Barcelona - days 1 through 3
We got into Barcelona very late on saturday (technically sunday,) so we went to bed and slept in a little. The first thing we did was to explore the area around our apartment. We had a huge place with two rooms, a kitchen, bathroom and dining area - it was pretty cool. We were right near La Rambla - a central street in Barcelona that is seemingly always full of life and teeming with shops and restaurants and interesting people. Later, we took a bus tour around Barcelona that lasted about two hours - definitely a good thing to do and we were able to see so much of Barcelona!
Our other full day in Barcelona was spent exploring the architecture and museums. I never knew much of Gaudi, but Barcelona certainly turned me on to him.
We first headed to Park Guell, a huge garden complex designed by Gaudi that also includes several buildings and his house.
Gaudi's home! it was amazing from the outside and nestled in the gardens, but it turned out that he didn't seem to have spent much time designing the interior. There was some really interesting furniture and patterns, but it seemed to me that Gaudi was more interested in designing for other than for himself from the plainness of the the interior.
Another part of Park Guell. It may look warm and beachy...but it was still a little chilly.
Travel partners - Anna & Lisa
Really amazing pathway that kind of projected out of the hillside and supported another path on top.
At the entrance of the Park
One of the two buildings at the entrance of the Park.
The other building at the entrance.
It was so busy at the entrance that it was hard to get a good picture - but it was amazing. There is also a really beautiful mosaic lizard/dragon fountain type thing in the center, but all my pictures of it have various strangers posing with it...so they aren't worth it.
Beautiful mosaics
We all got Gaudi friendship bracelets :)
Sagrada Familia - it's been under construction since 1882 and still supposedly won't be done for another 30 years! It's a massive church that reminded me of one of those sand castles you make with watered down sand. It's incredible and I would love to see it finished.
Saw this guy on our bus tour
Really cool wall mural we saw while we were having lunch on our first day
One of the streets we walked down in our exploring
Gaudi's Casa Mila
We stopped in at a pet shop! These puppies loved Lisa
On to some more Gaudi - this is Casa Batllo on the left (a family's house.) It's actually unbelieveable; everything is so thought out and so well executed. The idea behind it is water - everything is smooth, round and organic.
The dining room
Looking down the lightwell - it was created just to bring in the natural light to every floor and into the center of the house.
The dragon-like mosaic on the roof
More mosaics on the roof of Casa Batllo
The top story of the house was very different from the rest - clean and plain white, but still very round and organic.
Literally, we knew nothing about Seville before going. Unfortunately our good weather in Barcelona didn't follow us, and it rained a lot of our time in Seville in addition to our time in Madrid. Our hotel in Madrid turned out to be in a great location - we were in walking distance to everything! On our first day, we asked the front desk guy where we could get tapas, and he pointed to the place across the street (literally two steps out the door.) We were a little skeptical, so I googled the best tapas in Seville, and found a place that was 5 minutes away. We stepped out the door, and I immediately recognized the restaurant in front of us as the one I had found online! So we went in and had some amazing food - we ended up going back the following two nights. We also had this also drink called "tinto de verano" which is wine with lime soda in it - barely even tastes like wine. We also had some really good Sangria.
The Cathedral - kind of in the center of Seville. Really amazing architecture - so different from what I'm used to in Italy.
After we saw the Cathedral, we explored a really beautiful garden with tons of mosaics and fountains.
One of Lisa and my friends from school was staying with family in Seville for the whole break, so we met up with her for a day. We explored Seville, had a great dinner, and met up with some of Anna's friends from school who were studying in Seville. It was a great day!
The other day, we took a bus to Cadiz - a little island about an hour and a half from Seville. Unfortunately it was pretty overcast, but it was still fun to explore.
We had a great tapas lunch at a really cute restaurant that overlooked the water. After lunch, however, we realized we had no idea where we were supposed to get back on the bus, as it dropped us off at a totally random stop. So we spent our remaining time trying to figure it out and trying to make our way to the bus station - very very difficult when 95% of the people speak only Spanish. But we finally figured it out!
Rainbow in Cadiz!
Madrid - days 6 & 7
We had an adorable apartment in Madrid - unfortunately it was in the attic and up 107 stairs (we counted.) No elevator which was fine...except for the first day where we had to carry our suitcases all the way up. It was perfect and very spacious, if only we had been about a foot shorter.
Lisa and I took a train from Seville to Madrid on Friday, and got in around noon. We had some lunch and then spent the rest of the day in the Prado, where we got to see a lot of Spanish art, including Velazquez and his famous "Las Meninas." It was a perfect way to spend the rest of our day. Unfortunately, it poured the entire day. After the museum we tried to explore the shopping street but it was freezing and wet, so after about an hour we retired to a really cute restaurant with (again) great tapas.
Luckily we caught some sun on Saturday, and after a really great breakfast, explored a massive garden. It was beautiful, and perfect before spending the rest of the day in the Reina Sophia, another really cool museum.
I spy Lisa
Spain is really incredible - a week wasn't nearly enough. I really hope I'll be able to make it back someday.
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