Barcelona sightseeing

22.7 barcelona

Had breakkie at the balcony and skyped with Tom. I packed my stuff up and check out but left my bags at the reception to wonder around the city. Grabbed a map and decided to go see all the Gaudi stuff!

I saw:


Sagrada Família - which probably will never be ready. I did a walking tour later on this day, and our tour guide told us something about not having to pay any taxes if the church is in renovation and not completed or some stuff like that.



I chose not to go inside because of the MASSIVE queue (and the mass of tourists was also doing my head in).



I didn't mind though. Seeing Sagrada Família from the outside was impressive enough with its Gothic style and immense details.



I'm pretty sure Gaudi was a fan of tripping....



Like I mean, who puts FRUITS on their church...



Something ridiculous I saw on my trip to the supermarket to buy some lunch (bananas, of course). This is actually from the supermarket.... Whatta hell :D



Casa Milá



I would've liked to enter the building but I was too cheap to pay for the entrance fee (11 euros are you joking?! I have to eat too you know.. and pay for my hostel + train tickets) + again,  massive queue.



I did how ever go to the lobby and it was soo pretty and colorful!



Another building by Gaudi, Casa Battló



I wonder where Gaudi got his inspiration from.



Even the coke machine was designed with a Mosaic layout



Plaza Cataluña, if I remember correctly



After my own little walk around the city I headed to the Columbus Monument, where this free walking tour's meeting point was. Our tour guide was this nice Aussie chick who had interesting facts about the city. The monument is located at the lower end of La Rambla, where Christopher Columbus supposedly returned after his first American voyage. They wanted to build the monument of Christopher Columbus facing west with his arm stretched, pointing towards America. But since they were in a hurry to get the statue done, they failed at life, and C.C is actually pointing towards East.



Our tour guide also told us that Barcelona's most famous and expensive street, La Rambla was actually built on a sewage. "And nothing has changed - La Rambla is still full of shit". AGREE. So that's why we skipped that torturous street.



 

Our guide also told us something pretty interesting: There is this one plaza was famous for its drug scene. So instead of calling the plaza by its actual name (which I can't remember),the locals call it "Trippy Plaza"...



...The government wanted to solve the problem though and built a kids' play park in the middle of the plaza, because apparently junkie's have a moral dilemma about doing the their drugs next to kids. So, the plan worked. The amount of drug abuse decreased and therefore the gov is applying this method to other problem areas as well.



This is actually a sketch Picasso made on a napkin at a bar - and here it is, on the side of a building!



Palau Güell by Gaudi



After the tour I went to my hostel to get my bags and took a train to my new, cheaper hostel, which was a 10 minute train out of Barcelona's center.



The closest shops were supposedly 10 minutes away, according to the receptionist. ”Can’t be” I though to myself. Although our hostel ws located in the middle of nowhere on top of a hill, there where other hills around with a lot of houses, so I figured the peple here must eat too.Hungry and unwilling to pay another 3 euros for a train ride to get to a shop in the center, I left with my iPod and decided to find my way to a supermarket I predicted to exist somewhere. Luckily I saw some people, since there wasn’t really anyonje around, and asked direction to a supermarket with my poor Spannish. After 25 minutes of trecking up a hill I finally found it ! It was on top of the mountain and I could see the whole valley (?) from up there. I did my shopping, bought a bottle of wine and decided to treck up the next evening with my camera in order to take some photos.



When I was returnign to my hostel I saw a freaking wild boar ! I might’ve screamed 8D Came back, told in victory about my discovery (even the receptionist didn’t know a supermarket existed in a ’walking’ distance) and TRIED to eat the most disguisting pizza of my whol life. Didn’t happen. Was a bit hungry but luckily I had bought chocolate cookies....



It was a bit weird because my hostel had this stupid camp thing, I assume. So basically, 15-16-year-old kids runnign around, banging doors and screaming for no reason. Annoying az. PLUS everyone was Spannish and they were talking in either Spanish or catalan, so our hostel didn’t really have such a social atmosphere. Luckily there were three people from the States so I hung out with the a bit :)