In order to get to Barcelona, we took a Vueling flight from the Granada airport (not Malaga thank goodness), which is basically a fake airport compared to the rest of the airports in Spain and the US. It literally took us two minutes to walk from the front door through security, and to our gate (which there are only four of in the entire airport). We got to Barcelona fine and took a cab to our hostel. After we checked in and put our stuff in the lockers in our room, we got a recommendation for a restaurant for lunch. I ordered paella, which wasn't nearly as good as Aloana's or Francisco's. It started pouring down rain a few minutes after we sat down so we were all getting worried that our weekend was going to be a wet one. Luckily, it stopped after a while so we sprinted back to the hostel to grab our umbrellas and regroup.
We had already decided before we got to Barcelona that we wanted to do a two day bus tour of the city. The way it works is that you can either buy a one day pass or a two day pass, and the bus can either serve as a guided tour of the city or a means of transportation. We ended up getting a two day pass and using it for both purposes. Barcelona is big compared to Granada so it was really nice to be able to buy our Barcelona City Tour passes and get on and off at whatever attractions we wanted. On Friday, we pretty much just rode around to get a feel for the city and what we wanted to do in it. I could barely contain myself and was ready to jump off the bus at the first stop.
We ended up making Casa Batlló our first attraction. Casa Batlló is a building that was renovated by Gaudí to serve as the home of a middle-class family. Gaudí created the building in such a way that he avoided using straight lines. The whole house is said to be inspired by an old Spanish myth involving a dragon so the inside and outside are both very dragon-like. Because of my obsession with Gaudí, I insisted that we do a tour of the inside of Casa Batlló and it was totally worth it! We had a tour headset thing so all we had to was type the number room we were in and hold it up to our ears like a telephone to listen. I don't even know how to describe the inside but it is the coolest building I have ever seen. The entire the building (and really all of Gaudí's work) is inspired by nature so it's full of swirls and vibrant colors.
It's hard to tell just from a picture, but the front of the building is supposed to look like it has scales. All of the brown parts towards the side and the bottom are supposed to be like a skeleton, which is why the local name for the building is Casa dels Ossos, or House of Bones.
This is me on the roof of the building. As you can see, it was designed to look like the top of a dragon with the mosaic tiles as scales. That marble tower has a cross on the top that didn't make it into the picture. Gaudí was very religious so Christianity factors into a lot of his work. According to my headset, something on the roof of Casa Battló points in the direction of La Sagrada Familia, connecting two of Gaudí's major works, but we were never able to find it.
After Casa Battló, we got back on the bus and rode over to the Catedral de la Santa Cruz y Santa Eulalia, also known more simply as Barcelona Cathedral. None of us were very interested in going inside the cathedral, but the outside is beautiful so it was definitely fun to see. The area around the cathedral is also really cool to wander around so we did that for a while.
We got back on our tour bus just in time because the rain came back in full force. It started drizzling as we were looking for the bust stop, but once we were on the bus it only got worse. For those of you who have never done a city bus tour before, the best part of the whole thing is sitting on the top half of the bus so you can see everything more clearly as you drive through the city. Unfortunately, the top half of the bus is significantly more susceptible to rain because even though most of them can pull out makeshift roofs when necessary, the rain still comes through the sides of the bus. Hannah had the brilliant idea to open her umbrella and use it as a shield against the rain and wind coming from the windows. Below is a picture of me with my umbrella and headphones, still trying to listen (unsuccessfully) to the guided tour.
Once we were back in our hostel, wet but amused by the whole bus situation, we were ready for dinner. My friend Lily, who is from Memphis and went to Lausanne with me, happens to be studying abroad in London this semester and decided to spend part of her fall break in Barcelona, knowing that I would be there too. We had been calling each other throughout the day trying to get together so she ended up meeting up with us for dinner. We ate eggs, bacon, and french fries (a very typical Spanish dish) and drank sangria at a Galician restaurant before heading back to the hostel for the night. It was cold and still raining so no one wanted to wander around the city. Here's Lily and me in my room in the hostel:
Lily wasn't staying in the same room as Brittany, Hannah, and me, but she was in the same hostel so she hung out in our room for a while after dinner. Brittany, Hannah, and I stayed in an eight bed mixed room which means that there were five other people in our room who we didn't know. We had already met two of the people when we checked in - a girl from France and a guy from Chile. They both seemed nice so I wasn't concerned. After dinner, the other three roommates came back as well. Two of them were from Mexico and one of them was Irish (Brittany was super excited about the Irish guy because she's obsessed with Ireland). They were all really drunk so they were extremely entertaining. They spoke English, but like us, they understand better than they can speak so they talked to us in Spanish and we responded in English. I spoke Spanish with them for a little bit, but I felt bad because Lily couldn't understand anything and I kept having to translate for her. The boys finally left to go clubbing, Lily went to her room, and the rest of us went to bed.
We woke up bright and early on Saturday in order to fit in as much of Barcelona as possible. We decided to organize our day by the bus tour route so our first stop was La Sagrada Familia. I could be making this up, but I'm pretty sure that Sagrada Familia is the most visited site in Barcelona.
