The Fetmans Take Barcelona Day 3, and then London: Leaving Spain...So Surreal...

Saturday, June 24

Woke up for the last time in Spain. Wow, I just could not believe it. Ironically I didn’t sleep too well due to the incessant firecrackers set off in the streets that night. I assumed that it was because of the World Cup or something. I got ready and we all headed out to eat and then planned on checking out the Miró museum and the Parc Güell. Once downstairs I asked the receptionist about directions and he told me that it was a Barcelona holiday so the museums might not be open. Damn! We hoped for the best. We went to a little tapas bar for breakfast…Spanish tortillas all around! I ate a lot because I was so hungry. The food was not bad. I had a pretty good ensaladilla rusa which I knew that I would miss so much once I left the Iberian Peninsula. Sigh. We then walked down las Ramblas in hopes of finding a cab to the museum. First we wanted to call and see if it was open. So I rudely cut a in a line of a bunch of tourists at an info counter (the men behind the counter kept refusing my service without waiting in line but I insisted…the line was way too long for the brief question that I had). I asked for the number of the Miró museum for which the dude actually spent a lot of time searching. I felt badly for holding everyone up, but then again, I didn’t really care that much. Soooooo many tourists were out since it was Saturday, and a holiday (so no natives were really out). I got the number, called the museum, and to our luck it was open. Yessssss.
The museum was far away so we grabbed a cab (which was a struggle due to the holiday) and took it up a mountain to the modern, architecturally cubist museum with a gorgeous view overlooking Barcelona. We entered, locked up our bags, and looked around. We started in the first room which was some random Miró multimedia—the coolest was the big Miró rug. Very neat. My family looooves Miró so this was going to be exciting. We then headed downstairs to an exhibit by some new artist (they have exhibitions for new artists there). It was so cool! Let me see if I can describe this exhibit: a circle of wires releasing drops of water onto different services (such as pots, bowls, strings, etc.) and on the objects were microphones attached to speakers which amplified the sound of the water drops hitting the objects. The water fell randomly, but changed which object it would hit every few minutes. The piece was huuuuge and basically took up the entire room. It was really peaceful and dark down there, and the music was so soothing…and natural! It was so cool, innovative, and fascinating—I had never seen anything like it. I reeeeeally enjoyed that exhibit. So smart. Natural music. I tell ya. Modern art is friggin sweet. Then we walked around the many areas which held work from his early stages onto right before his death. There were also works donated by artist friends of his (such as Henri Moore and Rauschenberg which were all really amazing to see). My favorite works were from the middle of his life when he was using the most color. Shana and I found some pieces that we really loved due to the immensely bold, overstated colors contrasting the simple, black figures. Sigh, I love Miró. We also checked out the outdoor exhibit on the patio overlooking Barcelona (amazing view) which held many interesting Miró statues and sculptures. Interesting. Oh man, it was also so hot out…definitely the hottest it had been since we arrived in Barcelona. Yeah, it was a scorcher. We headed back into the museum and looked around some more. We were probably in there for a little bit under two hours. We looked around the crappy gift shops (that was disappointing) and then headed out.
