Oh my Gaudi!

You certainly don’t need to look very hard to find a good time in Barcelona, or in any Spanish city we were soon to discover. A quick flight from Rome and a smooth hotel check-in found us soaking up the nightlife within a couple of hours of arrival! The night started off with a great bottle of Spanish wine and some tasty tapas. A Spanish tradition, the word tapa means lid, this comes from medieval times when innkeepers would put a little snack (lid) on top of the glass of beer or wine that the horsemen would drink. This “lid” was dual purpose, it kept the bugs out of the drinks and kept the horsemen from getting too loaded before setting out to the next village.
Tapas come in a huge range but you can almost always count on jamon (ham), octopus, fried sardines, and patatas bravas (potatoes with spicy sauce) being on the roster for any given place.
Cave-dwelling, volcano climbing, and sheltering from the rain for the previous couple of weeks, we were overdue for a night out! So with our full bellies we set out on an exploration of the many great little watering-holes that pepper the center of town. We ended up meeting a couple of ex-pats from New Jersey and Coventry who ever so kindly gave us a ton of insider tips on Barcelona and even augmented our tourist map to include their favourites! It was most entertaining to hear their stories of adapting to the Spanish lifestyle. Diane and Sandra if you happen to read this thanks for the great company, tips, and for pouring us into a taxi at the end of the night!

Armed with our revamped tourist map and a hangover, we were off to see the sights the following day. This is where I will have to exercise some self control and not go into a huge blabbering speel about Gaudi… we had been warned by our newfound friends that Barcelona might find us “Gaudied out”. In short, Gaudi was one of the masterminds behind the birth of the moderniste style of architecture that is seen all over Barcelona. To enter one of his creations is like walking through a dream, a hybrid between organic, nature inspired forms and Alice in Wonderland zaniness but not as gaudy as it sounds (pardon the pun). Every detail was carefully created right down to the banisters and window and door hardware which are molded perfectly to the grip of a human hand. It really is genius and can only be seen to be believed. Hopefully some of the pictures will help. The last and largest of Gaudi’s works is the Sagrada Familia church, which is still under construction 80 years after his death. Look at the picture of the ceiling, which Gaudi modelled after a forest. It is amazing how the columns

resemble tree trunks and the skylights mimic the way the light shines through the forest canopy. BRILLIANT!! Check out the photo album if you want to see more pics. Despite the warnings we gorged ourselves on Gaudi and miraculously we didn’t end up “Gaudied out”! Just in case you want some more professional pictures and info:
http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Antonio_Gaudi.html

We also managed to fit in visits to the Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso exhibits and of course, no visit to a city is complete without a market excursion! Not surprisingly, in such an artistic city, even the produce market is gorgeous! Perfectly ripe fruit is carefully arranged in pyramids and there are fresh juices in a multitude of different combinations- also contributing to the flashy display. We quickly learned that when window shopping at the market it is best to steer clear of the butcher stands… too many heads, still attached to animals and sometimes just heads on their own.

The only thing I didn’t like about Barcelona? Leaving! Oh what a perfect ending that would’ve been, but it just jogged my memory… leaving and pickpockets!
We actually witnessed an attempted pickpocket. We didn’t understand what was happening when we got on the metro and there was an older man yelling at a younger man and holding on to him. When the doors closed we saw the man’s wallet on the floor, I grabbed it and returned it to him and then each of the men just retreated to opposite sides of the train and stood there in silence until the thief could get off at the next stop… no more yelling or abuse, they didn’t even look at each other!?
On another occasion on the metro, our suspicions were raised when three people unnecessarily crowded us when there was space elsewhere. We later read that this is a common tactic for thieves, but fortunately we had held on tight to our belongings and the group exited at the next stop empty handed.
An overall positive experience in Barcelona, in fact it is one of our favourite cities so far and we look forward to returning.