Por fin, ¡Barceloooooona!

First, I would like to apologize to all my fans for not updating midweek. We just didn’t do anything exciting enough in our two days in Alcalá to merit an entire post (plus, I didn’t have Wi-Fi in the hotel so I couldn’t have posted if I wanted to), but I’ll still give a brief rundown. Monday, I had THREE hours of class, instead of the usual hour and a half. I know, how could they do such a thing? Well, we’re a little behind schedule in my culture/history class, since we’re never there. So I guess that’s fair. I didn’t have anything else to do anyway. Tuesday was super chill. Erin and I didn’t do anything all day, besides catch up on our favorite TV shows (mine currently being “The Bachelorette.” Seriously, what is up with that mask guy? Creeper!), and do a little grocery shopping for the trip. We’ve discovered it’s much cheaper to bring our own food, rather than buy restaurant food. Ok, we already knew that, but for whatever reason we’re just now putting it into practice. Better late than never!

Wednesday morning we loaded up on our not-so-comfy bus and headed for Barcelona! Finally!! This was the trip I looked forward to the most. I finally got to see Gaudí’s work in person and feel the energy in the city. But before arriving in Barcelona, we made a stop in Zaragoza to visit a couple cathedrals, one built in the baroque style and the other in gothic, both spectacular of course. We had no guide to give us any history or anything. We just stopped to have a looksy.

Baroque rotunda

Oh, funny story from that leg of the trip. About 30 minutes from Zaragoza, one of the emergency exits on the roof of the bus started to blow open, and when some of the guys tried to fix it, it blew open even more and wouldn’t lock shut. So the boys had to take turns holding it shut until we got to Zaragoza, or else that little section of roof would have blown completely off. It could have made for a nice little sun roof, but I guess it wouldn’t have been very practical, especially if it started raining, which thankfully it didn’t.

We rolled into Barcelona around 6:00. By 7:30 we were making our way to dinner. Crazy, I know; we actually ate before 11:00! Then instead of going back to the hotel to rest and get ready for the next day, los profes decided we should go check out Las Ramblas, so named for the torrents of people (ramblas means torrents of water). It’s basically a huge street with a large median where there are lots of vendors and such. We walked for an hour just to get there, and there really wasn’t much to see once we made it. I think I would have liked it better in the daytime, when I wasn’t tired and cranky. But, we got another great story out of that little adventure. We took the Metro back to the hotel and we had to switch trains once to get to the right place. We rode the first train only one stop before we had to switch, and apparently, we were supposed to buy another ticket. Well that didn’t seem right, since we paid the fare to use the Metro system and had only gone one stop. Luckily, profe had an extra ticket. So he stuck it in the machine to open the doors and all 40 of us ran through the little door as fast as we could. I wish I could have seen the looks on the faces of the other people in the tunnel. I’m sure they were priceless.

Barcelona was founded by the Romans in the first century BC. It was originally named “Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino.” Now that’s a mouthful. I can see why they changed it. It’s located in the Cataluña autonomous community, and almost everything in the city, all the signs and ads, are written in Catalan, which to me looks closer to French than Spanish. Everyone still speaks Spanish (or Castellano, as it is also referred to), but they also speak Catalan. It makes getting around a little more of a challenge. Good thing we have a bus driver, who by the way, crashed the bus Thursday night! Poor guy. It really is a wonder it hasn’t happened before, since the streets can get pretty narrow. Don’t worry, no one was on it, although I was more worried about whoever got hit. Our buses are like tanks. Luckily, we found a substitute for the day and a working bus to take us home.

Thursday and Friday were almost entirely about Gaudí. Antonio Gaudí, born in 1852, is one of the most famous modern architects in the world and definitely my favorite. About 80 percent of all his works are found in Barcelona. He viewed nature as being the art of God and strove to represent that in his art, which is why you will rarely, if ever, find perfectly straight lines in his works, since there are no straight lines in nature. When he attended school in Barcelona for architecture, his professors often wondered if he were crazy or a genius. I would say both. I think you have to be a little crazy to be a genius. We visited two of his works on Thursday: Parque Güell and La Sagrada Familia.

