More Barcelona sights

Better sleep last night because we got the AC to work, hooray! Missed the provided breakfast though, but it wasn’t too much of a loss as it’s just toast and cocoa puffs. We stopped by the grocery and got some snacks and sandwiches, which ended up being another food mistake because they use superwhite bread and mayo – two things I haven’t had on sandwiches in a long time. Oops. I was a bit depressed again about my inability to wait until good food presents itself when Peter saw another bakery and demanded we go in. He ordered a cream-filled chocolate roll and a chocolate croissant, and they were both delicious, so our morning was saved!

We did a quick route around a few landmarks from Carmen Laforet’s book Nada, which we had read in Spanish class. It takes place in the old part of Barcelona so of course I had to hit the University and Calle Aribau, both important places in the life of the main character. Actually not that exciting but it was neat to just be there. Then we headed over to Casa Batllo, a house designed and decorated by Gaudi to look vaguely sea- and animal-like, with a lot of undulating walls and interestingly placed dead space. There were a few cool innovations, such as the color gradient in the skylight (darker tiles at top, lighter ones at the bottom, so that the light spread more evenly) and the vents in every door, but it was not really worth the admission price of 13.50 each. Crap, I mean we got into the Real Alcazar for 7.50 each, and it was way bigger and cooler. Ah well, we can say we did it. We passed by another Gaudi design (La Pedrera) but decided against getting ripped off again.

Of course, we ended up by La Sagrada Familia, another Gaudi work, and paid admission to see a church that’s been under construction for 130+ years, so the Tourist Moneygrabber Gods got us good today. The church is insane and looks like it will barely if ever make its 2030 completion forecast. It is also probably the last supergrand church under construction, we figured, and by the time it’s done no one will probably care about going to such a ridiculous looking place with religious intent. Oh well! Peter’s feet hurt but I also took the elevator up to see the top of one of the spires. That was crazy, especially walking down in narrow passageways with full view of exactly how many rounds you had left to make. Eerie and more than a bit scary, but it was better than watching the inside under construction. It did cost more (in time in line as well as money – I felt like I was in some twisted Disneyland) but I got the “full experience” I suppose.

After a bit of wandering we took the metro back home to rest a bit. Later we decided to check out the sky gondola that they do over the harbor, and we took what we thought was the best route up the hill. Unfortunately it was also really sketchy and we ran up as fast as we could in flip flops. The gondola had been closed for a half hour, even, but it was time for a sunset and it was thankfully worth it. Much better than yesterday’s was with all those clouds (woo 2 hrs of sun today!). I did get my first few bug bites up there though, so we went back to the hostel because it was on the way to “dinner” as far as we had determined (which was mostly just a direction more than information). Thankfully we met up with a few hostel compatriots and we all went out in search of a nice little place. I think we found one – good food, reasonable prices – but the waiter was incredibly jaded so it was interesting. I like meeting new people here, they all seem very nice! We were invited to go out to the bars with them but Peter’s feet still hurt so we stayed behind. Just as well as I am pretty beat. Tomorrow should be a day of beach if the weather goes according to plan. Otherwise we will probably just take a chill day. Yay!

(Sorry if the last bit doesn’t make entire sense, I’m falling asleep here haha)