We woke up Friday morning and it was raining outside :[ Emily and I went to the supermarket to get breakfast food, and came back stocked with corn flakes, Smacks, and orange juice. We were super loud coming in and screamed about how cheap everything was (and then an hour later when the neighbor we didn’t know we had came out of his room we felt pretty bad. But he’s from Australia and that’s cool!). BUT we had smacks so everything was okay.
Even though it was raining, we didn’t want to sit around all day and left in search of la Sagrada Familia. We had no idea where we were going, but we made a couple turns and then all the sudden it emerged right in front of us. La Sagrada Familia is a church designed by Gaudi. Apparently it’s been under construction for over 100 years and it’s not supposed to be finished until 2020 (I thought all the construction was just restoration until someone told me later that day). The church was HUGE. And even though Gaudi claims he got most of his inspiration from nature and trees and the shapes of leaves, I’m convinced he designed la Sagrada to resemble a drip castle. The inside was WAY cooler than I expected though .The ceilings were super high and he uses arcs and different shapes to create a very sacred atmosphere. The stained glass was stunning and the manipulation of light to illuminate the church was incredible. There were a ton of ovular windows on the ceiling all lined with strips of gold, so it looked like the ceiling sparkled when it was hit by the sun. The coolest part is that in 2,000 years when people come to see the Sagrada Familia as a historic monument, I can brag about how I was there when it was still being built (you can brag when you’re dead… right?)
After La Sagrada we went to meet up with Mo (he’s a guy from Tech who is studying in Barcelona). He was running late but he gave us the name of a Kebab… I’ve never had a kebob before and it was ABSOLUTELY delicious. And then he brought us churros with chocolate and they were SO good. He then led us on a tour of what he knew of the old city. I had a lot of fun because I LOVE roaming through cities, and it was cool to hear about the city from someone who had been living there for a while. We saw a couple of old churches, las ramblas, the beach, and the best churro shop in the world (we tried to come back the next day and couldn’t find it). Las Ramblas wasn’t what I expected – ramblas is technically just the name of a long street. I guess I just expected it to be this incredible street of coolness because we had studied it in Spanish, but it was just this long strip to the beach lined with designer shops and trees and a 4 story McDonalds. Mo’s favorite part of the city (and therefore one of mine) was the great community that was evident in the many random parks dispersed all throughout the city. There were constantly kids out playing and families socializing and it was so typical Spain.
Later that evening Mo took us to the top of a mountain that was on top of the Parque Guell and overlooked the entire city. The climb was like walking a giant, steeper freshman hill (with a set of escalators at the very top). But it was very worth it… we watched the sunset and the city light up and it was absolutely INCREDIBLE. We spent the rest of the night at the beach and got back to the hostel exhausted from an awesome day
WT Tip #10: Always bring a Ziploc bag and a plastic bag. The plastic bag to pack your shampoo and things, and a Ziploc bag so that you can bring your camera even if it’s raining.
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