The adventure began the minute Tori, Abbie and I stepped out of the the metro and began searching for a route to our hostal. Barcelona was a little intimidating at first because it has the same metropolitan atmosphere that any big city in the U.S. would have. In fact, in some ways it reminded me of New York City because of it's cultural and architectural diversity. Thankfully, after wandering a few blocks with our noses burried in the map, a nice gentleman asked if we needed help, and pointed us in the right direction. When we got to our hostal, we were pleasantly surprissed to find that the accomodations were very tidy seeing that we did not pay top dollar. After getting settled in, we decided that we were too tired to do anything but find something to eat so we headed into the center of the city for some delicious tapas. That was another nice thing about Barcelona--it was easy to find really good food (even if it was a bit expensive).
The next day we woke up bright and early and decided to devote the entire morning to the exploration of Gaudi's architechtural wonders. Of course, we began with the Sagrada Familia. This Cathedral was awe inspiring,and, as with most other things, I don't trust that my writing will do it any justice. The rugged, sunwashed stones created a natural haven for those seeking a higher ideal, and it was the perfect mixture of harsh angles and fluid lines that created such an etheral beauty. The sculptures and carvings surrouding the spires seemed like images out a surrealist's painting. The building has been under construcion for a long time because Gaudi died before he completed it. Tori and I think he might have done this on purpose because when he was alive everyone in the artistic world thought his work was crude, and to get back at them he left the most complex architectural plans that no one would ever be able to figure out let alone complete.
After taking pictures of the cathedral, we wanted to see Gaudi's park. However, we didn't want to spend money to get a metro pass so we walked across the ENTIRE city (which took about two hours). On the way, we ducked into a huge market and bought some fresh squeezed exotic fruit juice for breakfast; this was so tasty that we made sure to go back everyday to try a different flavor--my favorite was mango coconut. Anyway we reached the park, and it was created entirely out of rock (I think it was sandstone which makes no sense because it would have eroded by now), and it was competely coherent with Gaudi's desire to create structures that mimick nature's patterns. For me, the most interesting part of the park was the tunnel fashioned out of double helix shaped pillars and made entirely out of rocks.
On our way back from the park we happened upon Gaudi's two appartment buildings (one of them was unfondly named "the quarry" when he first built it because critics hated it so much). After being out in the sun all moring, we figured it would be a good time to treck across the other side of the city and head for the Mediterranean Sea. When we got there, I took a nap in the sand and then we all played in the waves. After relaxing on the beach, we were quite hungry so we got some catalan waffles and crossed Port Vale to watch the sunset. As we walked back we heard music and yelling coming from one of the plazas so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be an anti-war rally with musical performances by Catalonians. This was quite interesting because we got to hear some Catalan rap which was basically just Spanish rap that incorporated some very clear American phrases. I swear I heard them say "F%*& the police," and I laughed. That night we were so exhausted we could only manage to eat and sleep--nothing exciting.
The next morning we got a little lost looking for the Picasso Museum, but when we found it, it was well worth the wait. I took the longest out of anyone to go all the way through, and by the end, I think my friends had been waiting for over an hour--oops. It was just so interesting to see so much of his work in chronological order and understand the different historical and cultural influences that affected his work. Most of the art in the museum wasn't even cubistic, but pieced from his other movements. After the museum we wandered around the old gothic part of the city and went in and out of little shops and took pictures of window displays and graffiti all afternoon until it got dark and we decided to meander down "las ramblas" to see the street performers. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of these guys because you have to pay them, but there was this one guy dressed up like Edward Scissorhands, and he would stand perfectly still until a crowd gathered around him, and then we would snap his scissors together and pretend to start cutting people's hair--the kids loved this.
That night, we were all craving chinese food for some reason so we found a little place near our hostal. Let me just finish this entry by saying that chinese food in Spain is really weird
No comments:
Post a Comment