Barcelona
Trip Start
Aug 29, 2008
1
21
31
Trip End
Sep 20, 2008
Barcelona,
Spain
Monday, September 15, 2008
so it was tough to really get a feel for it in the time we had.
On Sunday, we started out by lugging our bags to the bus station (the
stupid train station had no left luggage facility). En route we took
some more pictures of la sagrada familia . Awesome site.
We wanted to check out a few more sites in the city so we head back to
catalan plaza - this is where the rambles start. So we browsed a bit
in this area and roamed over to the cathedral. There was a service
going on, however, so we couldn't do a full tour. It was certainly
nice but it's hard to compare anything with the Vatican. The neat
thing is that there was a band outside playing music and people were
all dancing in these huge circles! Barcelona is truly all about having
fun no matter where you are in the city.
Unfortunately much of the shops are shut down on Sundays (darn
Catholics) but we still walked through many of the old winding
streets. The area around the Picasso museum had many more if the artsy
shops to go through, however. Overall, however, I think Sunday I'd
best reserved for the beach!
So that is where we headed next - and it was packed yet again! There
are beautiful people everywhere on Barcelona!! There are some cool
bars along the beach as well. We also came across this cool bridge
that went over the bay where there was a rather modern looking mall.
Barcelona does an awesome job of mixing the old with the new.
We passes the Columbus monument near the bay where there was a nice
antique market (our second of the day). We walked up the ramblas once
more where there was even more street markets - some really cool stuff
was for sale here as well.
Our last stop was to be park guell - located in the northern end of
the city. We took the bus (which took forever) right to the main gate.
The park was designed by Gaudi like many other places in the city and
the architecture was amazing. We first went up to the several vista
points which were made up of these odd rock formations - you have to see
to understand. Finally we did get to the main gaudi buildings and
sculptures which were really nest. They had several fountains and I
think it was possible to tour the house as well. We missed the longest
bench though! It was getting late!!
We then boarded an overcrowded, overpriced train from barcelona to
Paris. Not cool! But the old French dude was funny and we met another
backpacker too.
Barcelona was really awesome, I must say. There was so much I didn't
even get to see. And it's full of more diversity than most places we
went. From the beach to the parks to he architecture to the old town -
it was all unique. And even though they mostly don't speak English,
they are really gracious people. I will be back!