We thought about taking a cab down, but finding a cab all the way up there was pretty difficult. So we thought about taking the cable cars down. While walking towards them we stumbled upon a Metro stop. I asked the man working the ticket booth about how to get to Parc Güell, and he told me what lines to take. Perfect. We bought tickets, hopped onto some sort of indoor gondola thing that took us onto more level ground so we could board the Metro. We took a couple lines and ended up by Parc Güell, the infamous Gaudí-designed park located atop a foothill. Well, little did we know how treacherous of a walk it would be. It was so hot out and we had a long ascent…primarily by foot…in the sun. Sigh, needless to say it wasn’t too pretty. We walked up a steep paved street until we got to an outdoor escalator which was a bit of a relief, although we were already dying of heat and sweat. We walked up a bit more, took another escalator, and this process continued until we had ascended 3 or 4 outdoor escalators. Then we were dead tired and at the entrance. Damn you, Gaudí, for making your park so hard to reach! We then walked up an uphill dirt path (although not as steep, just as hot) and walked around. We were so exhausted and didn’t quite no where to go. We wanted to find the famous huge mosaic bench and the Gaudí lizard statue, but were at a loss. We used our best instincts and walked. We found the highest peak of the park on which sat a Gaudí-inspired crucifix. Shana and I did not have the will nor energy to walk up the steep rock hill to get to the top, so Mom and Daddy did it and took some pictures while Shana and I caught our breath. We were dead. Ugh. We walked around some more, descended a bit, and then found it! It was huuuuuuge. There’s a huge area held up by columns and enclosed by a wavy mosaic bench which, so I’ve learned, is the largest park bench in the world. It was so cool. Around the park were some brown, more natural-looking pillars with flowers atop. The mosaic bench was amazing. Each section of the bench had a different design and color scheme. Mom spent a lot of time taking pictures…she reeeeally loved it being that she’s a huge mosaic fan. We all ended up splitting up and looking around. Standing at the edge of the park one could see Gaudí’s old house (now his official museum) and two little Gaudí houses below that didn’t look real…they looked like gingerbread houses! So amazing! I headed down the windy staircase and ran into Mom. We found the famous Gaudí mosaic lizard which was pretty cool…and crowded…impossible to get a picture! And there was also a little fountain with what I believe was a mosaic dog head which spit out the water. Pretty neat. We then got all the way down and stood underneath the park where the pillars stand. Above were different circular emblems with their own unique mosaic designs. So cool! We then went inside one of the two little houses (the only one that was open…it’s a gift shop). We didn’t really see anything good, but it was cool to be inside. Mom bought a couple Gaudí photo books which are really nice. Yeah, we were lovin’ on the Gaudí. We then found Shana and Daddy and went into a man-made Gaudí cave which was pretty cool. Mom took some more pictures while the rest of us sat and rested. We were beat. It was so hot and we had walked so much. As great as it all was, we were about ready to go. As sad as I was to leave Spain, I was ready. I felt like I had finally done all that I needed and wanted to do and was ready to go back to the United States with my family. The Parc Güell was our final stop in Spain. Next stop: Barcelona International. I couldn’t believe it. But like I said, I was ready. It was time.
We walked out of the Parc Güell, walked down the road a bit, checked out some cool little shops (a lot of all-mosaic products shops…Mom was in heaven) and then grabbed a cab back to the hotel. Well, I couldn’t remember the address, so I had the driver drop us off on the corner of las Ramblas Catalunya and Diagonal (a few blocks from the hotel). We got out and took a nice stroll back to the hotel on a beautiful early evening (the heat had dissipated and it turned into a nice evening). Nobody was on las Ramblas, not even tourists! Talk about holidays. It was a perfect, peaceful, final stroll on the streets of Spain. We stopped in a little health food place since we were hungry, and got some sandwiches. Then we got back to the hotel where I had the reception call us a mini-van taxi for our intense pile of luggage. The taxi would take about 20 minutes, so we sat in the lobby with our pile of luggage and relaxed. This was it. My last minutes in Spain. I couldn’t believe it. But it was time. It really was. The driver showed up in a huge van and helped us load up. And we were off. The taxi driver was super friendly, and my parents pointed out that this would be my last true opportunity to have a Spanish conversation for a very long time. So we talked the whole way. The driver was so overwhelmingly nice; he told me all about the holiday that was being celebrated (turns out it’s the biggest celebration in Barcelona next to New Years. It celebrates the first official day of Summer…hence why nobody was around—they all went to the beach. This also explained the firecrackers I heard the night before. He told me all about the history and the myths behind it…it was great! A perfect final real Spanish conversation. Sigh, I’ll miss them dearly.
