My Soggy and Excellent Barcelona Weekend

Yes, it was unfortunately rainy and soggy my whole weekend in Barcelona with Summer and Molly, but that didn't stop us from having a good time! Barcelona is a beautiful, beachy city on the Mediterranean (we had to use our imaginations and pretend it was sunny), and much more touristy than Madrid- But that's because there is more to see! Of course there's tons of works by Gaudi, the famous Barcelonean architect. Luckily they are right smack in the middle of the city so we saw them on our first day!This is the Casa Batllo, or "Bone House", for obvious reasons. Like everything by Gaudi, it is truly unlike anything I've ever seen. It's also right on a really busy street, so we were just walking and then, BAM! there it was. It was odd, for it being a rainy weekend in Janurary/February, there were still lots of tourists. . . . . I was one of the many fools blocking the sidewalk trying to get a photo of this bad boy. I swear I will be much nicer to San Francisco tourists from now on!

Next, we walked to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's masterpiece. It's a huge cathedral that is still under construction, as it has been since 1887. They work off of Gaudi's blueprints, but, Fun Fact: lots of them were destroyed by anarchists during the Spanish Civil War, and the work that is not Gaudi's is pretty obvious. It's still amazing, however. Behold:
It looks like it's all drippy and melty and Gothic and . . . . Gaudy? I wonder if that's where the word came from since his work is pretty over the top. Anyone who finds out for me gets a Fun Fact point! Anyway, I've always wanted to see this, so it was a pretty big deal to me. We were also able to climb up to the top of one of the spires (looooong narrow spiral staircase), and get some pretty amazing views of the city and the Mediterranean:
You can see all the construction in progress. . . . Good thing I'm not afraid of heights! We found a place to eat in the downtown area, and, like I said, Barcelona is much more touristy and international than Madrid. On the menu they had pastas, meats, and . . . . . SUSHI! I had low expectations when I ordered it, but it was very delicious, my taste buds danced and sang. My sushi craving has been briefly satiated.

Fun Fact: The national language of Barcelona is actually Catalan, not Spanish. It's a strange bastard child of French and Spanish, and was actually very repressed during the Franco era, but is now flourishing. I was a little nervous about it since I don't speak a lick of Catalan, but everyone spoke Spanish, and almost everyone spoke English as well. They seem to cater to tourists a lot more in Barcelona-everyone was very patient and wanted to make sure we understood everything, and when we were walking around like morons looking at a map, locals often stopped to help. Madrid is very different- They have a "We speak Spanish, we're going to talk to you in Spanish and if you don't get it, too bad" kind of attitude, and no one has ever offered to help me in one of my pathetic Bust-Out-The-Map moments. But it's okay. I'm here to learn Spanish, so it's better they speak to me in Spanish, you know?

Day 2!
Of the four guide books we consulted, one of them had a two sentence blurb about a hearse museum. Um, AWESOME! We asked one of the girls that worked in the hostel about it and she had never heard of it, and she's from Barcelona. We did find it eventually, in the funeral home neighborhood in the basement of an unmarked building that is actually a funeral home itself. It was free to enter, and the security guard came down with us, unlocked the door, turned on the lights, waited for us while we looked around, and locked up and turned off the lights when we left. I take it they don't get a lot of visitors. We weren't allowed to take photos unfortunately, but it was SO COOL. It had hearses and funeral carriages from the 19th and 20th century that housed Spanish Royalty on their way to their final resting place. Some of them were ridiculously over the top, it almost seemed sacrilege, or just way too much effort for a dead person. My favorite was this one that was all white and enclosed in cut crystal- it reminded me of a hybrid of Cinderella's carriage and Snow White's glass coffin. But I love quirky little museums that no one knows about-sometimes they're better than seeing all the touristy obvious stuff. This was tied for my favorite thing we saw. My other favorite we saw afterward: the huge (est in Europe) outdoor market off of Las Ramblas.

The market is huge, bustling, close quarters, with everything edible imaginable: lovely colorful exotic fruits, every kind of olive you can imagine, vast arrays of stinky cheeses, every possible weird once living mammal
such as these skinned bunnies (there was also cow tongue, brains, pig feet, intestines, still twitching sea creatures, and lots of other stuff that initiates your gag reflex).Here's some of the prettier stuff the market has to offer.

Right next to the market is Las Ramblas, an outdoor shopping area that has touristy stuff like postcards, but also beautiful flower stands, exotic pets for sale like turtles and parrots, and incredible street performers that put the ones at Pier 39 to shame. Thay have amazing costumes and setups, and a lot of them are "sleeping" or hidden until you put a coin in their bucket, then they magically come to life for you!Here's one of the many street performers' "stage".

3rd Day! Last Day!
We went to Park Guell, a famous public park designed by: guess who? Gaudi! You guys are getting so smart. Anyway, it was super rainy, but that didn't stop the slew of tourists. It is a very beautiful park with men playing Spanish guitar for coins and vendors selling jewellry. I can only imagine what it's like on a beautiful sunny day, when you can actually sit on the world's longest park bench without your ass getting wet (I squatted above it, public restroom style) and have a picnic.
The entrance to the park.Me, squatting.
One of the two houses at the entrance of the park-they look like gingerbread houses-so cute!Gaudi is also famous for his mosaics- this is the ceiling of a columnar canopy in the park. All the musicians and vendors were in here.

We also walked around the Barri Gotic, or Gothic neighborhood, which had lots of really cool narrow, windy, stone streets and Gothic cathedrals that we went in, but unfortunately the rain made it kind of difficult to take photos.

I wish I could have stayed in this city longer-it has such a cool vibe and is more diverse than Madrid, which was something I was really missing. I'll have to come back in like, 30 years. Maybe then it will be sunny and the Sagrada Familia will be completed.

My next journey is to Morocco-I'm really excited! I want to go to Marrakech, but I think Molly wants to go to Casablanca, which is enticing since it's right on the water, but I've heard and researched that Marrakech has more to see and much more charm. Casablanca is just another big modern city, but who knows. So we'll see.

Til then,
Emily