We finally met our hostess Nicky. She had been on holiday in Greece. As you might expect from one who allows complete strangers move in with her for a week, she is very chill and extremely kind.
Virginia once again took us out to see the sights. We first walked to Anotoni Gaudi's La Pedrera, this crazy looking "house" (the size of an apartment building) in the Eixample district.
But it had a $20 entrance fee, so we drooled outside and then went on our merry way to the Metro station.
- Side note - I love subways. LOVE them. I really enjoy all forms of public transport, probably from spending the first 18 years of my life in cities with no public transport (please remember the light rail did not exist in Phoenix until relatively recently, and how many of you take it on days where you are not pub-crawling?). Plus you can't get arrested for being drunk on the bus. Unless you take off your pants.
Took the subway to Sagrada Familia, the Catholic church Gaudi hijacked in development in 1883 and arguably his piece de resistance.
When he died in 1926, only a quarter of the project was complete. Due to inconveniences likelack of funding and a pesky civil war, it reached mid-point in 2010. It is slated to be finished by 2026 (the centennial of his death).
Each of the 4 sides of the building depicts a stage in Jesus' life. The nativity scene over the back entrance-
The front entrance and Jesus baring the cross-
And to illustrate the enormity of the entire project, an arial photo I stole off the Internet-
It's not that all the buildings around it are short - those are 6-story buildings. The church is just that massive.
Virginia left us outside the church, as she had to go to work (5-8 pm as a dental assistant. Everything closes for siesta, so they stay open later).
Jon and I wandered into a Starbucks so I could quell my caffeine headache and we could use their wifi (for paying customers only, and wifi is hard to come by in Barcelona).
Had dinner in the park at the Arc de Triomf. See the random post with the wrong date stamp. By the way, this Blogpress app we are using offline is not the greatest at keeping track of dates. So, apologies.
Finally met up with Kelsey at the protest in Plaza de Catalunya. I hadn't seen her in a year! Everything was in Catalan, so we had no idea what was going on. But because the same kind of protest was going on in Madrid, Jon filled us in on the general discontent.
Kelsey was not supposed to drink on her trip, according to her study abroad program. Naturally, we did, at a side street cafe where we assumed we wouldn't be found. We were wrong - we were discovered by a couple of Kelsey's Brazilian friends. Luckily they were drunk the night before, so everyone stayed mum.
Kelsey had to be back at her hostel by midnight, so we walked her home. Jon and I stopped at McD's on our way home for some late night fries and free wifi (hence the random McD's post - I was messing around with the uploading). Twas a salty, potato-y end to a lovely day.
-ErinK
- Posted using BlogPress from Jon's iPad
Location:Barcelona
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