Barcelona

We took our last trip of the semester to Barcelona last weekend. We took a Eurolines {the Greyhound of Europe} bus from Aix for only 25 euros per person. We left Aix at 1:00 on Friday and got to Barcelona at 10:00. I spent most of the ride reading this book aloud to Adam. We got to our hostel, which was probably the least pleasant one we've stayed in, and immediately went to sleep. On Saturday morning, we walked from our hostel to the Sagrada Familia. We saw Casa Mila, an apartment building designed by Gaudi, on the way there.

The Sagrada Familia was Gaudi's life work. It will eventually be a Catholic church, but right now it's the world's most visited construction site. Two of the facades have been completed, the passion facade on the left and the nativity facade on the right. When construction is completed, there will be eighteen towers, representing the twelve apostles, the four evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus Christ.

We took an elevator up to the top of one of the towers, where we saw an amazing view of Las Ramblas {the Champs-Elysees of Barcelona.} The tower really freaked me out because you could see all the way down to the bottom - ahh!

We walked through an exhibit about the church's history and then saw the inside. All you really see at the moment was scaffolding. The whole thing is supposed to be completed in 16 years, but most citizens of Barcelona really don't think that will happen. Apparently, the city decided to build a subway station right under the Sagrada Familia which is constantly weakening its foundation! After lunch, we headed over to Parc Guell. The main entrance to the park was also designed by Gaudi. {surprise, surprise!}

The view of the Sagrada Familia from Parc Guell. Thankfully, the city installed escalators to take people up to the top of this giant hill.

Here we are taking a break from sightseeing on the world's largest park bench.

After about an hour, we left the park and met up with some fellow English-speakers for another Fat Tire bike tour. We biked around the city for almost four hours and saw almost all the main sites. Some of my favorites were the fountain in the Parc de Cituadella {which smelled like honeysuckle} and the other Arc de Triomf {which we saw a little boy peeing on.} Barcelona is a city of contrast!

We ended the tour at Barceloneta Beach, built for the 1992 Olympics. The beach used to be all rocks, but they import sand every year from the Sahara. So I guess you could say we've technically stood on African soil!

After the bike tour, we met up with two of our friends from CEA, Jenni and Dylan, for tapas and sangria. The next morning, we went to Mass in Catalan {and didn't understand a word}, checked out the Picasso Museum, and had paella for lunch. Then we hopped on the bus for a long ride home, made worse by a few screaming children whose parents didn't bring anything to keep them occupied, but let them drink plenty of Coke. We had a great time in Barcelona, but we were sure happy to get back to Aix!