March 12, 2010

¡Qué guay!

Our second day in Barcelona -what a glorious day!

We started the day with a breakfast in the hostel consisting of toast, jelly, a muffin, OJ, and cafe con leche. Not too shabby for $15 a night!

We whipped out our handy map, planned our route and flew out the door. With only 4 hours before our bus left for the Girona airport, we had to make the most of our time. It was so hard to pick only a few things to see in Barcelona because the city is filled with cool buildings, awesome parks, and totally crazy statues.

But with some suggestions from other travelers, we decided our first stop would be Parc Guell in the northern part of the city. It was designed my Gaudi to be a residential area. The idea never really caught on since nobody moved in, so they turned it into a public park instead. It's full of his crazy mosaic sculptures, buildings, and of course the world-famous bench!


Ron, Nick, Alissa, me and Harley sitting on the bench. What a fun group!

And does this look familiar?

If you are a girl between the ages of 13-30, are related to one, and/or are dating one, you should recognize this as one of the final runways of America's Next Top Model! Think CariDee in Cycle 7, if that helps jog your memory :)

So what do you do when you walk the path where the great Tyra Banks once strutted her stuff? You strut your stuff too, of course!



Even the ceilings were covered in mosaics! I love them all!



After buying a few Gaudi-themed souvenirs (I can't wait to give them out!), we headed to our next destination: La Sagrada Familia! This is considered Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece. It's been under construction since 1882 and is still not completed. It is scheduled to be completed in 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. But it will be consecrated by the Pope in November. We just missed it!


The cathedral is always surrounded by cranes and scaffolding. But even with all of the construction, it was seriously the coolest building I have ever seen. The outside reminded me of the droopy castles J and I used to make at the beach. The spires were covered with mosaics and the doorways were surrounded by these faceless saints and iconic scenes. ¡Qué guay! (How cool!)


Unfortunately we didn't have enough time take the tour inside so we settled for just seeing the outside. I'm already stoked to go back to Barcelona and see the whole thing, even if it has to be once it's finished in 2026! Any takers?

So we hopped back on the Metro, and headed to the bus station. When we popped our heads out of the metro station, we were so surprised to see SNOWFALL!!! And even though it wasn't anything close to real snowfall, it was frozen water and it was falling so I'm calling it snowfall! And it was the first time I have seen snow fall from the sky :)

We had an hour to kill before the bus would leave so it's a good thing the Museum of Chocolate was so close! We didn't have time for a tour of that either but we did get to enjoy some delicious hot chocolate, Spanish style!

Hello, beautiful. Get in my belly, please. I love that the chocolate here is so rich and thick that you are forced to take tiny sips with a spoon. It gives you more time to enjoy your chocolate-bar-in-liquid-form!

And just like that, our time in Barcelona was over. We definitely managed to make the most of our 22 hours in the city but it was nowhere near enough time. It is now top on my list of places to visit when I'm rich and famous. It's the most unique and eclectic city I have ever seen. Not that I'm a world traveler by any means but I think it's a must-see for everyone!

As much as I loved every single minute in Barcelona, I was glad to be back home in Malaga. Even though I'm excited to go home, it's moments like this when I fall in love with Malaga all over again. I finally decided to spend my Semana Santa here in Malaga soaking up every ray of sun, getting lost in the labyrinth of streets, and discovering all four corners of the city. I can't wait!

Thank you all for following me on this crazy journey! I don't know about you, but this blog has made it a lot easier for me to keep my sanity and organize my thoughts in order to give you a (semi-)logical idea of what's going on 4500 miles away. I really hope you're enjoying it even half as much as I've enjoyed writing it!

A group of 8 of us are flying to Inglaterra (England) tomorrow night to visit London! We'll be there until Monday so I hope everyone has a great weekend! See you Monday :)

2 comments:

Beth said...

I'll go! I'll go! (when you're rich & famous, you can treat your old mama to a trip to Espana) :) Love you! Hope you have fun in London!

RobsWorld said...

blog me little one...how was London?...i need to live vicariously thruough someone and you're the one doing something cool now. kepp having fun...miss you and hope you're having a blast