Barcelona in April - better late than ever

For my 30th birthday, my dear brother gave me one of the top gifts ever - a long weekend with him in Barcelona!!!! The reason why this was such a cool gift, was not only that I love Barca and was very pleased to go back there again, 7 years after the first time. The main reason why i loved this gift was that it meant that i would spend some quality time with my brother!!

Now, those that knew us when we grow up will remember that from the age of approx. 5/8 years old (and yes, he's the older one, even if some people have had the tendency to doubt this lately) we were like cats and dogs! Not only did we fight about anything and everything, we were also quite mean to each other, and no one ever knew better than him how to drive me crazy through teasing. I admit, we did have our good moments as well, and we did share some cool times on vacations in Slovenia and so on, but most of the time....cats&dogs, or should i say brother&sister. However, once Robert left for a year in the States, or actually, once he came back we started to change our cats&dogs relationship into something a bit more relaxed, and we slowly grew closer. In fact, the more years we have spent a part (him in the army, away studying elsewhere in Sweden, me in the States, and then in Geneva for the last 10 years), the closer we have become until my dear brother is now nagging me about when i'll be moving home again...

So, I was excited about meeting up with him in Barca and have some fun together in this cool city of Gaudi. And fun we did have, even though it was the only place in Europe were it was cold and rainy that weekend, we did have lots of fun and even managed to get some sun towards the end. Shopping, la segrada, bars, restaurants, the port, la rambla, a cool nightclub, Barca against Mallorca at Campo Nuevo with some 60'000 other people screaming, cheering, enjoying the match in the cold - the dream of my brother and yes, you were right, it was an incredible experience, just walking in to the stade, feeling the athmosphere, watching one of the best teams play in real, and sharing this with my brother who was pleased like a child! it was really really cool even if the match wasn't the best one (well at least barca won at the end), even for a non-football fan like me, it was still worth it !!!

So all that which Barca is well known for and....of course....what did you expect?... some disagreements ;) It would seem that spending 4 days together just the two of us was perhaps a bit long, at least to start with when we for the first time in years, perhaps forever had to spend that much time together. So yes, we got into some fights, we still know how to get to each other better than anyone else (we are siblings, what do you expect?, it's the law of nature ;), and we are both as obnoxious, knowing that we are right. But those moments passed, the sun came back up and my memory from Barca is that it's a real cool place and being there with my brother made it even better!

Tack lille storebror för en underbar present/helg!!! Du är bäst :)

.... And yes, we promised that we will make more trips together in the future, though perhaps the next time we even allow other people to come with us - so if interested.... ;)

More picture can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lna_la_fee_verte/