Dates: November 24 - November 28
We were so lucky to have discovered Vueling Airlines, where we scored $35 flights to Barcelona and saved ourselves hours on a train! The only catch? A 15-kilo weight restriction on our luggage (that's about 33 pounds). Miraculously, though, we made it under this weight limit and got on the plane without having to pay extra fees. What we weren't prepared for were the very small seats. Instead of a weight restriction, there should have been a height restriction! Check it out - Teresa's knees are jammed up against the seat in front of her.
Instead of staying in a hotel in Barcelona, we rented an apartment in Barceloneta, the fishing/gypsy village near the beach. We were excited to have a kitchen and a washing machine and to stay there like locals. But we got a little nervous when the taxi turned down a very narrow street with laundry hanging out every window. And we were even more nervous when he dropped us off in front of number 15 and no one was there to meet us!
Eventually a man showed up with our keys and led us up a very dark stairwell into our tiny but adorably decorated apartment. He assured us that the neighborhood was safe, and that we didn't have to worry, even after he told us that the downstairs door did not have a lock (he had only given us one key).
You could literally stand in the middle of the kitchen, which included a small fridge, microwave, range, sink, and washing machine, and touch all four walls without moving. It was a marvel of utilizing small spaces! And the hot water tank was good for about 5 minutes of a hot shower. But we loved being able to wash our clothes and hang them out just like our neighbors did.
So after getting settled, we set off looking for Las Ramblas, the main pedestrian walkway through Barcelona. We knew we were close but spent a little bit of time walking in the wrong direction before we finally found the Columbus statue at the beginning of the street. The brilliant
Rick Steves (or, as we called him, Ricardo) noted that you could actually take a tiny elevator up to the top of the tower, which we vowed to do the next day.
Walking down Las Ramblas, we encountered one of my favorite things: human statues! I love these, I remember being so fascinated with them as a child.
We decided to get a glass of vino tinto and people watch for a while, and found ourselves across from the WORST human statue I have ever seen. This guy could not stand still for even 5 seconds. And every couple of minutes he would get down off his box to smoke a cigarette or wander around and talk to his fellow statues while they desperately tried to ignore him.
After a while, we started to feel kind of sorry for him though. His high school counselor obviously had steered him in a very wrong direction during career counseling!
We decided that if we were human statues, this would be our pose:
After a lovely dinner we decided to go to bed early so we would be fresh for a full day of sightseeing the next day. But on the way home we thought we should pop into
Bar Leo, our "local" across from our apartment. As we walked into the crowded and not-at-all-tourist-friendly bar, we felt clearly out of place. It was filled with loud locals that obviously knew each other. We sipped our beers and looked around, a little scared, until Leo herself came and, via gestures, indicated that we should join a group of boys that were sitting in the back of the bar.
These locals spoke virtually no English, but through alcohol combined with pointing and gesturing, we were able to communicate somewhat. Another thing that helped was my little blank book, which allowed us to point to things and have them write down the word.
Here you can see that one of our new friends, Oscar, has given us 4 critical pieces of information:
Mediana - a large beer, Quinto, a small beer, his phone number, and Rueben = gay.
Ah, yes, the international language of homophobia (Rueben was not gay). It was remarkable, though, their ability to conjugate "he is beddy beddy [very very] gay," "he was beddy beddy gay yesterday," "he will be beddy beddy gay tomorrow," and "he was always beddy beddy gay."
Mediana, Quinto, Mediana (we are quick studies!)
Our plans to go to bed early were derailed as we laughed with our new friends at our Local. Another thing we loved about
Bar Leo was the picture of the Moulin Rouge in the back, with the Virgin Mary smiling down on it. Ha!
Here we are at the end of the night with our new friends (and the dog Negrito!)
We bade our new friends goodnight and went back to apartment where we were alarmed to find our front door locked, despite our apartment liason assuring us that there was no key for the door. Thank goodness we had met our new friends at Bar Leo! We ran back to the bar and summoned them to come with us. These sweet boys rang every doorbell in the building (it was 2am) and finally convinced someone to let us in (and, like perfect gentlemen, wished us goodnight and left after we had finally gained access, I was not expecting that!). I honestly don't know what we would have done without them.
After that very late night we had to sleep in the next day. Once we finally woke up we got ready fast, because it was a beautiful day! Here is Teresa in our street.
We wanted to first turn left from our apartment instead of right as we had the night before, just to "see what's there." First we encountered a very sweet cat that reminded me of my Mouse. She was sitting, like a statue, in this spot, every time we passed.
And then - WOW! - we had not realized that our apartment was ONE BLOCK from the beautiful beach.
It was amazing and we wanted nothing more than to park ourselves on the sand with a good book but we had lots of things on our list to see! Before setting out toward the Picasso museum, we had lunch at a small restaurant by our apartment while we waited for our apartment manager to bring us the key to the outside door. We ate outside and watched families, children, and dogs play in the plaza before us.
The Picasso museum is located in the Barri Gothic - the Gothic Quarter, a gorgeous neighborhood with small and wind-y streets with little artsy shops everywhere.
The museum was very cool (Picasso is one of my favorite artists). No pictures, sorry! I especially enjoyed the room dedicated to Picasso's study of Velasquez's Las Meninas, which we had just seen in Madrid at The Prado.
After the museum we did more wandering and more getting lost. We were looking for a big cathedral (which we somehow walked around for hours without finding, a feat in itself as it is huge!) and the 4 Cats, where Picasso and his friends spent all their time eating, drinking, and debating. It was a bit expensive, but worth it.
