Barcelona!!

Hi everyone! Sorry's it's been so long since my last post and now I'm nearly a month behind. I don't have much work this week so I will really try and catch-up!

From October 31 - November 4, I went to Barcelona with Gordon, Mary-Ann, and Christina!! (My uncle, aunt, and cousin!) Because there was a Bank Holiday in Spain on Nov 1; I could leave on Wednesday night. I flew into Barcelona and spent the night with Aditi (a good friend from high school). Although we had originally talked about going out to celebrate Halloween, we both agreed that we were too tired and would rather stay in and catch-up.

The next day before the rest of the family arrived, I went on a walking tour of Barcelona with a few UConn friends who also happened to be visiting Barcelona that weekend. The tour went around the Old City and Las Ramblas; we went to the church where the famous architect, Antonio Gaudí, was traveling when he was hit by a tram. Because Gaudí was dressed in beggars clothing, no one rushed to save him, and he died.

Fountain of the church where Gaudí was going before his death.

When Gordon, Mary-Ann and Christina arrived, we went out for a tapas dinner! It was fun showing them a few of my favorite tapas, and trying new ones with them!

The next day we went to visit La Sagrada Família, a Catholic church designed by Gaudí, but the line was too long so we decided to check out La Pedrera or Casa Milá, another of Gaudí's designs. The walls of the facade are curved, and there's an enclosed patio in the inside. La Pedrera was designed as an apartment, but is now just a museum. We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant called La Rita after.

La Pedrera

After taking a quick siesta, we walked around the Gothic City and Las Ramblas and went to a market there called La Boqueria. La Boqueria had booths that sold all types of food, and really good fruit!

On Saturday, we headed to Park Güell, which is a garden and park with architectural elements that were designed by Gaudí. A lot of Gaudí's work is concentrated in Barcelona because he lived there for a majority of his life; he actually lived in Park Güell for about 20 years. Park Güell had a lot of really beautiful mosaic-like tile work that I loved. It also had great views of the city, and we could pick out some of the sites we had already seen!

After the Park, we went to see Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece, La Sagrada Família. Gaudí began to work on the church in 1883 and continued to do so until his death in 1926. The church is far from finished but it was easy to see the genius of Gaudí and how he drew inspiration from nature. For example, the columns of the church are similar to trees have branch out toward the ceiling. Outside, the two main facades were beautiful and it was amazing how each animal or statue on it represented something. The facades depicted images from Jesus' life; the Nativity facade shows the early life of Jesus while the Passion facade depicts his crucifixion. 

Ceiling of the church

The Nativity facade

Beautiful stained glass windows

We ended our day with the Picasso museum, which was also amazing. I really liked Picasso's study of Las Meninas (a painting by Velázquez). It was cool to see how Picasso interpreted the scene and how many different ways he could portray the same subject. We had a great dinner at La Luna, and finished up the night by getting drinks with Aditi. 

I had an amazing weekend in Barcelona, surely one I will never forget. I loved seeing my family there, and it especially meant a lot because it was the first time I had seen my family in so many months. Thank you Gordon, Mary-Ann, and Christina for making this such a special trip!!

Shout-out to Poppa - Happy Birthday!!!!! Love you!