Hola! See, I haven't forgotten how to write things online, I've just been busy. How busy? Well, I spent five action packed nights in Barcelona, Spain! The first night, I will admit, was a bit of a write off as I stayed at a hostel across town from everyone else and had to metro there and back for dinner, but it was all good. We arrived to a closed street because of a market or something, and there had just been a football match, so for dinner a few of us got some food from the market and had an easy, early night (some of the others partied in true Barcelona style and didn't get home until 4 or 6 am). The next day I moved hostels at like 9am, checked in, locked my bags up until my room was ready, and did a "free" walking tour of the Gothic District of Barcelona. This tour was free, but we tipped at the end, and it was excellent. It was about 3 hours or so long and covered a bunch of information, sights, and neat streets.
When the tour ended I wandered around, went back to the hostel and checked into my room, changed, had a late lunch, and then did another free tour, this time of Antoni Gaudi's work. This tour was also really neat, but at the end I was left wondering if I really liked Gaudi's work: it's sort of showy, decidedly unique, and uses a lot of different elements sometimes. The church though, Sagrada Familia, is incredible. The construction isn't completed, and isn't scheduled to be done until like 2026-2030, but it's still incredible! High towers, incredible detail, and each item on the facade has a meaning. Anyways, finished up there, wandered, had a late dinner at the hostel (burgers on the rooftop terrace while watching the sun set), and then decided that I wanted to go see the Magic Fountain (which only runs Thursday through Sunday).
Walking the streets of Barcelona alone actually wasn't a problem. For one, it was only about 9:30 and there was still some light around. I stuck to a Main Street, and about halfway there I ended up walking with a slightly older couple from Sweden who were going the same way. I've got to say, I'm really glad I went to Magic Fountain; yes, it's a fountain with lights and music, but it was so pretty and the general feeling in the area was of joy and awe. The walk back around 10:30 was really easy too. I've got to say, it's weird to me - this city doesn't seem to come alive or wake up until late. Dinner is normally around 8:30 or 9 pm, and nightlife apparently doesn't pick up until like 1:30 or 2 am (I didn't go out much here; too much activity and walking during the day), but markets and shops still manage to open around 8 or 9am. There is a siesta from about 1-3:30, but it's not observed everywhere; these people are machines.
Anyways, my next day was basically a wandering day where I started out a Park Guell, wandered for a few hours, found lunch, saw some more sights I'd wanted to see, and hung around. Did some browsing, etc. this day was basically an easy day, and it ended with dinner with Liz after she arrived in town, a wander around the streets, and not too late a bedtime. My third day in town was a beach morning, lunch at an Irish pub on the beach street (we were starving), some wandering, and a bit of a nap before meeting up with Rachel and Liz for our Spanish cooking class. This class was awesome; our chef took us to the market to get supplies, gave us a mini tour, and then directed us to the bar we'd be eating and cooking in. Realistically we didn't do much "cooking" ourselves- we were taught how to make tapas properly (I'm going to start buying baguettes and "grating" my tomatoes on them, I swear), made our own sangria, and then were taught how to make seafood paella. It was a fantastic night and the food was phenomenal. Post-meal we went for a walk and ended up grabbing cheesecake ice cream for dessert. Yummy!
My final day in Barcelona was crazy busy. Liz and I had bought tickets the day before to get into Sagrada Familia, so at 9am we were there, and by 9:15 we'd been up the tower. I've got to say, I'm absolutely in lie with this church. I think it's my favourite building I've ever been in. The exterior has a very distinctly gothic feel to it, especially the Nativity facade. However, one you enter the church you are vaulted into a beautiful, open, light space. Churches designed over a hundred years ago often end up feeling a bit dark, a bit solemn, and very imposing. Not this church. It's light and airy, there isn't a whole bunch of gilded artwork hanging from the walls, and the high ceiling and bright windows completely open up the whole space. It's a masterpiece, and it's nowhere near completed. After spending over an hour at Sagrada Familia we decided it was time to move on, so we caught the metro to Casa Batllo and Casa Mila (La Pedrera) to look at more Gaudi architecture (it was a Gaudi day). After ogling two more masterpieces it was onto the metro again to reach Parc Guell and take in the gingerbread like appearance of the park, explore some paths, look at more Gaudi work, and start thing about lunch. Which we didn't get again for a while. We went a different way to grab the metro and ended up wandering around in town a bit before reaching the metro to go to the Barcelona Arc de Triomph which is, of course, majestic and regal. Passing through the Arc we walked down a lovely, palm tree lined promenade to reach another park. Before entering the park though, we searched out a fresh baked pizza for a picnic because by this point we were starving!
So, pizza in hand we hit up Parc de la Ciutadella and had a picnic in front of the magnificent fountain there by... Antoni Gaudi. At the start of my stay in Barcelona I wasn't sure if I liked Gaudi's work, but after exploring etc, I'm convinced I like his work. He was a madman, but his stuff is really cool. We wandered the park a bit, saw the elephant statue and walked around the lake, then it was time to head back to the hostel, clean up, pack up, shop on La Rambla (we had 3.5 hours to kill), then meet up for dinner around 8ish. We ended up wandering down to the Gothic district for dinner and finding a restaurant with fantastic food down some side street. The staff didn't speak English and we have limited Spanish, but we got a terrific meal and no one seemed unhappy! Dinner went until around 11ish, then we trekked back to the hostel and thought about going out again, which never happened.
Overall, I've got to say, I really liked Barcelona. Especially now that I'm in Valencia, I can appreciate how fantastically Barcelona was laid out. Everyone there ws really nice and helpful (they are here too), and the city was surprisingly clean. I saw my first cockroach there, yes, t it was in the metro. Can't say I blame anyone for that one (even though it was disgusting). So yeah, hey! It's me! I'm still alive!!
No comments:
Post a Comment