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Published: August 12th 2014
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Well, when you've only got 2 days and a bit in a city, I see no better way to explore it than to take a few tours. So, we took two 2.5 hour tours today. The first was a walking tour of Barcelona. By Barcelona, I mean the old Gothic Quarter: the classic, original heart and home of the city, where the first churches, castles, and houses were built. Barcelona has an amazing and rich history, and I fully suggest every person reading this not only reads about it themselves, but also suggests that everyone they know reads it. Since I fully expect you to read about it yourself, I will give you the briefest of synopses here: it was founded by either Hercules' crew or the Carthaginians (take your pick); it entertained a golden age for 2 centuries in the middle ages, then messed up by not sponsoring Columbus and ended up in repression until the 1800s.
The second tour we took, which was with the same super-enthusiastic Scottish tour guide, discussed Gaudí and modernism. We visited many of his most famous works here, including Güell Park, Casa Batlló, and of course, La Sagrada Familia. Many pictures are attached.
See August 10th for Casa Batlló, as well.
We then bought tickets to go inside La Sagrada Familia, which was drop. dead. gorgeous. I can say nothing more about it, simply because I do not possess the necessary vocabulary to fully describe the effect. Inside there was a guided audio tour, which we didn't do, but you could use the stops to more or less get the effect anyway. There was also a museum underneath that housed a lot of early models and sketches by Gaudí. The only facade by his design was the Nativity, unfortunately. In the Spanish Civil War, his plans and models were destroyed, so they are working now from their best guesses at what he wanted.
By the end of all of this, we were obviously exhausted. This wasn't helped by the fact that I went for a run in the morning, in which I accidentally found Barcelona's Arc de Triomf, and got lost behind the zoo. It did, however, feel much more familiar to me than Sylt: yet again, high temperatures and humidity. Perhaps tomorrow we'll go to the beach to try to get cooled off a bit.
After La Segrada Familia, we came back to the hostel, where I finished off and sent in one of my essays. The other will follow it today, and then I will truly be done with my Dialogue. To celebrate finishing that one, we went to a sketchy back-alley restaurant in the Gothic Quarter that probably had the best paella anyone has ever created. We also got sangria from cava instead of red wine...interestingly sweet, but I'd suggest sticking to the wine option for anyone who plans a trip to Spain. After that, we went to a bar that apparently specializes in mojitos, and we were not disappointed. On opening the menu, you see (as far as I can remember): Original, Absinthe, Rose Water, Cookie, Passion Fruit, Strawberry, Watermelon, Mango, Melon, Green Apple, Chocolate, Raspberry, and at least 5 other flavors. We quite obviously had not the time, the money, nor the tolerance to try every single one, but what those we did try were absolutely delicious.
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