Barça...en un día

Before my spring break, I was waiting for my brother to arrive in Valencia while everyone else in the program left for their vacations. I was in Valencia with not that much to do, and everyone else had already been to Barcelona, so I decided to go alone for one day! However, doing Barcelona in 1 day is like doing Rome in 2 days. You really need 6 days in Rome and 3 days in Barcelona. But, being the expert traveler that I am, I managed to do everything I wanted to and get back to my train for Valencia (really it was Rick Steeves who helped me through it). Before pictures, an interesting note about the region of Catalunya: they don't really speak Spanish. Most of the people do know how to speak Spanish, but the official and common language is Catalan. It's the same where I live in Valencia, the people speak Valenciano, but the influence isn't as strong as it is in Catalunya. Anyway, here is a picture summary of my day:

This is me on the train, that left very early in the morning and took about 4 hours to get there.


This is Plaza de Catalunya.


This is Las Ramblas, a busy street that leads to the port. You can also see a large monument to Chrisopher Columbus, which is odd because he really didn't have anything special to do with Barcelona, only Spain in general.


This is the famous Sagrada Familia, which is incredibly large and beautiful, and the thing is, it isn't even finished yet! It was begun by architecht Gaudí in the early 20th century, but he died and then the Spanish Civil War happened and then the dictator Franco, so not much progress was made until recently. When it is finished, it will have 3 facades, respectively dedicated to the Nativity, the Passion, and the Resurrection. Also, the last tower will be 3 times bigger than the ones that are up there now.


Inside the Sagrada Familia, you can see Gaudí's inspiration from nature. He believed that God had already created perfection in nature and that all that man could do was try and imitate. Turns out it was a pretty good idea, because the church is beautiful. you can also see that it's incomplete, and probably won't be even in my lifetime.



This is in Parque Gruell, another of Gaudí. The park is on a very large hill, so I was very tired, but it was also really beautiful. At first it seems strange, but then walking around it begins to look like nature. He wanted his park to blend in with the surrounding nature, and it does.

This is me sitting in one of the benches at the park, with Rick Steeves, of course.

To end the day, I went to Casa Milá, another work of Gaudí. These used to be apartments, and again you can see how Gaudí was inspired by nature.


Between all of this, I also went to the Picasso Museum and two cathedrals, but I couldn't pictures so you'll just have to trust that they were cool as well. After Barcelona my feet were asking my why I had done what I did, but I still had the whole spring break ahead of me, so I had to rest up!