Barcelona, Day 2 & 3

The first day was wonderful in Barcelona even though we were exhausted. We visited so many places and walked around the entire center of Barcelona. The second day we focused on the northern and mid regions of Barcelona. Emily and I left our hotel around 11am and decided to first go to Parc Guell because it was the closest. Well, in order to get to Parc Guell, you have to hike up this extremely steep hill. The funny thing is that there are escalators every now and then to help make the trip easier and quicker...hehe. Below you can see the hike we took.

The top of the hill is where the Parc Guell is. It is a beautiful park with amazing mosaic benches. Antonio Gaudi constructed the park as well as many other famous buildings in Barcelona. The whole park is surrounded by a long and wavy connected bench which is decorated in different mosaic artistry. It is absolutely beautiful. When you walk down the hill there is a beautiful fountain with a mosaic iguana and two buildings. One is a museum and the other is a souvenir store.

After the park visit, we walked all the way to La Sagrada Familia. On the map it looked really close, but it took us about an hour to get to it. It was a nice walk though because we got to see more of Barcelona. La Sagrada Familia has to be one of my favorite cathedrals in Spain (after Toledo and Burgos). It is amazing and has incredible Greek architecture. At the front of the church, Gaudi sculpted (with stone I believe) the "last supper", Jesus on the cross, and various apostles. It is amazing the work that he did. I don´t know if you all know this, but La Sagrada Familia was never finished. Gaudi had all his ideas for the cathedral in his head and never wrote anything down. One day he was walking from the cathedral to go home and on his way, he was hit by a trolley and died. So now Spain is trying to finish the cathedral, but how Gaudi had imagined it. Enjoy these pictures.


After La Sagrada Familia, Emily and I just walked around the area of Gracia and Exiample and saw some interesting buildings. Here is one called La Casa Terrades:

It was more of a relaxing day than the first, but it was very enjoyable.

On the third day we did not enjoy our time in Barcelona because everything was closed and we were tired from all the walking and touring so we just walked around the city. Our bus ride home was better than the first time because I slept the whole way and when I got to school I was tired, but not too much. I was still able to comprehend everything and participate in class. Hope you enjoyed my post about Barcelona!
FYI I still love Madrid; it is definitely my favorite large city! This weekend I´m going to Valladolid to visit my other host family and I´m going to stay with them and also see my friend Mayuka, who is studying in Valladolid again this year! Until next time, hasta luego!
Besos, Celeste