A Blur of Buildings

Continuing our sort of architectural tour of the first two days, the last two days were centered around more buildings, both modern (sort of) and ancient.  I had plenty of use for my camera both days; especially yesterday, I pretty much didn't put it down.  Fortunately, it's got a very good battery.

Friday we started out by grabbing breakfast to go and walking to the Sagrada Familia, a church that Gaudi built in the final years of his life.  I mean, he started to build it in the final years of his life, which was the 1920's.  It's still under construction, although they hope to have it finished by 2030.  I'm counting this as "modern" architecture, since most of the other cathedrals were built before Columbus was sailing the ocean blue (read: 1492).  Sagrada Familia was breathtaking; the stained glass windows were beautiful, the ceiling was amazing, and the facades were stunning.  Pictures!

From there we walked a few blocks to the to an old hospital, which was actually way cooler than it sounds.  It was beautiful, and we got to walk around the grounds for a little bit, but unfortunately most of it was under construction.  Still really neat!

Then we went to Park Guell, which was full of spectacular tile work.  My favorite was this little dragon here:

But there was a lot of stuff, and the scale was enormous (no pun intended).  There was a massive pavilion lined with benches, each one covered with mosaic.  Too bad people insisted on sitting on them.

We then walked up to the top of the park, which afforded us a great view of the city and Mediterranean Sea. After admiring it, and catching our breath, we hiked our way back to the hotel, where we cleaned up, and went out for some more tapas.  We've managed to eat something different at every meal, and it's all been delicious.  The big surprise this time was bacon covered dates, which turned out to be way better than I expected.  Also, hot chocolate is literally "hot chocolate"; it's like a microwaved candy bar in a cup.  Super fantastic!

Today, we woke up early, and spent plenty of time trying to figure out the public transportation system.  Since it is getting late here, and I was just getting on a real sort of schedule, I'm going to sum up- We made it to Terragona and saw the ruins of a Roman Ampitheather and an Aquaduct, and then made it back despite some miscommunication with the information desk.

Reminds me of the Aquaduct Caitlyn and I made in 6th grade.

But ours was way more legit.

I'm looking forward to a more relaxing day tomorrow, we think we'll hit up the beach and the Picasso Museum.  My program starts Monday, so this is the last day I have with my parents.  I'm going to miss them a ton, but I'm also really excited to meet my homestay family and the other students in my program.  

Hope all is well in the states, and a special shout out to KAM, who didn't get a special shout out last time.