Final Day in Barca

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It was a great day today, my last full day in Barcelona. I was very inspired by the work of Antoni Gaudi.

After realizing how nice it is and how much time I had by waking up early yesterday instead of 10:30am, I woke up early today as well. I woke up around 8:30am and watched TV for about a half hour- the coverage of the earthquake and tsunami that had just happened within the hour in Japan, quite devastating.

I started planning out what I wanted to do today. I really wanted to go to the Dalí Musuem outside of Barcelona, which would be almost a 2 hour trainride. I think I'll save that for my next trip out here.

Today, I was going to focus on seeing more of Gaudi's work, specifically the Casa Batlló. It's actually a funny story.. At work in Chicago, a colleague of mine had loaded up photos and other images as screensaver images on this computer I was using. One the photos was the front façade of the Casa Batlló. I had always wondered what it was and while here in Barcelona, I saw it on a brochure along the way. I had to see it.

For breakfast, my hotel gives me a voucher for breakfast across the street at this bar restaurant. It was simply 2 bread rolls, a crossaint, 2 pieces of cheese, and 2 slices of bologna. Not that great, so afterwards I went next door to this pandulceria and picked up a chocolate pastry and an orange juice soda.

Now I was on my way. Before going to Casa Batlló, I continued down the street to the other building Gaudi designed that was less expensive to get into. I planned on going in there, but then as I stood there I thought how cool Casa Batlló might be and knew I would regret it if I didn't go there instead. So while I was outside the other place I found a bookstore and found a book called Beautiful Design for Living- it was a collection of products and furniture selected by a Spanish designer. It was a sweet book, and I had to have it, it just felt right. It was a good 30 euros, but well worth it.

I headed down to Casa Batlló just back down the street. I had an audio guide, which about 3/4 of the way through went to french, which was unfortunate. But I have to say, I was very inspired by the architecture and design.. and the thought that he put into the lighting, the allowance of natural light in each room of the building. I was very happy with my visit there.

In the evening, I went somewhere not on Las Ramblas to get some Paella.

Oh man, there are these loud Americans sitting at this restaurant I'm at, typing this up on my iPhone. They're so obnoxious, talking loudly with food in their mouths. They're 22 maybe 23 years old. I'm embarrassed to be American right now. As they were leaving, they knocked a big German beer glass off their table, shattering it on the floor. Just leave already..

I'm off tomorrow. Back to London. Time to work!

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