I left marseilles on a night train and woke up in the beautiful city of Barcelona. My journal contains a rather funny passport experience, in which I pray pretty hard to not get in trouble. It worked. Prayers work. I almost got into a lot of trouble, but the guy right in front of me was even more of a delinquent than me, so I got off scotch free!!
Barcelona is a magical, wonderful, happy, chill, awesome, artistic, metro, spiritual, beautiful, funny place. I loved every single thing about it. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking, and write quotes from my journal.
PAELLA!!! probably one of the yummiest dishes ever. "I decided to follow Shannon's orders and get some paella on La Rambla. I'm munching on some tapas now (cheese, an odd potato cake thing, and bread)...YAY paella is here!.... oh my gosh, this stuff is so good! No words describe the fantasticness that is my yummy paella. MMMMMmmm saffron, peppers, and chicken. Wow, I love it."
These were the tapas I just wrote about. Those were AWESOME! P.S. People watching on La Rambla is one of the funnest things ever.
Oh, La Sagrada Familia. Kelly, if we go to Barcelona, we are coming here on the first day, no doubt. LSF is a cathedral designed by Gaudi, and of all the cathedrals I went to, this was my 2nd favorite. Gaudi did so much and I loved it a lot. Especially the windows. He said, "The church will be luminous. Church of Harmonious light" Gaudi got it right. He used darker glass on the bottom and lighter on the top. The light streaming in had such a powerful effect. The pillars in the church are shaped like trees, so the branches arch out and form a very clever support. The feeling of the church is like you're outside, with the light coming through the windows like it falls through a thick tree grove - interspersed and and colorful. Lovely, lovely, lovely.
More houses by Gaudi. He was such a clever architect. I was fond of the house on the right, cause I loved the masks.
This is that house on the right at night. Doesn't it look demonic?!?!? I loved this effect. In the day it looks so friendly and benign, but at night I thought minions of hell could party here. Not sure if that's what they're going for, but that's what I got!
On La Rambla (a very touristy street!) are these people that dress up like statues and tourists give them money for their clever costumes. "These people sit there until someone else gets too close. Then, they blink or cough and freak out the poor unfortunate soul. It's hilarious. They are so real looking, I can't tell sometimes which are statues and which aren't!"
At the end of La Rambla is the Mediterranean Sea. I walked on the beach for a little while till I found a comfortable spot to relax and write in my journal. It was very peaceful.
On my last day in Barcelona I walked about 12 miles. At the end of the day I was in Park Guell, and I sat on these benches, next to the boganvilla, and listened to some artist play the spanish guitar for an hour. It was one of the most peaceful and lovely experiences of my life. I love spanish guitar, and I got to reflect on what an amazing opportunity travelling to Europe was and is. And rest my weary feet.
Some other silly quotes from my journal, during my time in BCN:
"I will never doubt Shannon's opinion again."
"Dear men of Europe, PLEASE STOP KISSING ME!"
"I'm so glad there are parrots in this park and not dumb pigeons."
"He asked me if I was alone and I promptly replied, NO. Then he promptly left me alone. I'm so grateful for white lies. YES, I'm grateful for LYING."
"Every country's Christmas market is different. Spain loves the greenery and Christmas plants."
"The sculpture on the Passion facade (of La Sagrada Familia) actually looks like bone. Like the texture of bone. Gaudi wanted this part of the Cathedral to show raw emotion of the event, and he got it."
"I LOVE it here!!"
