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Published: November 2nd 2007
Park Guell Cross
Park Guell, Barcelona, Spain 30th Birthday In Barcelona…It Could Certainly Be Worse
I had some trepidations about coming to Barcelona. The first reason to be frightened, my birthday. After making fun of Kel for the last four months it was finally my time to cross the dreaded line into my 30s. The second reason was that Barcelona was the first place we were visiting on the whole trip that we had experienced on a previous trip to Europe a couple of years ago.
The first time you visit a place you tend to have a very romantic view of everything you see. By the time you get home, it’s almost as if everything you saw during your previous journey has been glossed over with a rosy film. Details tend to disappear and in their place you get a super-worldly view of places, food and people. Within weeks of your return from the journey you think that your recent holiday destination is, just possibly, the best place you’ve ever been.
With this in mind, I was worried that the rosy view I had of Barcelona was going to be dashed now that I’ve seen so much more of the world. As
La Sagrada Familia
La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain we drove south from Narbonne on the two plus hour journey into Spain, I got more and more nervous. Would Barce manage to hold up to expectations…
A Lazy, Restful, Almost Home-Like Stay With Mom and Dad The trip into Barcelona was easy but our first shock occurred when we figured out that my parents had arrived a day earlier than we thought they would. This meant that we were a day late which cost my parents a whole night of a very expensive hotel for absolutely nothing and caused my Mom to wonder if Kel and I had been hijacked on our way into town.
But, despite the screw up on our parts, Mom and Dad were excited to see us. This was the first time we had seen each other since the 3rd of June in Rome. As everyone would guess, my mom almost leapt into my arms to kiss and hug me. It’s always great to meet up with the people who love you no matter what you do. Parents are just great, aren’t they??
With five full days in a town that can be explored thoroughly in about three, we
Park Guell Dragon
Park Guell, Barcelona, Spain decided to take our time and be a bit lazy. Most morning involved meeting Dad for breakfast, letting Mom catch some zzz’s and then heading out into town around noon. With an open agenda during the day we stopped for lunch, sometimes had a light snack in the afternoon and always had a fabulous dinner in the late evening.
It’s interesting that now, with the trip winding down, and us getting a little tired we start to sprout roots easier than we did at the beginning. Now any time we spend more than three nights in the same hotel room it starts to feel like home. We find that we get lazier, spend more time in the room, spread our stuff out and treat our place more like an actual abode instead of a transient sleeping place.
So, after the first two nights in Barce, we had spread all over the room and started to get comfy. We miss having a place to call our own so much that we make a place ours in almost no time. The problem with this is that we find ourselves less active, more likely to lay around and almost sad to
DALI
Photo by Kelley Turner
from Figueres, Spain leave because we feel like we are home. Tomorrow we leave for South Africa which is incredibly exciting, but I find myself wanting to stay and sleep in, in my comfy hotel home. Strange huh?
Loving Gaudí Barcelona’s home town favorite person is definitely Antoni Gaudí. This architect/artist lived in Barcelona throughout his life (1852-1926) and designed, built or started some of the coolest building you’ll find in Barcelona and, many would contest, possibly the whole world. As you can see from my pictures, I love Gaudí’s work and spent a considerable amount of time taking pictures of his stuff.
Anyone who has visited Barcelona has run into something of Gaudi. More than any other artist Gaudí left his mark on Barcelona and is often emulated through architecture all over the city. His most famous sites are Park Guell, La Sagrada Familia, and Casa Mila. He has many other buildings around but these seem to be his top ones.
We spent one day dedicated to La Sagrada Familia, the unfinished Gaudí designed cathedral. Currently this cathedral, funded completely by public donations, is slated to be finished in 50 years. It seems that right now
Mosaic Sun
Park Guell, Barcelona, Spain it is about 50 percent done, but the 50 percent that’s been completed is pretty impressive. When done it will be the tallest building in Barcelona and will be seen from well out at sea. Its final top spire will be 500 meters (more that 1500 feet) tall. Check out the pictures and judge for yourself. It is definitely not what you’d consider traditional but will, when it’s done, be arguably the most unique church in the world.
We also dedicated a day to Park Guell further up in the hills surrounding the city. This area was designed by Gaudí to be a private gated community for wealthy home owners. Unfortunately it was a complete commercial flop but the mosaic and cake-caught-in-the-rain style, which is signature Gaudí, is very impressive. I just can’t get enough of it.
Kel Takes a Trip to Figueres I wasn’t all that interested in four hours of train rides but Kel really wanted to see something new. This lea her to take a day trip to Figueres, the home of the Dali museum, designed by Salvador Dali himself. Since Figueres is close to Dali’s home town it made a perfect
The Crucifixtion
La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain place to set up his end all and be all museum.
