The last couple of days in Barcelona have been lots of
exploring and adjusting to this beautiful, wonderful new city. This was out first weekend here in Barcelona
so we decided it was a good time to see some sights. Highlights of the weekend were seeing Parc
Guell and La Sagrada Familia, both works by Gaudí. I’m sure that this was only my first of many
trips to both of these incredible places!
On Saturday morning we met up with other students from
the program and visited Gaudí’s Parc Guell, located up on a hill that overlooks
the city. Unlike our first few days here
it was really sunny and warm and we had a beautiful view of the city from the
top! The whole park is framed in this beautiful white bench covered in amazing
mosaic tiles that all overlooks the city.
Underneath the main overlook on the par is this amazing room of columns
that has mosaic sea creatures on the ceiling.
All of the columns are different heights, but Gaudí made them to look
the same like an optical illusion. The
park also has the really cool open tunnels covered in by arches. In the front of the park is Gaudí’s home,
created in a very similar style to much of his work. Everything is so creative, and there are so
many incredible details in his work! Here are some of my favorite pictures from
the day.
The other big highlight of the weekend was a trip to the
Sagrada Familia, Gaudí’s most famous church, and one of Barcelona’s largest
attractions, this afternoon. (This was the first time we had failed to check the weather in the morning, and we
were unfortunately stuck in the rain looking very clueless.) La Sagrada Familia was absolutely
breathtaking. Like at Parc Guell, you
could see Gaudí’s creativity all over the church. We learned that Gaudí got a lot of his
inspiration from the structures and shapes of plants and flowers. The amazing columns that hold up the church
are designed to bear weight like flower stems, and unlike traditional columns, get more narrow at the top. The church is also
filled with beautiful stained glass windows that Gaudí designed to let in light
to the massive church, and each one is very colorful. One of my favorite parts of the church were
the bronze doors on the front and sides of the church that had been cast to
read different words. The front doors had
the story of the crucifixion of Jesus from the gospel of John in Catalán, and
the side door of the church had the phrase “give us our day this daily bread”
in 45 world languages (even Peruvian Quechua!).
The church was so impressive, and I am already excited to return again
for a trip up the towers on a sunny day! Our day of sight seeing, and apartment hunting, ended with some well-deserved churros and chocolate at the famous Dulcinea restaurant, supposedly the oldest in Barcelona to serve the famous dish. The chocolate (called drinking chocolate) is like thick, melted chocolate used to dip the churros... so good!
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