Barcelona 2

So, after dinner Colin and I met up with some of the girls from the hostel and went out to a bar a few blocks away. The beer in Barcelona is cheap, and it was really fun getting to hear about everyone's travel experiences. We were super exhausted from all the walking so we went back to the hostel to relax. Our roommates made it back an hour after us and we all preceded to talk in the bedroom, and by talk I mean laugh because every one was pretty "tipsy." When we woke up the next day, all the rain was gone and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. After Colin FINALLY got out of bed (teasing!) we made it out to an even more impressing day!

Sculpture we walked by! I tried to figure out what it was for, but had no luck! If you know, let me know!

Damn. View from the top of Parc Guell.

Buddies!

Ahhh! The mysterious egg! More about this later.

Sangrada de Famillia by Gaudí. I'm upset that this is the only picture I took of it!!

Cathedral on top of the one hill we didn't climb. Hopefully Colin and Kyra did it this weekend and can tell me what on earth that building is!

Colin in the Gaudí cave. Giddy!

Close-up of the walls of the cave. What was so interesting was how it seemed like all of this could've been created by natural forces. I think Gaudí's genius lies in how he could manipulate nature and make it seem familiar, but also alien. Very strange!

Another one of Gaudí's trademarks is using broken ceramics. In some places he used a mix of traditional tiles broken into pieces and mosiaced onto benches. Very beautiful and, at about 100 years old, very avant garde.

Entrance to Parc Guell

Close-up of the waterfall

Feelin' like royalty! After we finished at Parc Guell, we walked back down the hill, caught the metro, and took it to what we thought was the beach. We ending up getting lost/finding a bunch of cool, empty places! I realized from this vacation that the best thing to do in a new city is just get lost. There's no way I could understand the culture in such a short amount of time, so I might as well just see what it's created, eh?

Barcelona has some strange/freakie playgrounds. This was a ladder to a slide that was made of ropes! Clearly, Colin and I had to have a pHoToSh0oT!!!1

YAYUH.

Colin meditating...

YAYUH (part deux)

Crazy pavillion! It was right by the public harbor and we couldn't tell what it was until we got next to it and realized that it was solar panels! Looks like something from Star Wars, eh?

Down by the water.

There were kids skate boarding on this weird wall thing, but I was too geeked out to take a picture. Instead, Colin and I ran up and down it 5 times and then I took a picture of him brooding.

Colin always says that I'm a lush, but this is photographic evidence of what Europe has done to mon petite nugget. Chicagoans, be afraid. You never know whose going to kick the windows of a Rob and Stucky now!

Barcelona was made for skateboarding. No guard rails and crazy architecture/parks. Sheriff, this one's for you.

I thought these boots had sentimental value before Europe. I don't know how I'll ever part with them now!

SO COOL! I think watching Spanish surfers made Colin and I want to quit life and move to Brazil. It was getting kinda dark out, so we decided to head back. On our way, we saw the aforemention egg and decided that we needed to figure out what it was...

...closer...

tah dah! The Torre Agbar, one of the most magnificent modern buildings in Barcelona and the home to the Barcelona water company (and the Barcelona water company only). Stunning, strange building. I hope the future of American architecture looks more like this marvel!

Back to the hostel! These were some of our roommates who were studying in Sweden. They were all reall nice and funny. Colin and I sat in on their cheese and wine party while we chugged Judas beer. Classy, huh?

Chelsea! One of my favorite people from Loyola is studying in Barcelona this semester. She was sweet enough to meet Colin and I for Paella and drinks! She speaks perfect Spanish and took us to an amazing bar called Soda- you must go if you're ever in Barcelona!

Ah! At last, the Paella from the restaurant. It was so delicious, though I may have liked the Tapas a bit more!

Barcelona souvenir! Wacky canvas shoes! BYE-CELONA

Barcelona 1

So, for Winter Break this year Colin and I headed to Barcelona, Spain. Before leaving, I truthfully had no idea what to expect. Though I had heard it was amazing, pretty much all of Europe is amazing and that wasn't enough to prepare me for the righteous week Colin and I had. We flew out of Charles de Gaulle on Tuesday afternoon and made it to the hostel in time to grab some beer before heading out. The hostel we stayed at in Barcelona was incredible and not very expensive. Every night, one of the guys who works at the hostel takes a group out to a bar and then a club in the area. Since the hostel was in the middle of downtown, that turned out be a very nice opportunity to see nightlife there. If you ever are in Barcelona, you must stay at Sant Jordi Barcelona- I kid you not, it was a perfect experience. Here are the pictures of our first full day in Barcelona!

Colin's first feature in a magazine!

This is a picture from the Barcelona Metro and, yes, those are bathrooms on the train.

Cathedral de Barcelona by Gaudi. This church and Sagra da Famillia were just unspeakably beautiful More detailed than most things in Paris, and unclassifiable in style. I guess one could described it as roughly art noveau, but his architecture is seriously like nothing else. I'm sure without Gaudi the architecture of Barcelona would be nothing like what it is today (and what it is today in Martian. Absolutely alien.)

Organ!

Cool roof on a market that Colin and I went through.

Gigantic chair! For all that booty in Barcelona!

So, Colin and I walked around one of the harbors where the sculpture of Christopher Columbus is. After we got bored with that, we decided to keep wandering. This hill(?) looked interesting so we headed in that direction.

Colin and the view from about a third of the way up. At this point, we started to "get" why people love Barcelona so much!

Just to give you an idea of the steepness of the hill... wasn't too bad, though it was wet outside.

I think this was the last little bit of the city up the hill. The cool thing about Barcelona is that the hills on each side of the city are parks so building up the sides is limited.

GAH! So beautiful!

Losing my mind at this point...

But wait! There's more!

Is this place real?

One of the only major cities I've been to with such an extensive amount of trees!

And what was at the top of the hill? Our first glimpse of the Atlantic from a European perspective and, y'know, a castle. Not a big deal!

Colin exploring the castle and exclaiming "Barcelona is soooo cool!"

Barcelona by night!

I was only in Barcelona for 3 days (Colin for 5) so I had to make sure we got Sangria, Tapas and Paellla. This night we had amazing Tapas and a classy Spanish restaurant and it wasn't even that expensive.

The only thing I cared about ordering on the menu... fried cuddlefish. Though Colin was a bit apprehensive at first, it was his favorite part of the meal. TOO delicious.

Spanish omlet that was cooked kinda like a pancake, though it was much thicker. Great, great, great!