I returned to Barcelona around 7ish on Saturday night. Although many of my friends were going to watch the Barca game, I decided that I should get some rest, considering Lindsay was arriving the following morning at 7 AM. I got to relatively early but still was exhausted the following morning when I woke up at 5ish so I could take the RENFE to the airport, which is free. I got there right on time, and found the gate Lindsay could be coming through. She was very exhausted from the long day of traveling, and we took the RENFE back to the center of the city. We stayed in a Best Western Hotel, which of course was very nice. The hotel was located close to the metro stop Hospital Clinic which is about seven stops from my house. It was about a 15 minute walk to class, so it was a very nice location! Once we checked into the hotel we took a nap for 5 hours, which we both needed!
Although I still attended all of my classes, we still got a lot accomplished. I feel like Lindsay enjoyed what she saw of Barcelona, and she came at the perfect time...as the weather was in the 60's and 70's her entire stay. It was nice because we saw many parts of the city that were amazing, and that I had yet to see.
The first day we wanted to go and see some of the works of Gaudi. Lindsay had expressed an interest in seeing Casa Batllo, or Casa Mila, which I previously saw. We decided to go to Casa Batllo because it was cheaper, and also my favorite of the two. I didn't put any more pictures of the scenery because I posted them in a previous blog, but this picture is from the top, and the Sagrada Familia is in the distance.
After spending the majority of the time on the roof, I thought it would be cool to show Lindsay around Las Ramblas, specifically La Boqueria. La Boqueria is the largest, most famous, and most colorful market in all of Barcelona...and it is also the most expensive. I have yet to be to La Boqueria during the day, but it was enormous.
Many different varieties of frutas secas, or nuts. I had to buy some pistachios which were much more expensive than they should have been, but nevertheless......they were excellent.
A huge rack of different types of olive oil. I'm not sure if they are worth the price, but once I do some research I plan to bring some back to the US.
This next photo Lindsay and I took in the hotel room. By the way I had excellent internet connection there which was nice! Thankfully we got out internet problem taken care of at my house which is a huge relief.
The following day I wanted to take Lindsay to Parc de la Ciutadella (City Park) and also to La Sagrada Familia. We walked around the park for a few hours and I showed her some of my favorite parts. The city park is absolutely enormous and one would easily be able to spend an entire day there. This following photo was my favorite from the park, in front of the fountain.
After we left the park we decided to try and catch the Sagrada Familia before it closed. I was under the impression that it closed at 8, but apparently until April it is closed at 6 PM. I believe part of the reason it closes so early is because there is still so much work to do at the Sagrada Familia, and I know that people work there throughout the night. Unfortunately we were unable to go inside that day, we eventually would return a few days later, which I will get to later in my blog.
The Sagrada Familia, which I often talk about is one of the most visited places in all of Spain. Last year over 2 million people visited La Sagrada Familia, and it isn't even completed yet. This is Gaudi's most famous work and completely filled with Christian symbolism. Gaudi worked on the Sagrada Familia for the last 15 years of his life before his death. He is actually buried in the crypt! The Sagrada Familia still has a lot of work to be done, and it has been estimated that by 2030 it will be completed. It is literally financed by the public which I thought was interesting to find out. Pictures cannot even describe the beauty of the Sagrada Familia, and there is too much for me to explain about it. But there are sufficient resources that can provide anyone with information about La Sagrada Familia.
The Passion Facade:
A few pictures from the Nativity Facade...
We decided to head back to the hotel as we both were exhausted. We got some brocheres about flamenco dancing performances in Barcelona...which I previously heard about. It was relatively inexpensive so I figured it would be nice for Lindsay to see a flamenco performance, which is famous in Andulucia. Before we went to the flamenco venue we stopped at a restaurant called Fish Shop, which is off Passeig de Gracia. The Fish Shop specialized in sushi, and it was very good. After dinner we headed down the street to the venue. The show wasn't extremely packed because it was a Wednesday night, but it was amazing. I was very impressed with the performance and I didn't expect it to be as good as it was! I'm pretty sure that Lindsay enjoyed the show was well. I was unable to take pictures during the show, but I did take some videos....which I cannot upload on my blog.
This is just a photo of one of the lounge areas inside the flamenco venue.
As the entire week had been beautiful, Thursday was no different. I wanted to take Lindsay down to the port since it was so nice out. We took the metro down to Barceloneta and walked along the port.
After walking around for a while we decided to get lunch at a restaurant on the port. We chose a seafood one that had a great menu del dia!
Excellent desserts we ate, the white one in the back was a coconut dessert with chocolate in the middle, which was my favorite!
My primero plato consisted of Norwegian prawns, and ravoli stuffed with pumpkin. It sounded interesting but it was delicious!
Of course, Lindsay ordered the mussels which were very good as well.
I enjoyed white fish for my meal, and I really have started to like fish a lot.
After lunch I really wanted to show Lindsay El Born. Although she was tired from all the walking, she decided that we should go. El Born is one of my favorite areas in Barcelona because of the market, Picasso Museum, and just all of the streets and cafes around the area. We also stopped in Santa Maria del Mar, which was finished in the 1300's. This church is probably the finest example of Catalan Gothic and is filled with spectacular stained-glass.
Friday I wanted to take Lindsay on a day trip somewhere in Catalunya. At first I wanted to go to a wine vineyard, but it was relatively difficult to figure out. Then I thought that if we went somewhere along La Costa Brava it would be beautiful considering it was 70 degrees out. I found this small town, Tossa del Mar...which is located in Girona, another province in Catalunya. Apparently during the summer it is loaded with tourists, but during the winter months it isn't crowded at all. The population of the town is only 4,000 people, and we probably didn't even see 100 when we were there. I discovered that we could take a bus there and it was cheap for a round trip ticket, and also only an hour and a half from Barcelona. Tossa del Mar was an old Roman town , Turissa and there were some awesome ruins all over the town.
