I've been wanting to go to Barcelona since 2008, but once we touched down in one of the pickpocketing capitals of the world, I already missed the funny familiarity of Morocco - the welcoming mint tea, smell of dust and flowers and chaos. Also, our apartment was possibly in a pretty shady area of town, and pulling our luggage down the streets made us a prime target for suspicious characters.
We arrived at night. On the way to our apartment, Justin and I were confronted by two plain dressed men saying they were the "police" and wanted to see our passports. This is a scam because no police would randomly request to see your passport on the street. When Justin asked for verification, they showed their driving licenses. Luckily, they left us alone. It's pretty traumatic since we had barely touched down in Barcelona.
I feel safer about Barcelona in the day time. Since we only had one full day, we were up and early to the most eagerly anticipated, Sagrada Familia designed by one hell of a brilliant architect, Antonio Gaudi! My favourite fact about Gaudi is that he never used any kind of scientific formula in his architecture. He may as well have said, "screw you math!" and went ahead to use his own logic to construct his buildings.
We entered through the Passion Facade to begin our tour! (Sagrada Familia has three facades!)
One of the most exciting things about Sagrada Familia is the fact that it is still being built. What we are seeing now is just a small fraction of the completed project, and is the only church in Europe that is still under construction. What a thing to witness!
The inside is stunning. I love how organic Gaudi's architecture is. It's also almost kind of alien-esque!
The ceiling is shaped to look like palm trees, which is significant to Christianity of course.
When construction is completed, all the windows will be stain glass.
Next, we visit the Nativity Facade! More joyful than the Passion Facade.
Photographee and hardworking photographer!
We take a lift up one of the towers. It's a really long wait - almost an hour!
And it's really cramped at the top (which made me slightly claustrophobic).
Not much to see at the top, too cramped, plus a long waiting time. Give it a miss if you come!
Wish i went to the park behind to get a proper angle on Sagrada Familia, but we were famished and in need of some LUNCH! At least I got this pretty postcard :)
Oops ok it's almost boarding time here in Cologn-Bonn, Germany. Finish up about the rest of Barcelona soon!
