Escalading in Espagne
November 7, 2006
SO…I’ve got a lot to say.
Back on Sunday night Jake and I left for Stanstead airport which required a bus ride, to the tube, to a coach (charter bus…but I wish), to the airport. It seems like a lot of travel and it took us a couple of hours but in actuality that really wasn’t bad at all. Once in the airport we started searching for a place to sleep, unfortunately, a million other people had the same idea. So all the benches and flat surfaces had already been taken. We found a little place near the windows with where the heater (which wasn’t working) acted like a bench so we grabbed that. It was only about eight inches wide and was composed of five metal bars with about an inch spaced between them…so comfortable to balance sleep on? No. Jake stayed up most of the night while I might have grabbed an hour or so. We got up (which was comprised of standing up because we were already awake) at five AM and began security check-ins. Everything went smoothly…except for some reason they decided to search Jake’s backpack and had some problem with his deodorant. I got to walk across the tarmac and up stairs to a plane for the first time, it was kind of special. The flight was fast and fine except for when they tried to charge me 3 bucks for an orange juice. We arrived in Spain around noon and hopped on another coach to Barcelona which only took us about an hour. We arrived in Barcelona and walked to our hostel where Ted happened to be standing outside. So we checked in and took a nap and then headed out.
That first night we just walked around the city and checked stuff out. We found a nice little outdoor cafe in the Barri Gotic and had our first Spanish meal. It was good but not amazing, we were happy to eat though. We headed back to the hostel and finally got a good nights sleep.
Day two in Barcelona started with us heading out to see La Sagrada Familia, which is really the centerpiece of Barcelona. Its a cathedral that has been under construction for decades and is still unfinished. It was the life work of Antoni Gaudí who really is Barcelona’s favorite son. It was such a different cathedral than any that I have seen. The architecture is so different and the whole feel is strange, almost like Dr. Seuss but completely mature. I posted a picture I took…but it won’t really do it justice. It’s hard to really get the right perspective in a camera lens because it’s so massive. Anyway, it was amazing and super interesting because although the style is not more modern it is definitely a cathedral and holds onto many of those traditions and it just makes you feel like you’re a part of history seeing a cathedral built. Next we headed up to Güell Parc which was again created by Antoni Gaudí. The park is up on a hill and has a great view of the city all the way out to the Mediterranean Sea. The park is covered in tiles and mosaics. Lots of color and art. It was a really fun place to walk around, take pictures, eat lunch and absorb. The final Antoni Gaudí work that we went to see was La Pedrera, which was a block of apartments and offices he designed. The architecture was amazing. We went up to the roof and just sat there over looking the city for a long time. There was also a museum of some of his works and an apartment to be toured.
That night we went out to dinner to a Tapas bar and tried a bunch of different kinds of Tapas, they were all delicious. It got a little expensive but it was a nice bar and when you’re paying per three bites…sometimes you loose track. We had some really good conversation and a lot of fun just hanging out eating in a foreign country…more foreign than England. It was totally worth it though and did I say they were delicious, because they were. Then we walked down to the water front and stood in front of the Mediterranean Sea in the darkness.
Today we got up and went back to the Barri Gotic to go see the Picasso museum. Not to mention we saw a nevernude in cutoffs. It was definitely one of my favorite museums, given my predisposition to modern art and then just being able to see the progression of a man and his art was awesome. The museum had a lot of his early works which gave such background to his later works and informed so much of his work. You always hear that Picasso was a genius and I agreed…but after seeing this museum I have no doubt and I don’t see how anyone could disagree. Sure, someone might not like it but the man is brilliant and so masterfully skilled. Have you seen the work he was doing when he was fifteen? Wow.
Ted left for London after the museum so Jake and I headed up to the national gallery of art which is up on a hill and watched the lights of the city come alive, we would have watched the sunset but there were too many clouds. Again we had a great conversation just sitting on the steps and talking about life the way young men do.
Now I’m back in the hostel writing like crazy to catch up and now I have. Goodnight. Oh yeah, and they love escalators here. They’re everywhere, it’s like a kids dream land.