We arrived at the Barcelona airport a few hours early. I mean, we had nothing else to do, and we had no idea what traffic would be like. We checked all of our bags and sat around. We tried hooking up to the Wi-Fi in the many zones they had, but it cost money and my computer was on low battery. So out of boredom we took many walks around the shopping areas and duty free stores. Woooot. I went to a bunch of bookstores and newsstands to find Harry Potter 3 to replace the one I left on the train, but they were all in Spanish. Boo. There goes that entertainment for the long plane ride ahead of me the next day. Oh, I should explain. We were taking a night flight to London, sleeping in London, then flying directly to Chicago from London the next evening. So our flight that night would only be a couple of hours; plus, we’d gain an hour (it’s an hour earlier in London). I was kind of excited—I’d never been to London! Just like I can say I’ve been to Switzerland (my flight to Spain), I can now say that I’d been to London. Anyways, I was feeling a bit perturbed that I wouldn’t have a book to read on the plane when I stumbled upon…dun dun dunnnn…Us Weekly! In English! Yesss!!!! Perfect. Shana also bought Cosmo in English. My reading entertainment had been restored. I was so happy because I needed some major briefing on celebrity gossip before I would return to the States. Niiiiice. We then went to a waiting area to sit around for an hour. We played the Movie Game very unsuccessfully for awhile just doing what we could to pass the time. Then we migrated to our gate. We were delayed about twenty minutes which was kind of annoying. Then we boarded and were off. Goodbye, Spain. So weird. At the time it didn’t feel like I was leaving yet. It felt like I was just taking a little trip to London. It hadn’t hit me yet. The flight was quick and easy. We didn’t get food (Iberia is a shitty airline…last Iberia flight I’ll be on for awhile, woohoo!), but whatever—we had eaten some (gross) sandwiches at the airport. We then landed at Gatwick (or was it Heathrow? I can’t remember) Airport. We were all so exhausted. Although it was only 11pm, we were just dead from traveling and all the walking in the heat from that day. There was some confusion about waiting for baggage. You have to stand in front of a TV monitor and wait for them to call your flight to get your bags. It took for-ev-er for us to be called. It sucked. Then it took forever to get a cab. They didn’t have mini-vans, so there was worry about fitting our luggage. We had a back-up plan of Daddy renting a car for the night to take the luggage which made me nervous…Daddy driving stick on the left side of the road?? Don’t even think about it. Luckily we got a station wagon that was able to stuff all of our luggage. The ride was long and grueling…about an hour (we were staying at a Holiday Inn next to the Heathrow Airport since we’d be flying out of that one the next day). It was still very silly to see my dad sitting up front on what would be the driver’s side…I can’t get used to this United Kingdom left side driving thing, I tell ya. The weird and yet great thing about being in London was that my dad could take over. When we were in Spain I was in charge because I was the only person who knows the language. But in London my dad could sit up front, talk to the cab driver, the hotel reception, the people at the airport, etc. It was nice to be able to sit back and relax and purge myself of the responsibility for once. Sigh. We arrived at the lovely, circular Holiday Inn. It was weird getting out of the cab and feeling cold for once…it was probably around 60 degrees there. Omigod, an American place! And they speak English! So weird. That was so crazy for me at first. We checked in and got our rooms. We didn’t have air conditioning which was kind of annoying, but not terrible since it wasn’t too hot out. I was gross, so I showered. I tried to charge my computer, but I forgot that they have different outlets in the U.K. Dammit! We were able to fit one of my adapters into the razor outlet to try to charge my computer overnight. Before passing out I watched some very fascinating, uncensored British “Big Brother”. Funny people, them Brits. I fell asleep at around 1am. I was well on my way home. No longer a Spaniard. I was so tired that it didn’t even phase me. I was very aware of, however, the fact that this would be my last night in Europe…as a quasi-European citizen. Wow. So strange. I couldn’t believe how fast the past 5 ½ months had flown by…

FINALLY some new pics!

Okay, I posted my pictures from the end of study abroad. Be aware that there are no photos from traveling with my family. Just a handful from the end of my study abroad experience. Soon enough there will be pictures from my Fetman Family adventures. But for now, check out the end of study abroad pics at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/leesuh223


DISFRUTA!

The Fetmans Take Barcelona Day 2: Food, Glorious Fooooood/LAST FULL DAY IN SPAIN

Yes, I know, I've been terrible about updating lately. I cannot believe that it's almost August, I'm home, and I still haven't completed my Spain blog. However, I'm in the homestretch. I'm just not motivated anymore since coming back home. Well, I'm making baby steps, and I'll finish it soon. I promise. So here's my post about my last full day in Spain...


