Barcelona!!

Be warned: This is a super long post..longer than my Al-Hambra one!

I'm finally blogging about my next destination during my trip to Spain.. that is none other than the lovely and quirky.. BARCELONA!

After the last day of class (Friday), my friend Nav and I took the bus to Madrid..we booked a flight to Barcelona from Madrid at about 6.30am (i think?) on Saturday morning. We said our goodbyes to our housemates and new found friends, and departed the beautiful Salamanca. On the way to Madrid (last time onboard the efficient and comfy Avanza) I caught Ávila at night and I must say the view was breathtaking, it happened to quickly and I couldn't take the pic on time. Managed to catch the colourful sky though =)

Skyline - trust me if was so beautiful in real, the camera gives it no credit at all.

We spent the night at the airport, but I didn't get much sleep at all - THANKS to one lousy couple who sat opposite me..that lady had an annoying high pitched laugh..AND SHE KEPT LAUGHING SPASMODICALLY all through the night. I should really have told her something or smacked her head with a frozen halibut (wow that's so ICQ jaja) then there was also a chihuahua who kept barking.

So it was time to board, and we met with the chihuahua again. I love dogs, but I seriously wanted to wrangle his neck cuz his bark, just like that lady's, was so shrill..but then when the doggie saw me, he came right up to me and started wagging his tail..and all was well again.

We arrived in the International Airport of Barcelona in the morning and first things first - look for hte information centre! it wasn't open till 8am or something. We kept our luggage in the locker for the 2 days so we didn't have to carry much stuff. So we waited, and they were extremely helpful and we went to start our Barcelonian adventure! FYI, people converse in Catalan here. They use Spanish only for official use. They rather use English than Spanish here, as they believe that Catalan is the superior language. It's interesting, and it's hard to understand lol

International Airport of Barcelona - where horses are buff!
Work of Fernando Botero

We took the bus and it stopped us at Plaça de Catalunya. It was early, so the fountains weren't switched on yet.

Monument a Francesc Macia, honoring the former president of the Generalitat (the Catalan government).

After looking around, we took the bus to visit: Parc Guëll.


Initially this park was supposed to be made into a housing estate for the rich, but the project failed and the city acquired the land and changed it to a public park. Lucky us then =P The pavilions and the staircase was designed by Spain's very own Antonio Gaudí

This is the sight that will welcome you if you used the main entrance - a lizard/salamander greets you with a Trencadís (mosaic)decorated staircase.

The only lizard I would touch

According to Wiki, Gaudí incorporated many motifs of Catalan nationalism, and elements from religious mysticism and ancient poetry, into the Park. I remember reading somewhere where it said he also incorporated nature into it.

The main entrance - the lizard's behind

The 2 Pavilions - Very Hansel and Gretel like. One's an information centre and the other's a souvenior shop.

See the candy-like windows?

It's the largest bench in the world!


The surpentine-themed bench at Gran Placa Circular. It's so beautiful as there are various mosaic motifs all over. It was designed by Jujol. According to Wiki, it said that Gaudí used the shape of buttocks left by a naked workman sitting in wet clay yo design the curvature of the bench surface! Eww I sat on them >.<


View of the serpentine bench/hall beneath it


View from the bench - You can see the top 3 skyscrapers of Barcelona here, as well as the Sagrada Familia. Click on the pic to identify which is which. Bit hazy, no?

Below the serpentine bench, is a hall called Sala Hipòstila. Over here there are people selling stuff, their music and what not. It also has a great view of Barca.

86 strong columns holding it up

The ceiling of Sala Hipòstila



Bird-nest themed columns holding up the walk-way

Everything he designed was in accordance to the way the landscape was.That man's a genius!

May I add, it was a damn hot summer day.

He used local stones for the pathways to make it fuse well with nature - God it was painful!

We also visited Gaudí's museum in the park - which was one of the two homes of Gaudí - "la Torre Rosa" (the pink tower) . It's quaint and pink! You will need to pay to enter to this place. Entrance to the park, however, is free. It's worth visiting it as they have all the furnitures and works designed by Gaudí all over Barcelona. So if you do not get to visit all the houses he renovated/designed, you can see a glimpse of them here.



Beautiful Mosaics

Furniture used in Casa Batlló


Gaudí's itty bitty bed

A small sculpture of the 3 wise men which can be seen at the Sagrada Familia

Tiny gate to Casa Trias

Casa Trias - Gaudí's other home - not opened for visitors.It has some Chinese influence on it - the bamboo designs.

We walked to the highest point of the park - where the 3 crosses were. It wasn't completely built, as you can see one of the cross looks like an arrow!

View from the top of the tres cruzes

Our next destination was none other than La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family). Construction began in 1882, and it's still being constructed now~ According to Wiki, it's estimated to be completed in 2026.

You can see it by far - My excitement grew as we neared.
The Nativity Facade

The 3 wisemen sculpture that was seen in his museum

Twirly-whirly stairs

I love the stained glasses~

There was a lift that you could go up to, but the line, once again, was so long..and we couldn't afford to wait =p

It's going to be oh-so-gorgeous when it's completed!!

