Whatcha thinkin'? BARCELONA.

[pretend the font is Trebuchet]

I could not have planned a better way to spend my last full week in Spain than I did this past week! Monday I actually don't remember anything about...oh, it was a pretty normal day. Class, shopping, FHE. Tuesday I went into Madrid in the morning to do some souvenir shopping because I was wa-hay behind on that. It was SO fun to have some solo-time in Madrid, that is such a wonderful city. I don't know very much of it but what I do know, I love. In one of the souvenir shops, the guy working there (Martín) and I got talking and he apparently lived in Connecticut for a couple years! He would go down to Orange, NJ because his friend played piano at a jazz club there. He plays guitar in a band and they were gonna play in a bar that night in Madrid, but I had to politely decline the invitation:) Oh, Spaniards. After a couple of hours of shopping (and picking up the tickets for MUSE this Wednesday!!! Ahhhhhhh!) I went home for lunch. Jenessa, Pepita, and I planned out what meals we want before we go home, so that day we ate a LOVELY tortilla de asparagos. Ooooh man. I am gonna miss all this olive oil. After lunch, Jenessa and I were right out the door to go with a group back to Madrid for more shopping. Man. Such. Great. Shopping. Later that night, a few of us went out with the group director for tapas at a supa-swank restaurant in the Fifth-Avenue-type section of Madrid. Tapas are a tradition we definitely need in America.

Okay okay. Madrid is great, but last week we went on THE best excursion we've gone on, hands down. Manos. Abajo. Wednesday and Saturday were mostly lost to travel, but we still managed to get a lot in. We stopped in Zaragoza for a rest to see the cathedral there-as amazing as Burgos was on the outside, this cathedral is just a beautiful on the inside. Wow. There were two twin baldaquinos, the canopy type structures, that were modeled after Bernini's in Saint Peter's Basilica. There was so much beautiful stonework and intricate carvings and detailing. It was phenomenal. From there we went to Montserrat, a mountain near Barcelona with a monastery. We spent quite a bit of time there before we could get dinner, so it was nice to not have to rush through everything. The weather that day was pretty awful so we couldn't see any of the surrounding landscape which is apparently phenomenal, but it was pretty sweet to be that high in the mountains and surrounded by fog. We were literally in a Spanish cloud. Being enveloped by such thick tinieblas, it literally felt like the edge of the world. Because we were at the edge of the cliffs, the land just drops off and the fog was so thick it created a pure white backdrop. Really great for pictures:) I have six weeks at home with nothing to do...so pictures WILL be coming. Promise:)

Thursday: BARCELONA. Oh man!!!!! The city of Gaudí. We started out the day with a guided tour of el Parque Güell, a park designed by Gaudí. Honestly, I could never get enough of his architecture. He was a very religious man, so his art hearkens back to nature. There are no straight lines in nature, so you are hard pressed to find prominent straight lines in any of his designs. To start, the columns supporting the covering over the pathway were inclined to provide greater functionality and formed from irregular stone, all to integrate itself into the nature around it. At one point, there's a carob tree just growing out of the middle of the path. Architecture: consider yourself integrated.

We saw the park backwards, but at the entrance of the park, there is a huge, beautiful, tile-covered lizard sculpture and the sweetest front staircase ever. At the top of the stairs in the entrance to the park there is a patio supported by columns (the Sala Hipóstila, or hypostyle, meaning lots and lots of columns, á la Egyptians), and the bottom half of these columns are covered in mosaics formed from irregular ceramic mosaic tiles. To greater emphasize the feeling of light and darkness, the tile pieces on the columns closer to the back wall are smaller and closer together, while the tiles on the front columns are gradually larger and less dense. Ther is so much symbolism in his work, and most of it is applied by the viewer. He didn't always design with specific symbolic representations in mind. In keeping with the light theme, there are four suns, one for each season, and several moons in the ceiling. He used broken ceramic dishes for his tiles, and in some places on the ceiling there are whole plates or teacups or whatnot just shoved in there.

