Gaudi’s Barcelona
I’m taking quite some time to write these. Maybe I will finish by August?
Oh, Barcelona! Perhaps my expectations of you were a little high. Everyone we’d spoken to before the trip had raved on and on about you. You didn’t really disappoint. It just wasn’t as life-changing as I had imagined it would be. That, and after spending several days there, my wallet was already feeling the difference. Why must you cost so much more than every other place in Spain? Must be the popularity, huh?
After reading all these websites about scams and pickpockets all over Barcelona, I was afraid to leave the hostel. Seriously, we arrived at night, and the very next morning, we sat in the lobby for a bit because we didn’t really want to head out into the big bad world. Haha. We had a plan though – one person carry the bag, two people watch. Thankfully, our plan worked. Even though we were obvious targets for things to happen to, we were safe from all of that. It was one of our hostel friends who kept getting ALMOST pickpocketed – poor guy. Happened to him 3 or 4 times on his trip.
GaudÑs work in Barcelona is amazing. I’m still curious as to how he did not become famous until after his death. He was commissioned to work on buildings and the cathedral… Were people just blind back then? And the story of his death is a little sad too – of all things, he got hit by a tram.
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[1] Casa Batlló. The first stop on our tour of the various Gaudà structures on Day One. This was the most expensive of the bunch, but by far the best. If you could only see one house, this one would be it. It’s also known as the House of Bones.
[2] The very famous rooftop of Casa Batlló. They say it’s supposed to resemble a dragon. It does, doesn’t it?
[3] Looking up in La Pedrera. This was the other major house that Gaudi worked on. The inside was furnished in a very typical Spanish home of Gaudi’s time.
[4] The entire neighborhood – Eixample [pronounced like EYE-SHOM-PLUH] – is made up of buildings of this modernist architecture. It’s gorgeous and quite amazing.
[5] through [8] La Sagrada Familia. It won’t be finished for another 30 years or so. I still can’t get over what a genius Gaudà must have been to come up with all this.
[9] and [10] Parc Guell and GaudÃ’s House. We saved the trip up to Parc Guell for another day. We sorta went in through the back [up an outdoor escalator!] and ended up with a great view of the city from up top.
More photos: Barcelona – May/June 2007
