Meng's Travels: Barcelona

Barcelona is an amazing city. I've never seen so many monuments or buildings in one city. You hear Gaudi's name everywhere. He is the famous Spanish architect from Catalan, the region where Barcelona is located. His most famous work is the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, which is shown in the first picture below. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most popular tourist attraction in Spain. I went to the Sagrada Familiar Cathedral relatively early but there was already a very long line. I think it'd have taken me about 2 hours to get into the cathedral to see the inside. Even though he died in 1926, they are still adding onto the cathedral. It's hard to say when it will finish. There are also several of his masterpieces in other parts of the city.
We took 3 trains to get from Nice to Barcelona: Nice to Montpelier, Montpelier to Figueres and Figueres to Barcelona. We didn't have to wait long in-between stops but it still took us about 8-9 hours.
I had a lot of trouble finding space in one of the hostels so we had to stay in a hotel a few miles away from town the first night. After that we moved into the Downtown Paraiso Hostel, which is only 5 minutes away from La Rambla. It is in a working-class neighborhood, where you find a lot of local restaurants and bars catering to the residents. Here again I find a lot of immigrants. Along one street there were many businesses own by Indians. It is strange to hear Indians and Chinese speaking fluent Spanish. But, where there is money to be made, they are always there.
La Rambla is a very busy street full of tourists and anything associated with tourism. Tourists attract pick-pockets and scam artists and everyone warned us to be extra careful in Barcelona. I heard that many of them are Romanians and gypsies. I also heard that a lot of them have been driven out of Italy and are now preying on tourists in Spain.
The bad news about the tourist attractions in Barcelona is that they are spread out over a big area of the city. So, I bought a 2-day ticket for a hop-on, hop-off tourist bus. Trying to find these places on the metro would've taken a lot of time. This is the most efficient way to see a city if you don't have a lot of time. I've done them in London and Paris and I think they are definitely worth it. Here is the URL of the one in Barcelona in case you are interested in finding out more about the tour: http://www.barcelonabusturistic.cat/web/guest/home
Around La Rambla are many tourist attractions; one of which is Merkat la Boquieria. This is a lively, colorful market selling all kinds of foodstuffs. In the morning you find butchers and fishmongers selling meat and fish. You also find fruit stands, vendors selling sausages and ham, which Spaniards claim are better than the Italians'. I love this market because it is a lively and colorful place and sells all kinds of foodstuffs.