19 Abril 2009
Last weekend, API went on a trip to Barcelona. We left pretty early Friday morning so I was tired but it was nice having it all organized for us. When we first got to the hotel, our rooms weren’t ready so instead of taking a nap like we had planned to, SJ and I wandered around the city. We went to a street that has 2 famous buildings by architect Antonio Gaudi. One is called La Casa Milá, aka La Pedrera because it is made of out stone. The other one is one of my favorite buildings. It’s called Casa Batlló and it’s meant to look like dragon skin because the patron saint of Barcelona is St. George, who is said to have killed a dragon. The colors on the building are beautiful and it’s so detailed – also, there are hardly any corners, all of the windows and doors have rounded edges, it is very cool and very unique. That night we had a bus tour around Barcelona with API to see some of the most famous sights. We went to Parque Guell (also by Gaudi) which was very pretty – all the mosaics on the main plaza are made from recycled pottery and tiles – he couldn’t use the regular mosaic style because of the curved surface. It was also cool to visit here because America’s Next Top Model had the final runway show there a few years ago and I remember watching it! We also went to the top of one of the hills that overlooks the city to take some pictures of the city and of the port but unfortunately it was raining pretty hard. We also saw the Olympic stadium and the Barcelona Fútbol Club Stadium. Then we visited La Sagrada Familia, a huge church that was designed and begun by Gaudi but he died before he could finish. It is still very far from being done but it is incredible to look at. One side represents the passion of Christ, and it’s a very modern style that you have to interpret the figures and symbols to understand the full meaning. The other side represents the birth of Jesus – it’s straight forward, right from the bible, and is very detailed and beautiful. So far there are 8 towers but 10 more have to be built – 12 for each apostle, 4 for the authors of the gospel, 1 for jesus and another for Mary. (The Sagrada Familia means Holy Family). However construction is very slow because it’s funded entirely on donations! Also, a lot of Gaudi’s original plans were lost during the Spanish civil war so it’s been difficult to continue like he had planned it. This was very cool to see though because it’s another thing I had learned a lot about in my high school Spanish class and seeing it in person was pretty unreal. That night, SJ and I walked around the city near our hotel and just enjoyed being in Barcelona.
The next day, Saturday, we got up and took a tour of the Palau de Musica (Palacio de Musica in Spanish – everything in Barcelona is in the regional dialect, Catalan, which I hate!), which was gorgeous! (and actually not designed by gaudi!) The theater inside is so beautiful – unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures but it was amazing. So much detail in the design with a lot of influence from nature. Repeated symbolism of the rose, another St. George symbol because the blood of the dragon supposedly turned into a red rose, which is now a symbol of Catalan nationalism. In the center of the theater is a huge glass structure, like a skylight from the ceiling except that it extends down into the theater (it’s so hard to explain!). It is made of out multicolored glass and lets in enough natural light to completely illuminate the theater during the day. There were also beautiful mosaics and designs, sculptures of nature, muses from all over the world, and famous musicians. We even got to watch the dress rehearsal for some sort of acrobatic show, it was very cool! SJ and I wanted to see a show there later that night but it was very expensive, even for the bad seats so we decided not to. After, we went to the Picasso museum, second most visited museum in Spain. I really enjoyed it, I didn’t realize how much I like some of picasso’s earlier works. I also really enjoyed his series of Meninas – Velazquez, another famous Spanish artist, has a very famous painting called Las Meninas. Picasso, as a tribute to Velazquez, did a series of his interpretations of Las Meninas, which was very interesting to see, maybe my favorite part of the museum. Then we walked along Las Ramblas, a famous street in Barcelona with a lot of street performers and little stands selling souvenirs and, of all things, pets – everything from turtles and fish, to chipmunks and bunnies, to chickens and ducks. There were a lot of interesting people to see, as well as a really cool, huge outdoor food market. We also went back to La Pedrera to take a tour inside (I wanted to go into Casa Batlló but it was more than twice as expensive!). The view from the roof was very cool and the way Gaudi built everything, with unique style but at the same time great function, is amazing. For example, these cool little courtyards within La Pedrera (originally built as apartments, some people still live there but parts of it are a museum now). The courtyards provide every single room in the building with natural light, even the bathrooms. And the cool towers on top are air vents or chimneys. Later that night, we went to this cool fountain show, with lights and music, with a cool guy from Costa Rica we had met earlier. He had been living in Barcelona for a few years and was very nice and offered to show us around. We saw some really cool views of the city at night and got some dinner, then headed back to the hotel for some sleep – we were exhausted from walking the entire day!
Sunday, our last day, we got up and headed down to the Cathedral because they do traditional Catalan dancing there on Sunday afternoons. The dancing was pretty boring but we found the coolest thing ever on the way there – a group of people building human castles on the street! Usually they only practice on certain nights but because this week is St. George’s day, they were performing in the street. It was SO cool! They literally build castles, like building a human pyramid, only way taller and with a lot more people. The ones at the top are little kids, like 6 years old, wearing helmets and they climb up everyone an then to come down, they just slide down the people like it’s a firemen’s pole! I have some really cool videos that I will upload. One of them they built from the bottom up, which was really neat to watch. And the last one didn’t go exactly as planned – watch and you’ll see what I mean! That was definitely my favorite part of the trip I think because I had seen a video about them in one of my classes and was amazed by it – it was even more amazing to see it in person, just on a random street! I was so excited we happened to run into it. Later we went into Santa Maria del Mar, a very pretty church, and got some delicious gelato. Then we walked over to this park because we had heard there was a cool market – and indeed there was! It was a big Earth Day fair/hippie market with tons of interesting booths of everything from NGO’s to vegetarian and animal rights organizations, to people selling food and jewelry and clothing from around the world, to massages and yoga. It was so cool to walk around and see so many interesting people and things, SJ and I spent a long time walking around there! Then unfortunately we had to leave – there was so much more we could have seen if there was more time! Although I wouldn’t want to live in Barcelona (too big of a city, very different culture, catalan, etc) it was a very interesting place to visit and I would recommend it to anyone, I think there’s something interesting for everyone. There is a mix of people from all over the world and the modernism architecture was definitely something different from anything I’ve seen so far in Spain. It was a very fun trip overall and it was nice having most of it organized by API but at the same time, having enough free time that you can choose what you want to do.
Videos of the human castles coming soon!
finally, a video of the human castles! I have 3 more coming, eventually
You are such an art expert!
ResponderEliminarIt definitely sounds like a cool city to visit.
And you were right, the castle video was crazy!