Barcelona

My two cousins, Erika and Aleandra, and I traveled to Barcelona the first weekend in December. We were fortunate to stay with a friend of mine, Taylor, who I worked with when in Washington, DC. She had been in Barcelona studying Spanish all fall.

We all arrived Friday evening and met my friend in the center of Barcelona.  From there we dropped off our stuff and went to Las Ramblas.  Wandering through the streets of Barri Gotic, we stumbled upon a tapas restaurant and enjoyed a late dinner of multiple tapas and sangria at 11/12 at night.

Saturday morning all of us slept in awhile and then went to Parc Güell. I had been to Barcelona in Fall 2008, but Park Guell was one of the places I was not able to visit the previous time.  I really enjoyed this park as Gaudi is one of my favorite creative people.  This park was originally suppose to be a plan for a new sustainable community, which had fallen through, but plans for the park survived and is now a lovely peace of land overlooking parts of Barcelona.

Taylor and some of her new-found friends met up with my cousins and I and we all went up to Tibidabo with the help of a cogwheel train.  This mountain overlooks the city and has an amusement park and 2 churches, one on top of another.  The view is absolutely fantastic as you can see the sea stretch out in front of you.   I had also been there back in 2008 so it was nice to enjoy it again.

We then decided to go the famous market off of Las Ramblas. I love all the fruits, vegetables, meats and candy.  Taylor recommended that we try some of the fresh juices, which were amazing...could go from some right now (will just have to make do with some store-bought pineapple-guava juice).  We also passed by a bakery that sold some churros so we enjoyed a fully of bag of that...so good! ^_^

Barcelona also has their own version of the Christmas market, which mostly consists of candy stands (these include mouth-watering ropes of sugar...have no idea what they are called) and supplies for nativity stands.  I really enjoyed looking at the nativity stands or what one can buy for it - everything has so much detail.  One tradition they have is to have at least one figurine popping a squat somewhere in your scene...it is quite funny actually.  Another common craft I saw was a log with 2 sticks for front legs and then a face on one side so it looks like a weird-form of a horse or something...no idea what the story behind that is. But they had a large built for the children so that they could take photos with it.

 Photo on left is the interior from November 2008 and on the right from December 2011

Sunday morning, Erika, Aleandra and I went to Sagrada Familia - the famous church Gaudi designed and is still being built.  I love this church, absolutely my favorite.  It was really cool to see the differences they have made in the 3 years since I had been there.  Previously the inside was still being finished up and now it is completely done and amazing. It feels like you are walking in a forest with the sunlight peeking through the leaves.

Currently they are working on all the towers - there will be 18 in all - 12 apostles, 4 evangelists, one for Virgin Mary and one for Jesus. The tentative date for completion is somewhere between 2020 and 2040...and I will definitely come back to view this church in all its glory. 

Barcelona is a wonderful city to visit and has so much to offer for all types of people, whether you want to party, try some good food, go shopping, see the sights, go to beach...the list goes on!  ^_^