Barcelona....Gaudi and History... a small novel

This weekend we went to Barcelona.. it was pretty fun. We got on the train early Friday morning and rode it for three hours to Barcelona. We got off took the metro and found our hostel. Upon arriving we freaked out a little... they had the 4 of us in a 6 person dorm. not supposed to happen. We chose this one specifically for a 4 person private. So we went down.. and after some convincing from rhoda and anna. they lady tried to give us a life lesson and changed the room. wooo hoo. After that drama we ate our packed lunch, jumped on the metro again and headed out to go to Park Güell.. a park designed by Gaudi that looks like it´s straight out of a story book. it´s amazing.

We got off of the metro and started following the signs. It´s on a hill. A Big one. We walked up a rather steep slope and then up about 4 escalators. the main entrance to the park was closed for construction (a very predominant thing in Barcelona). We snaked around following the crowd and assuming we were going in the right direction haha. we were. there were some creepy german? guys and a french couple- the guy was wearing a real berret (sp?)... so I took a picture of him. naturally. hah when we got to the park it literally took my breath away! i can´t believe someone actually designed it. you walk in through two houses that look like gingerbread houses. then you go into a staircase with ceramic work all over it. There were water fountains and all kinds of things. At the top of the staircase there was a platform with a roof with really awesome columns and such. and ceramic work on the cieling. you walked up and there was a park thing on top. the worlds longest bench is there. with lots of ceramic work around it too. GREAT view of the city. Palm trees line it and people were just out sitting and starring at the sky... hanging out. it was AMAZING! I loved it. then you walk a little to the right and you wind through a path to a museum of gaudi in a house that he lived in when working on Park Güell. He liked to stay where he was working. we walked back the way we came and left after passing about an hour and a half here and still not really seeing all of the park. how crazy. I got a book about it with pictures and lots of facts. it was cool.

After this park we continued our day of Gaudi... we went to see La Sagrada Familia. A church that Gaudi had started right before he died. It was supposed to have 18 tours but he only finished 8 of them. it´s really amazing. he slept there when he was working on it. he walked 2 kilometers from la Sagrada familia to a church to pray every day (devout catholic). he walked because he was afraid of trams. One day he got hit by one on this walk and died never finishing he work. They are still working on it and it is the worlds oldest construction sight. I got lots of pictures of it. It´s a good thing as they are planning to build a track for a high speed train under it which could cause it to collapse (according to experts). I´ll be sad if it does but at least I´ve seen it. We grabbed a starbucks sat outside and looked at in. At least I did... admiring how amazing it is.

We left la Sagrada Familia and went to go see Casa Batlló and la Pedrera... also from Gaudi. He totally redid the structure of Casa Batlló... he took a square building and turned it into something amazing. hah AMAZING. and pedrera was similar. we went into it. it´s a museum of all things Gaudi. It was amazing.I´ve got a ton of pictures from that museum. it was an audio tour so i learned a whole lot from it. haha. we went into the museum the 2nd day though.. so we didn´t get that done.

After these experiences we went to see Torre Agbar. Interesting looking little buidling. we ate some mexican food (yup mexican in spain.. it was AWESOME) and waiting for the tower to light up. after we finished eated we took some pictures of the torre and hopped the metro back to the hostel to sleep. haha.

On the way back we had a run in with a rather interesting spanish lady on the metro... she elbowed me. apparently i was in her way. but oh well. she then two hand shoved Anna..anna says ¨don´t touch me¨ the lady responds ¨you no toucha me¨ Anna says ¨I will push you out that door¨Rhoda yells ¨Anna! we´re in a foriegn country!¨and the event was over. thankfully haha.

There was more fun when we got back to the hostel...Anna couldn´t get the bathroom door open.. apparently someone saw fit to close it and shut everyone out. i went to help her try to get it open so we could get ready for bed. haha. oh how intersting.. put my shoulder into the door. I looked in the through the steam and there was a naked asian girl standing there... staring. at which point i shut the door back looked at Anna and walked straight back to the room haha. AWKWARD!!!!!!

haha we went to sleep and prepped to start the next day...

