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Published: January 6th 2013
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So the time has come to leave Italy. It’s sad but true. I have been planning on embarking to Barcelona, Spain from Italy since my first month here. I have had such a brilliant time here with all of the amazing friends I have met. But I have to face the facts, I came out here to train to get a job teaching English so I can travel and be independent. And I am finding a large part of that is learning how to say goodbye gracefully. I am not ready to settle down so Barcelona, Here I Come!
I found that I can cheaply travel across the Mediterranean from Livorno, Italy to Barcelona, Spain, a 20 hour ride for the low fare of 30 euros (deck space). At the time I bought the tickets I had no idea what ‘deck space’ actually meant and getting into the cold November weather, this might not be the brightest idea. However, on my low budget this works out perfectly. Luckily Florence is an hour train trip to Livorno, the ONLY port in Italy that travels towards Barcelona directly. I am going with my friend Faren from Canada. We took the Italian course
together in Florence and she will be heading back to Toronto after our two week jaunt in Barcelona.
I learned quickly after the boat set out the reason the fall and winter seasons are the off-seasons for sailing. The winds are so strong that the water is choppy and this equals quite an intensely bumpy ride. While walking, it feels as if walking on the moon.
Barcelona is so different than what I saw in Florence. I found that the city was a lot more open and spacious, so it has this appearance of grandness. All of the buildings are so white and clean with the absence of scaffolding. In Florence and Rome the city is in a perpetual state of being cleaned, it’s constant.
If you think they speak Spanish in Spain, think again. Spain is divided by regional dialects all over the country. Barcelona is Catalonia, and as so they speak Catalan. It is very different than Spanish. They have taken the liberty of adding extra syllables and vowel sounds with an ever so slight lisp. The rumoured story of the origin of the lisp is believed to have come from a previous King. He
had a lisp and his ego declared that the language should now change. And thus, it was done.
Faren and I set ourselves up in a hostel, but to our surprise upon arriving they were all booked, despite our reservation, so we were put up across the street in their 4star hotel. Bonus.
We were on a mission starting the next day to see Antoni Gaudi, the key architect in Barcelona, the Gothic City.
GAUDI
What a man. He is like the Willy Wonka of the architectural world. He is a magician. Capable of bringing dreams into reality, joining spirit with nature. Nature, his biggest influence, is seen in the organic lines of his works which are also animal like, skeletal. Tim Burtonesque. Gaudi is able to combine the sumptuous organic, smooth and twisted world of nature with that of the geometric, mathmatical, reasoned and sound world of architecture.
The Temple of the Sagrada Familia, years, is currently being reconstructed from a fire set by an arsenist in April 2010 . . . .
This temple is a testament to heaven on earth. It is a veritable spiritual candyland. Sumptuous in design, gratifying to
the spirit and nourishment for the imagination. I can guarantee you have never seen anything like it before except maybe in nature. The outside is reminiscent of stalagtites of a cavern on one side and on the other a grand door way into the rib cage of a blue whale. But wait until you get inside and the walls open up to a high gothic ceiling echoing . . . and all around you are the colors of the rainbow. Shadows playing off of each other mimicking the rounded and sharp organic shapes of the church’s structure. Gaudi’s high beams and gothic archways mimick bones, his rafters mimick trees. Delightful. Gaudi is actually buried in a tomb underneath the Sagrada Familia. You can peer down onto it.
Next. Park Guell.
This park was commissioned by the Guell Family in 1900 and took 14 years to complete. Gaudi actually built his house in Park Guell and lived there for a few years. The park is covered with locals playing music on strange instruments called 'hangs' and tourists enjoying the amazing wonderland Gaudi designed. Art within nature, similar to Andy Goldsmith, but on a much more massive scale. The park
is home to Gaudi’s famous mosaic lizard. You can also walk a path all the way to the top of a hill that provides you with one of the best views of Barcelona by far, all along the Mediterranean, you can see everything.
Caso Batllo
This is one of the most interesting and unusual houses in Barcelona. The ediface resembles fish skeletons, smooth curves and sharp angles.
Barcelona would be a wonderful place to live. With it's relaxed beachy atmosphere it provides healthy artistic lifestyles to those residing within the brilliant and magical walls of this Gothic city.
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