Weekend in Barcelona!

Belated, but finally here! Hope the "public" enjoys!


6/2/10
Welcome to Barcelona!!!!
This whole trip was totally and completely spontaneous—I was sitting next to a girl from my program, Kim, in class on Tuesday and casually asked her what she had planned for the weekend. She told me she was going to Barcelona and so I replied, “Really? Can I come?” Haha :) Anyhow, a couple of days and a bus ticket later, I was headed to Spain!

We took an overnight bus that was really practical, but for some reason the thermostat was set sub-zero and we froooooze our little toes off! I don’t understand why they think it necessary to air condition a bus when it’s already cold outside, but aside from the need to defrost ourselves we made it to Barcelona in one piece without getting mugged or having anything stolen! Yaaay! Good Start!

Apres notre arivée on the way to the hostel I had my first taxi experience! Fun but made interesting because I learned how much REALLY don’t speak Spanish. I don’t speak French well… but I DON’T speak Spanish. Ooh.

The hostel was really great and much nicer than expected! Instead of normal key cards they gave us a “watch” to wear that you used like a proxy key. It was really clever and convenient I thought. The whole place was super clean and secure so if anyone is thinking of hitting up Barcelona any time soon, it was called HelloBCN and we booked through HostelWorld.com.

After getting settled we headed towards the main drag in town and into the Gothic District. The number of building with fantastic architecture here is unbelievable! It seemed like every corner turned warranted occasion for another gawking expression or picture snapped. We found a church with neat gargoyles along the top and we followed them around to where the entrance was and it was free to go in. Always good! What was really neat about this church was that it was open air—There were covered halls along the edges but the center was totally open to the sky and there was a natural area with all sorts of flora and fauna! There were palm trees and grass and bunnies, and ducks… and pigeons :/ lol! There were the obligatory religious sculptures in gated naves along the sides but they had some in the center too that were entirely covered in moss with sunshine pouring down on them. Mmmm :) I appreciated this church’s representation of God and His(Her) presence—very natural and available to all.

Three of the girls in our group were from places like LA and NYC and were moving really fast through the city, at least too quickly for my Midwestern sense of the word “stroll” so we decided to break into groups of 2 and 3. Elizabeth and I decided we would wonder towards Gaudi’s Casa Batllo and I must say a huge thank you to Miss Samantha Brown for educating me on the sites of Barcelona when I was sick in 8th grade. Her shows on travel channel were the best! Haha ☺ Casa Batllo is called the “House of Bones” because it’s front façade and central staircase looks like the bones of a sea creature. The whole house was modeled to look like you’re underwater and there isn’t a straight line in sight. Everything alludes to wave or some kind of sea creature and the swirls and curves and colors take your breath away! On the roof top, there is a room inside the scaled “back” of the monster who lives up there and in this room is the final tribute to the water theme. In the center of the room was a mirrored font that had a light shining over it and as the water bubbled out the center of the font, the pattern of the ripples was projected onto the walls of the cone-shaped room. Lovely ☺
All weekend the weather was beautiful but in this moment I resented the sun because the extra light coming through the door was ruining the affect. I tried multiple times to close it, but other tourist kept trickling in without enough time in between to really appreciate the whole thing… I finally got a short video of by holding the door shut, but then a guard yelled at me for disrupting traffic. :/ It was worth it!

After Casa Batllo we were famished and decided to find some lunch. What better than traditional Spanish tapas? Tapas are a small type of appetizer-like dish and you order several of them to make up your meal. It was nice because that way you got to sample a little bit of everything! To finish of our lunch we found some gelato and lounged by a fountain while basking in the glorious Spanish sun… then I saw a seagull eating a pigeon in the fountain. Moving on!

The rest of the day was spent wondering about getting lost and stumbling upon things to take pictures of. We were tentatively headed back towards the hostel, but kept being pulled towards the waterfront by fun and exciting things to see. ☺ There were tons of street performers dressed as monsters and nymphs, and fruit stands, and things as well as a street fair with craft and jewelry vendors. We ended up down at the water next to a huge Columbus memorial who’s representations of the Native Americans was questionable, but it was pretty to look at.

When we did get back to the hostel it was time for a nap before dinner and then we got ready to hit the town. We all went out in search of a traditional Spanish dinner of “paella,” which is a broth soaked rice dish with seafood and veggies, (Yum!) and some Sangria… Oh my goodness, so delicious! We found a great little place and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly before heading off in different directions. By this time I’d started having some issues with my foot (because clever old me decided to fall down the stairs before coming) and with all the heavy walking, it had gotten swollen and angry. Not ideal!
Anyhow, instead of going dancing I went with Elizabeth to an LOTR themed pub! Bahaha! :) There were waterfalls, and fairies, and trees, and gourd-shaped lamps. Cool! Over all it was a super chill place where the average age was 30, but neat to see nonetheless. I forgot to grab my camera that night so no pics of that. Oops!