I realize this blog entry is getting ridiculous.. or entering absurd.. .thank you for bearing with me.. imagine experiencing it all in one day! haha

We woke up early and got ready and headed down stairs to try to get breakfast... it wasn´t good at all. so we went to the dunkin´coffee on Ramblas (american weekend.. we´re aware) haha. we got our breakfast bought some postcards (to be sent out shortly) and headed to meet the free walking tour we were planning to take.

The tour was amazing we learned SOo much. First.. the eiffel tower could have been in Barcelona. They turned it down when it was their turn to host a major convention or whatever. they said it was too modern and expensive. A year later they put it up in Paris with the extent of taking it down after the exhibition thing.They didn´t and now it is a land mark. intersting.

2 fun laws in barcelona:

It is legal to be nude.. you just have to wear shoes. and you have to either be fully clothed or fully naked. haha. what a law.

it is illegal to carry alcohol in the streets. so the venders see cops coming and throw it in a drain or trash bin and grab it out after the police are gone and sell it again. amazing. haha.

There were aqueducts and ancient roman things ALL over the place it was intense. It was beautiful too. to see the stuff the romans built that lasted for that long. how intense... terribly.

Paella (the food valencia is famous for).. legend has it paella came to be when a man decided he wanted to cook something for his woman but didn´t knwo how to.. .so he threw all kinds of stuff in a pan and make it and it was para ella - paella. interesting.. but could be just a legend.

The old patron saint of barcelona.. saint eulalia was martyred at 13. they tried all kinds of things. burning her at the stake and torture and what not and 13 times they failed. they 14th they rolled her down a hill in a barrel with knives and things in it. she died. but was named a saint immediately after. apparently. haha. we saw a thing honoring her. and the hill they rolled her down.

We saw the oldest synagogue in europe, a wall where they lined people up and shot them during the civil war (there were so many holes in that wall.. there will be a picture or two of it coming soon), the door to the headquarters of the spanish inquisition, a building built with gravestones from jews because they were so disrespected by the Spanish Reyes Catolicos. There are also pictures of that because it blew my mind that they would use gravestones to build a building and make a point. We saw the art school picasso went to along the road where he lost his virginity to a prostitute haha. A sculpture honoring george orwell for fighting with the spanish and taking the bullet that killed him. And heard a story about a holiday on april 23 celebrating a famous soldier who died and roses popped up..celebrated on international book day. the girls get a rose from their significant other the guys get a book.

Still more....

We walked and saw the statue of colon pointing out to the ocean (since barcelona is where he originally left from as this was the location of the reyes catolicas at the time). And we tried to find the Santa Maria- a model of it. because a professor said it was there. it was.. but 15 years ago they set it on fire during some political protest. that was a disappointing experience.

We saw the FC barcelona stadium and heard ¨It´s too late to apologize¨ being sung.

We went to a restaurant called Santa Anna for dinner...after walking in hard rock so they could look for souvenirs (i wasn´t about to drop that haha turns out they weren´t either) and it was good. really good.

We got up sunday and packed and went to dunkin coffee again. Meet katie Boyd (my friend from home) and she went with to visit Olympic Park- the site of the 92 Olympics. It was cool. I saw the torch and the track stadium. There are pictures.

On the way back we had the shakiest train ever.. but we survived and got back safely.

Last part... promise...

we went to watch the crida here in valencia when we got back. It´s the welcome to Fallas- the crazy festival that´s in three weeks. and it was already nuts. we couldn't get very close because of the number of people. but we got some decent pictures... and some good video of them singing the valencian anthem and yelling a lot. there were fireworks like it was the 4th only louder. NUTS!! afterward a parade in the street ensued! haha it was great to see but kind of makes me wonder how nuts the fallas are going to be! By the way.. my boyfriend does get to come over for that. I´m BEYOND excited! haha

That´s all for now... it was a small novel i´m aware. but it made for a good weekend.

Thanks for hanging in there! I know you really care if you got to this point!

<3 and maybe the next one will be shorter.