On Halloween morning, Carolyn &I left a brisk Copenhagen at 5 AM to get to the airport on time. Despite the early time, it was absolutely worth it. We were in Barcelona by 10 AM which is where the struggles start. For starters, the hostel gave us directions from the airport to the hostel, which was helpful...except that they didn't put the correct full name of the station that we had to get off at. So of course, we took the train for a lot longer than necessary, but then realized &got back on the train in the opposite direction. When we finally get off at the correct stop, we realize how much walking we have to do to transfer, and how many steps we have to carry our suitcases up. We finally made it to Las Ramblas, one of the most, if not the most, touristy street in Barcelona. Our hotel was on a street right off of Las Ramblas, but our only directions were "walk towards the sea," when we could not see the sea. Naturally, we picked the wrong way to walk, but luckily realized this only a short while later, so we turned back around, and finally found our hostel. We settled in &then decided to go out for lunch, at the average Barcelona time about 2 PM ish.
For lunch, we stopped along the touristy Las Ramblas, because it was the only place we knew of, and were too tired to go searching for other food. We had delicious tapa, chicken paella &of course, sangria. The sangria had massively long straws in them, and of course the mugs they were served in were also huge. It was amazing though, especially since the weather was so nice we didn't need jackets and we sat outside watching people, eating paella &drinking sangria. yum!
me with my sangria!
After lunch we decided to head to the Barcelona Cathedral. Even though the front was slightly under construction, it was gorgeous. Then we went inside and were able to actually go to the top to see a great view of the city. As you'll notice, this will become a reoccurring theme...we were able to climb to the top of many of the landmarks and see amazing views of all the cities. The front of the cathedral has towers that raise up to 230 feet, with tons of stained glass &100 carved angels. The Cathedral covers gothic, baroque and 19th century architecture while also remaining one of the most important religious monuments in Barcelona. Walking home from the Cathedral started our gelato spree...Carolyn &I had gelato at least once a day every day over break. It was absolutely delcious. So on our way home we stopped to get our first gelato, and ate that while wandering down one of the main shopping streets.
the front of Barcelona Cathedral, with some construction
For dinner that night, we just had some quick pizza and of course, more sangria. This time we weren't in such a touristy restuarant so instead of ordering just a massive glass of sangria, we made our lives easier by ordering a pitcher. (Big sacrifice, I know. haha.) Of course we were exhausted after all of our traveling, so we went to bed early, which was nice because we were ready to go by 8:45AM. It was also interesting because while Halloween is a big deal in the US, it is slowly spreading to Europe. The Danes are starting to celebrate it, but in Barcelona it was random adults and then tons of little kids. So walking home Saturday night we saw some people dressed up, but nothing compared to the US. Sunday was a busy day. We lucked out because the first Sunday of every month the museums are free, so Sunday November 1st was a lovely time to pick Barcelona! After the free breakfast at the hostel (which consisted only of 2 pieces of toast &orange juice) we headed out on a long walk to the other side of the city. We started at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (National Museum of Art of Catalonia, aka MNAC.) We got there as it opened at 10AM, and saw tons of art from the 4 main art periods. The Museum is in this beautiful building, Palau Nacional which was built in 1929. MNAC was also in a park that was right around the Olympic Stadium of the Barcelona games as well as another stadium and a gorgeous fountain. The park had a hill that MNAC was located on and it gave us another gorgeous view of the city. It was so much of a hill that the park actually installed escalators for people to go up and down. After MNAC we headed to the Picasso Museum, that we also got into for free. Picasso definitely did a lot of art that I had never seen before, that I wouldn't have pegged as a Picasso. He also did a lot of portraits which didn't look like the "typical" Picasso, as well as pottery which surprised me. Then we wandered home, of course stopping for gelato, and then taking a lovely, well deserved, siesta. That night for dinner we went to this awesome winery type place, where all the walls were lined with wine bottles, and had not only great food, but also an amazing pitcher of sangria. In order of deliciousness, this place definitely had the best sangria, also because it was the strongest, and the least bubbly. By the time we finished eating it was 11:30, so we headed home to get a good nights sleep for the massive amount of walking on Monday.
Monday by far was my favorite day. We dedicated the whole day to seeing Guadí creations. Antoni Gaudí was Barcelona's best architect, and loved to use nature, mosaics and beautiful colors. Although he is no longer alive [he accidentally got hit by a trolley because they didn't recognize the city's most famous architect. Tragic, right?] La Sagrada Familia is still under construction and probably won't be finished until about 2025. It was absolutely breathtaking. Not only was the outside façade amazing, but inside, although construction was still going on, had so many gorgeous stained glass windows. Then Carolyn &I were able to go up to one of the towers, and had a GREAT view, plus it was a gorgeous day. The front of La Sagrada Familia looks like it's "dripping," and above the main entrance door, there is such an intricate carving of religious stories, because Gaudí was very religious. The pillars were also held up by turtles which were beyond adorable. He continuously used mosaics to incorporate color and nature, which was much more apparent in La Pedrera and Casa Batlió.
La Sagrada Familia, still being built.
We walked from La Sagrada Familia to La Pedrera, which is another Gaudí creation. The outside looks like a wavy rock, and the whole roof has funky mosaic-ed statuesque type things, that are actually chimneys. This was Gaudí's last design before dedicating the rest of his life to designing La Sagrada Familia. It is an apartment building, so we were able to see a potential apartment, as well as the roof.
the outside of La Pedrera, which looks like a wavy rock
Me &Carolyn on La Pedrera's Roof, in one of the mosaic-ed sculptures.
