Barcelona part dos

I awoke to a tap on the shoulder and upon opening my eyes was handed some coffee from Emily. The only thing better than this type of awakening is finding out that it was only 9am but I felt like I had slept in until noon, and I was without a sangria hangover.

Another delicious breakfast of toast, egg, avocado and goat cheese was had and we then set out to see the segrada familia from the inside. Upon arriving at the temple we were very disappointed to find that overnight massive banners advertising the popes planned November visit were hung over the outside pillars. Gillians reaction to these banners was 'i'd be so fucking pissed if the pope was here!' (due to resulting lines) and this began the day of many inappropriate things being said while inside a church.

The structure, designed by spanish architect Antoni Gaudi is so unique that I kept forgetting that it is actually a church. The cool thing about the segrada familia is that despite beginning construction in the late 1800s, it is still under construction today. The Spanish war did set them back a bit... But I still feel like it is taking way too long. The attention to detail and attempts to follow Gaudi's plans are crazy, with the construction of each stained glass window taking up to a year to complete.

Walking inside the temple is unreal.. The outside looks ancient and weathered but inside is so new and filled with construction workers it is completely unexpected. After taking about 100 pictures of the ceiling we waited over an hour to take the lift up one of the pillars.

Part of the Ceiling

Once up top we all realized that we might be afraid of heights! Usually I'm good with heights, but walking over tiny sections of hundred year old cement really freaked me out! We took some photos of the city and then began the descent down the small spiral staircase. I then decided I don't like narrow spiral staircases. You could look down the middle of the spire to the ground floor and we got some major vertigo and for the rest of the stairs down we all felt ill and had jello legs.

Looking down the spire

About 2 minutes into our journey down the stairs the church bells rang. Note to self: don't be at the top of a church tower on the hour. The bells were so loud, and we were still uneasy after looking down the middle of the stairs that as the first bell rang, we all freaked an sat down cowering in fear. After realizing it wad just church bells we had a mini laughing fit about how we are such babies.

Sitting in fear in the tiny staircase

The steps got progressively worse as we got lower, getting to new levels where the stairs were so narrow you couldn't pass people, and then to a point where there was no centre pole, just a 1.5ft diameter hole inviting us to fall a hundred meters.

The staircase with no middle

After walking in circles for a half hour or so, the dizzy, vertigo affected tourists are directed through a gift shop filled with china souvenirs. Brilliant if you ask me.

The three of us decided to come back when it is finished (projected completion: 2026) and for some reason we all imagined ourselves alone with bluewash perms, and Emily envisioned herself in a wheelchair.

Depressed at the idea of our old selves, we took the metro to check out the Picasso museum. I'm not really an art fan (at all) but humoured Gillian and Emily's desires to go. After eating some humous and baguette in a strange alleyway we wandered to the museum, and the girls went in and I decided I would rather wander the surrounding area since it was pretty fantastic with all these cool shops in tiny streets.

Apparently I can't multitask.. haha.

We vowed to meet back there in an hour. I started my solo walk and saw a sign pointing to the Olympic area, which is by the beach, so I decided to head that way. After walking for 45 minutes I realized that sign was probably meant more for cars than meandering tourists. But the beach was fantastic and full of life, and the Olympic statues and stuff was pretty cool as well.

The Volunteers Statue

Many failed attempts at calling Gillian later, I hopped the metro back to the picasso museum and although I was 15 minutes late to meet them, they just finished with the museum as I showed up.

We then tallied our list of things we wanted to do in Barcelona, and still to see was the Barri Gotic, eat delicious Tapas, buy a blue rose from La Rambla, see the Casa Battlo, and meet up with Amanda. We attempted to find the Barri Gotic by using a map that didn't have any street names on it, and instead just mini drawings of the tourist attractions.

Due to my amazing map and directional skills we found the Barri Gotic, the most amazing tapas ever, and then bought the last 2 blue roses we could find on La Rambla.

My first round of tapas

We made our way to the Casa Battlo (the crazy looking Gaudi house) where we sat outside for a long time just enjoying sitting and enjoying the crazy architecture.

Casa Battlo

On the way home I jumped on the wrong train, so we didn't have time to nap before meeting Amanda. We got a little lost, but eventually did find Amanda, and her friend Emilia who had just gotten off their 22 hour boat from Italy.

The 5 of us tried to buy some sangria to sit and drink on the beach, but after not finding any supermarkets, we just sat on the beach, which was probably better anyway since we had to get up at 6am to leave the next morning. It was really really nice to catch up with Amanda and hear all her funny travel stories. It's always good to see a familiar face in a foreign place.

The beach at night