Spain Part I – Barcelona

I absolutely loved my trip to Spain! In fact, I think it was one of the best trips I have ever taken and would 100% recommend that everyone try to go there at least once in their life. I’m already planning to go back through Andalucía once more to hit up the cities I missed and then take the ferry across to Morocco! I’m really glad I did this trip, first, though, as I loved seeing Barcelona and all it had to offer.

It was a beautiful city and one of the friendliest I’ve been to. Being Brazilian, my sister and I were able to get along there very well because (I was *very* surprised to discover this) Catalan is extremely close to Portuguese! In fact, we found that the people of Barcelona (and those that spoke Catalan) could understand us much much better (and us them) than the people in Andalucía who spoke only Spanish! It was interesting to me to see the similarity between Portuguese and Catalan, but it was also fortuitous as we were able to get along very well while there.

The weather wasn’t very cooperative while we were there, sadly enough, and we had to deal with a lot of rain, cloudy days, and drizzle. That being said, the weather really didn’t detract from the sights of the city that much at all:

And in fact made for what I think are some pretty awesome shots at times!

I just loved being able to walk around the city! It’s a very interesting European city and in fact quite unlike what I had thought it would be! Newer than I was expecting with a touch of old world charm.

Of course, there are the really old parts of the city which are very neat with the small streets (here they would be alleys) and buildings looming over you:

These are ancient Roman columns from a temple that used to stand here. They still remain to this day!

I loved this small cafe in the Jewish District!

One of my favorite things about the city as I was walking around it was all the amazing graffiti everywhere!

I’m not sure how the locals feel about it, but I thought it added so much to the city, in certain cases even working around the older areas for a pop of color!

And in other cases, working with more unconventional materials:

And, yes, those are Legos!

Of course, a visit to Barcelona means seeing lots and lots of Gaudi on display!

From the amazing Parc Guell (totally absolutely incredible to walk around in!):

This is a ceiling!

To the beautiful La Pedrera:

To the awesome and inspiring Sagrada Familia (which they claim will be finished in the next 10 years – it’s not even 40% done and it has been in construction since the 1880’s!!!):

Gaudi’s idea was to build a church in which you would be reminded of being in a forest (the columns representing trees) with the canopy above you so that when you look up you can see the stars shining down.

The statues and doors are not Gaudi, though, just the building. However, I think these were also awesome!

And worked quite well with the building!

And although I wish I could show you every last bit of the city I saw, that would take way too long and there are way too many pictures to share (though if you want to see more, I have uploaded them onto my flickr account here – still a work in progress) but before I wrap up this post, I do want to share the last bit of Barcelona that I loved! And that was going up to Tibidabo!

Tibidabo is an over 100-year-old amusement park located in the hills overlooking the city. It was a beautiful place and though most of it was closed when we were there, I loved going up there and would definitely say it’s on my not-to-be-missed list if you go out to Barcelona. The view is incredible, of course!

But so is the park itself and the church up there was really pretty too.

I think this is the prettiest confessional I’ve ever seen!

And though I wish I could go on, I think this post is already way too long and definitely has way too many pictures in it! I will be posting another Spain part sometime soon (after doing a yarny one, of course!). Up next: Valencia, Montserrat and Granada! Stay tuned! 🙂