Barcelona: Part Three, Lots O' Gaudí

9:00AM March 20

I got up a little bit earlier on Friday, but many of the girls were long gone, as they'd wanted to spend a few more hours in the old city with Victoria, who was departing before the rest of us at noon that day. Jen and Marielle, along with Tryson and Jaimie, were still around, and they told me they planned to rejoin the other girls upon their return with Victoria. I thought I join up with that group, but I still had almost two hours to kill until they got back. In the intervening time I decided to visit La Pedrera, the apartment buildings up the street designed by Gaudí.

On the outside, the building melds into the rest of the block, both in terms of size and material, as the facade is still mostly concrete—dirtied by a century's worth of dust—complimented by wrought iron balconies. Gaudí was conscious of his surroundings, but it still exemplified his style, with naturalist-looking curves implemented into nearly every aspect of the exterior. The door looked more like a set of interwoven branches than anything, glass filling the gaps in the metal structure. Passing through it felt like entering the space below a willow tree, its long branches hanging down to create a cover, and once inside, I was transported into a new colorful forest-like expanse, devoid from the outside world.

Most of what can bee seen in this still-active apartment complex is a Gaudí exhibit in the attic space of the building. There, many more plaster models can be found of his major works, along with samples of some of the furniture he designed. What I found most fascinating though, were the various collections of fruits and vegetables, arranged to evoke the shapes which appear in Gaudí's work. Here it became ever more apparent how connected he was to his natural surroundings, even creating models of plants to fully grasp their structure. The attic itself was also quite a cool space, appearing more like a set of tunnels, or a wine cellar, with its arced brick ceilings.

Model of La Pedrera in the attic-museum


Gaudí model of a tree

After the museum portion, I ascended one of the spiral staircases to the roof terrace (top). This was one of the most awesome sights, as the whole roof had been turned into a sort of coral reef, with every chimney and staircase taking an oceanic form. Gaudí did not see these structures as obstructions to be hidden on the roof, but rather embraced and used them as the focal point to his design. Not only did all of the stacks have wind-swept forms, but the terrace floor also moved up and down, like a wave on the ocean. I can't imagine a better communal space for the apartment.

The roof terrace at La Pedrera





When reentering the buildings, I toured the top floor, where a sample room is still decorated as it might have been in 1912, when the first tenants moved in. Even though it is a mere seven-story building, this more realistic vision of Gaudí took six years to build. For comparison, the 102-story Empire State Building, constructed only twenty years later, took less than a year and a half. To me, this signals the amount of detail that went into the design. As it was an apartment, used by many residents, of varying tastes, over a long period of time, the interior was nothing of note, as he allowed each tenant to create their own homely space within his walls.

Inside an apartment at La Pedrera


Looking up through the center plaza at La Pedrera

I still had a bit of time before I had to meet the girls, so I went in search of authentic Spanish sausage. Before too long I found a nice place where I could eat some tapas choricitos at the bar. The miniature grilled links mad a great snack, and gave me another chance to try traditional spanish cuisine.

When I returned to the hostel, Tryson and Jaimie had left to rent bikes and pedal around by the beach. Jen and Marielle were still waiting for the other girls though, getting impatient to start the day as they took another twenty minutes or more before returning themselves. We all then headed off to La Boquería to pick up some items for a picnic. While we were there, I was curious to try pitahaya (right), an exotic many-seeded fruit that was quite prevalent at the market, so I got a pitahaya "zumo," another popular item at the market similar to a smoothie. It was pretty good, but a lot like melon, and I'm not a real fan of melon. The biggest problem was the beverage, although it sat on ice, was almost lukewarm, which didn't make for the most appetizing fruit juice. We picked up some bread, a bit of manchega and a Catalan cheese, and a link each of sweet and spicy cooked chorizo before taking the subway up to Park Güell.

I was so enamored by anything Gaudí had created, and less so by the city as a whole, that I had no problem going back to spend another afternoon at Park Güell. This time, I made sure we got off one stop earlier than I had the day before, so we wouldn't have to deal with all of the escalators. This stop was a little further from the station, but we immediately found signs pointing towards the park, up the hill, and I recognized the route from my walk back a day earlier.

