Barcelona, Spain

This city is so friggin gorgeous. I instantly fell in love with it. I can’t explain why it is, but this city looks and feels SO MUCH like Montreal to me:

Apparently, this architect Antoni Gaudi was commissioned to design all sorts of works of art, such as lamp posts and buildings, including this one, found near Tara’s hostel:

He also designed Park Guell, something straight from Dr. Seuss:

His great masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, was a really short walk from my hostel, though it was one of the last things I saw before I left. Here is what my guidebook says about:

Construction began in 1882 and could be completed in 2020. Eventually there’ll be 18 towers, all more than 100m high, representing the 12 apostles, four evangelists and Mary, Mother of God, plus the tallest tower (170m) standing for Jesus Christ.

Apparently, Gaudi was hit by a tram while working on it. There’s a real gruesome urban legend about how nobody recognized it was him because he was in work clothes and looked like a bum, so he died alone in his hospital bed. (You can ask Melissa about it.) Anyhow, check out how beautiful this is:
 

I think, as a result of Gaudi’s influence, architects designing buildings in downtown Barcelona felt they had to keep up. Look at all of these buildings:

For all I know, I just picked out 4 more Gaudis. I’m pretty sure the one in the bottom left is the same as the one above, anyway.

So, what have I been doing in Barcelona?

I walked downed the famous avenue, Las Ramblas:

I went out to a club with Tara, Athina, and all of our friends:
Even at 1:30 in the morning, it was dead. (I told you Spaniards go out late…) We decided to go out to the beach next door, instead:
 

I stopped by the Miro museum:

I also went to the Picasso museum. No pictures, though.

One of the best things I did was wander around the Boqueria fresh fruit market:

We also browsed through a flea market:

Something I was really looking forward to do was watch a Barcelona football (soccer) match.
It ended up being really lame. The only place you can watch one of these games is an Irish pub, apparently. And despite wearing Messi jerseys, the fans weren’t enthusiastic one way or the other. Maybe once or twice in the 93 minutes we sat there somebody went “ooooh” or made any kind of sound. It might be because the game ended at 0-0, though. Or maybe soccer just sucks.

Besides Barcelona itself being awesome, it was made much better by having an awesome group of people to hang out with. These are friends and friends of friends and friends of friends of friends: From left to right: Melissa, Athena, Julie, Tara, Sarah, Neto, Katie, myself and Philipe.

Spanishisms

-In Barcelona, deep in the heart of Catalonia, people speak Catalan, not Spanish. I can’t tell the difference by ear, but it definitely reads differently. At the very least, the accents over the letters seem to go the other way (that is á instead of à).

-I hear these are great:

-This chain of “Imaginarium” stores is really cute. It’s a kind of toy store, but what’s really interesting is the separate door they have for children. And from what I’ve seen, no two entrances are alike:

-More empanadas!

-More churros:

-How weird are these stores? I saw one in Ireland, too. It’s entirely sealed, and you ask the man in the window to get something for you from the inside. You pay through a metal lockbox and he gives you the product you wanted through there, too:

-Went to a tapas bar:
 
-Weird deck of Cards:
Kn? D? E??? (Yes, I took some time to arrange the cards this way. And, yea, it’s missing a card.)

-Gellatto
I know this isn’t particularly spanish. But this is SO delicious.

-Duff Beer?!???!???
I mean, look how absolutely shocked I am to have found this!

Traffic Worries

This is a picture of the train station I’ve waited in for over 3 hours yesterday, just to reserve a train to Valencia. (The train I’m on right now, as a matter of fact.) As you should know by now, there was a volcanic eruption in Iceland, and the volcanic ash has drifted over to Europe, primarily affecting Ireland and the United Kingdom. Thousands of flights have been cancelled. Barcelona airport, for one, has been shut down! You might not know this, but there is also a train strike going on in France! These two things combined make it really hard for anyone to travel out of Spain. This doesn’t affect someone like me, who’s going to be in Spain for a little while longer, but even people flying into Italy have been screwed. This has backed up all train and bus travel as well, unfortunately.

Curiously, though, the train station was rather bare, today, making my pre-planning feel like a huge waste of time. Whatever, what can you do? Onwards to Valencia!