Friday, June 23

I couldn’t believe my Spanish days were coming to a close so soon. Friday would be my last full day in Spain. I just could not believe it. We woke up, got ready, headed out for a bite to eat on another hot Barcelona morning. We walked down las Ramblas. We stopped at Starbucks for a quick pick-me-up (as much as I hate on Starbucks, I’ll miss the Spanish Starbucks…particularly for their fresh-squeezed orange juice). We got food at a tapas place where we feasted on some yummy Spanish tortilla and such. After brunch we planned on going to the Picasso museum…the main attraction for me that I’d been dying to see since my favorite UM professor told me about it. I figured it was close by according to my map, so we walked. The travel books told us that las Ramblas was worth exploring…we had no idea how worth it it actually was until that afternoon! We saw dozens and dozens of street performers (all of which were quite entertaining and very creative), kiosks of all sorts, and cafes. The best part was the abundance of pet kiosks. Yes, pet kiosks…in fact, there were at least two on every block. They held pets of all sorts: fish, birds, and rodents. The cutest pets were the miniature hamsters. The weirdest were the ducks, turkeys, pigeons, and doves. I mean, who wants a pet pigeon?? Kind of sad, nonetheless. The absolute strangest thing was the chipmunks. I’ve never seen chipmunks caged! Little do I forget that chipmunks don’t really run wild over on the Iberian Peninsula like they do back in the U.S. So strange. We looked at all of the pets, kiosks, and street performers for awhile. I mean, we spent a looooong time on las Ramblas that afternoon. Then we stumbled upon the market…the main Barcelona market. I had read about it back at the hotel and didn’t plan on checking it out, but just our luck, there it was. Again, that’s what I loved about Barcelona: there was so much to do and somehow we were able to do it all inadvertently. The market turned out to be one of the highlights from Barcelona. It’s huuuuuge! Full of so many awesome, colorful stands selling anything from food to pharmaceuticals (but mostly food). Stands of fruit, vegetables, fish, shellfish, ham, white meat, red meat, eggs, there was even an organic food stand, and a stand that just sold bananas, and one that just sold candied and dried fruit. So crazy! I saw so many gutted animals, such as turkeys, chickens, rabbits…oy. There were live shellfish crawling around, and even tripes! Ugh, tripes. This market literally had everything. We bought fruit there (it was so cheap, and good) and some dried fruit and chocolate nuts (which ended up melting in the heat right away…oh well). This market was inexplicable. It was so visually appealing, it was like a museum in and of its own. You’ll just have to check out the pictures when I post them. We spent about an hour or two in the phenomenal market and then headed the rest of the way down las Ramblas. We stopped at some artisan stands, watched some more performers, and looked at more pet kiosks.
We finally got to the main walkway along the Mediterranean which would lead us to the Picasso Museum. It was so hot and sunny it was nuts. But it was a good walk, nonetheless. We inadvertently found the famous original Warhol sculpture on the way. That was really exciting! I love Barcelona and its many surprises. Yeah, that is what I love about Barcelona: there’s so much to see and look at. It’s definitely one of the most visually appealing metropolises that I’ve ever visited. It’s like a Chicago…but a bit better because, well, it’s Spain…and instead of a lake they got the Mediterranean. So yeah, Barcelona wins. It took us an hour to finally find the Picasso Museum. I was nervous about getting lost so we kind of took a roundabout route. Oh well, we got there. The museum was in a neo-gothic building. We entered, and wandered. The museum was smaller than I had expected, and not very impressive. In fact, the Picasso Museum in Málaga was much better. This museum mostly held his earlier work (which isn’t that interesting) and a lot of his later work (even less interesting than his early stuff). All of Picasso’s really amazing pieces are in the major museums (Reina Sofía in Madrid, Art Institute, MOMA, etc.). So it was a tad disappointing, which was sad due to my immense love of Picasso and my desire to go to the museum so badly (one of my main reasons for wanting to go to Barcelona). The best part, however, was the Picasso variations of Velázquez’s Las Meninas. Cindy Sowers, my favorite UM professor, told me before going to Spain to go to Barcelona and see the variations. She’s the professor who introduced me to the true wonders of cubism and the avant-garde (she’s a Picasso scholar) and told me that those variations are her favorite Picasso works. Interesting. I really liked them and found them fascinating, but not nearly as fascinating as his other works from earlier in his life. Oh well. Picasso, I still love ya.
After about an hour or so in the museum our feet were killing us, but we kept on truckin’. On the way back we cashed some traveler’s checks and passed by the Gothic district. That was on our list of places to visit for sure but still hadn’t gotten there (due to sore feet we thought that we’d check it out the next day). But lo and behold, there it was. We didn’t necessarily go in, but we got some pictures from the outside; we were just way too tired to walk around it. Funny, we never returned to the Gothic District—very funny since it was at the top of our list to things to do, and we ended up doing things that weren’t originally on our list. I was happy with the way that our Barcelona vacation worked out, though. Nice and spontaneous.