The park was just as splendid the second time, and we quickly found a nice archway to picnic under in a part of the park I hadn't made it to the day before. We were treated to some great lute music during lunch, played a few feet away from us, resonating wonderfully through the artificial cavern. As expected, all of the food was really great, and after lunch, we headed out to the grand balcony at the top of the park. There, we all sat down, and before long we were each napping under the warm sun. It was another wonderful day in the park, and I'm so glad I went back.

Our lunch spot under the archway. The lutenist sits on the right side.


Gaudí's house from 1916-1926


Bubbles on the grand balcony


The bookstore at Park Güell

I did return to the hostel on the subway that day. When we got back, the girls started making plans to go clubbing that night. I had hoped to go see some flamenco, but I couldn't find anyone else interested in going to see the traditional Catalan music and dance with me, and I felt obliged to accompany them where they went. We ended up at a bar that reminded me a lot of picture I've seen of "The Cavern," the Liverpool club the Beatles frequently played at early in their career. It was dingy, and the brick walls arched overhead to form a ceiling as well. It had a great charm to it. The best part of the evening was when I struck up a conversation with a Spaniard, and I was able to hold it more or less in Spanish for ten minutes. It's been three years since I took Spanish in school, and I was so happy that I remembered enough to have a decent conversation. I felt like I knew enough to get by in Spain, and if I were to live there, it wouldn't take too long to become fluent.

The next morning I had one more destination I wanted to see before we departed: Casa Batlló. The house was two blocks from our hostel on Passeig de Gràcia, commissioned by a family of the same name in 1904. It was completed in 1907. Like everything else by Gaudí, the house was stunning Marielle had gotten to calling it the "rainbow" house, due to its colorful facade. As it was built with one family in mind, Gaudí's touches extended much further into the design than the facade.

At the top of the first staircase in Casa Batlló


The second floor of the elevator-stair room at the center of the house

Looking onto the back terrace


A hallway on the top floor

Looking down through the center of the house

Gaudí was not one to put art ahead of function, and in entering each room, it might have been easy to mistake it for any other house. The same basic elements were there, but in the details, Gaudí showed his true form, rarely using rectangular shapes at all. Everything from walls, to cabinets, to windows, to light fixtures had a certain curved natural quality to it. Even the wood itself appeared more tree-like than most wood paneling. Like a Frank Lloyd Wright design, it was clear that Gaudí was a part of the building process right down until the tenants finally moved in, and maybe even then after, looking after every aspect of the house. Even the chain-link fences along the back terrace had a natural charm to them.

The interior was so spectacular, I was a little disappointed by the roof terrace. He used similar concepts to La Pedrera for the chimneys and staircases, but the whole didn't flow quite as well. I believe the terrace was his place to experiment and show off on La Pedrera, so he really did it up, whereas, on Casa Batlló, it was just another aspect in the design of the whole house, so he did not focus on it as much. There was one standout feature though. In a small round room on the roof, he planted a mirrored ball at the center with water dripping over it. The only light in the room came from directly above the ball, so the effect of the dripping water was reflected right back onto the ceiling. It was quite ingenious. (See for yourself by watching the video below.)

The roof terrace



After Casa Batlló, I had a bout an hour's more time to kill before me met to check out at the hostel, so I walked around the old city one last time, again discovering new alleys and art galleries that I'd missed before.

Much like Rome, I found Barcelona to be a very flawed city with a great collection of interesting and historic sites. I was quite happy to be heading home to Florence. I don't regret going to Barcelona, as I had a great time, but Nice was definitely the more fun and relaxing part of the trip for me. That little taste of France and Spain piqued my interest in the two countries even more, and I hope to visit both much more extensively in the future.

