We went to bed at 2:30 so that was a rough one.
I pulled myself together, put some stuff in my backpack, and we were off.
After some Spanish drinking chocolate and a couple of pastries with unopenable snobby water on the side, we met our tour guide on the bus and began.
This was the day I saw Barcelona!!!
Try to imagine hearing about something your whole life, and always being so intrigued by it, then taking classes and learning about the history and the culture of the area, and falling in love with the language, and finally getting into a situation where you can live close to the area, but not in the area for a few months... and then, having 1 day to see it all.
That was me, with this city!!!
How about I take you through with some pictures?
COOL.
First Stop: The Park Guell (Gway). This was a park commissioned by a rich man for Gaudi to build houses and a residential community of his style. Unfortunately, it was never completed, but the next few pictures show what was done... And it's still pretty incredible. Above, this is a structure for the people to walk through so they can be protected form the elements.
This is an inside view of the stucture above. See how the columns aren't straight? Gaudi tried to stick to how nature did things- a mountain doesn't have straight sides, so why should columns holding up a ceiling?
This was Gaudi's home, created by one of his students.
This is a plaza created by Gaudi. It was right about here I almost cried! The view was so amazing, and I could not believe I was finally in the place I had always heard about and dreamed of!
Take a look at that view.
Jules and me, sitting on the ridiculously comfortable bench created by Gaudi. It's got a curved back and support for you lower back... so comfy. So pretty.
He used recycled ceramics for the decor.
This was underneath the plaza. So, each one of those columns is hollow and water seeps down into them and is store under the ground here. It has been used in times of crisis, and it's beautiful. GENIUS.
This is a view from the plaza. Those two building are called "Hansel and Gretyl" because they look like the houses from the stories. You notice Gaudi incorporates crosses into a lot of his work; however, these are not religious buildings. Gaudi was simply a very religious man. I thought that was neat.
Letty and I with the structures :)
The building in the left of the picture used to be the house for the family of the man who commissioned this park/development from Gaudi. However, now it's a school! We saw little kids inside doing schoolwork. That's fine. I used to do my addition and subtraction in the shadow of structures created by one of the most innovative architects of all time. Oh, and that's the plaza on the right, from underneath. The columns are slanted again because Gaudi tried to copy nature, like a mountain or the base of a tree.
Close up of some of his work.
This is on the stairs leading up to the plaza, facing the Hanzel and Gretyl houses.
UM HI GIANT SPIDER. It was like as big as... something huge! Just hanging there. I do not know how its web supported that overweight thing. Time to cut back on the flies, or probably small rodents in this guys case.
The top of the blue tower you have seen in some other pictures. He made the cross have 4 arms so that no matter which view someone saw it from (even above) it would still be a cross.
The view from below of the Guadi's house that his student designed.
So, these look dead in the picture. But in real life they were beautiful, and they reminded me of my mama. Love that amazing lady. And miss her too.
Oh, about the time we came upon those flowers, we heard some beautiful guitar music. I knew it was my time to buy the cd from off the street. We kept walking, and there he was... an incredibly dashing Spanish guitarist with curly hair and a very square jaw, and beautiful eyes. We were happy.
I was really happy.
Here's a photo. I've got the cd. And we made eye contact. That is all.
We took a ride on the bus around the city after that, but I was still feeling sick and so I napped a bit. Didn't take many pictures... And then we got out, and walked our way right on up to the Sagrada Familia! So much more amazing in real life than pictures. You cannot appreciate it until you go.
Still doing a lot of construction.
Yeah, did you know there was a large and symbolic Christmas tree on the facade? I didn't!
Although I look like I have a superman jaw here, I do not. However, that is Letty and me in front of it.
It's not as drippy as it looks. Actually, each one of those pieces are intricate foliage and other decor that symbolize the people's view of the bible in the time that this was started, in the late 19th century. They viewed it as complete, without room for interpretation. This side represents Christ' birth and life. It was beautiful :)
Possibly more excited than when I saw the Spanish guitar man. At least we all hope so.
A closer look at the details.
Here we have the birth of Christ with the shepherds, 3 kings, etc. Some of these statues were destroyed in the civil war, and had to be redone. Thank goodness it wasn't completely demolished.
Some of the complete stained glass windows...
I love how bright the colors are.
And those are some windows that have not been completed yet. The projected year of completion is 2026 I believe, but I don't think they'll be done by then...
The pillars are like trees, branching off to hold up the roof. Nature is incorporated everywhere in Gaudi's work.
With the headset tour :)
Blurry, but what the ceiling looked like. Very different from any other cathedral we have entered. Ornate, but it looks very modern.
Another shot of the columns. The second floor is the coro, where the priests (I believe) sit. It is huge! And I like that it is not right in the center of this cathedral. We were told it made it difficult for people sitting behind it to understand the mass, but here they are up and out of the way.
The main entrance, or what will be in the future. Some buildings have to be demolished and the facade needs to be done first. That is Christ above the door there.