We walked back to the hotel for a quick rest, then headed back out (despite our aching feet…the whole trip was starting to catch up with us) to go to the Gaudí apartment building, La Pedrera, before it closed. We walked the 15 minutes to get there and headed up. We started on one floor which was very similar to the skydeck of the John Hancock Building (you know, modern, museum-ish, history, etc.). So that was nothing worth mentioning. Then we took an elevator up to the famous roof. It was so cool! Rolling meadow-like walkways dipping and curving around every Gaudí-esque corner. Lots of sculptures and moldings that are extremely difficult to describe without having an image. Don’t worry, I’ll post pictures soon enough. But yeah, so unique. I freaking love Gaudí. He’s definitely my favorite architect. Hands down. From the top we got a fantastic aerial view of the city. It was perfect. And a gorgeous evening. After spending a good amount of time on the roof we went down to see an interior of an apartment. The apartment was more like a penthouse. It was set-up in a museum sort of way to look like how it would have appeared back during the turn of the 20th century. Really neat. The apartment was effing huge, I couldn’t believe it. It would have been amazing to live there. Despite the modernist quality of the building itself, the interior of the apartment was very normal. Ya know, some of the furniture was Gaudí modernist-inspired, but besides that, it was just normal. Nevertheless, fascinating. At around 8:15 we headed down and left to go out to dinner.
For dinner I wanted to take the family out for tapas typical of the northernmost provinces of Spain. I had read all about these kinds of tapas: they’re served at the bar on toothpicks, you pick out what you want, save the toothpicks, and pay by how many toothpicks you have accumulated. I really wanted to give this a try. I read about a northern tapas restaurant in the book in the hotel, and we headed over. It wasn’t too far of a walk. We got there at around 8:45 and the place was pretty much empty. But on the bar sat an enormously long line of platters with breads and meats and fish all on toothpicks. They looked like hors d’oeveurs one would eat at a fancy cocktail party. I was a bit baffled by the system, so I talked to the really nice, attentive waiter and he explained it. He offered to give us a sample platter, but we decided that it’d be easier to just serve ourselves and eat at a table. He looked pretty baffled. Later a group of people came in and drank at the bar and munched on some of the tapas. I later learned that this must have been a local place, and that the whole concept is you sit, have a drink, and munch on the tapas as you are mingling and drinking. I see. So our eating just tapas at a table must have come off as pretty strange. I mean, as we were eating he kept offering to give us a menu to order entrees. We just thought that it was like a buffet, I mean, all we wanted were the tapas! Yeah, it was pretty confusing. But anyways, the tapas were AMAZING. I kid you not, THIS was the best tapas…the best Spanish food that I had eaten. Hands down. Northern Spanish cuisine is fresher (not all of it is fried like down south) and they use more veggies and fresh ingredients. We all ate so much. All different toasted breads with hams, fish spreads, cheeses, croquetas of all sorts, fried vegetables, etc. It was kind of like going to sushi buffet…but better. Oh man, I still crave it. Best Spanish food EVER. Barcelona, you win. Our waiter was so attentive that we all felt a bit guilty that we were only eating tapas. He kept insisting that we order something off the menu. He suggested their homemade leche frita (fried milk) off of the menu—that it’s one of their few homemade desserts. A few weeks earlier I was discussing Spanish cuisine with María del Mar and Maruja and they suggested that before I leave Spain I try leche frita. That it’s delicious. So we figured why not. Even though we weren’t really wanting dessert from their, we felt guilty. And I wanted to try leche frita. So we only ordered one for all of us to split (which also baffled him…we were being such Americans, hehe). The leche frita was good, like a thick custard or flan. Not bad, but nothing too special. Creamy, thick, cinnamony, but not too sweet. A good little treat. We then paid (we had sooooo many toothpicks, yet it wasn’t too expensive thankfully), and headed out. Shana had been wanting to try this chocolate porcupine thing that we had seen in many bakery windows (it’s a chocolate cake shaped like a porcupine). We couldn’t find one on the way home, but stumbled upon this awesome dessert café. It was decorated really nicely, very modern. We had a waiter that spoke really good English, which gave me a break from speaking constantly for the family (it’s exhausting!). We sat at a nice little table under nice lighting with nice décor (they had a chandelier made of wire whisks!). Shana got a chocolate raspberry cake and milk, I got a chocolate mango cake, and Daddy got some cheesecake-ish pudding cup thing with strawberries. Shana’s and my cakes were alright, but Daddy’s pudding thing was AWESOME. Yeah, his dessert won. He even said that it was one of the best desserts that he had ever had…and Daddy’s a tough food critic! Barcelona, you were definitely winning.