High over the Spanish coast


Corsican mountains through the clouds


A wonderful little island in the Mediterranean

Barcelona: Part Two, Picasso & Park Güell

10:20PM March 19

On Thursday, most of the girls got up bright and early to see as much as they could of the city. I, along with Tryson and Jaimie, decided to use spring break as a chance to get more hours under the covers and sleep, waking up closer to 9:15. The two of them had gotten sidetracked on their way back to the hostel from La Sagrada Familia the day before and never reached the Picasso Museum, so that became our first destination. Our goal was to wander through the old city for awhile, eventually ending up at the museum, and then we would head up to Gaudí's Park Güell, well north of the city.

Tryson and Jaimie had not yet been to La Boquería, so I stopped back another time to let them tour around. I continued to find things that amazed me there, like a whole pig's head for 1.50 Euro (right). While they were browsing, I took the opportunity to get more acquainted with the few prepared food stands, which I had glossed over before. At one of these stands I discovered a bunch of fabulous looking pita sandwiches overflowing with peppers and onions. I instantly knew I had found lunch. Unfortunately, it didn't taste quite as good as it looked. The vegetables were all great, but the sandwich was centered around a piece of meat that was a bit dry.

We meandered through the old city for a long time, walking towards whatever intrigued us. We stopped in at least one gothic church, heard a lot of great street musicians (watch video below; these were the most interesting musicians I found), walked through the Plaza de la Constitución, and stumbled into another flea market outside the main cathedral of Barcelona. My favorite item there was a collection of American novels translated into Spanish, such as, Tom Sawyer and Gulliver’s Travels. At a certain point, we decided to make a concerted effort towards actually reaching the museum, and at that point it didn't take us too long to find it.



The great part of the museum was that all of his work was in chronological order, so you could watch the vast progression of his work. With each period of his life, the museum had excellent snippets of information to accompany the art. It was like an interactive Wikipedia experience, getting to view the art in person while learning about the man behind it. There were certainly some great pieces. One in particular that sticks out was a poster he drew for a cafe he frequented called "4 Gats" (left). It was interesting to see Picasso's work in this medium. Overall, I found the museum disappointing though because there was so little represented from the prime of his career. I imagine that most of those pieces are at the Guggenheim and various other galleries or peoples' private collections. There were about four pieces from his "blue" period at the beginning of the twentieth century. Then it basically skipped ahead to 1957, and there were two rooms full of his late-life works, which got to be too abstract for my taste. Tryson and Jaimie had similar reactions to the museum as I did, and we were all reminded of the greatness we'd missed out on in the museum when we stopped in the gift shop and saw all of his masterpieces in posters they were selling.

To get to Park Güell (top) we took the subway. They have a really great underground system in Barcelona, which is also well-used. The trains were coming on a very regular basis, and there were clocks above the tracks that also told how long, to the second, it would take for the next train to arrive. And just as promised, the train arrived about twenty seconds before the clocked time. As soon as we got out, there were plenty of signs directing us towards the park. That led us to a series of escalators to get us up the sizable hill which the park sat on. When we'd reached the top though, we were disappointed to find that the side entrance to the park was closed. We ended up having to walk down another hill to reach the front gate, which made our long climb, although largely aided by escalators, seem unnecessary. Upon reaching the park though, we were not at all disappointed.

As impressive as La Sagrada Familia was, I found Park Güell to be Gaudí's true masterpiece. It is not merely a park, but a vast expanse of mosaics, columns, sweeping stairwells, naturalistic fences, and sculpture. The expansiveness of the art was simply remarkable. To think that this could come from one man's vision is mind-boggling. It took the three of us about an hour to reach the top of the stairs some two-hundred feet from the entrance, as there was so much to see along the way up. We really relaxed and took it all in at a slow pace, enjoying every feature of the work. The mosaics reminded me a lot of Isaiah Zagar's work in South Philadelphia, but on a much grander scale. It was such a wonderful afternoon to be walking around the park, and our visit was probably my favorite part of my time in Barcelona.

Park Güell


The famous lizard at the center of the park


I got to see a model of this leaf pattern at La Sagrada Familia a day earlier


Jaimie at peace, dancing beneath the grand balcony.