Next destination: Camp Nou!!!Was a bloody long walk alright. lol

Barcelona Football Club

More than just a club

At the gallery..Lookey it's Marilyn!

The summer that they signed Henry there..

Count them stars

I must say although they're highly classified, I still think Real Madrid's stadium's cooler! sorry! =P

The next day..we went to Pavilion Guëll. It was just a street's distance from the hostel I stayed at - University of Barcelona's hostel at Torre Girona - fabulous place I tell you!

This place has turned into a research centre for Gaudí's works. The guide was an interesting one, we went there quite early in the morning, and he seemed to me to be nursing a hangover rofl!! Just realised I didn't take his pic. *coughs* not hot enough *coughs*, plus he reeked of alcohol, no thank you. This is a summer home of the Guëlls that Gaudí' designed. Basically the main bit of the 'tour' was at the gate itself..gosh it held SO many things!!

The Defeated Dragon at the main gate - I think I will post an individual post for this one. It is a very interesting gate.

G for GAUDY! =D

Ok after that, we decided to go to the ceramic museum..and I saw a short cut..smarty pants I was..we nearly got robbed at that alley, and I must really thank God that we didn't get harmed. I'll add this in another post, together with the Iron dragon gate, k?

We returned to Parc Guëll.. why go there a second time? Well, I'll tell you why. The ONLY thing Oreja wanted from Spain, was a picture of the colourful lizard that's at the main entrance. I called her immediately and told her I captured the lizzy that day itself, and she was so happy. Then, at 2am in my hostel, I was uploading all my pics..only to find that I GENIUSLY (is that even a word?!) deleted a whole row of pics!!! Which included the LIZZY!!! My friend was already asleep when I got back to our room, and I told him that I had to go back to the park, and I'd meet him at someplace. But he refused and said that he would go back there with me. Thanks Nav, I really appreciate it =)

So yeah I took all angles of the LIZZY for her that Sunday..haha


We took a stroll down Eixample (Extension in Catalan) - where all the modernistic buildings are. Gaudí and other architects' works can be seen here.


Casa Batlló

I love this building! It's actually an apartment, re-designed by Gaudí and Jujol. Locally it was called the House of Bones. Look carefully and you can see bone-like structures and skeletonny constructions. It seems he did not want to have any straight lines in this design at all.

There's one theory saying that the roof of the building depicts a scaly reptile - a dragon/dinasaur, and the chimney represents the sword of St.George(patron saint of Catalonia), and the skulls are all the victims of the dragon. The whole building is very colourful and it is also filled with trencadís.

The three most important buildings in Barcelona's famous Illa de la Discòrdia ("Block of Discord"). Left to right: Casa Amatller (designed by Puig i Cadafalch), Casa Batlló and Casa Lléo Morera (designed by Domènech i Montaner). Darn tree blocked the view!
All three houses were designed in a different interpretation of the modernist style in what seems like a competition between the architects. Compete away, we get to see the beautiful results =D



La Pedrera or also known as Casa Milà

This building was made by scratch by Gaudí and we didn't get to go in the house cuz there was a loooong line and we didn't have much time, same goes to Casa Batlló. They are just across the street and a distance from each other. It has very weird chimneys and designs on the top of the roof, but since we didn't get to go up...no pics!

Shin Chan in the middle of the Eixample!!

The smart G-man even designed the walking tiles! Pretty swirly eh? Me gusta =)


Finally, we get back to Plaça de Catalunya and walked to Las Ramblas! La Rambla is a street where there are lots of stalls and street performers around. Hold your valuables tight =) Re-met Lula here and this was the first time she met Nav! Was fun eh, chica? =D


Boqueria Market


Cool performers on the streets..

Ronaldinho look alike, and he had them skills too!


The stroll down Las Ramblas will lead you to Port Vell.


Oh the beautiful Mediterranean Sea!


The cool bridge to cross to reach Rambla del Mar..it even has a traffic light, ok!



Huge shopping complex. Across the sea, you get the cinema, huge aquaria, eateries and what not.


Went back to Plaça de Catalunya to kill off some time before taking the bus to the airport.

Looks like pigeons read in English, not Catalan!

The fountains are working now =)

We were on the way back to the airport, and we saw this monument:

'Dona i Ocell'

Didn't know what it was, only knew it had some significance..googled and found that this is the 'Dona i Ocell' (woman and bird) sculpture done by Joan Miró. And it's situated at the Parc de Joan Miró. It was formerly known as Parc de l'Escorxador or Park of the abattoir as it was used as the abattoir(slaughterhouse) for the bullring.(YIKES!!) This is an arena behind Plaça d'Espanya.

Plaça d'Espanya

We didn't stop at Plaça d'Espanya, what a waste, that's where Montjuïc, the magic fountain and the Palau Nacional (National Palace) is...One reason to GO THERE AGAIN!! =D

On the flight, one last pic of the airport..The bright light is the moon! Full moon =D You can see Air Europa's wing there too..lol

Fare thee well, Barcelona..till I come again!!

Some very useful links:
A view on cities
Parc Güell
Sagrada Familia
Wikipedia