This was one of my favorite parts! See the bright triangle up top? Now look straight down to the golden umbrella. And right below that is Christ on the cross. Here we have symbolized the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Father is the triangle, the Holy Ghost is over/surrounding Christ, and Christ is on the cross. The Spirit can testify of truth no matter the source; I felt the spirit as I thought how God watches down on us and how I have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. What an amazing thing to have access to at all times if I only live worthy of it.
The doors; You can see Jesús up top and Grace down below in gold.
This is the opposite side of the cathedral. So plain! It has been constructed much more recently. The harsh lines are because this side is a representation of the Passion of Christ, or his crucifixion. The bareness of it all symbolizes how now the people look at the bible with more open interpretation. Interesting.
The right is the kiss from Judas to Christ. The square right to the left of that is a box with 16 squares of numbers, and in every row and column and diagonal it adds up to 33, the number of years Christ lived.
See how the columns are slanted again? More of the mountain inspiration.
This triangle signifies Alpha and Omega.
A closer up look of the kiss and the number box.
The last hours of Christ's life. Carrying the cross and the crucifixion.
A shot of the side of the cathedral.
They still have to build the main tower in the middle of all of those little ones up top!
And this was the end of our tour. We went underneath and saw some of the models of the building and blueprints, and then we headed out....
Barcelona pride was everywhere in the flags :)
Profe and Connie. They are the best couple. She is so sweet, and look at his fantastic ears!
A giant painting on the side of a building!
No idea what this place was. A church. A pretty one.
More pretty architecture.
Rainy day in Barcelona :) Me gusta.
La puerta de Barcelona, from inside the warm bus :)
Uhhh yeah that's not spanish. Welcome to the part of the country where everyone speaks Catalan and you suddenly feel like a first year spanish student again. It's alright; we communicated well enough :)
Almost looks like portuguese to me, although I'm sure my brother would not agree. It's a mix of Italian and Spanish, whereas Portuguese is French and Spanish I think? Mreh. Sorry.
Tapas de Brazil! Missing Joshy Bear.
Farggi= recommended by our nice waiter the night before. Also, so worth it. Never thought I would say ice cream was that much more delicious than any other type. But this was. I got Catalona Cream :) Mmmmmm
Laura, Letty and I. Oh, and Barcelona. Beautiful.
People hang ham up like this all the time. In gas stations, in markets, in random stores. Also in Ham museums, of which one exists and we went to in Madrid. Sick. I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of the type of ham they have here. Or the fact that it still has hooves when I buy it.
The open market where we bought food, along the touristy and over priced Las Ramblas. Fun though :) I got... something with chicken. Not super delicious, I have to admit. No worries, I got a fresh peach later that day :)
1E for a mini bouquet of flowers. This green one reminded me of my good friend Kayleigh :)
Las Ramblas.
A giant statue. Can't remember of what though... heh. Sorry.
A building... Yeah, it's okay if you're bored by now.
Me in front of the Bank of Barcelona!
A vintage car I thought Joshy Bear would think was cool :)
Oh, hey, Mediterranean Sea!
oh, HEY! Mediterranean sea! Also, when we were there, an old naked man walked past. We screamed. He asked if we wanted a picture. I screamed more. I have the worst luck with those types of situations. It's okay, I didn't faint.
Feeties :)
Waves :)
Footprints :)
I've missed the ocean!
Surfers- it was a windy day out there, the waves were wild!
Letty!
Laura.
Pam and I on a bench. At this point we were exhausted. It was like 5pm and we were ready for siesta!
This is how I felt when we were trying to get back to the hotel.
After a siesta! It was 9:15 and time to go out on the town!
In our sweats... It's fine.
Midnight swim anyone?!
We had a good time :)
Jumping, laughing, you name it...
Once in a lifetime.
They had little exercise equipment, right on the beach, right above the part where the sewer is dumped. It looked pretty, it smelled awful.
Titanic, with Lars.
Climbing to the top of the jungle gym :)
See that flag on the left?! Well that means that it's prohibited to swim because it's too dangerous. There had been a storm that day and the red flag was up. We didn't see that till afterwards, and we had been planning on swimming but we really started to feel bad, like we shouldn't. Little did we know that Heavenly Father was looking out for us; we saw the safety flag after we left.
Happy girl :)
What followed these pictures was not captured on camera but was definitely imprinted in my mind! After searching the dock for a place for food and finding only really loud and rather empty Hooka Bars and Discotecas, we found ourselves a McDonalds and got a salad and some ice cream. Unfortunately, it was 11:40 and the man we talked to told us the metro closed at 12. We ran across the city, all 8 or so of us, with sweats, coats, and America accents, let alone the ridiculously conspicuous blondes with us, getting catcalled and "Run Forrest RUN" ed the whole way. It was hilarious! I was holding remnants of a salad and Mcflurry and we were laughing and yelling back at all the men who were telling us to run run run and... we made it to the metro on time :)
And then we found out the metro closed at 2 am anyways.
And then one of the girls in our group got really sick and vomited in the entrance of the metro station and 3 more times on the way home.
We wouldn't want Barcelona to forget us, I guess.
Best. Night. Ever :)
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