barcelona

this is actually my second time in barcelona, but i was equally as excited to come again.  the first time i came when i was studying in france with a few lovely ladies during our toussaint holiday.  pert and i arrived super early in the morning (thank you night buses) and checked into our hostel before yet again, ditching our stuff to walk around.  there were a few people that were also in barcelona the same time as us that we had met during our travels so we planned to meet up.  however, as i've come to learn, not having a cell phone really makes things quite difficult.  we wandered around for a bit before returning to our hostel when we magically ran into chris!  we had met chris in seville and apparently he told us he'd be at our hostel at noon...i had no clue.

it was actually chris' last day and he hadn't seen parc guell yet so we headed up there with him.  one thing you should know is that barcelona is filled with antoni gaudi goodness. gaudi is one of the well-known architects from barcelona who had very whimsicle and grandiose buildings throughout thecity.  parc guell is an example of this.  it was supposed to be a rich housing community but since it wasn't affordable, the city then turned it into a public park instead.  i really enjoy his work so i had a great time wandering around.  the park is also higher up so it had some great views of the city.  you can see all the way to the ocean.

while we are on the topic of gaudi, we did a free gaudi walking tour which was really awesome.  we walked around to his different buildings and learned more about them.  basically what you need to understand is that he befriended guell who was his financier and friend who paid for majority of this extravagant buildings and eventually went bankrupt...i'll let you put two and two together.  anyway, we walked along to casa batllo and la pedrera before finally stopping at the sagrada familia.  

casa batllo

la pedrera

the sagrada familia is a basilica that has been in construction for over 120 years...and still has 30 to go...they estimate.  it is insane!  gaudi realized that this would not be completed in his lifetime so he left blueprints and drawings for future architects to finish his work.  the church is just amazing.  the structure is large and there is so much detail everywhere.  there are multiple facades around the church that tell the story of mary and jesus' life, etc.  the inside of the church was finally completed this last november so it was great to go in and take it all in.  gaudi was very inspired by nature (hence all the curvy lines in his architecture) and the inside of the church is no different.  you really do feel like you're in a forest when you're in there!  i really hope that this church is completed in my lifetime because i would love to come back and see the finished product.

we also spent a fair amount of time at the beach here.  the beach in barcelona is man made from when the olympics took place in barcelona.  they were very smart to do this because it definitely helps boost their tourism.  the beach is small and jam packed full of tourists and people yelling 'cerveza, beer, agua, cola' every ten seconds.


on our last day, we went to the picasso museum and took advantage of the free entry with it being the first sunday of the month.  thank you guidebook!  i really enjoyed this museum.  it laid out his artwork chronologically which was great because you could see how his art changed and came to be.  as a younger artist, picasso painted very realistic images while in school and gradually shifted to cubism.  this is what happens when you force a child to paint a certain way from a young age...let this be a lesson! haha.  one fact that you may or may not know is that picasso, is actually pablo's mother's maiden name.  pablo's father's last name was actually ruiz.  for quite some time, picasso signed his paintings pablo ruiz picasso before dropping the ruiz eventually because he was closer to his mother.  *knowledge bomb dropped* 


last but not least, barcelona is also known for its pickpockets!  everywhere we've been people have been warning us left and right about our stuff because there have been so many horror stories of people getting their bags stolen with money/passports/etc.  luckily we did not have any issues, but pert did save the day for an old man!  we passed through the turnstile and was waiting for kim when we saw an old man struggling to go through.  well these two pickpockets who were working together decided to take advantage, but had no clue pert was watching.  one guy tried to distract the old man and help him through the other was behind him trying to reach into his bag.  pert, on the other hand, and on the other side of the gate starts yelling at the guy!  the guy sees pert yelling at him, spits at him (but misses) and then takes off running because at that point the security officers are out with their dogs.  meanwhile, the old man literally has no clue what just happened because he is still trying to make it through the turnstile and had no clue that pert helped him out.  haha.


barcelona has also been bittersweet because it is my last travel destination with pert!  after traveling for two months, we are now going our separate ways.  his friend kim came over and met up with him to travel, and i wanted to make morocco work so we had to say our goodbyes here.  i am headed to madrid on my own and they will make their way in a few days, but at that point i will be headed to morocco!  pert and i had a crazy two months.  it felt like just yesterday we were starting off in vietnam...but that was almost two months ago!  while it was sad to say bye to him, i am also looking forward to traveling on my own.  i haven't actually done so before, so i'm looking forward to the experience!