Cue Kel . . . . With a day left in Barcelona and Mike really interested in having some dedicated photo time, I decided that I’d find my own adventure. This is actually the first time in our whole trip that I’ve left the city we were in and headed out on my own. Figueres is about a 2 hour train ride north of Barcelona so it seemed reasonable for a day trip and doable by myself. I packed up my camera, grabbed my iPod and some magazines and headed for the train station with Mike. He waved me off and I was off to find my own adventure.
I really enjoy train rides because I can look out the window and really appreciate the landscape going by. You can observe all sorts of things about a country while looking out a train window , far more than you often see in just walking around a major city. When I got to Figueres, I took my time walking to the museum and stopped for lunch in a big square in the sunshine. It’s rare - especially this
Creature Fountain
Park Guell, Barcelona, Spain year - that I eat a meal alone in a restaurant and it’s enjoyable to just order/eat at your own pace and be alone with your thoughts. Quite relaxing all around.
The Dali museum, dedicated to Salvador Dali and his uniquely Surrealist artistic style, is both a showplace for his artworks and a piece of art itself. From the outside, a large classic building topped with giant eggs along the roof and strange statues in the square outside, you can start to see what will follow in the exhibitions. The museum is really an experience more than an observation. Here’s a couple of his more interesting pieces shown there: a car in the central courtyard that rains
inside the car when you put a quarter in it, a giant hologram of Abraham Lincoln that was easily the size of a large cinema movie screen, an arrangement of giant lips and nose (like 5 feet long) and two paintings on the wall that look like the face of Mae West (?) when viewed from a ladder above through a stage curtain that looks like hair. Not your usual classic art pieces, but really interesting all the same. I
Slanted Column Dali's Portrait
The Column is slnted at about 80 degrees to create a perfect image.
Photo by Kelley Turner
From Figueres, Spain wandered a bit, took a couple of pictures and just enjoyed Dali’s unique blend of art and wit. Not stuff I’d want to hang in my house, but worth a visit to observe.
After my Surreal visit, I headed back to the train station to wait for my train back to Barcelona. I was not lucky enough to have no one sitting with me this time - I lucked out to have my own bench on the way down - but was instead joined by 3 teenage guys on their way to Barcelona too. We all plugged in our iPods and grooved to our own music for most of the way, with some breaks from them every now and again to check out girls that had gotten on the train at stops along the way. At one point I did giggle to myself as I looked at the guy’s iPod next to me and realized that he was listening to a song I had been rocking to only a minute earlier, “Feel Good Inc.” by the Gorillaz. Turns out fun music is a unifier everywhere!
Two hours later, I was “home” and glad to see Mike again. I
enjoyed a day to myself but realized how fun it is to have him with me as we see stuff together. It truly just isn’t the same without my sweetheart at my side!
Turning 30 Because I Have To These big milestone birthdays are a bit of a drag. I often feel torn between wanting them to be an extravaganza and letting them die away in obscurity. This one ended up being somewhere in the middle. It wasn’t an extravaganza but it certainly didn’t pass by without its fanfare.
My parents coming to see me was really great. You never quite realize how much you miss relatives and friends until you’ve been away for awhile. I was so excited to see them and it seemed like they were excited to see me too. My big B-Day present was a new Nikon lens which should help me on the up coming safari in South Africa. Expensive, cool and incredibly needed. I may never get a chance at a safari again, so it’s important to me to get the pictures right on the first try.
During the day, we didn’t really do anything all that special
Park Guell Entrance
Park Guell, Barcelona, Spain other than visit Park Guell (see above). Dinner made up for it though. The hotel had helped my Mom book a really nice restaurant which had exquisite food. On top of all that they were able to spontaneously come up with a little birthday candle celebration which made it all feel really special.
Now that we are leaving I’d have to say that Barcelona is not as magical as I once thought it was, but it’s still a great city. It easily makes my top ten European city list even if it’s no longer at the top. With it all said and done, I’m glad we came back even if it wasn’t as rosy as I used to think it was.
Well its time to sign off again. A special thanks to my parents for yet another wonderful week together. Its always fun to see Mom and Dad and get some good meals. We hope that everyone back home is doing wonderfully. We miss you all and thank you for reading!
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Amanda
non-member comment
pictures are great!
Did you take a class or something, or are you just improving as you go along? IF you don't mind... what kind of camera do you use? Thanks for posting all about your adventures and letting people with boring lives like me read about them!