanted to see Sagrada Familia Cathedral before dinner, so we dropped off our stuff and headed right back out.

Sagrada Familia is a massive cathedral started by Gaudi in the late 1800s.  It is still being constructed, but it is amazing.  It looks like a giant drip sandcastle in the middle of the city.  Every place you look is something different.  Scenes from the Bible are everywhere.  Fruit, flowers, animals are carved onto every surface.  It is like the Tree of Life in the middle of Animal Kingdom except on steroids.  We didn't have time to go in, but we walked around the outside with our mouths hanging open.  I can't imagine what it looks like inside.

We headed to Josie's for dinner.  When we got there, Kate was down the street at a nearby park playing with some friends.  Josie suggested the kids walk down and join her.  She said it was a couple of blocks straight up and said they'd have no problem getting there without us.  I had a moment of panic at the idea of my children walking in a strange city in a country where they didn't speak the language.  Kirk did go down and watched from a distance, and they felt really empowered to have walked by themselves to a park in a strange city where they didn't speak the language!

Dinner was an amazing spread of breaded and fried artichoke hearts and delicious frittatas. One was made with potatoes and the other with spinach.  So, so yummy!  The kids had a great time hanging out.    Again, it was bittersweet to leave.  I wish our family was all in one place.  Really.  It is sad for me that we are so far away from each other.

Tomorrow we leave for Paris.   We have tickets to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower on Friday and I want the kids to see Notre Dame and the Louvre for sure.  Other than that, Claire wants to buy a shirt from Paris so that when someone compliments it and asks where she got it, she can say, "Oh thanks!  I got it in Paris."  So I forsee some shopping on the Champs Elysee.  I need a vacation!