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Published: November 23rd 2007
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La Rambla
The most famous street in all of Barcelona hello all! sorry for taking so long to update--especially about Barcelona! this should have been put up on the 9th...oops! a quick note on the city before i get into more details, i loved it. in my list of favorite spanish cities, it definately ranks first. (Madrid & Granada are tied for 2nd, and Segovia is 3rd) a have a little bit of history with the city as well. one summer, sometime in high school, i was eating some cereal and decided to turn on the tv and do some channel surfing (like you do). i stumbled across a travel channel (not sure if it was
the travel channel, but this was definately about traveling) and the city they were "traveling" to was Barcelona. out of curiousity (and having nothing better to do while eating my frosted flakes) i watched it and became fascinated. ever since watching that little episode i promised myself that one day i'd visit Barcelona and see it for myself. it took me until this year to get there, but i finally did it!
here's how i spent my time in Barcelona.
at 6am we left Segovia and started our 9 hour bus ride
St Josep Market
The St. Josep mercado--if you're looking for meat, veggies, fruit, or even candy this is the place to go. to Barcelona. it consisted of a lot of sleeping, reading, and talking. by 3pm we were in Barcelona! we got off the bus as fast as we could (9 hours is just too many to be in a bus) and followed Ricardo to our hotel. (some of you probably got a postcard from this hotel...not the best postcard of Barcelona, or at all, but it's the thought that counts, right?) we got our room assignments then dropped our things off in our rooms and had our 1st walk on the most famous street in Barcelona: la Rambla. a quick note on la Rambla, it very quickly became one of my favorite places of the city. i like everything about it, right down to the trees (which were actually the first thing i noticed).
anyway, a little bit about la Rambla. this street is looooong. because it's so long it's been unoffically divided into 4 sections: pets, flowers, artists, and shops. in the pet section you can find just about any animal you'd ever want as a pet. well, except those that are illegal. so no bengal tiger cubs, sorry! but you can find things like parrots, hamsters, and kittens.
Candles
Some candles in Barcelona's famous gothic cathedral at one point i even saw a chinchilla for sale. the flowers section is pretty self-explanitory, though like the pet section they have nearly every kind of flower imaginable ready to be sold. the artist section is full of just that: artists. here you can get anything from portrait of George Clooney to a beautiful painting of la Sagrada Familia (which you'll hear more about later) to a caracature of yourself. it's fun to watch the artists as they draw/paint. finally, there's the shops section. all little shops set up in a market style--perfect for buying souvenirs. throughout the whole street there are all kinds of street performers, ranging from human statues to Michael Jackson impersonators.
we followed la Rambla to the end which is marked by a canal to the Mediterranean and a column of Christopher Colombus pointing towards the New World. (I'm still not sure what Colombus has to do with Barcelona, my best guess is that he left from or arrived there from the Americas since it's such an important seaport.) we kept walking until we eventually found ourselves at a beach and got our first glimpse of the Mediterranean. and, being from the land-locked states
Geese in a Cathedral?
it's true, there are geese in the cathedral! 13 to be exact. they're to simbolize the age of the girl who died as a martyr for her catholic beliefs and for who the cathedral is named after that we are, we spent nearly 2 hours just playing in the sand and water. then we walked back to the hotel and watched the sunset over the canals on the way.
the next day we devoted almost entirely to Gaudí. which was totally ok with me, i'm a huge Gaudí fan--so much so that for my Culture of Spain class last year i wrote 10 pages on his cathedral la Sagrada Familia...and i could've written more. anyway, even though we did see a lot of his works, it didn't start out with them. instead a few of us decided to enjoy and take advantage of our close proximity to a beach, so we got up at 6am to catch the sunrise over the Mediterranean. it was beautiful. totally worth it, i hope the pictures do it a little bit of justice.
after the sun was offically up for the day, we met up with the group again and began our Gaudí day. we saw his most famous buildings, the Casa Batlló & the Casa Milá (aka la Pedrera). we continued by spending some time wandering around la Sagrada Familia (meaning "the Sacred Family" in english signifing the
Sunset
The beautiful sunset on our 1st day in Barcelona family of Jesus Mary & Joseph), possibly Gaudí's biggest undertaking during his life. the cathedral is still not finished, though it's under construction and should be finished...eventually. there's a bit of controversy surrounding the Sagrada Familia and it's construction. some believe that construction should be stopped immediately with the belief that, because Gaudí left no detailed plans on how to finish the cathedral, we don't know how Gaudí would have continued in building his master work. the other side of the debate says that, while it's true we don't have detailed plans on how to finish it, we know enough to have a good idea of what Gaudí would have done with the cathedral so as to fill in the little gaps that he did not leave in his blueprints. either way construction is going on today, however slowly.
we took a break from our Gaudí tour and took a scenic drive up Montjuic. from the top there's a great panoramic view of the city AND the Estadi Olimpic! you simply can't go to Barcelona without making a quick stop at the 1992 Olympic Stadium. it was this event, actually, that got Barcelona back on its feet, so to
Here comes the sun...do do do do...(think of the Beatles song)
The sunrise over the Mediterranean: does life get any better than this? speak. the city cleaned itself up and got organized for this event and ever since has been a great tourist spot. good work, Barcelona.
we picked up our Gaudí tour again by visiting the Parç Güell, a park named after a man who financed the park's construction and was designed by Gaudí. i loved spending time there, the little architectural elements are fun, it has just enough nature to make it a good park, and an a pretty good view of the city as well. if you ever find yourself in Barcelona, make sure to have lunch at the Parç Güell--if you're lucky maybe you can find some room to eat on the longest bench in the world!
day 3: not quite as early of a morning as the previous, but still pretty darn early considering we didn't have something as rewarding as a Mediterranean sunrise to get up and see. instead we went to the Museu Picasso and spent some time there. usually i'd be absolutely fine with this. i like my art. sometimes i even go so far as to say i love it. anyway, the idea of an entire museum devoted to Picasso's works got
la Sagrada Familia (fechada del Nacimiento)
Arguably Gaudí's greatest work: la Sagrada Familia. There are 2 sides/entrances: one is of Jesus's birth (Nacimiento) and the other of his death (Crucifixión). me excited and i was expecting good things from it. i was a little disappointed when i found out that the museum was relatively small and was mostly full of his earlier works (pre-blue period & cubism). the museum redeemed itself, though, by having a whole room devoted to Picasso's study of Velázquez's famous painting Las Meninas. so i left pretty happy.
on our way back to the hotel to start our free time we walked through a plaza and found a group of people participating in a traditional Cataluynan dance, the sardana. (check the photo for more information) it was fun to be able to watch, since it was one of the things that i saw on the travel show that sparked my interest in the first place. it's amazing the things i can remember from that single episode and yet i think i've forgotten everything i've ever learned about percentages and parts of grammar. memory is a weird thing.
anyway, it was a fun surprise. the rest of my freetime was spent on la Ramba, behind a camera taking pictures for my photography class. luckily the Rambla made it feel less like homework. but don't worry,
Panoramic view
Kaia and I in front of a panoramic view of Barcelona my friends and i (who spent their free time the same way since they're in photo. too) enjoyed Barcelona as soon as the light was too poor for photos.
last day: woke up to see Gaudí's Casas Milá and Batlló for the last time. then we wandered and enjoyed the Rambla one last time. then, back on the bus for 9 more hours!
back to Segovia again until the next adventure!
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Kristin
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I love it!
Hey Megan! I LOVE reading your blog...the photos are BEAUTIFUL and it's so fun to hear about your adventures! I <3 you!!! xxoo