The grand balcony


Tryson and Jaimie walking through the park


Tryson and Jaimie took the subway back to the hostel, but I thought it would be great to walk it back, getting a taste for many different parts of the city. It was a great experience, seeing it change from an up-and-coming artsy neighborhood, to a run-down district full of ten-story apartment buildings from the seventies, to a nicer neighborhood of seventies apartment buildings, followed by even finer structures with an old nineteenth century grandeur. By this point I'd reached the main boulevard, Passeig de Gràcia, which our hostel was located on. On our street I passed by two more notable Gaudí buildings: La Pedrera apartment building and Casa Batlló. His works stand out so prominently, with their brilliant forms echoing nature. Even the street benches in this district appeared to be a Gaudí design, as they were grand circular structures covered in a simple tiled mosaic.

Casa Batlló


Gaudí bench on Passeig de Gràcia


When I got back to the hostel, I joined the other girls, who were hoping to go find some paella for dinner. The place that Alex had read about in one of the guidebooks turned out to be a hotel though, so we wandered around for a while looking for any place that might have paella. We eventually did find another restaurant that served paella, a traditional Spanish dish of seasoned rice and seafood. The restaurant would only serve it in sizes big enough for two people though, and there were an odd number of us who wanted paella, so I ended up getting monkfish instead, as it was still fresh in my mind from La Boquería. My fish was grilled and quite tasty. Better than the fish though, was the side of potatoes and zucchini that came with it. I know monkfish is considered a real delicacy in some parts, but a simple dish done right, like my potatoes, is often superior to any delicacy.

Monkfish dinner

Barcelona: Part One, La Boqueria & La Sagrada Familia

5:45PM March 15

We could not check in at the second hostel until 11:00, so we dropped our bags off in the luggage room and planned to meet back at 11:00 to check in. Many of the girls were tired of Italian coffee, which comes in noticeably smaller portions, and were overwhelmed by the sight of Starbucks in Barcelona, so they went off to get a "venti" American brew. I happen to find the Italian coffee much better, myself, and was not particularly keen on going back to Starbucks, so I walked around with Kate and Brittany.

We didn't have any destination in mind; we just headed south, thinking we might make it to the water. At Placa Catalunya (top), the large square outside of City Hall, Kate chased the pigeons around for awhile, and we took a right down a large boulevard known as La Rambla. This street, I would later realize, is the real heart of Barcelona culture. It is always crowded: during the day, by tourists, art peddlers, pet vendors, news stands, pushers of all things FC Barcelona, and creepy people in costumes that don't even try to act like statues, but would rather scare you. At night, it remained crowded, but then by partying tourists, prostitutes, and plenty of men illegally selling canned beer. Off to one side, we stumbled into the most incredible farmers market I've ever been to: La Boqueria. There weren't very many prepared foods there, but it had the greatest selection of fresh produce, fish, nuts, candies, sausage, poultry, foie gras, eggs, spices, and various animal parts anywhere. I mostly scoped it out that first trip through the market, but Kate bought a small bag of really awesome cashews.

La Rambla

La Boqueria

Produce at La Boqueria




Fresh eggs


Spices


Meat & Sausage


Monkfish



We headed back to the hostel and met up with everybody else, including Tryson--the guy who sings a song with us every week at Caffe Artigiani--who was meeting us in Barcelona after spending the first few days of spring break in Lisbon, Madrid, and Valencia. After we checked in, I headed off with Yvette, Alex, and Jen, who also just wanted to wander. We ended up going the same direction as before and stopped in for a stroll around La Boqueria. I went back at least once every day I was in Barcelona. We next proceeded down La Rambla to the port. It wasn't particularly interesting. There was a shopping mall that did little more than obscure the view, so we turned around before long to meet up with everyone else at La Sagrada Familia.