After those amazing culinary experiences we walked back to the hotel which wasn’t too far away. We were all in very good spirits. It was a great day. A great last full day in Spain. The next day would be it…I would be leaving Spain for good the next evening and couldn’t believe it. Nevertheless, I had an amazing last full day and couldn’t have asked for better…and we still had much to do the next day. Once back at the hotel I blogged a bit, watched some more music video countdowns, then passed out. My body was exhausted. All of these months of constant walking were finally beginning to catch up with me. Last night sleeping in Spain. There is one coincidence about my last night in Spain: I watched "South Park" on the German channel. I watched "South Park" in German at a four-star hotel. I also did that my very first night in Spain, back in the Becquer. Yup, if you recall, I watched "South Park" in German at the Becquer, a four-star hotel, my very first night in Spain. Did the same my last night. How funny. Not intentional at all. Anyways, very strange that this would be my final night in Spain...my third home. Sigh.

The Fetmans Take Barceolona Day 1: Gaudi Mad

Thursday, June 22

Woke up at around 8:15am to a knock at our cabin door; it was the conductor returning the tickets that he had collected the night before. Once awake I opened the curtains that did an impeccable job at blocking out any sort of natural light. We were riding into Barcelona! I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been wanting to come to Barcelona ever since I arrived in Spain—Barcelona: the other heart of European avant-garde and modernist art (next to Paris). So exciting! Despite the fair amount of sleep I had received, I was still exhausted. So after getting dressed and ready and packing up my things, Shana and I passed out on the bunk beds for another half an hour before Daddy came into our cabin to wake us up to tell us that we were there. We de-trained and grabbed two cabs to our four-star hotel (the only nice hotel we stayed in the entire trip): the NH Calderón. Upon arriving I was immediately taken aback by the language difference displayed on the signs everywhere. In Cataluña, the northernmost province of Spain, they don’t speak castellano Spanish (the Spanish we know), but they speak what is called Catalán, which is a variation of Spanish that looks/sounds like an amalgamation of French and Spanish (which makes sense since Barcelona almost touches the southwest tip of France). So that was new. Although it is the official language, I was able to communicate in castellano without a problem. It was weird not hearing the Andalucian accent anymore.
So we rode for about 15 minutes to our hotel. Barcelona seemed pretty modern and urban, yet pretty—kind of like Chicago. Our hotel was right on the most popular, central street: las Ramblas, which is a really well structured, populated street. In the middle runs a large, thick island on which street performers and café seating reside. On either side of the island runs the street traffic, and also various stores and restaurants with an attached sidewalk. At one end of las Ramblas (it’s quite long) lies the Mediterranean Sea, and at the other, the mountains. Water run-off from the mountains flowed down las Ramblas to the Sea before the streets were constructed in the 18th century. Clever city planning, I must say. Anyways, we checked into the NH which was extremely nice. The staff was overly friendly and the lobby was spacious and gorgeous with an art deco theme. They took our luggage to hold right away. It was obvious that this was a swanky place…I, for one, felt pretty out of place. Hehe. We wouldn’t be able to check into our rooms for another hour and a half, so we decided to walk around and check out our surroundings and subsequently grab some brunch. According to weather.com the weather would be mild and in the 70’s, but ohhh was it wrong. It was hot. Well, not quite as hot as it would be down south, but still pretty damned hot. So we walked around, sweat a bit, were cranky from lack of sleep, until we found a little breakfast buffet place. We all got some Spanish tortillas (which were pretty good) and some little sandwiches. We then wandered around some more and finally returned to the hotel where we bummed around on the couches waiting for our rooms to be ready. We just weren’t in the mood to wander anymore until we were all settled in.
