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| The Gothic quarter |
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| Geese in the cathedral! (Well the cathedral garden) |
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| The cathedral |
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| Palau de Musica Catalunya |
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| Park Guell |
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| Waiting in line at the Sagrada Familia |
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| Casa Mila |
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| Casa Batilo |
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| At the terrace of the Casa Batilo |
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| At the top of the Casa Batilo with Alex and Elisa |
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| Museu d'art Catalunya |
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| My favorite piece of art in the museum |
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| At the market along Las Ramblas |
I went to Barcelona from January 13-16. I arrived on a Thursday evening, and my friend Alex was going to arrive later on in the evening, so after finding my hostel, I decided to go explore the center of town on the main strip Calle Las Ramblas. It is known for all of the people that do street performances along the strip. For some reason, the street was practically empty except for a few of those shady people that are selling the light up boomerang type things and kazoos. However, it was refreshing to find the main strip, because I felt a little safer there than my first impression of Barcelona on my journey to the center, which was, damn, there a lot of prostitutes. I decided to go in to a bar off Las Ramblas to wait on my friend and I talked with the German bartender and then a few other fellow Americans that showed up. It was funny how the Americans flocked to the one bar that offers a variety of beer! Turns out Alex was arriving much later than I expected so I went back to the hostel and had a very weird nights sleep because one of the other guys staying in the same room was sleepyelling in German… kept waking me up haha. Anyway, the next morning I found out that Alex had brought his friend Elisa with him so we three headed to the Cathedral. The cathedral was beautiful with gothic type architecture… probably one of my favorite cathedrals I've been to. There was a little garden in the middle with geese, which was definitely different. We went to the top of the cathedral to look over the city. The cathedral was located in the gothic quarter of the city, which is famous for its architecture and unique beauty. I really enjoyed it. We went in to the Museo Picasso, which was on the list of the 1000 things to do before you die book, so I made it a priority, although I didn't think I was huge Picasso fan. However, it ended up being one of my favorite things we did because there was this one room where it showed this one picture he based his work off of, and then he made all these different abstract pictures based on this one painting. It was so fascinating. It was also cool to see the progression of his art from when he was not crazy to absolutely nuts… I guess I didn't realize he used to paint normal pictures and not all that abstract stuff, which is cool, but definitely due to his journey into insanity. We walked to the Chocolate Museum, but it was expensive, so we bought some chocolate at a shop and sat down at a café so Elisa and Alex could have some coffee and we could eat our chocolate. Afterwards, Elisa and Alex didn't want to go, but I went to the Palau de Musica Catalunya. I wanted to go because it looked so cool in my guidebook, and I am glad I went. It was a music hall and had all these columns with mosaics and flower sculptures everywhere, it was just beautiful! And the acoustics in there were amazing. I hope to one day attend a concert there, it is so beautiful and magical. After the music hall, we all went to lunch in a little Spanish restaurant and then headed out to Park Guell. This park is famous for the Gaudi architectural structures throughout the park. The park was at the top of maybe a million stairs on top of this hill. It was kind of gross to be up so high and see how polluted Barcelona was… really took away from the beauty. It was all right, but not as cool as we had hoped. We went back to the hostel to rest for a bit, and got a kick out of these Italian guys in the main room jamming on the computer to loud disco music preparing to go out for the night. Well, we went out for dinner and then called it a night. The next morning we went to the Sagrada Familia (a 1000 things to do before you die highlight). The line was outrageous. Honestly, although the line was so long, it was very amusing because there wasn't just one line, there were maybe 5 lines, and they were all in an intricate spider web like fashion, and all the Spaniards were arguing over which line was the real line. As the lines eventually merged in to one, there was outrageous arguing and yelling, that was really amusing. Anyhow, it turned out that it was a free day to get in, and that is why it was so crowded, apart from the fact that it is the most popular attraction in Spain. The Sagrada Familia is a giant unfinished cathedral build by Gaudi. It is like no other cathedral you would ever see, with little bowls of fruit resting upon its steeples and other odd things like that. In a way, it looks like a giant cathedral that melted a little bit with odd colors splashed about it. I loved it, although many people call it one of the ugliest buildings ever. I loved it thought because it was so unique and different. It had character and was fun, although as a whole, maybe ugly. We continued our Gaudi tour through Barcelona by next heading to the Casa Mila or "Las Pedreras", which ok, but basically just a really wavy and rounded building. Evidently there were no straight lines in any of the building, which is cool. We went to the Casa Batilo which used to be Gaudi's house, and we went in. It was such a crazy house and very interesting. We went to the neighborhood Montajuic for lunch and then I went to another one of the 1000 things to do before you die places, the Museu d'art Catalunya. It was really big, and I thought it was just okay. I didn't go see any of the religious art, but saw all the other art. We then went to Las Ramblas, and this time it was way more exciting. There were all the street performers out and shops set up, little markets, and a boat load of people. It was really interesting, but a little overwhelming. We just went to a grocery store to get sandwich materials for dinner. The next day Alex and Elisa had to leave really early for their flight, but I had time to go for a walk in the Park Ciutadella and saw the Arc of Triumph. It was a really awesome park, maybe one of my favorites in Spain, and it had really good energy. It kind of reminded me of lazy days sitting on the back porch at the coop with people enjoying the weather and the day. I didn't have much time so I went to the airport after that. Overall, I really enjoyed my Barcelona trip, although it is one of the most expensive places I have ever been. Definitely worth visiting some of the sights that I saw.
