Barcelona: la tierra de Gaudí

Day two in Barcelona:

We ate breakfast at our hotel then took our bus to la Plaza Catalunya to get out tickets for the tour buses. We could ride on the double decker tour buses to a bunch of different important places in Barcelona and get off whenever we wanted to explore, then get back on at the next stop. It was such a great way to see the city since we only really had one day to do everything in Barcelona, which is not even possible.

Carolina, Michelle, Kiersten and I on the bus:

First stop for me was the Picasso Museum. SO AWESOME! Seriously one of my favorite things I have seen in Spain. It was way cool to see his progression and how lots of his drawings and doodles or sketches were not very profound but yet I loved them. Also it was cool to see his version of Las Meninas and his different periods he went through.

Leigh, Annika, Me and Michelle:

an example of one of his doodles (I found out after this that you are not supposed to take pictures in the museum):

Here is Leigh and I with the master himself:

Then our little group of 6 girls went to find the beach. First we found this Christopher Columbus statue so we took a picture with it, then we turned the corner and found the HUGE statue of Christopher Columbus, but I was still happy with my picture from the little one :)

These bikes looked like they would be fun to ride along the beach.

Oh hey look, I am at the beach with the Mediterranean Sea...Sweet!!

Leigh and I were just so excited! We put of feet in the water and it felt so great. It was interesting to note that there were hardly any waves at all. 

Then we hopped back on the bus and rode to see La Sagrada Familia

BAM! There it is! It was way cool to see, but I wish that it were finished because then it would have been way cooler.

Then we got some lunch. We were blessed to find a place with a deal of a bocadillo and drink for 3 Euros. Here is Emily and I enjoying our bocadillos.

Then we went to Park Guell, which was also designed by Gaudí. This was one of my favorite things of the day. It was AMAZING! Gaudí was so imaginative and I love his architecture style. If he were still alive and if I were super rich, I would have him build me a park like this one :)

Then we went to La Pedrera, which is another museum designed by Gaudí. (hence the name of this post) This is the outside of the building, which is just cool in itself:

Then you climb the stairs to the roof and you see awesome things like this:

It was way cool to see. Inside they also had a room showing objects that he was inspired by and how he was really inspired by nature and organic shapes, which I love. After this museum, we walked by the houses that Gaudí designed and then walked back to las Ramblas to meet up with the group to go back to our hotel. You could definitely say that my feet were tired by the end of the day, but it was an awesome day. I saw so many cool and inspiring things.

Unfortunately our bus was over an hour late to get us then it got lost on the way to the hotel so we didn't eat dinner til about 11:30 PM. But yet again it was another huge meal of a salad, meat and potatoes, and dessert. Barcelona was way fun and I wish we could have spent a week there, but I loved seeing all of the things that we did!

¡Bienvenidos a Barcelona!

So after breakfast at the hotel and another four-hour drive, we arrived in Barcelona!! But our bus did have major troubles when we got to the city. It stalled and we were making this turn into a large intersection and everyone was looking at us, but it pulled over and luckily we were really close to where our tour was supposed to start. Also, in Barcelona they speak Catalán, which looks like a mix of italian and spanish, so that was interesting to see.

This is the cathedral in Barcelona, unfortunately it was under construction so it's not as pretty.

Then we continued to walk around the city and the guide would tell us information as we went. This plaza had bombs hit it, so the buildings remain with these marks to remind them of the people that were killed from the bombs. Also, I'm pretty sure that she said that Gaudi would often come here to go to church.

Barcelona is really pretty and has really cool narrow alleyways that I enjoyed.

I wanted to eat everything I saw in this window. It all looks so good!! The tartaleta de music is one of the pastries of Barcelona.

Then we went to this awesome market that I LOVED! All the food looked so fresh and pretty.

Then some of us went to hit up a gelato place we had spotted earlier on the tour. It was very delicious. I tried to recreate the chocolate coconut gelato that I ate in Italy by mixing the coconut and super dark chocolate. It was't quite the same, but it's the closest I've gotten to recreating that deliciousness :)

Kiersten, Leigh, Me and Carolina:

Then we walked around and looked at all of the shops. Barcelona is home to many designer stores and there is a ton of shopping. There is a fun, busy, city feel, but there were a lot more people speaking English than I expected. I bought some awesome vintage Spanish stamps from a market that I'm way excited about! They were 10 stamps for 1 Euro.

Then we met up as a group that night to take the bus to our hotel because we were staying about an hour out of the city. When we walked into the lobby I thought the hotel seemed nice, then they took us to our rooms which were out back and they were some of the sketchiest rooms I've ever stayed in. (I think they were worse than the ones we stayed at in NYC dad)! But despite the gross rooms, the dinners that they served us that were included in our stay were way good. They were three-course meals! First they brought us our a huge plate of pasta and bread and I thought that that was the dinner, but then they brought us chicken and potatoes and dessert as well. I was stuffed! And this was all at about 10:00 PM! Sometimes the eating schedule is way hard to get used to here, but I'm grateful for good food :)