We finally were able to enter our rooms at noon. The rooms were so nice. Very modern with a mahogany, black, white, and red theme. Our rooms were equipped with desk, desk table, nice beds (although Shana’s and mine were on wheels and constantly shifted), comfy pillows, and a flat screen TV with cable…which could only mean one thing…Mtv! Yesssss. Everyone napped a bit, but I stayed up and studied this “what to do in Barcelona” book provided by the hotel. It was huuuuge and I literally studied that thing. There is so much to do in Barcelona! It was overwhelming. I figured out some main attractions. Soon Shana woke up and we watched a buttload of “My Super Sweet 16” which I have missed oh so much…despite the annoying German subtitles…and the commercials in German. Oh well. After a good hour and a half the parents came to the room and we planned our next moves for the day. We decided to walk to the street called Diagonal (which literally runs diagonally with the end of las Ramblas) and walk towards Sagrada Familia, the infamous Gaudí church. The main thing that I wanted to check out in Barcelona was all of the famous Gaudí architecture. He’s so unique and I’ve always wanted to see his work in person. It’s so interesting—his architecture is art nouveau and is all from the 19th-20th century—a huge change from the old, 12th century architecture I’m used to down in Andalucía. Supposedly there was a lot of Gaudí architecture in that area that we could check out on the way to one of Gaudí’s most renowned masterpieces.
On the way we passed a lot of really neat architecture—so modern and unique and different from anything that I had ever seen. We caught a couple Gaudí buildings, but nothing too impressive. We passed a famous building (not Gaudí) that I had read about in the book the hotel gave us, so we entered. It’s called The Asia House, and the interior is a neo-Asian modernist architectural fusion. It’s pretty awesome. We went to all of the levels, saw a cool photo exhibit about the people of the Philippines, a cool slideshow, and such. It was a good introduction to what Barcelona would be all about: the modernist influence. We then walked some more (we walked for awhile, man). We passed la Pedrera, one of Gaudí’s most famous apartment buildings, but decided to see it on the way back. We were hungry, so we stopped for some quick sandwiches after spotting the tips of la Sagrada Familia. After eating and exiting the little café, we couldn’t find the church. We had seen it, then it suddenly disappeared. It was frustrating. We consulted the map a bunch of times, wandered around, and after a good fifteen minutes finally spotted it again and walked towards it. We were there in another ten minutes.
Next to la Sagrada Familia sits a large park where stupid kids were setting off loud firecrackers. Ugh. That was annoying. We got to the line and found out that with my International Student ID card I could get in for a really reduced rate…too bad I brought my USevilla ID and not my other ID…I mean, I never use my ISICard. Ugh. So entrance to the church was really pricey. It was okay, though, because the church itself is pretty damned impressive. The sucky part is that it’s still under construction (it’s still incomplete, even since construction began on it in the early 20th century!). However, it’s impressive. Gaudí is so awesome because he incorporates influences of nature in his architecture, so there’s a resonant likeness of the limbs, roots, and branches of leafless trees which make up the main structure of the church. It’s a neo-gothic-turned modernist cathedral. Really impressive. It cost money to ride the elevator to the top, so figuring that it wasn’t too high up, we decided to walk the spiral staircase all the way to the top. Well, it was a long, rough journey, especially in such a narrow space. It was hell, actually, and coincidentally. We had to take periodic breaks. By the time we reached the top I was dripping in sweat. It was disgusting. But the view was awesome! Not only did we get a great view of Barcelona, but also of the details of the cathedral: the fruit-topped columns, the little mosaiqued towers, the hymns inscribed on the structure, the modernist statue depictions of Jesus and the Holy Family, etc. It was great. Actually, the walk down was the worse. I stayed behind with Mom while she took pictures, so we got caught behind this really slow kid who was little and walked one step at a time. Walking down in such a hot, closed space in a constant spiral was making me dizzy and claustrophobic. The walk down was now the most difficult because I started feeling like I was going to suffocate. It was terrible. I’ve never had such an intense feeling of claustrophobia…and I’m not really claustrophobic! I mean, I don’t really enjoy crowds, but it never affects me too badly. Now it did. And this kid would not speed up. I just wanted out. Now. I was moving with such haste against his slow pace that I accidentally kicked him a couple times. Oops. Finally we got out and I needed air. I kind of felt like I was having a hard time breathing. I had to sit outside and breath deeply for a bit and drink some water. After about fifteen minutes I was calm, cool, and my sweat had all dried (I was gross). So we went downstairs to the Gaudí museum which was pretty large and extremely fascinating. That’s where I learned all about how he takes direct influence from nature in his work. So amazing. I respect his work. A lot. My mom, particularly, fell in love with his work. Yeah, he’s pretty awesome. At around 7pm we finally headed out. We walked to la Pedrera, which took about 15-20 minutes. Our legs were killing us, we were so exhausted from all of the walking. The past week was finally catching up with us. Once we got to the famous apartment building it was about 7:30, and they wouldn’t let us in. Although it closed at 8, the last elevator went up at 7:30 and we had just missed it. We were a bit disappointed, but no big deal because we had two more days…and it was so close to our hotel.