Parque Güell, originally planned to be a housing complex, is not just a lovely park. There were 60 houses planned for construction, but only two were actually constructed. There are three other houses on the premises not designed by Gaudí (you can tell because of all the straight lines), but Gaudí did live in one of them.

The house Gaudi lived in.

The crowning jewel of Gaudí’s works is La Sagrada Familia, the third cathedral in Barcelona. Begun in 1882, it still is not finished and won’t be for another 25 years. Construction is still being done according to Gaudí’s models and drawings. There are three facades, two of which are complete, and 18 towers, 8 of which are complete. Holy cathedral, this one takes the grand prize. I have never seen any structure more amazing with my own two eyes. I was speechless as I walked in. It really is the work of a genius. Since I have no words to describe it, I’ll let the pictures and the video do the talking, although they both don’t do it justice. You really just have to see it with your own eyes to understand the grandeur.

I know the cathedral is a sacred place meant for worship, but I was definitely humming Star Wars music in my head. It was the music from the part in Episode 1 where Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan are fighting Darth Maul. I felt like I was in another palace on Naboo. Geez, ever since that Plaza de España, I guess I just associate Spain with Star Wars.

The last part of the day was spent in art museums. In the first museum, El Museo Nacional de Cataluña, we saw an interesting mix of art, including modern art (ehh…) and impressionism (thank goodness!). The second museum, El Fundació Joan Miró, is definitely all modern art, most of which is done by Joan Miró, what a surprise. In this museum, you can view such works as “Hair pursued by two planets,” and “The lark’s wing encircled with golden blue rejoins the heart of the poppy sleeping on the diamond-sudded meadow.” Yes, that is the title of one painting. Sigh. Oh, modern art. Will we ever be friends? Probably not any time soon, because I just can’t get over how bizarre you are.

Bueno, full-day number two. Friday. We spent a good portion of the day in two buildings designed by Gaudí: La Casa de Milá and La Casa Batlló. Casa Milá, also known as La Pedrera (quarry), was Gaudí’s last major work before he dedicated his final 16 years to La Sagrada Familia. It’s an apartment building, although I don’t believe anyone actually lives there today.

You'll have to excuse the sideways-ness. I can't get it to turn horizontal.

Casa Batlló looks like it’s ocean-themed, and the interior, which has wavy lines all over the place, suggests that as well, but the apartment complex’s design is based off the legend of Saint Jordi slaying a dragon. This explains the rooftop’s design, which looks like a dragon’s back, and the scaly facade. Both these buildings have these funky statues all over the roofs. They’re actually chimneys! I love how Gaudí takes ordinary objects and turns them into extraordinary works of art. Like I said, genius.

We ended the day at El Museo Picasso in el Barrio Gótico. This museum showcases much of Picasso’s earlier works, since he spent his formative years in Barcelona. I’m definitely a much bigger fan of his earlier works, although I did think his cubism rendition of “Las Meninas” was pretty cool. The museum itself was cool as well because it’s spread out through several connected Gothic palaces.

On our return journey, we stopped at Montserrat (“jagged mountain” in Catalan), which is a mountain chain just outside Barcelona. It’s like huge rocks shooting out of the ground, and we drove almost all the way to the top. It is so beautiful. The view is amazing. We visited a monastery that is up there too, and there just happened to be a wedding going on. Oh, hey, don’t mind us. Poor couple, tourists were walking by right and left. But, I guess that’s what happens when you want to get married in a famous monastery on top of a mountain. You have to put up with some minor inconveniences. At least people were being respectful for the most part.

I kind of wish we could have stayed in Barcelona for the rest of the trip. I really liked it, even though it is the pickpocket capital of Europe; however, if you use just a little common sense, you can easily avoid that, like I did. Besides that, it was such a fun city with so much to see. There are other fountains and plazas and museums (namely, the chocolate one) that I would love to check out. And the beach. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the beach, not that we had much time to go, but I’ve come down with a lovely cold. So my free time Friday night was spent resting. The excuses to return to Spain just keep piling up! Pretty soon I won’t have a choice. When I do come back, a week in Barcelona is a must.