Just outside the entrance to the park is one of Gaudí's little houses. It felt like a Dr. Seuss house! It was vibrant and multi-colored on the outside with a brilliant blue on the inside. No straight walls, of course. It's all just so intriguing and beautiful. We were diggin on Gaudí after the park, but from there we went to La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's cathedral. I am SO going back in 2026 when that sucker is done, it was AMAZING, even in its incomplete form. In the morning we just saw the exterior but we went back later in the afternoon to see the interior. The outside is SO breathtaking! Having seen soooo many traditional cathedrals by this point, it was interesting to see one that diverts do far from the norm. Construction on the cathedral began in 1882, but you would NEVER know to look at it. When Gaudí was beginning his cathedral, he was in an age where if a cathedral wasn't finished, it was very very nearly finished. Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals take centuries to complete, so Gaudí really broke new ground by starting a new one. One key difference that I noticed is that the rose window, the artistic focal point of the Gothic cathedral and the symbolic representation of Mary, is covered on the outside by sculptures. In Gothic cathedral, the rose window shed the most light into the cathedral and was by far the most important source of light. From the inside, however, we could see the stained glass perfectly! Such beautiful colors. Interestingly enough, there are no figures in the stained glass. Just pieces of colored glass, their light reflecting brilliantly on the floor. There were a few windows with glass partitioned for stained glass, but it was all clear. Maybe they will be colored later? Maybe they will stay clear? The dust in the air from construction beautifully accentuated the rays of glorious sunshine beaming through the windows:) We paid eleven euros to get in, and it could not have been better spent. We helped pay for the construction of a cathedral! We witnessed history literally in the making. When my kids are taking art history to fulfill their humanities GE their first year of college, I'll be able to tel them that I was there before it was done, I remember when those windows still had no glass and there wasn't even a choir (although...who knows what Gaudí has planned by way of a choir...). We've seen a lot of cathedral construction, but that was all to repair what has now fallen into disarray. This one isn't even finished, I can't even tell you how AWESOME that is to me. SO. COOL.

We were also fortunate enough to see the Casa Milá, an apartment building designed by Gaudí. You can only see the main foyer area, one apartment, and the terrace, but it was all so amazing!! Magical, really. The terrace was RIDICULOUS, straight out of Dr. Seuss. Well...without the color. So Dr. Seuss's version of Tatooine. It was like a stone playground, I just wanted to run and jump and play hide-and-seek. We were pressed for time tho bc the museums and such all closed at 8, how lame is that? Spain is like the king of night life but the cool stuff closes early. We did make it to everything (including the Barcelona futbol stadium) that we wanted to tho! Except the Picasso museum...but we would never have had time to do it justice anyway. Also, it was raining when we went to el Parque Güell, so it would have been nice to go after the sun came out.

Dinner that night-wait, I haven't talked about lunch! Yikes. Gaudí is probably one of the few things that can make me forget about food. Lunch that day was with the group, we went to this amazing tapas restaurant and basically gorged ourselves. Well, I could have eaten more, but when can't I? There was more of a Basque influence in the cuisine so it was a fun little change. Not terribly different, I'm not educated enough to compare them point by point, but it was SOOOOO GOOD. One was topped with tomato and a soft, white cheese, one was like a tiny hamburger, one was a mini seafood shish-kebab with mushrooms, one was some sort of fish, one was a sort of sausage...the difficulty in describing Spanish food is our lack of American equivalent. But trust me. Phenomenal. Dinner that night was ALSO phenomenal! Getting there was not...finding dinner in an unfamiliar city is a nightmare. But! We finally found this little hole-in-the-wall, mom and pop place with a menú (two plates and a dessert from the list) for 10 euros. I tried gazpacho! It's a cold soup of pureed vegetables...doesn't that sound icky? That's the reason I avoided it. I was wrong. Ooooohooo how I was wrong. Gazpacho=amazing. It had a fresh cucumber taste with tomato and a little carrot. I can only imagine how delicious it would be for lunch on a hot day in the Spanish sun. I am going to miss this Spanish sun...it's been good to me. I had some sort of amazing salad similar to something Pepita makes that was just as delicious as hers and then we all ended up with steak. Yummy, yummy steak with yummy, yummy fries made in olive oil. Ooooh olive oil. Oh! I bought this great little dish made out of olive wood to sit on my desk and hold little things. I was so excited! Spain produces the most olives out of any country in the world, AND my mom brought home a little olive wood nativity when she went to Jerusalem during college so I wanted an olive wood SOMEthing while I was here. But back to that meal, it was so good! They were winding down for the night so some of their buddies were in there and they were just chattin it up, shooting the breeze as it were. The building was who knows how old so it was kinda sketch, but the bathroom was agreeable and the service was impeccable, so it was a fun night:) Also fun that night: going to sleep by midnight. OHH man. We definitely did not do that the next night. Before bed we watched Boy Meets World (Yo y el mundo) and Dinosaurs on Disney Channel. I haven't seen Dinosaurs in FOREVER, probably since I was 6 or 7...do they play that in the states again?