While walking through the Barri Gothic after dinner we came upon the most beautiful and decadent candy shops, with candy so beautiful it was a shame to eat it.
We also saw a familiar name!
After a long day we found ourselves back at Bar Leo, where our new friends were there and had brought home videos to show us of their band and their neighborhood festival (and if you didn't click the link above, DO - it is one of the videos the boys showed us with a very young Leo in many of the pictures). It was great. We wanted to buy their drinks in thanks for their help getting in the apartment the previous night but they wouldn't allow it. In fact, the boys and Leo didn't let us buy one drink the whole time we were there! We felt very welcome :)
If this day was all about Picasso, the next day was all about Gaudi. In the morning we first stopped for a Cafe Con Leche.
It was another gorgeous sunny day!
Then we took the tiny elevator up to the top of the Columbus statue. The elevator was so small that only 3 people fit in it (and it was a very tight fit!) At the top you could see a beautiful view of the city and the harbor. This is the view facing Las Ramblas.
And here you can see the harbor. We got a little spooked at the top of the tower, though, and came down as quickly as we could (we had to wait for a spot in the tiny and slow elevator)
While walking down Las Ramblas, we saw this cute caravan of little kids.
And we stopped in Las Bouqerias, a huge market off Las Ramblas.
We bought tickets for the Tourist Bus, which we heard was a good, cheap, and efficient way to get to all the Gaudi sights that were not within walking distance. The first thing we saw was Casa Mila, an apartment building that Gaudi designed.
And then the bus let us out by the Sagrada Familia. It was breathtaking. You can read about it
here, better than I can explain it. I was inspired by the vision of Gaudi and those that supported it, it is rare in our modern times for anyone to support and commit to a work of art and architecture that will not be completed in their lifetime. The church is scheduled to be completed in 2026, and Teresa and I vowed to come back to Barcelona to see it together when it's complete.
I'm not a religious person, but I think it's amazing how Gaudi was inspired by nature. His designs are meant to evoke shapes and structures found naturally. Standing in the main section of the church is meant to feel like standing in a forest, and it really does.
It's also cool to literally see the building under construction - here are pieces of the church, waiting to be added to some intricate design.
One of the stunning stained-glass walls:
The Nativity, outside the church, is the only portion of the church that was completed while Gaudi was alive, and features his signature 'melting wax' style.
On the other side of the exterior is another religious scene, featuring a grid of numbers, where all rows and columns (and other combos too) add up to 31, the age Jesus was when he died. How very Da Vinci Code!
Underneath the church is a museum and workshop where you can see the architects at work.
In the museum, you could also see Gaudi's unique technique for designing the building, using little bags full of sand as weights to create organic lines and shapes.
Here is a model of the finished church:
And the sandbag structure:
If you flip the image of the sandbag structure, you can see how closely it mirrors the lines of the church:
You can see this here, too, in some old photographs (so cool!):
After taking in as much of the Sagrada Familia as we could (and grabbing some falafels for lunch) we jumped back on the tourist bus to go to Park Guell, a gated community that Gaudi planned and lived in. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough support for this project so it was never finished but there was still plenty to see.
This is the entrance to Park Guell:
The area under the pillars was meant to be a market for the inhabitants of this community.
The columns captured rainwater from the pavilion above and fueled the fountains throughout the area. He was so ahead of his time, and very eco-conscious.
The pigeons had a great home in the park.
As we walked around, a little cat with two different colored eyes followed me around meowing. What a sweet thing, I wanted to take her home to our apartment :)
This is from the pavilion above the water-collecting columns:
And from this pavilion, Gaudi could see his beloved Sagrada Familia, which he dedicated the last 15 years of his life to.
There was a walkway that led to a walking path that was inspired by the perfect curve of a wave.
We took the walking path up to the top of the hill, where we had a great view of the city and also of a sign that perhaps, as tourists, we weren't quite as welcome as we thought we were.
Here I am at the top of the hill (the stairs wind around this structure exactly like a shell)
As we came down from our walk, the sun setting created the most amazing and eerie shadows.
After a long bus ride back to our 'hood, we walked down the Rambla again, and I couldn't help but giggle at the lighted signs above the street (yep. I'm 12)
We found a great restaurant full of art and with great food (but unfriendly waiters). Someone obviously had some anger to share over their job...
We stopped into Bar Leo one last time to say goodbye to our friends (and Leo gave us each necklaces, we really felt so welcomed and sad to leave!)
The next day, Sergio, the apartment manager, was so helpful. He carried our bags down and helped us get a taxi to take us to Girona, where our flight to Baden Baden was leaving from. Bye Sergio, bye Barcelona!
And here are Jules, Amy, my mom and me our second night at dinner. The waitress didn't know what to do with us. She just walked up, confused, and said "Four girls?"
The day of the wedding was hectic, with the girls heading into town to get flowers for our bouquets. The flower shop in Ocho Rios was a tiny little room in a sort of strip mall, and had a very limited selection of flowers. It was funny, in a land so lush with beautiful flowers and greenery, obviously it's fairly unheard of to actually BUY flowers but we had to as the resort had a strict 'no picking' policy. They were outrageously expensive but with our purchased flowers in addition to some illicit flower-gathering that Angel's Matron of Honor Katie did, she was able to put together some beautiful little bouquets for us.
Naughty girls!
Here are me and my mom
After all the partying we had to take a brief respite in our room
