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| La Sagrada Familia |
We kept walking and reached the Arc de Triomf, which is pretty cool because rather than being built in big, white stone blocks, like most of these structures, it was made of heaps of thin red bricks. We walked on towards town and to Gaudi’s fountain in Parc de la Ciutadella. We also sat for a while in the garden Ash had found the day before, and Elise was able to see the giraffe heads! Hooray! Also we think it was world giraffe day, or maybe it was just some time that week, but either way, A++ Ash for good timing. We also saw people chasing a peacock around.
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| Mastering the art |
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| Classique photobombs |
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| Water fights at the fountain |
We walked down to the beach area, although didn’t have to go to the beach itself, and strolled up ’Las Ramblas’, the main tourist trap street in the city. So we got trapped and at some paella here for an outrageous cost. Heh heh heh, classic tourists. It was actually, pretty nice though.
We rushed from lunch to meet our tour group, and when we got to the meeting spot we realised we had just missed it leaving. Luckily we were told where to go and were able to run and join the telling of the first story from our loud, tall, American guide. He was actually pretty fun, and knew heaps about the city. The group was huge, and he took great joy in having a huge amount of people follow him wherever he went.
On the tour we saw ancient roman aqueducts standing opposite an entrance freeze by Picasso. We saw the Europe’s oldest synagogue, which technically means not the oldest standing, as that is found in Prague, but the one that has been functioning the longest. The door was super tiny because when it was built, synagogue doors had to be smaller than any church door in the city.
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| Piccasso |
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| Synagogue |
We came to a small square where we were told a lot of history had taken place. Our guide first told us about how Gaudi, in his old age and very religious, had decided to live simply, making quarters for himself in La Sagrada Familia. Every day he would pay penitence, by walking the all the way from the Cathedral to the small church that leads off the square. One day, coming from here, he was sadly hit by a tram driver and left for dead, only being recognised days later by a nurse in the cheapest hospital, but unfortunately he died soon after.
The second story was how Franco used the church as a symbol for his regime, and it became known as the execution site for many prisoners. You can still see the marks from the bullets along the wall, which is pretty horrific.
The third story is about how a scene from ‘Vicki, Christina, Barcelona’ was filmed there and that they got to play footsies while eating at a fake restaurant. Lawl.
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| Bullet holes in the walls of the chapel in the square |
We also came to the square where they hold he Castellers festival (the one where people from all over Catalonia compete to build the largest human tower)! Below is a picture of the largest ever, Guinness World Record holding tower. Amazing! Also, side note that will relate back to this; In Barcelona, people don’t talk about being citizens of Spain, they talk about being citizens of Catalonia, which is the area Barcelona is the capital of. The general gist is similar to how Scotland feels about being part of the UK, and they want to be their own country. The flag for Catalonia is a gold background with 4 red stripes across it, referring to the story of Wilfred the Hairy, who helped King Charles the Bald out in some war. Injured in battle, Willie carried the Baldy to safety, smearing the blood on his four fingers across his breastplate as a sign of commitment. Or something along those lines. SO, back to the tower story, the person at the very tip has to be a child, and the have to be able to reach up with one hand and raise 4 fingers as a sign to Catalonia. The end.
But not really. We have so much more to tell you. Soz.
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| Tallest tower! |
At the end of our tour, we finished outside a large building that looked just like any other city marketplace. Turns out, when they were digging the foundations they just happened to come across a huge area of ancient ruins, and decided they would incorporate these into the building, rather than moving it. What even is Europe? We don’t even know.
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| Regular marketplace, ammiright? |
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| NEWP! |
After this we walked all the way back to our building, getting gelato on the way, obviously. Also it was chocolate and raspberry and it was the best ever.
At home we collapsed for a bit after climbing the ridiculous 5 stories. We heated up some Napoli sauce from the night before and dipped bread into it, and it was super delicious. We also started watching ‘Vickie, Christina, Barcelona’ because it was appropriate and some youtube king uploaded the entire film.
We left the movie halfway because we wanted to go out and see the Font Magica of Montjuic, aka the Magic Fountain. We got there at about 10.30pm and it’s up the boulevard in the centre of the city. The place was packed, as a music festival called Sonar was on, and people from all around Europe, UK and the general world population were there. The fountain display goes for half an hour and it’s super good. You probably think you can imagine it. You can’t. Many lights, and water spurts and greatness.
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| Such magic. Very lights. Wow |
We decided to go out for a bit because the vibe of the city was so amazing, and found a nice local bar where we sat for a while. We ended up getting back a whole lot later than we probably should have as we had to leave super early in the morning. Oh well!
Love A&E
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