So we walked back to the NH, washed up a bit, settled, rested, then headed out to dinner. We decided to go to the Port Olympic for dinner which is a strip of bars, clubs, and restaurants along the Mediterranean. Mom had read about it before coming to Spain and was all about going. I was excited. We decided to try out the Metro system of Barcelona. Sigh, the Metro…so many European memories. We went to the Metro stop near our hotel on Gran Vía. Across from the stop were 2 famous Gaudí apartments that I had wanted to see, so this was a treat. We got to snap a few photos. That’s what was so nice about Barcelona: at first I was pretty intimidated by all that there was to see, and afraid that we wouldn’t get to see everything that there was to see. Nevertheless, all of the main sights are close to each other, and somehow we ended up seeing most of them without even meaning to intentionally. Pretty nice. Anyways, at the Metro stop we ended up having to walk around a lot underground to get to the line we wanted to take. It was hot and stuffy and kind of irritating, but no biggy. After a 20 minute fun-filled Metro experience we got off at our stop. Once out in the open air we had no idea which way to go. We followed our instincts and walked in one direction hoping that it was the way to the beach. We were unsure, so I asked some cops walking by; turns out we were going in the opposite direction. Luckily we hadn’t walked too far, so we turned around and walked back over 2 parking structures and past a casino. Woooohooo. It was a nice walk, though, because on the way to the beach we saw a bunch of buildings and statues that were in the book the hotel gave me, so I got to inadvertently see some more sights. After about 15 minutes we were at the beach. As I had expected, it was nothing special. All of the beaches in Spain that I have seen are alright, nothing too impressive, and this was just another one of those. The cool part was that it was on the Mediterranean, and there was a really nice, swanky strip of bars and restaurants. One of the bars was filled with yelling people watching the World Cup (of course). After walking up and down the strip a bunch of times to find a restaurant (some of them had beds and couches on which one could eat!) we finally settled on a cute place that wasn’t full and gave us a good outdoor view of the Sea. For some reason I was in the mood for just some simple pasta that night (me with my exotic Spanish palette) and ordered spaghetti with tomato sauce. That’s it. We all got an appetizer platter of Iberian meats and cheeses. Our waiter was new and kept messing up and forgetting us, especially with Shana’s food. He was very apologetic about it. While eating a bunch of men kept approaching us from the street and urged us to buy roses. The first time we said no politely, but by the 5th guy it was quite out-of-hand and we started giving them attitude and laughing in their faces. They didn’t seem quite pleased about our snootiness, but whatever. Enough is enough, leave us alone! Once the sun had gone down it had gotten cold out. After the meal we thought about going to the shore to feel the water (Mom had never touched the Mediterranean and wanted to say that she had), but it was cold and dark, so we just walked back to the Metro. We were all so exhausted, and my feet were killing my from a week’s worth of walking all around Spain in flip-flops. Oh well, c’est la vie. We grabbed the Metro back and walked back to the hotel. Shana and I discovered a top 40 channel that played the BEST music videos. I’m talking, almost up to Málaga’s standards. They played new music, like Shakira, then really old Christina Aguilera (“What a Girl Wants”), Whitney Houston, and also music from the 70’s and 80’s. It was AMAAAAZING. I stayed up blogging (at the nice desk the room supplied) and watching the music videos. Oh yeah, and I also took a shower. Which was amazing. BEST hotel shower. I was in there for so long. Gotta live it up. And that’s about it. Barcelona was really impressing me so far. Couldn’t wait to see what else it would have to offer!