After La Pedrera, we walked to Casa Batlló which was definitely my favorite. It was designed by Gaudí based on the sea. By locals it is called Casa dels Ossos because the outside appears like a skeleton, despite the marine based inside. Everything was blue, and mosaic-ed, or based off of a particular marine animal. The stairwell leading up to the roof was lit by completely natural light, which meant that the blue mosaics showing the water got progressively darker as they went up, to account for the natural light, so that when one looked up, it would all look like the same shade. The protectors on the railings were made of sort of foggy glass, which made it look like everything was under water. Then in the courtyard, there were turtles directly out of the door...it was just the most intense, beautiful, architecturally and interior designed amazing thing i have ever seen, and Gaudí did it all by himself. It is utterly unbelievable. The outside is also completely mosaic-ed, making it gorgeous. Though you can't see the roof well in this picture, the roof was also completely a Gaudí design, and meant to look like fish gills.
My favorite Gaudí creation: Casa Batlló, or Casa dels Ossos, which by looking at the balconies, you can see how it looks like skulls. The colorful outside is all completely mosaics, and the big windows lead into the main living room area, that was all completely lit by the natural light that those spacious windows let in.
Of course after all of this amazing sightseeing we were starving, so we stopped at a sandwich and had a quick lunch and rested our tired feet. We then walked home down the Passeig de Gracia, or the main shopping street. Needless to say, this was a welcome break, although our feet were tired. Though I didn't buy anything because it was mainly the high end stores like Chanel, it was still an awesome experience, not to mention we saw random castles &important monuments along the way without even meaning to. We found amazing gelato and by the time we had walked home, we were ready for our daily siesta. Of course by the time we woke up, we were hungry for dinner, so we wandered about and found this really cute place that was completely decked out like a fishing place. We figured we would have more amazing paella, but this time we had lobster paella, which was fabulous and way too much to eat. The tapas we ordered were also delicious, along with, of course, another pitcher of sangria. This restaurant had an adorable wine holder: it was shaped like a cello! It was so creative, plus they had an amazing collection of bottle openers shaped like all funky things. After that, we just headed back to our room for the night after an exhausting day of walking around so much.
Tuesday was our last day in Barcelona, so we started it off right, and went out for breakfast at this place called Granja M. Viader, and it was absolutely delicious. We tried the traditional "mel i mató" which is honey on a ricotta ish type cheese, and i had a hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was actually like a melted chocolate bar, it was intense, and absolutely delicious. The mel i mató was interesting, but i would definitely give it a second chance. After a nice breakfast, we headed out to the Parc de la Ciutadella. This park was the one that had Parliament, the zoo, this GORGEOUS fountain, Cascade Fountain, and their Arc de Triomf. The day was gorgeous and we not only enjoyed the weather, but also loved just chilling out, and not going at such an intense pace as we had been the past few days. There was also a holocaust monument in the park, which we randomly stumbled upon. The best random stumbling upon however, came walking home from the park when we happened upon Museu de la Xocolata, aka The Chocolate Museum. How could we not go in?! The entrance ticket itself was a little bar of chocolate, and then we walked around an exhibit that told us all about how chocolate was brought to Europe, and admired these amazing chocolate statues of amusing things such as Mickey Mouse, Ben Hur and Gladiators. Plus, we each bought a little piece of chocolate deliciousness after the exhibit, which held us over until lunch.
The Cascade Fountain
La Pieta in chocolate, at the Chocolate Museum. I found this amusing, like foreshadowing as to what was to come next week in Rome.
We left heaven on earth, aka the chocolate museum and were wandering to lunch when we randomly bumped into some DIS kids. It was so bizarre that in such a huge city we managed to bump into a group of people that we actually knew. But then we each went our own way, and we ate lunch at a place called Bliss. I didn't think it was that blissful to be honest, but it wasn't half bad. Afterwards, we swung by the Palau de la Música Catalana, which is this amazingly beautiful completely mosaic-ed music hall. Unfortunately, we got there at like 3:45 and the last entrance was at 3:30, but we got to see the outsides and look in the window. This was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, and apparently on the inside there is this amazing stained glass ceiling. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see it, so next time I'm in Barcelona, that will definitely be on my list, as well as Park Güell. Park Güell was designed by Gaudí, but we didn't have time to make it there either, unfortunately. Though we did make it to Palau Güell, designed by Gaudí Tuesday morning before our breakfast. It was actually located on the same street as our hostel, but we hadn't seen it because it was closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We weren't able to go up to the roof, which is usually a main point in the Gaudí architecture, but even from the ground level looking up, it was gorgeous.
Palau de la Música Catalana, from the outside.
We ended our day by eating dinner at El Jardin, an outdoor restaurant in this really outdoorsy little square. Again, we ordered a pitcher of sangria, tapas and this time we tried crepes. The tapas were delicious...one we ordered was asparagus wrapped in lox with avocado. Might sound disgusting, but it was absolutely amazing. Then the crepes came, and they were beyond filling, but absolutely delicious. After dinner, I found a scarf that said "España" on it, to support the Spanish National Soccer Team and then we headed to the hostel of our friends we had bumped into to hang out with them for a while. After that, we went back to our hostel only to arise early the next day to head to Florence!
Overall, I would say that Barcelona was definitely one of my favorite cities. There was just something in the air that made you love the city, I'm not quite sure what it is. I can't wait to get back, and see all the things that I missed, as well as hopefully see many more things that I didn't get to see, such as the Dalí museum, because it was out of the city. Also, by the time I get back, hopefully La Sagrada Familia will have been completed. All in all though, it was a magnificent city, and I absolutely cannot wait to return!
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