Friday, March 27, 2009
Woke up early to get a start on the long day we had ahead of us! We headed to the Boquería market first which was really cool. It had lots of stands selling all kinds of stuff - fruit, vegetables, meat (ALL body parts), candy, nuts, olives & oil, bread, etc. We got breakfast: pastries and fresh-cut mixed fruit then bought supplies for our lunch (baguette w/ cheese and EVOO) and got ripped off by the guy selling us apples. Oh, well. Then we went to the hostel waaaay across the city where my friends from Wales were staying! We beat them there but enjoyed sitting in the warm sunsine and stealing some wireless for a while. It was so good to see Melissa, Kristen, and Megan :) They were pretty exhausted from travleing and spending the night in the airport so Taylor and I headed out for some sightseeing while they settled in and got some lunch. We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked some more. We went to the Parque Güell first, a really pretty park designed by Gaudí. We didn´t realize how uphill it was going to be but I looked and felt like San Francisco! Lucky there were a couple escalators or I would´ve contemplated skipping it. (Really glad I didn´t) It was originally supposed to be an up-scale housing development, but only a few houses, including the one he lived in for 20 years and served as a model, were built. There is also an amazing building with lots of columns and the famous benches on top that was supposed to be an open air market for the residents. There were tons of people there enjoying the sunshine so we stopped on a bench to have our delicious lunch. People-watching was prime and we saw these neon green parrots! On our way out we wandered down a lower path and when we turned a corner, I gasped and said, "Taylor, this is REALLY important. Do you recognize this?" She didn´t, but don´t worry - I filled her in on how it was the scene of the runway show final episode of my favorite season of America´s Next Top Model. WOW! (The one where Caridee and Melrose run down the dark cave in wedding dresses.. yeah. I was there) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QpRScf-gjA After that exciting turn of events, we walked and walked until we came upon the Sagrada Familia, a huuuge cathedral designed by Gaudí which still has a quarter century of construction left. Only 8 of the intended 18 spires have been completed and the main facade has barely been started. I would definitely say is in my top 3 coolest things I´ve seen so far and has a good chance of securing the top spot. It was so detailed and different from anything else we´ve seen so we stayed there and marvelled at it for quite a while. The two finished sides are sooo different from each other, it´s hard to describe but my pictures will hopefully show this. You can definitely tell the old from the new and Gaudí´s plans from the new architects. I really hope to go back someday to see the finished product! While we were taking pictures from across the street, three little Catalanas asked if we wanted them to take our picture together. They were just adorable! We talked to them for a while and I was so intrigued to see them strugle with Spanish (they speak Catalan) and find out that they were there for a drawing class. What a tough life - take a field trip to one of the most recognizable and important buildings in Europe as a 12 year old and learn to use colored pencils? They asked us where we were from and like everyone who hears that we´re from the US, they said, "Obama!" How am I supposed to respond to that? I just smiled and said, "yep" and when we walked away they were chanting "yes we can!" Brother.. After reading up on the history and projected plans from Rick Steeves, we learned that Gaudí wasn´t well received during his lifetime - people pretty much thought his architecture was too weird and nobody wanted to buy his stuff or finance his plans. Knowing the background of what we see and do here makes everything SO much cooler! For example, Gaudí knew this cathedral would be almost impossible and there was no way he would live to see the finished project but he said, "My client (God) is in no hurry". I just love that! We headed back toward the hostel and walked down the Block of Discord which is full of more Gaudí houses, and we also saw the Casa Mila. We didn´t pay to go into anything today because even though it would be cool from the inside too, the outside was definitely good enough for me! We met up with the group (Sara, Jenna, and Steven were with the other girls) and headed out for dinner. I asked the guy at the hostel desk where a good place to eat was since they were staying in a really commercial district with wide streets and tall buildings - not like the rest of Spain at all - so we took his advice. After another looong walk, we got there and found out that it wasn´t open. Great.. They saw a place earlier that looked good so we gave that a shot. It was pretty good but we all had pasta or pizza - again, not very Spanish. I felt bad because during their stay here they didn´t really get a good feel of Spain since Barcelona is sooo different. We took them out for churros and chocolate after dinner but it was not authentic at all. Churros, tapas, flamenco, bullfighting, Castellano, none of these things are associated with Cataluña. I noticed that there weren´t as many pets, it was really windy and business-y, people were friendlier on the street, they drive yellow and black taxis, and there were tons of Brits/people speaking English. Came back and crashed!
