25 October 2009
Buenas mañanas, Barcelona!! After a good night’s sleep, a hot shower, and some much needed hot food, K and I were revitalized and ready to take on Barcelona… so, we hopped on a bus tour around 9.00 and started snapping pictures…
The first stop was the Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Antoni Gaudí… it is still in the process of being built, proving Gaudí to be a master post-mortem =p
The sculptures were incredible… the whole structure is one big organic mass of movement and life… Every part of the design of La Sagrada Família is rich with Christian symbolism, as Gaudí intended the church to be the "last great sanctuary of Christendom". It had a staggering 18 tall towers, representing the Twelve Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and, Jesus Christ.
The façade is decorated with holy words, meant to be read by the passersby, and become an unwitting prayer by any who stopped to read the text… it was a bizarre sight to see, but once the reasoning was explained, there was something in me that found the whole scene oddly poetic… that such a modern, almost futuristic building could evoke such internal meditation without obscenity or ostentatious-ness… granted, the whole structure did look like a big drip-dry sandcastle, but it seemed so inspired by nature, that its eccentricity was organic, and wholly fascinating.The inside was beautiful… 
the nave seemed to be surrounded by large marble trees, 
reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss book (I swear, had the pilasters been coloured, I would have thought them to be stone truffula trees plucked right out of the Lorax!!!)
And the view from the top? 
Well, looking out over Barcelona on a clear day is something I never imagined I’d see… so that alone exceeded any expectations…
After hopping back onto the tour bus (after several hours in yet another church… you would think after having spent so much time in Italy that’d be the last thing K and I would want to do… haha) we started to get tired… it was incredible to see all of Barcelona, but it was truly exhausting… whirlwind sight-seeing tours are really not my thing… I much prefer say, living somewhere for three months and truly immersing myself in the culture to a three day tour captured more on film than in my heart… but, it was amazing…
We saw mount Tibidabo 
(anyone who watches Friends, yes it really does exist!! K and I could not stop laughing!!), the statue of Christopher Columbus, 
the marina, 
and even a sign for a store dedicated to a most un-Spanish favorite of mine :)
To round off our whirl-wind day, K and I went to a show… Opera and Flamenco… seriously? Could there be anything more perfect??? 
The band was incredible, and the dancers were beautiful… the singers were good, though I found it odd to hear French and Italian arias in a Flamenco show (I know, I know, Carmen is set in Spain… but how many operas are set in Seville??? And how many of them make actual allusions to Spanish culture??? That’s what I thought.)
How did we conclude our full day of Spanish culture?
With sangria… Sí, la bebida de los dioses!
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