The port

La Sagrada Familia is one of the world’s most famous churches, sitting at a geographical center in the Barcelona region in between the mountains and sea. In 1882, Antoni Gaudi was commissioned to build this church for L'Associacio Espiritual de Devots de Sant Josep. It was still a work in progress when he died in a freak car accident in 1926, and today the church is still under construction. Following his vision, the church may be finished around 2025. Who's to say if it will ever really be finished, though? Even more interesting, the city of Barcelona has set aside plots of land close to the Mediterranean for three more like churches once the original is finished. It costs a good bit to go in, so most of the people in our group decided they were content with just seeing the impressive exterior. I didn't know when I'd be back in Barcelona, if ever, and I was so taken by the structure from the first time I saw a picture of it years ago. I really had to go in, no matter that cost. Jaimie and Tryson were also quite interested and came along.

La Sagrada Familia, as seen from the east side.


Statues on the western facade




Ongoing construction




The canopy


Even unfinished, it is hard to describe just how grand the structure is. In fact, construction was going on while we were there. The defining characteristic of Gaudi's work is his connection to nature. All of his pillars are derived from the shapes of tree and flower trunks. Many of the curves mimic the swirling shapes of seashells, and as you walk through the massive cathedral and look up at the ceiling, you are not greeted by a simple roof, but a canopy, as might be created by a forest of trees. He wanted you to feel like you were not in a building, but within the wild, only sheltered from god by enough tree cover to protect you from the rain. It was truly majestic. In the basement, there is also a museum which reveals much of his thought process, including tons of plaster mock-ups for various parts of the cathedral, some of them big enough to walk through.


Above the east entrance


A walk-through plaster model


If completed, La Sagrada Familia will look something like this. The white is mostly the unfinished parts.


When the three of us felt content in leaving this masterwork, Jaimie and Tryson were ready to go check out the Picasso museum, but I was so overwhelmed by the church, I didn't feel I could appropriately handle Picasso at that point, so I went in search of their new famous skyscraper, the Torre al Agbar. It was a good walk eastwards from La Sagrada Familia, which is already a ways to the north and east of the city center. The tower stands as the pinnacle of a new business district still largely under construction. There was little to see but the tower itself, which was quite fascinating, using a brilliant combination of glass and vinyl siding, but all around were highways and lots full of dirt and thoroughly modern buildings on the way up. I went, saw the building up close, and then kept moving.

The Torre al Agbar

The under-construction business district

Now that I was walking a lot, my right foot started to singe with pain. Somehow the simple cut in my heel had triggered a twinge in my achilles. For the rest of the trip, my right achilles hurt when I walked for more than ten or twenty minutes. There was little I could do about it though, so I proceeded south towards the beach, as that was to the east of the port. After being on the Riviera for a few days, it was a bit disappointing. It appeared more like a port, with large cargo ships not far off, so I turned back into the city before too long.

The Barcelona beach

Barcelona has a certain dirty grunginess to it, much like American cities, and although aspects of it were really fabulous, like La Sagrada Familia and La Boqueria, I was not particularly taken by it until I found myself in old city. It reminded me a bit of Philadelphia, how all of a sudden, the streets got tinier and the buildings got older. It was really charming, reminding me a lot of Italy and its endless alleyways. There were more great old churches, art galleries, hip restaurants, and a generally trendy classy scene going on in that neighborhood. I did want to give my foot a rest though, so I didn't wander too much, just seeing whatever I could on the way back to the hostel.

Gothic church in the old city


Spanish alleyways


That night we went out to a restaurant that Jen and Alex had found in one of the tour books they'd purchased at the Dublin airport. We did get our real Spanish food that night, in the form of a variety of meat dishes. The girls got dishes ranging from tuna with pumpkin, to squid (ink and all), to a pork and potato-layered pie of sorts. I, myself, was feeling adventurous, so I went for the oxtail. It was really tasty, and several of the girls who were originally scared by the thought, really enjoyed it when I gave them a bite. For dessert I got a banana and white chocolate item, which turned out to be essentially a liquified fried banana drink. It was unexpected and not something I would have ordered if I understood the menu better, but it turned out to be a great capper on the meal.

None of us had slept much the night before, so we decided to retire early that evening after dinner.

A mysterious courtyard for a museum hidden in the old city


A grand thermoter on the side of this building at the south end of Placa Catalunya


Placa Catalunya just after sunset