This morning I got up pretty early and went downstairs to get a croissant from the bakery under our building before my taxi arrived. The light was till coming up and it was a pretty lovely morning, so I didn’t mind standing outside waiting.
On the drive I passed a few of Gaudi’s buildings, which was kind of surreal after having seen photos of them for so many years. I wanted to stop the taxi so I could have a good look! I was dropped off at the airport, where I took the plane to Bilbao, making some friends along the way with a Spanish family. At the airport I waited at the bus stop to get into town, and met an American man who needed help getting into town because there was no where to get euros in the airport. We chatted on the way to the city, and then suddenly, as we came over a crest, I saw the Guggenheim for the first time. It’s sat next to the bridge into the city, and is a huge, shiny, swirl of goldy silver metal, impressively standing next to the river. I took the next stop and walked back to the museum, this time coming to the entrance where Jeff Koons’ ‘Puppy’ sits in all its colourful, floral glory. I spent some time here, as I had always wanted to see it and then headed inside.
The top floor was closed, however there was, by chance, a large Jeff Koons’ retrospective covering the entire 2nd floor. I spent some time here being amazed and then headed to the balcony inside to look down on Richard Serra’s collection of gigantic sculptural works now collectively named 'The Matter of Time' .
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| The central atrium |
I went downstairs and straight into the Serra room, where I spent ages wandering in and out of the spirals and passages of his works. Although a lot of time was also put down to dodging the many, many, many school children running around.
I also had a look at the two other works on the bottom floor, one, a lovely video work which is hard to explain but beautiful. As I left I had a look at the collection of outdoor sculptural works by the river, including one by Anish Kapoor and also Louise Bourgeois' 'Maman (Ama)' spider.
I still had some time up my sleeve so I sat outside looking at ‘Puppy’. I also walked around town for a while, and also got a little lost. I made it back to the airport with plenty (a ridiculous amount), of time and finally took the plane back to Barcelona. I took the taxi back again, and met Ash at home.
Ash. Barcelona
I had an amazing sleep in and then long breakfast/generally being lazy and didn't leave the apartment until 12pm ish. Leaving the house, I didn't really know where I wanted to go or what to see but thought I'd wander towards the south, the more touristy area where most of the key sights are. I walked down to the Arc de Triomf and through the park that follows it. I explored the park, finding the GIANT FOUNTAIN and then taking a seat at the end. As I was sitting I glanced over to the edge of the park where there was a high fence. All of the sudden a giraffe neck and head appeared and I died. Turns out I was at the edge of the zoo. I spoke to my giraffe pal and said my goodbyes and headed along the promenade. It was pretty cool, and very beautiful. Also very hot and sunny. Then I went up this Main Street called !!!!,!, and somehow got into the laneways, which are packed with all these unexpected famous buildings, like the gothic cathedral MORE. After somehow leading myself out, I walked the 30 minutes back to apartment to escape the heat and have some lunch. I went back out at about 4.30pm and this time went further north. On one of the maps on the apartment walls I could see that there was a big and pretty well known park, park Gueliz, basically north from our place. So I kind of wandered again in that general direction, realising it was on a hill and strugged to get up to the top where the park is. Once I reached the entrance I looked over to see an escalator that basically takes you all the way up, minus the crazy windy roads and hills I had just conquered.
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| Ride that bad boy right to the top (or just walk like a normal human) |
The park though was incredible. It had an amazing view over the entirety of Barcelona. Peaking over all the buildings is Gaudis giant Sagrada Familia. I walked toward the busiest area of the park, where Gaudis house, OTHER THING, and the aqueducts are. It was all very cool and also unexpected. I had seen all these things before in pictures but had no idea they were all I. This park I had just decided to go to. Behind the park was a much quieter area, with significantly less tourists, where I was able to wander peacefully, finding a weird like fountain that ran right down some stairs to the bottom. After a few hours wandering, I went back to our place and waited for Elise to get back, and also de sweating because it was hawwwwtttt.
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| Hey Barca! |
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| Look at that lovely stream |
*Also note, there were many more photos of the cool aquaducts and views and Gaudi's house from this park, but sadly Ash's phone decided to no longer live on our last day in Paris so these photos no longer exist. :'(
Both!
After we met up again at the apartment we went out to find paella as we had been told it was the cheapest and freshest on Thursdays. Unfortunately, it's a lunch time thing, so after looking around for ages, we got peckish and decided we needed some gelati to get us through the rest of the search. So we got some super tasty refreshments and eventually found a pretty nice little place to eat. We kinda just ordered what we knew, a variety of tapas, including: potato wedges with a delish sauce, sauteed mushrooms, potato, egg and jamon, a blue cheese, walnut and lettuce salad and manchego cheese. The waiter then was like, do you want bread with tomato? and of course we were like YES WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF THIS. And it was actually the best ever. Mainly it was all the best ever and so so so tasty, we weren't even sad we missed out on paella.
Love A&E
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