I have finally lived a huge dream of mine. I have walked the streets of one of the most beautiful cities in the world -- Barcelona. A world of art, architecture, and literature. One of my favorite novels, The Shadow of the Wind, takes place in this magical city. It is easy to see how so many people could be inspired by it.
There are so many things to do, see, and be amazed by in Barcelona.
The first place that Caitlin, Chris, and I went to was Antonio Gaudi's masterpiece, The Sagrada Familia. The church that has been under construction since the latter part of the nineteenth century. The outside is a dark, dripping, gothic mass with spires, and bell towers all engraved with different scenes and images all to do with the life of Christ.
The inside, however, is a beautiful spectacle of dancing light, colors, and textures.Windows, columns, spiral staircases, and statues all work together to form a beautiful scene that looks like it was made of clouds. Interestingly, it is easy to see the differences between time periods, artists and architects with in the church. The front has an older, more classical approach. While the back looks much more modern. It was easily, one of my favorite parts of Barcelona.
Next, we took a hike to the infamous Park Guell, another Gaudi masterpiece. This park was once a real estate venture, after it failed it was converted into a public park, free for all to admire.
The park has tons of beautiful mosaics and wondrous architecture. We went on the most perfect Spring day. But, naturally, there were tons of people.
One of the most famous landmarks of this remarkable park is the coolest mosaic iguana. Good luck trying to get a picture with it, you'll be waiting a long time.
The park would be the perfect place to take a book and find a nice quiet spot with the most beautiful little spots.
After that, we checked into our hostel, The Hipstel (a great hostel in a great location, if you're ever looking for one) and went to bed, we did get to the airport at about 3 am that morning, we deserved some sleep.
The next morning, we started off with Dunkin' Doughnuts! We needed too, it had been too long. There are none in Rome, no Starbucks either... what's with that?!'
Then we decided to make the most of the short amount of time we had and got on a hop-on-hop-off bus. We embraced the tourists and proudly sat, camera at the ready.
We decided to spend some time in the absolutely amazing Gothic Quarter of the city... and went to Starbucks.
We went to dinner with some friends that were also in Barcelona. Then we headed back to the hostel for some more shut eye.
The next day was quite rainy, so we decided to spend it in Casa Batllo, another Gaudi work. The casa was, literally, two blocks away from our hostel. I was so excited to see this house, I wanted to live there, totally my style.
This ceiling made me think of Casper, it's supposed to be in the same theme as the rest of the house, the ocean. The stained glass in the front window looked like it was made of sea glass and was even more beautiful than what you see from the street, the colors change depending on which side you're looking at the window from because of the way the light changes.
One of my favorite parts of the Casa Batllo was the inside, almost like a courtyard. All of the light from the top skylight poured into the windows and filled the house with the most beautiful light.
The view from the roof is great, but the roof itself was so stunning, the mosaic tile work was stellar and made to look like the spine of some kind of scaled sea dragon.
Before leaving, we made sure to sign the guest book, leaving our mark on the remarkable house.
Our last stop was to The Cathedral of Barcelona. The medieval, Gothic architecture and stained glass were really stunning.
We made our way to the airport to make our flight to LONDON! Look at those happy faces.
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