Viva Barcelona

Barcelona was our third stop on this European tour. Barcelona has the reputation of being one of the coolest cities in Europe, so we wanted to check it out. After a long day of traveling from Bruges, we finally made it to the center of Barcelona. We walked down La Rambla, the main avenue running down the Barcelona city center, with tons of cool shops lining both sides of the streets, a walkway of palm trees running down the middle, and lots of people walking and people-watching everywhere you look. The temperature was warm, probably in the upper 70s, which felt really good. The activity around this area, late into the night, reminds me a little of San Gil in Colombia, or even Medellin. It is just a fun atmosphere with people hanging out in Plaza Reial all night long, eating, drinking, and having a good time. It actually makes me want to be back in Colombia.

Two of the coolest things we saw in Barcelona were the Barcelona Cathedral and La Sagrada Familia. First, the Barcelona Cathedral was an impressive sight. It is a huge cathedral with several individual chapels inside it. Nothing really stood out about it, but it was still incredible to see. La Sagrada Familia however, was something that I will always remember. Designed by Antonio Gaudi, and started by Gaudi and still in the process of construction, it stands as an amazing mix of ideas and creativity. It was started in 1882, which is very recent for nearly any of the grand cathedrals of Europe. Its architecture, however, is very unique. This cathedral is one of my favorites, mostly because of how different it really is. Gaudi took many of his ideas from nature—the interior columns shaped like giant tree trunks, even with knots in them, the canopy of leaves serving as the ceiling, and the numerous different kinds of animals sculpted all over both the exterior and interior of the church. Gaudi, like myself, thought that nature showed us how to be perfect, and he just too the time and made the effort to learn some of its lessons. He wanted the cathedral to be a place where people could feel that they were worshipping in nature, not a dark house or old church. He wanted different kinds of people all to feel at home in his cathedral, and this really appealed to me. The outer designs, with one side featuring the passion story of Jesus, with much sadness and sorrow, to the other side showing the nativity story, with all of its joy and promise. The shapes and sculptures of the cathedral are not the well-defined, finely carved out ones that you will find on other grand cathedrals, but more sketched ideas and visions that let our imaginations fill in the gaps. It is one of the coolest and most impressive things I have ever seen, and it is amazing to think that it is still being constructed, and is planned to finish in about 20 more years. All present designs are based on Gaudi’s own notes and designs that he left behind after he died, with his idea of the grandest cathedral in the world still alive and breathing in Barcelona.

It really is amazing the amount of renovation and construction going on throughout Europe right now. It seems that with every major museum, cathedral, or other attraction we see, there is just as much if not more scaffolding associated with it. There is a great absence of quality photo opportunities of these sights right now because of the cranes, scaffolding, junk piles, and everything else that comes along with construction and renovation. It is too bad, but I guess that just forces us to use our imaginations. The scaffolding construction though is very impressive, but I wouldn’t want to be one of those guys working 300 feet up and dangling off a ledge, trying to touch up a little statue that was created 800 years ago.

The rest of our time in Barcelona was spent relaxing. We went down to the beach to get some sun, but found that the beach wasn’t much of a beach and the wind was a little strong. It was a little overcast, so we didn’t get much sun, but it was still interesting to see.

Our last night in Barcelona was spent hanging out with some of the local Catalonians. Okay, I will explain this because it is a little complicated. So think of Catalonia as a part of Spain that doesn’t really want to be a part of Spain. Most of the people think of themselves first as Catalonians, and second as Spanish. There is a building movement to create a Catalonian country, since the language is different (Catalonian is a mix of Spanish, French, and Italian, but it is difficult to understand for me, and even difficult in some cases for native Spanish people), the culture is very different, and there is a very distinct area of the country that this is confined to. A river (I forgot the name) is the southern border of this region, and the Catalonian influence stretches all the way into southern France. In fact, and I did not know this, there are even a few small villages in Sicily, Italy that are Catalonian, where Catalonian is the main language and Italian is secondary. That was very cool to discover. Okay, back to our last night in Barcelona. So we went down to the waterfront and saw a free concert with several rock bands from throughout Spain. After having fun listening to some good music, we joined some friends and went into a few local bars, far away from the tourist areas of town. We sampled leche de pantera (“Panther’s milk”), which is a sweet alcoholic drink that is rather tasty in my opinion. After a few bottles of that, along with two large servings of cabrales cheese (a locally made cheese that is very strong, but also incredibly delicious, especially when combined with alcohol!), we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. Despite having to catch an early bus the next morning to start a full day of traveling to Innsbruck, we managed to extend the night until after 3 in the morning, and then somehow wrestle ourselves out of bed and basically into the bus to the airport. It was a great day and exactly what I was hoping for, some time away from the tourist scene and getting into the authentic Barcelona experience, while learning some about the culture too. Well, adios Barcelona, but Germany and Austria are calling now.