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| view of the city from in front of the MNAC (sea off to the right) |
- I had to leave the country before early December to renew my tourist visa
- I was meeting up with two friends from Carleton U. I haven't seen since 2008 and 2009 respectively
- I wanted to visit this beautiful, historic, famous city
- Lastly, I wanted to do a bit of shopping before going to Berlin (needed winter appropriate footwear!)
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| Dorit and I tried the cava our first night there |
I hadn't seen Dorit, who was my suitemate in Res at Carleton in my last year for a semester, since she finished her term abroad and when back to Israel. We've kept in touch over the years, and this was a perfect opportunity to meet up in an architect's (she's one) dream city. I'm planning on visiting her when I finish my internship.
Megan is currently interning in the Netherlands, but I hadn't seen her since I graduated Carleton in 2009 (or maybe at a Carleton-McGill game when Gill was still playing in fall 2009). We played on the Carleton women's rugby team, both lived in Res first year and love travelling.
This was a great opportunity to catch up with two fabulous friends!
Barcelona - living up to expectations
Everything magical and amazing I've heard about Barca is true. We lucked out with the weather - between 14 and 24 while we were there and we didn't get rained on while we toured the city. Kudos goes to Shiv, a friend living in Spain, for her great tips and general advice for things to visit while there.
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| mini-Carleton reunion (Park Guell)! |
Dorit and I rented a quiet apartment in Barri Gotic through airbnb, which was perfect. Our host also gave us lots of advice when he let us in Thursday evening. We spent the rest of the night wandering around the neighbourhood, which was the medieval city, and visiting the port (my first time on the Mediterranean!). The Barcelona Cathedral was beautiful at night, the narrow curving streets quaint, and the marina area calm but pretty.
Friday, Dorit and I travelled up to Montjuic Hill, then down past the Miro museum before going in the MNAC (national art museum of Catalonia) which was a palace and overlooks the city and Placa d'Espanya. We then grabbed a fast lunch in the Mercat St-Josef (Boqueria market) on Las Ramblas - seemingly along with every other tourist in the city. A free walking tour courtesy of Travel Bar gave us a good overview of the city's history, after which we met up with Megan before wandering back over to the Mercat Caterina (which we'd visited earlier) with its crazy, colourful roof.
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| the musicians at the flamenco show |
Supper in Placa Reial, followed by a half-hour flamenco show (not nearly long enough!) at Tarantos was very enjoyable. Spaniards (and Catalans) eat quite late in general. We tried the Tapas - patatas bravas, oxtail sandwich, salad; everything was good, including dessert and sangria! I don't think I would have realized that Flamenco shared so many roots with Arabic music if I hadn't been in Morocco all this time - the singing style is very similar to what is heard in North Africa or the Middle East. Very melodic and haunting, but not native to Catalonia.
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| the nativity facade of the Sagrada Familia, to be completed in the next 20 years |
Saturday, we met up bright and early and visited the Sagrada Familia just after it opened. We didn't have to wait to get in and it wasn't very crowded. I can't imagine being there in the summer. Needless to say, it is a masterpiece of modernism, combines several different styles and photos cannot do it justice - thought I tried with over a hundred on my camera. A true example of how Gaudi has left his imprint on the city, and was inspired by the natural world.
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| the pillars are modeled after a forest, the ceiling = the canopy |
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| Casa Batllo, another Gaudi creation - inspired by nature |
We then headed up to Gracia, where we wandered into a public awareness campaign to build a new school, around a local neighbourhood and had great tapas at a hole-in-the-wall. Walking down Passeig de Gracias afterwards we saw several examples of modernist architecture - La Pedrera, Casa Batllo, Casa Amatller, etc. Beautiful, whimsical buildings. A few hours of shopping followed (new leather boots- yay), then ate some more excellent food at a Catalan restaurant.
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| a bench in Park Guell |
Sunday we didn't have a lot of time before I had to head to the airport, so we headed up to Park Guell (via the outdoor escalators-definitely the way to go) and again got there before there were too many tourists. What a beautiful natural space; the mosaics were lovely. We spent the last bit of time in the Port/marina area before I had to run back to the apartment and then to the airport.
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| Beautiful blue-green Mediterranean sea! |
We definitely didn't see everything there is to visit, but I would put this city on everyone's must-see list for Europe in general. Can't wait to return one day and continue exploring. We were there just before some very important elections for the region (which has some autonomy from Spain, and a very strong independence movement [echoes of Quebec...] especially now that the economy is so poor). Actually arrived the day after the Europe-wide anti-austerity 14-N protests which brought out 1 million people in Barcelona alone, but no damage was obvious.
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