Here are a few pictures that I took on the bus ride:
We were very excited before we had even arrived. It was probably the most amazing bus ride I have been on before. Our bus didn't even have 20 people on it, which was awesome. The town was very small, but there were tons of stores, bars, cafes, and restaurants..but they were all closed. There were maybe 5 restaurants that were open down by the water because there really aren't that many tourists during this time.
This is right around the area where we ate lunch. If you look in the background you are able to see some of the Roman city, where there are still people currently living there.
There next couple of photos are what we had for lunch. All of the restaurants on this strip were obviously seafood because everything is fresh from the Mediterranean.
My primero plato was just a simple salad with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella.
Lindsay ordered mussels again, and they were probably the largest ones that I have ever seen.
The first time I have eaten an entire fish that looked like this, and it was excellent.
The next couple of dishes were what we at for dessert:
This following picture might be my favorite one of the trip so far!
The rest of these photos are around the old Roman city and by the beach. I really don't have that much to write about them..they are pretty self-explanatory st. The pictures that I took turned out excellent, but they don't even capture how amazing it really was. I will definitely return to Tossa del Mar.
I had to put up the pictures from the Sushi we had that night, however..I forgot to take the pictures of the sushi, just the miso soup, and the pan con tomate!
As the week was flying by, I couldn't believe that it was already Lindsay's last day in Barcelona. We had a very eventful day planned and we wanted to get up early. Of course, we ended up oversleeping until the afternoon, which was disappointing. Lindsay was also feeling kind of sick but she still wanted to do what we originally had planned.
First we wanted to go back to the Sagrada Familia and go inside, and to the top. The following pictures are very interesting and this is Gaudi's most famous work...as I'm sure I have mentioned multiple times. Gaudi was ultimately the face of "modernisme" which is basically all over Catalunya. Gaudi was a very interesting individual and my favorite aspect of his architecture is that there are literally no straight lines. Gaudi always said that there are no straight lines in nature, so there shouldn't be any in architecture. He wanted the Sagrada Familia to be unlike any church or cathedral in the world. In the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi brought back some old medieval architecture and combined it with nature..as you will see in the following pictures. This will truly be amazing once it is actually finished.
If you look closely you can see the fruit...
These next few pictures are a view from the top. We had to wait in line for a little over a half hour because you can only get up to the top by the elevator.
These next pictures are from in the nave, which is still under construction. These are the pillars that support the galleries above the side aisles. The light that shined through made an awesome reflection.
By far the most beautiful stained glass I have seen yet....and I have seen A LOT!
Detail of the door in the Passion Facade..
Spiral staircases are throughout the entire Sagrada Familia. There are some 400 steps in each staircase and took us about 20 minutes to walk down them...but the view out the windows were remarkable.
The next place we visited was Parc Guell, which was also designed by Gaudi. Previously I had not been there but I only heard great things about it. The Guell Family was a very rich and famous Catalan family, and he paid Gaudi to design this park. Guell actually lived right in the center of the park, which was pretty interesting. It took us forever to actually find the place, it was relatively far away....well our walk was at least.
Although this first picture seems to be a lizard, it is actually a dragon. Gaudi specifically enjoyed this type of architecture which is called Trencadis Tiling. It is literally a decorative art form which basically consisted of smashing up ceramics and then piecing them back together in mosaic patterns. La Pedrera (Casa Mila) which Lindsay and I also visited has fine examples of this technique. Some of the chimneys were apparently tiled using hundreds of broken cava bottles.....very interesting!
This following picture is the entrance pavilions. Again there is the tiled trencadis on the exteriors, and apparently the inside contains irregular rooms, odd shaped windows, and narrow staircases. I didn't know that you were allowed to enter, so I definitely will if I return!
This is the hypostyle hall, and there are a total of 86 columns. These are mosaic representations of the sun.
If you look closely you can see the colorful benches, obviously designed by Gaudi as well.
After we were finished with the "Gaudi" part of the park we continued up to the top. These last pictures are from the top of the park, possibly one of the best views of the city. This was the highest I have been yet, and you would literally see everything! I cannot wait to go to Tibidabo, because I heard that is the best view in Barcelona!
Well it took me forever to write this blog! The week has been good so far, I had a term paper due Tuesday, a midterm today, and another midterm tomorrow. I met with another intercambio yesterday, Cristina, from the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands are a part of Spain, but they are very far from the country. The islands are very close to Africa, and she definitely has a different accent. She is really cool, and I'm lucky that each of my intercambios comes from a different part of Spain, or another Spanish-speaking country! Tonight I am going to my friend Aleida's architecture school because she told me that she is presenting a project, which will be awesome!
This weekend I will be leaving Spain for the first time since I arrived. My friend and I will be traveling to Zurich, Switzerland! I'm very excited to go here since my Uncle Fred lived out there for over 10 years, and then Dad also lived in Geneva for a while! This is the reason that Switzerland was the one country I wanted to visit, other than Italy of course. Fortunately Uncle Fred gave me some recommendations of places he though I should see, and also a restaurant that I am excited to eat at. Although we will only be there for a couple days, I hope to see as much of Zurich as I can. We are staying at a hotel which is in downtown Zurich, apparently. I will try to post again before I leave for Switzerland, but if not I will once I return!
