28/4/09 Barcelona

After a very meger breakfast, we went down to the Barcelona history museum. A couple cool things about it. First being that it is build on top of the most extensive underground Roman ruins in the world. There is basically a whole city beneath the museum, much of which you can see. The extent that they covered was amazing and rather unexpected. It was interesting, not quite Rome, but well done.

The other interesting part is that the museum incorporates some of the ruins of an old palace there. Most notably, the room where Columbus was revieced by the king and queen after returning from America. Unfortunately, they have some giant lame project about being an immigrant in there for some reason. Bummer.

We went out to the Cathedral, a massive building started in the 13th century. Again, there is the Columbus connection, with the six natives he brought back from America baptised there. We could only stay about 10 minutes before the church closed down for the afternoon, but it was an impressive interior.

Outside there was a gelato stand that gave huge servings, so I got a white chocolate, mint chocolate, and cheesecake cone. Good, but not Italy good.

Next we decided to decicate the day to Antoni Gaudi and tried to go to all his buildings. Unfortunately Heidi forgot her student card and they all offered discounts, so we went back and got that. When I went back, I called Dr. Schmidt and got a hold of Monika finally. She was very nice and seemed happy to hear from me. We are going to meet them in Figueres tomorrow (Salvador Dali´s hometown), about a two hour train ride. I have no idea what they have planned for us, I think we´ll end up at their place for a while. I´m nervous, but it should be interesting.

After stopping by the market for another fruit drink (I had mango coconut today) we went first to Casa Bastlla, which looks like a giant dragon. The auidoguide was pretty hilarious, saying things how Gaudi was the greatest mind ever and the room you are about to enter is the most important in the world, stuff along those lines.

That said, it was probably the most incredible building I´ve been in. Every room was just completely radical, no straight lines, like a real Cheesecake Factory. The interior was supposed to be very water influenced, and it was apparent throughout. We got to go up on the roof where the dragon´s back scales are. It´s just fascinating, especially in the way that his work is about 100 years old and not at all like anything else anywhere.

Next up was La Familia Segurda, which is Gaudi´s unfinished masterpiece. It´s a huge church and Gaudi spent the last 14 years of his life holed up in there, only to be killed by a tram. They hope to have it finished by 2026, but I can´t imagine it being anywhere near done by then. The architecture is incredible in it, the outside´s carvings tell Biblical stories while the inside is remarkable, espeically the stained glass windows.

Finally we went to Casa Mila, an apartment building designed by Gaudi. The interior wasn´t all that radical, but the exterior, with it´s curves and fancy balconies was. The best part was up on the roof, it was sort of like a playground with the architecture. The shapes in themselves were art, I don´t really know how else to describe it. His work is by far my favorite I´ve ever seen.

We went to get something to eat. After picking out a place my book suggested and finding that it wasn´t there, we just wandered around the old Gothic part of town and stumbled on a tapas place. It was worlds better than the night before. I had potatas bravas (they had a cheese sauce tonight, incredible), cheese in oil with raisins, and a salad with cheese, nuts, rasins, and honey vinagrette. All were very good. For the second night in a row they tried to screw us on the bill, but we caught it.

Heidi had a friend Felipe who goes to Loyola, is studying here, so we met up with him at a bar by the wax museum. On the inside they had fake trees and waterfalls in the main room, with wax figures and such in other parts. I was really tired and wanted to order a coffee but they stopped serving it. Felipe is a journalism major, so I talked about how I hated broadcast and PR people, both of which he defended. Oh well.

I´m interested to see how tomorrow will go. We were planning on staying in the airport, but now it looks like we´ll hang out in Barcelona and get a bus at 3:15. All sorts of surprises for tomorrow.