The next morning we drove about an hour and a half to Port Aventura, a theme park not far from Salou. We had NO idea we were going to a theme park until we got on the bus to Zaragoza two days before so we were all SOO stoked. Of course, it was cloudy and overcast, but that wasn't gonna stop any of us! In fact, it was perfect theme park weather because we weren't broiled alive and it didn't rain until about five minutes before we left the park anyway. We hit the three main roller coasters, one of which was voice-crackingly incredible, one was fun-loopy-flippy-happy, and one was a wobbly wooden coaster with racing cars. All very enjoyable:) The first one we went on, Furious Baco or something, was by FAR the best. We waited in line for an hour and a half but it was SO worth it! Hoooooly guacamole it was incredible. It goes SO fast and it corkscrews and loops and stuff...maybe it doesnt loop. But it was sooo fun! I was screaming so loud the whole time that afterward my mouth was dry and my voice was SHOT, hence "voice-crackingly incredible". Have you ever been on a roller coaster that gives you a hard-core adrenaline rush for like twenty minutes afterward? It's one of those. Man-oh man-oh. Leaving the park we were all worried about the weather for the beach, especially once we drove into Salou. Our hotel was literally a 30 second walk from the beach. That beach connected us to the MEDITERRANEAN SEA. I still can't believe I went swimming in the Mediterranean. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The hotel was beautiful! We had a balcony and a great view of the water...it was heaven. Well, a cloudy, overcast heaven. We all changed quite rapidly an were down on the beach in no time. After oohing and ahhing at the shops and the palm trees and the sand and the water, we finally got in. It wasn't freezing! Having only swam in the Atlantic, that cold, cold Atlantic, I was in love. And then I got some in my mouth. Just thinking about it makes me shudder. Sooooo salty. So not pleasant. Just so gross. I learned the hard way to keep my mouth shut and not touch my mouth with my hands. Or let me hair blow in my face. After splashing around and chasing some waves, the sun started peeking through some clouds! It was amazing! Before we knew it, the clouds were gone and the sun was out and the beach was CRAZY packed with people in a matter of minutes. We were the only ones there at the beginning and all of a sudden-wham! People. It was amazing! I only really got in the water the one time, it's much easier to enjoy that Mediterranean sunshine while dry. We really lucked out, had the sun been out all day it would have been SO hot at the beach. That would have been fun in its own way, but it was nice to just walk around and feel the cool breeze and play in the sand without melting. We stayed for probably 3 or 4 hours before we had to go back for dinner. I ate as fast as I could and then went right back out to do some shopping and walk along the beach one last time. I never liked the ocean until that day, lemme tell ya. The Jersey Shore is tons of fun, I enjoy the beach, but getting in the water? Blecch. I had no idea it could be that amazing. I now want the cliche honeymoon of the beach-side resort and white sands...sigh. The sand wasn't white, of course, but it certainly was soft. I could have walked along the water for hours that night. Instead we played cards. Also fun:)

Saturday was again lost to traveling. Once we got home, I officially started packing. Ugh. Packing. Not only is it a nightmare, it means that our days here are numbered, and that number is five. In all honesty, I'm excited to go home, but if I were here for two more months, that would not be a bad thing:)

Muse on Wednesday! Oh and PS. The title of this post comes from the musical Company by Stephen Sondheim. There's a song called Barcelona. It was running through my head ALL week.