Here's a little history on La Sagrada Familia: Construction started on the GIANT cathedral in 1882 but Gaudí (my favorite architect) didn't become involved with the project until 1883, when he basically took over and transformed the designs to combine the Gothic and Art Nouveau styles. When Gaudí died in 1926 after being hit by a tram on the way to his daily prayer and confession, less than a quarter of La Sagrada Familia was actually completed. The construction continued very slowly because the funding is all private donations and the Spanish Civil War served as a major disruption. There's always a constant cloud of controversy over Sagrada Familia for many reasons - people are worried it will overshadow the Barcelona Cathedral (which in my opinion it already does), the design itself caused issues (I can't imagine why), and of course the concern that it's not being built exactly the way Gaudi wanted it (totally understandable). It's estimated that construction will end in 2028, but since the Spanish economy is currently a mess, I don't really see that happening.
There's not much else to say about La Sagrada Familia except that it is absolutely magnificent and the pictures don't do it justice. I could have spent hours and hours just staring at it. I'm sure you would notice something new every time you go because the design is so intricate and the structure is just massive. I didn't want to leave.
I don't think there's necessarily a front and back to Sagrada Familia, but above is the western side.
This is the eastern side, the oldest side of the building. You can see the cranes in the picture. They weren't working on it while I was there, but it was clear that construction is still happening.
After Sagrada Familia, we rode around on the bus for a while and got off at Park Güell, another one of Gaudí's most famous works (he was clearly the common theme of the weekend). From what I understand, the original purpose for Park Güell was to serve as a housing site. It was inspired by the English garden city movement, which is why Count Eusebi Güell, the inventor and namesake of the park, insisted that the name be in English. Only two houses were ever built at Park Güell and neither one was designed by Gaudí, although he ended up living in one of them because Güell suggested he buy it when no one else wanted to purchase them (it's now a Gaudí museum).
The most iconic part of Park Güell is definitely the lizard. It is literally impossible to take a picture of it without accidentally including a bunch of random people. I'm not sure why it became the symbol for Gaudí and Barcelona in general, but it was cool to see it in person. Another very popular spot in Park Güell is the mosaic bench on the main terrace of the park. It goes along the whole outside rim of the terrace and it's just beautiful. The whole park, of course, is amazing and very typical Gaudí. It's absolutely massive so I had a great time just wandering around.
The most iconic part of Park Güell is definitely the lizard. It is literally impossible to take a picture of it without accidentally including a bunch of random people. I'm not sure why it became the symbol for Gaudí and Barcelona in general, but it was cool to see it in person. Another very popular spot in Park Güell is the mosaic bench on the main terrace of the park. It goes along the whole outside rim of the terrace and it's just beautiful. The whole park, of course, is amazing and very typical Gaudí. It's absolutely massive so I had a great time just wandering around.
We ate lunch in the area near Park Güell and then headed off to Las Ramblas, near the city center. Las Ramblas is basically a giant walking strip where people set up booths and stuff to sell different things (mostly magnets, postcards, flowers, and food). Lily met up with Hannah, Brittany, and me at the front of Las Ramblas to wander around for a few hours before she had to go to the airport. Here we are at the entrance to Las Ramblas.
Aside from the cute little tents set up on Las Ramblas, the best part of the street is definitely El Mercado de San José, also known as La Boqueria. It's basically a huge market where you can buy all kinds of fresh fish, meat, fruit, etc. My personal favorite was the chocolate booth.
After La Boqueria, we all walked Lily to her bus stop so she could catch her flight to London, where she's studying abroad this semester. It was sad to see her leave but I was mostly just glad we got to see each other at all. Near the bus stop is the famous Passeig de Colom (Walk of Christopher Columbus). It's really just a statue of Columbus but it's actually pretty famous and I like it because he's pointing towards the New World.
By this point on Saturday, it was getting close to dinner time and we were all exhausted. We decided to go on the other route of the bus tour where we drove by Anella Olímpica (Olympic Stadium), the old bullring, Parc Joan Miró (Juan Miró Park), and Camp Nou (the home of Barcelona's football (soccer) team, FC Barcelona). The old bullring is actually very interesting because it's been turned into a shopping center. Bullfighing is a common stereotype of Spanish culture, but it's actually mostly present in southern Spain. Bullfights still continue in different parts of the country, but with the rise of animal rights activism, the topic of bullfighting has become quite controversial and was banned in Catalunya (and therefore Barcelona) in 2011.
Below is a picture of Olympic Stadium, where the 1992 Summer Olympics were held. These Olympic Games were quite significant for Barcelona because it brought in a lot of tourism and showed the world that Spain had finally recovered from the oppressive dictatorship established by Francisco Franco from 1936 to 1975 (although frankly Spain still hasn't recovered from Franco if you ask me). The 1992 Games were also very significant in terms of international relations because the Cold War was finally over and these were the first Olympic Games without boycotts since 1972.
As our final farewell to our time in Barcelona, we ate dinner in Placa Catalunya, which is in the center of the city. I was super excited when we got off the bus because there were protests going on in the center of the square. I'm not sure exactly what they were about, but it probably involved funding for education. There are student and teacher protests every Wednesday and Thursday in Granada so the whole concept is nothing new to me, but I have yet to see one in action. Don't worry, it was very tame. It mostly consisted of people passing out flyers and holding up signs. The protestors were gone once we finished eating dinner so we got to actually walk into the square. Brittany insisted that we stand in the star in the center of the square because it's also the center of Barcelona, so here I am in the center of Barcelona.
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