Weekends in the Wilderness (Au Pair Experience Días 15, 16 and 17, Part Three)

Finally we´re on Saturday! And big thank you and well done to all of you for putting up with me thus far :)

So Saturday was the amazing Barcelona trip and it did not disappoint. I had to wake up slightly early with a slight hangover (or maybe my normal early-morning state - I can´t even tell anymore) and then we all bundled into the car and headed off. Jordi, Susana and Roger pointed out lots of interesting things on the way (like Roger´s favourite turning which was the kind of turning where you can´t sit up straight) while Gina was encouraged to sleep. After about half an hour I encouraged myself to sleep and magically, when I was woken up by a *poke* from Roger, we´d arrived. Here are some photos from the car:

I decided my hat was appropriate but it got annoying
carrying it around when visiting churches, restuarants
and I nearly left it in the shop when I bought stamps :)

This was there

This was there too

Our first stop was La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi´s famous church in Barcelona. This meant parking somewhere and getting out of the car to walk (</3).

On the way there were probably some interesting things but by this point I only remember what I took pictures of:



Once we arrived there was a long queue of tourists hungry for some modernist church vibes so we bought the tickets on the internet whilst in the queue, promptly escaped the queue (suckers) and got a coffee for half an hour before entering.

(They´re not real)

     

(Sorry my pciture formatting skills are kind of awful and they´re only filtered when I upload them directly from my phone for some reason.)

From the outside it´s grand enough, if a little grey for the most part, but there are so many intricate details that my camera couldn´t capture and you can´t see from the ground. IT´s truly beautiful. So naturally the inside, which Susana told me is based on a forest, the place took my breath away (and I nearly cried hahaha). It´s mainly the stained glass windows, they´re gorgeous and really make you feel like you´re in a really special place and that fairies might come and grant your every last wish.

After that was a general walk around the massive city (definitely exceeded my 10,000 steps per day goal) and we vistied La Plaza Catalunya, the port, Las Ramblas (great for souvenirs and postcards, art, didn´t try the food), the famous market and loads of other places, the names of which went completely over my head. Susana and Jordi were really clear explaining everything, I just don´t have a geography brain.

Gaudi´s Art School at La Sagrada Familia

Roger was so impressed by the
interactive geometry room

 

Gaudi´s Casa Mila

Spanish Military Government headquarters, I think

 

Either the Council building or... not

Obviously the port (we had lunch at the huge shopping centre here
and for once I wasn´t sucked into buying more clothes yay)

Barcelona Cathedral. We didn´t go inside because
the entrance fee was bit steep but I´m happy to note
that unlike in Milan where if you´re not covered from
your shoulders to your knees they won´t let you in
(even if you´re a 14 year old girl), ripped jeans and a
scoop neck top were not offensive. Unfortunately
short skirts were,
but so were short shorts so it wasn´t a sexist policy
 (like the one in Milan which was making me 

so anxious about all these church visits), just reserved.

                      

Barcelona at night from the steps of the National Museum of Art.

Lots of people were there and a guy played music on a keyboard.

Such a good atmosphere.

I have a few more pictures that you might see, if you´re lucky enough, but the layout thing is stressing me out right now. By this point, Gina was asleep in the car with Susana (she´d been so tired by the end of the day, her poor little legs). I´d taken off my shoes for the journey home, but then had to shove them back on to see this:

It was so beautiful. London from Alexandra Palace is pretty good, but here there are mountains in the distance, the old bull fighting arena and the general allure of being somewhere that´s not home. I love this city and I´m quite disappointed that I won´t be able to study there because I study castellano not catala, but I´m super excited to visit again with my mum and brother. I did get put off at some point by the policemen with massive machine guns on the edge of one of the plazas, apparently due to the heightened terrorist threat in Europe but wow, I never wanna see that again. 

Once we got home it was sleep for another early wake up the next day for a special trip through an around 150 year old canal in Montsonis (aka The Sticks)...