Well I'm plumbing the depths of my memory with this post, and my memory has never been that great, but I'm going to do my best to tell you all about my trip to Barcelona which was about a month ago. The weekend after getting back from Kenya, my friend Lucia and I packed up our bags and hopped on a plane again, this time headed north to the famous city of Barcelona, home of the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi, and the Catalan language.
We didn't actually make it to the hotel until nearly midnight, whereupon we dropped our bags and promptly went down to reception to ask if they knew of a late night bar where we could have a drink to unwind after a long day of travel. The next morning we made our way into the city and met up with a group of people to go on a bike tour through Barcelona. We had a big group of people, proabaly around 30 of us tooling around on bikes, cutting off pedestrians, and trying to avoid being run over by cars. But it was a great way to see the city, the back alleyways, and enjoy the sunshine. We stopped by the Sagrada Familia, the infamous cathedral of Barcelona that has been under construction since 1882 and still has a ways to go before it is finished. Designed by Gaudi, from the front it looks like a fairy tale castle, but from the back is much more linear and geometrical. We didn't go inside the cathedral because you have to pay an exorbitant amount of money and truly, the interesting stuff to look at is on the outside.
For lunch, our tour stopped at a cafe on the beach where we enjoyed sandwiches and wine while watching the sailboats float by on the waves. Biking through the city is the ideal way to see the sights I think. We got to see the Arc de Triomf, the old Roman walls, a building torn down by Hitler and then painstakingly rebuilt stone by stone, plus we got to hear all the stories behind the buildings, the little stories that make up the essence of Barcelona.
After the tour, Lucia and I made our way north to Parc Güell, a garden designed by Guadi which was originally meant to be a housing project for the elite of Barcelona, but due to its ecclectic design, never gained much popularity as a place to live. Located at the top of a hill, on the way up to the park it felt as if we had blundered into San Francisco. We even had to take a few escalators to the top. We wandered around there for a bit looking at the plaza, the houses, and the famous benches, when we ran into a friend of ours from Cordoba! Sometimes life just surprises you. Veronique was in Barcelona for a reunion with some friends and we had no idea she was going to be there. What are the odds that we would be in the same place at the same time in a city as large as Barcelona? So we walked around with Veronique and her friends for a bit before heading off on our own again.
Me, Lucia, and Veronique
Our next stop of the day was the Palau de la Musica, a concert hall which has Guadi-esque overtones, but was designed by an entirely different architect. We bought tickets to watch a concert of Catalan music complete with traditional dances. It was very fun to see and listen to and we snuck a few pictures even though technically pictures were prohibited. It was just too tempting not to. When the concert ended we quickly made our way across the city to the Magic Fountain of Montjuic, an enormous fountain which has a lights display complete with music twice a night for spectators. We didn't get there in time to hear the music, but we did get to see the lights on the water and it was very peaceful to sit on nearby steps, just watching the colors play across the water. Then it was back to the hotel for some chill time.
The next day we got up early and went off to search for some more of Guadi's famous houses. We saw Casa Battlo, a house which looks like its balconies are made from large skulls and the supporting columns look like bones. Then we saw the Mila House which looks as if the stones were frozen in the midst of a ripple, with cave-like balconies. It was astounding to see buildings which look as if they came straight from a child's storybook. Then we stopped by the Olympic Park from the 1992 Summer Olympic games and toured around the area for a bit seeing the stadium and the basketball arena.
After that we went back to the beach for some delicious paella followed up by some gelato before making our way back to the airport for our flight back, which was an adventure. We thought we were early when we got to the bus station, but then discovered we were at the WRONG bus station and had to go 20 minutes across town to the other one. We barely made it on our bus to the airport before it pulled out of the station. We cut it close and I seriously thought we were going to miss our connections, but we were successful!
Here is the web address of my Facebook photo album for some more pictures.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052886&id=11400089&l=f0c9a5c289
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