mas Barca (lots of Gaudi)

So Barcelona is the home of the Catalan language, the late Antoni Gaudi and all his architecture and some pretty wicked nights out. We went out in search of all things neat and exciting and were met with everything we could hope for. Despite the heat, hordes and hordes of people queued and waited for Barca's myriad tourist attractions. When faced with queues or the hostel, we opted for the queues.

Over the course of two days we managed to get very, very lost in the Barcelona metro system, which is a testament to the level of my lack of directionality. But we did manage to see lots of the city, including Gaudi, bypassing the wait time by just taking pictures outside:0)

Casa Mila in the Eixample District, about a five minute walk from our hostel
Casa Mila upon closer inspection. The queue to go up was roughly forty-five minutes long. Summer's a bad time to visit Barcelona
some more Gaudi architecture randomly dispersed in the city
La Seu, Barri Gotic cathedral, covered in scaffolding


Parc Guell
In order to get to Parc Guell, which Gaudi also designed and constructed between 1900-1914, you have to climb a series of 400 stairs, escalators and hills. There are signs pointing in contrary directions and lots of fat, heat exhausted tourists languishing along the way. We kept on going. First glimpses didn't disappoint:

And close up, it was like staring at Hansel and Gretel's house on crack.

It was unreal. The park was originally part of a housing site that was rather unsuccessful. Instead, Gaudi turned it into a park with panoramic views of Barcelona. There's a rather uninspiring museum mid-park, where very self-important eastern european tourists took rather ridiculous photos of themselves. Otherwise, there was a whole lot of picture taking and ice cream eating.











Sagrada Familia
So when we arrived, the Sagrada Familia was also covered in scaffolding, the queue was at least 1.5 hours long and the entrace fees were something like 14 euro. We opted out and instead circled the premises. Gaudi spent much of his time at the end of his life working on this project. When he died in 1926 (he was hit by a tram), only a quarter of the project was complete. Due to things like money and civil war, construction on the project ground to a halt for many years. The projected actual finish date now lies some time in 2026.







The End
We ended our stay in Barcelona with paella and tapas in the Barri Gotic, followed by some minor pub hopping.
the Irish Pub lured us in with tickets for free shots. upon closer inspection, said shots were 'sin alcohol', which I will also leave to your imagination to translate.

We woke up the next morning, donned our luggage and bid a two fingered adieu to Rambla y Catalunya Hostel. Tasha went in search of juice, and I had a sublimely transcendental moment in a tapas bar where I ordered espresso and a bocadillo, read El Pais and got mistaken for a local. The bus encounter was slightly better this time around--we each had our own row of seats in the eight-hour wind through the Basque Country in search of Santander.

Ending thoughts: Barcelona, sheer brilliance.