Gaudi and Gay Pride

       While we left Sevilla early Saturday morning sad our time there had ended, we began our Eurotrip in Barcelona so we still had a few more days on the Iberian Peninsula with the comfort of being able to communicate. However, Spanish in Barcelona is much different because they speak Catalan, more of a derivative of French. Luckily most also speak Castellon (Spanish as we know it) so we had no trouble.  Hillary and I finally made it to our hostel and met up with John and Sarah! (my roommate at UNC) It was great to see her and get to spend some time together in Europe. We quickly set off to explore Barcelona, starting with the Museo de Picasso. Barcelona has an amazingly extensive collection of Picasso as he spent a good portion of his life there. The Museum includes his famous rendition of Velazquez's Las Meninas, which was really cool to see in person. It's so amazing to see original works by Picasso rather than the usual prints I’m used to. 

Velezquez's Version of Las Meninas

Picasso's Version of Las Meninas

       We next wandered around Barcelona attempting to get back to our hostel (maps really are useful, too bad we didn't have one) and ended up getting a bit lost. But on our way we ran into one of the most famous Gaudi houses - Casa Battlo. Gaudi was a Spanish architect best known for his Catalan Modernism. His work combines a love for nature and architecture, best displayed in his famous La Sagrada Familia, a cathedral located in Barcelona. We visited the Sagrada Familia first thing on Sunday, and it was absolutely unbelievable. The Cathedral is still under construction, and has been for over 130 years. The building is most definitely an architectural feat, estimated to be complete in 2020 as long as funding continues. The outside almost resembles the drip sand castles I would make as a child on the beach - with much more intricacy of course. The inside is astonishing. The stained glass is a sight to behold, as is the ceiling. Gaudi wanted his Sagrada Familia to closely resemble a forest inside and did so with the intricate columns and ceiling displays. It was extremely difficult to do the building justice with pictures.

Front of Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

       Back to Saturday afternoon, we found an amazing tapas bar with tons of tapas displayed to grab as you like and only 1 Euro 50 a piece. They were absolutely delicious, the best being a shrimp, bacon and cheese one. After the tapas, we walked circles and circles around our hostel with no map but finally made it back. We met some pretty cool people in the hostel we were staying in and ended up hanging out for a bit then taking the metro out to the beach to hang out for the night. 

       On Sunday, after visiting the Sagrada Familia as I mentioned before, we visited the famous Parc Güell, another one of Gaudi's masterpieces. The park features one of the longest bridges in the world, decorated of course in Gaudi's vibrant mosaic tiles. It was amazing and definitely a site worth seeing and spending some time browsing around.

Gaudi Bench

      After the long hike up to the park, we were starving and found ourselves yet again at the American classic - McDonalds. We're on a budget here so the dollar menus are a must sometimes. After dinner we hung out at the hostel again then decided to go to the Magic Fountain lights and music show. When we got to the fountain, we realized we had also found ourselves in the middle of Barcelona's gay pride festival. We found ourselves lost between drag queens, feather boas, and lots of rainbows and glitter. Clothing was optional, and needless to say it was an interesting experience. After hanging out for a while with the DJ playing and Colin feeling a bit uncomfortable, we went to different area of Barcelona for the rest of the night. 

      Unfortunately our time in Barcelona was a bit short since we had a train out to Paris at 9:00am Monday morning. I would definitely love to make it back to Barcelona one day and spend some more time discovering the beautiful city. I'm a bit sad to leave Spain, a place that became like a home to me over the past 7 weeks and I am also going to miss the ability to practice my Spanish every day. However, I am super excited to get to Paris and see the Eiffel tower and eat lots of Crepes! Look out for a Paris blog post soon with lots of pictures. 

Until then, Adios Spain and Bonjour France!