Barcelona

Our plan left Rome a little late. Around 10:50 p.m., I think. We were forced to take a cab because we missed our shuttle, due to a priest blessing the apartment of Alex, Tally, and Max. Living so close to the Vatican, you get a lot of priests willing to offer their services, even when you're in a hurry to get to Roma Termini to catch a bus. Anyway, the flight was delayed almost an hour, so we were fine. The flight got in at around 1 a.m. 

Sidebar: I should preface this by saying that Barcelona has somewhat of a Vegas feeling to it. It's a party destination. Barcelona is Europe's largest Mediterranean metropolitan area, and sixth overall. Barcelona is very densely populated, and everything seems mostly modern. Tehy have a few forums that are almost futuristic. They seem to embrace the future more than Rome. If you look at Barcelona from space, you'll see it's a planned city. The bulk of the city center is made up of octagon shaped blocks. The edges of the block are cut off the allow for increased parking. It's a grid, with some major streets going diagonal. Barcelona is known for some of the best beaches in the world, Antoni Guadí, and Picasso. But since the water is cold and I have no interest in Picasso (I'm a Impressionist man, myself), we focused on Gaudí and... well, the nightlife.

Barcelona: main parts of the city are directly ahead, and also slightly to left. (not my pic)

Anyway, after we landed, we took a cab into the city and found our hostel. Our hostel was a fairly well-known one, and is located in Plaça Reial, which I just found out is a famous plaza. PR is just off the tree-lined La Rambla, the famous (touristy) street that, pretty much, connects the Christopher Columbus statue with the shopping area. We put our stuff in our lockers, changed, and went to the clubs on the beach. It was a real club, like from the movies. It was a bit unnecessary, but still fun nonetheless.

The next day we devoted to walking around Barcelona and getting acquainted with the Catalonian-speaking city. It's a little strange going from English, to Italian, then expecting to hear everyone speaking Spanish. I didn't realize Catalonian is the main language in Barcelona, while Spanish takes a close second. Our friends we met up with speak Spanish pretty fluently, and they said Catalonian is kind of a mix between French and Spanish. Not sure if this is true, but the words do resemble both languages.

Plaça Reial

 Entrance to La Boqueria, the market.

 Locals

Colorful place

Pepperoni?

Rabbits, Turtles, only .90 Euro

Chris Columbus statue on the site where he returned back from discovering America. Supposedly he's pointing towards America, but he's actually pointing in the general direction of Constantine, Algeria.

Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia

Inside

Courtyard with geese

The number of geese represent how old the Patron Saint of Barcelona was when she died, I think. Something like 14. It's a rather gruesome story.

Barcelona is the Piano Capitol of the World. There was a recital in the middle of Plaça Reial for a total of at least 20 hours while we were there. My hostel is the light blue "Kabul" sign in the back. Of which, only K-A-B can be seen in this photo.

That night was the same as last night. I won't bore you with the details.

The next morning we got up at around 10 a.m. and went to see the works of Guadí. First, was the architectural garden of Park Güell.

Entrance to Park Güell

The colored tiles are concave. I think he was the first to do this. (He doesn't like straight lines, this guy)

The famous salamander. Has become the symbol of Gaudi

On top of the park

Looking to the coast. The beach and La Rambla are directly ahead

Sagrada Família on the left

Famous tower in Barca, no idea of the name, but I recognize it.

A famous church up on the hill. Forget the name. I believe this is where the panoramic was taken from above.

Gaudi was very religious.

My crew.

Me, being scared of falling probably.

And here it is. Sagrada Família. Wikipedia it's story. It's been under construction for 80 some years I think. Set to be completed in 2026 or something. The line to go inside was 5 hours. Look up pictures of the inside. It would've been incredible to see, but honestly 5 hours is a bit much.

Each side is different and has a different feel. This is the modern side.

Christmas side. Tree in the middle.

It's only 60% done. When it is completed, the center spire will be much taller than these 4 "modest" spires. The design and detail was incredible. My camera couldn't get close, so again, google.com, and look up the rendering of the finished design.

Gaudi's Casa Batlló, second from right. Didn't go in.

Casa Milà. Did go in. This is the main one, and has a museum.

 Model of casa

Sagrada Família, supposed to resemble tree trunks and vines (or rope, depending on who you ask).

Apartment inside.

Gaudi was obsessed with making things more useful and pleasing. This door knob perfectly fits the hand when it's gasped. There were 2 or 3 other designs I saw too.

Well, that was it for Barcelona. I saw the four main Gaudi projects, and went in two of them. We were there for 3 nights, but only had a hostel for two, in order to save Euros. We rented a single bed the last night, just for the use of the locker. Then we went out and did the Barcelona thing one last time with Alex, Tally, Ali and Paige's IU friends, grabbed a taxi to the hostel, grabbed our bags, and were off to catch our 5 a.m. flight back to Roma.

Soon I'll post about my first hostel experience, which was not hostile at all. There were some creepy moments, but it's definitely the way to go for low cost student travel.

I'll try to get the very last leg of Amalfi up soon. It's not like day 2, so don't get too amped up. But at the same time it's still the Amalfi Coast. Next weekend I may make a day trip to one of the hilltowns near Rome, and possibly, finally, go inside the Colosseum. I'm becoming a little too used to Rome I feel. I want to be impressed with every vine-laden rooftop terrace I see. I still am, but it's just getting too normal. It would be stranger at this point, after only six weeks, to see the barren corn fields of Central Illinois. Although, there is something about the bluish color of the dome on St. Peter's that really blends majestically with the sky. I could never get tired of that. Rome will always be beautiful to everyone and has so much to discover. You could spend a lifetime here and never experience it all. I think I've been doing a pretty good job though. I'll just have to make sure not to sleep in on the weekends.