For Day 2 our first stop was the Sagrada Familia Cathedral…. Oh. My. Goodness.
This is another one of Gaudi’s brainchildren and again the creativity and vision blew me away. The spires were topped with mosaiced piles of fruit that Chiquita Banana would have been proud of and the back facade was a dripping mishmash of detail that swirled together to create an effect unlike anything you’ve ever seen. While trying to find the entrance we saw people entering a door down below in one of the construction areas so we decided to check it out. What could it hurt? It turned out that this was a side chapel and Sunday mass was going on. Cool! I asked God to forgive me my trespass of this space during a worship time as I walked about freely with the other tourists snapping photos… I know, I know. Bad form. At least I wasn’t the only one and I had the courtesy to turn off my flash!

As we walked around, we learned that this was Gaudi’s “personal” chapel… because it is here that we found his tomb. Totally unplanned, but it was nice to be able to take a moment and pay homage to the man who left such an artistic legacy. I take my hat off to you sir.

When we emerged from the chapel we found our way to the tourist entrance and when we finally entered the sanctuary the hallelujah chorus sounded in a spray of colors! I speak figuratively of course, but as we entered we passed by a huge stained glass window that had the morning sun pouring through it and onto us! Wow. Wow. Wow.
That’s all I can say. As we’d found with most of Gaudi’s work, the detail-work extends to every last square inch of space. His designs were inspired by everything in nature so each feature from the columns to the lighting reflected the natural order of things. The columns, though they looked normal enough at their bases, branched off 1/3 of the way up and were modeled to look like tree trunks complete with the scarred junctions of fallen branches. The ceiling and walls were very angular in comparison and with the way the sun shone through, they looked like hills of blowing sand. After the sanctuary we went up one of the bell towers to see the city from up above. It was gorgeous and on our way down the clock surprisingly struck 11:00… Dear God, I thought the walls were going to come crumbling down! Seeing as we were in the bell tower, we felt the full affect of each one of the 11 chimes! Haha :)

What I didn’t realize before coming here is that Sagrada Familia is a work hardly close to being finished. Whenever I think of huge cathedrals I think a medieval efforts but this place is very much alive and growing! Come to find out, it’s not even ½ as tall as its planned to be upon completion and that is staggering to think of… it’s no small fry as is!
I feel privileged to have seen one of the world’s great works while it was still in it’s youth. It also seems fitting to me that it’s still growing… Gaudi would’ve liked to have it viewed that way I think.

Once we’d descended from cloud nine we headed towards Park Guel, the last hurrah of our Gaudi pilgrimage. We braved the subway and when we emerged we found that the signs to Park Guel as pointed up one of the biggest hills I’ve ever seen. We’re talking STEEP here people. So much so that some parts had escalators going up it. Yeah!
We started trekking and stopped half way at a delightful little café where I accidentally ordered a panini with sardines on it (wasn’t too bad!) and then continued up the hill to where we hoped to find famed Gaudi monumental area. The hike up the hill ended up being worth it because we got another bird’s eye view of the city, this time with the spires of Sagrada Familia in the mix, and we were far enough away from the city streets to appreciate some nature. Always something Ienjoy! :) As we wondered the trails and neared the monumental areas we started hearing guitars and trumpets and laughter… good signs! We emerged onto the plaza encircled by the famous curving bench to see many relaxed park goers basking in the sun being serenaded by the happy band at it’s center. The lead singer had a huge smile and literally hopped around as he sang. Cute!
We continued wondering down the hill and under the plaza was a columned pavilion area with a ceiling as brightly colored as the rest o Gaudi’s work :) We took a break from the sunshine down here and rested fro a bit while listening to a man who was playing classical Spanish guitar. Quite a different atmosphere than 20 feet overhead! We fought our way through the other tourists to get a pic with the famed iguana fountain and then trekked back down the hill in search of sand, surf, and gelato. :)

After our stroll on the boardwalk, (or my limp down… lol) we met the other girls and we all went to dinner before heading back to the bus station for our overnight trip back to Aix. I’m so glad I got the opportunity to go and I had a wonderful time! I have the pictures, the memories, and the gimp foot, and the exhaustion to show for it but it was worth everyminute! Haha :)

It’s hard to believe but when we return we’ve only got one more week in Aix before I head to Italy for winter break… what?!?!? Lol, I love my life and more to come when I’m back from my next adventure!