Barcelona!

La Sagrada Familia!

May 2 I successfully transported myself and my two backpacks (yes, I had to wear one on the front, and yes, it looked as stupid as it sounds) to Barcelona. After navigating the train and metro and finding my hostel, I wandered down to the Plaza Catalunya and into the older section of the city. I saw la Catedral de Barcelona and a bunch of other beautiful buildings and various plazas. I could almost immediately tell that this city is very different from Madrid--it's much more relaxed and friendly.
In fact it is so friendly that while walking from plaza to plaza someone randomly started talking to me, asking me if I knew where a certain type of music was being performed. I said I had no idea, so he rambled on about the variety of live music you can find in the different plazas, then asked me if I was just out for a walk and where my favorite place in the city was (all in Spanish). I once again said I had no idea since I'd just gotten there (when he said "Oh! I thought you lived in Barcelona!" Riiiiiight)...and for what felt like five hours I tried to think of polite ways in Spanish to tell him I did not want to walk to the beach with him. Eventually he told me he started talking to me because he noticed that my blue eyes matched my blue shirt and it was a beautiful combination. Overall, interesting, but I managed to get away, walked for 10 more minutes and saw some old couples dancing to live music on the street. I thought "How cute" and stopped to watch when a new song started, and suddenly an old man came and said "Why don't you dance? Dance, dance!" (in Spanish) and grabbed my hand. I laughed and said no, I didn't know how, so he of course said he'd teach me...and then I ran away.

May 3 it rained. ALL DAY. Cold rain too--it stayed in the low 50s. But I spent the day outside anyway. I walked up to La Sagrada Familia, which is difficult to capture both in pictures and in words. It's spectacular--I spent a decent amount of time just wandering around its perimeter staring at it. There is so much detail. From there I walked up Gaudi Avenue to Hospital de Sant Pau, which is a UNESCO heritage site and looks more like a church than a hospital. From there I took a (very long) walk to Park Guell, but the very long walk was worth it. Once again I don't really know how to describe the park besides beautiful--I can't imagine how amazing it would be in nice weather. Apparently the park was created because some rich family had the idea to make it a housing estate (inspired by the "garden houses" in England), but when that failed Gaudi moved in with his family, and apparently designed some pretty amazing architecture. I spent a long time there too--there were a lot of terraces to walk up, with a great view of the city from the top terrace.

Inside of the Hospital de Sant Pau

May 4...it rained. Still cold rain. I walked up Passeig de Gracia (Paseo de Gracia in Spanish...I wish everything were in Spanish, not Catalan...) and saw two more Gaudi-designed buildings. His style reminds me of a really sophisticated ginger bread house. I walked down through Plaza Catalunya and through the famous La Rambla street, which has a bunch of shops...and a bunch of impromptu pet stores. It was actually kind of sad to see so many rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, birds, etc. shoved into tiny cages out in the cold. I swear one guy put some pigeons in a cage and was selling those...there were also random roosters and chickens. After all the of the pet shops, most of the outdoor vendors were selling flowers.
Along La Rambla is the Mercat de la Boqueria...which is a market. A very crowded market. It was stuffed full of chocolate/candy, gelato, fruits and vegetables, seafood and every other type of meat imaginable, bread, olives, etc. The range of colors and smells was amazing (the bread places smelled the best, the places with full dead octopi the worst). I saw another Gaudi building, but I have no idea of its significance.
From there I continued on La Rambla almost until the end, then went off to find the Picasso museum. The museum shows Picasso's development through the years--how he originally focused on portraits and landscapes, his "blue period," "rose period," etc. until the Cubist style he's so well known for. It also had the studies and full painting of his version of "Las Meninas," which is the painter Velazquez's most famous work that Picasso decided to put his spin on.

Today, May 5, it finally decided to be sunny like normal May Spain weather. I walked down to the port of Barcelona and wandered around there for a long time. There were some seriously big boats. Then I went back up through the old city, stopped in at la Mercat de la Boqueria again (and bought the best apple I've ever had in my life), and generally looked at things I hadn't seen yet in the sun. I eventually walked over to the Parc de la Ciutadella, which was gorgeous. It's next to the zoo and when you walk through it you end up at the Arc de Triomf, which was built for some sort of exposition in 1888.

Tomorrow I finally meet up with Hilary and go to Rome! Barcelona's been great--even greater when it's not raining, and my hostel has been very nice too. I am, however, very excited to have a travel buddyyyy!

Click HERE for pictures!!