Barcelona Day 3 - Gaudi is a Genius

So I've had my final day in Barcelona, and in the morning I'm off to Madrid.

I started today with a trip up to Tibidabo--I took a bus, another bus, and the funicular up to the top of the mountain for a look at the church and amusement park. The church is really nice; kind of small and quant, with some really lovely stained glass windows. The view from up there would normally be great, but unfortunately it was cloudy this morning so I couldn't see much. Luckily, I saw plenty of panoramic views of the city from Montjuic yesterday, so I wasn't too disappointed. After the church, I checked out the little amusement park up there. I don't know why, but there were very few people there today, so the place was deserted and a little bit creepy--something about an empty amusement park makes my skin crawl. So, I caught the funicular back down and continued on my way.

At this point I gave up on public transport for basically the whole day, and I'm pretty sure I walked all of Barcelona. My feet really really hurt. I wandered around for probably an hour or more looking for Parc Guell--a development masterminded by the incomparable Gaudi and turned into a public park. My great sense of direction took me in a couple of circles, then, when I thought I was definitely going the wrong direction but walking forward anyway (looking for a bus stop) I found the street I was looking for. It had a sign pointing toward Parc Guell, so I followed along, but the signs stopped and I was lost again. Anyway, I wandered a while longer and eventually found the back entrance to the Parc. That was another mistake, as all of the paths leading to the monuments area--which is really the only thing anyone goes to Parc Guell for--were blocked off with fences. So I wandered about, following path after path that each invariably led to a locked gate and a sign saying ¨Monuments Gaudi¨that I could not follow, for probably another hour. I felt like I was in a nightmarish fun house designed to drive me slowly insane. Finally, I ran into a lovely Chillean girl who was in the same predicament (it wasn't just me going crazy, thank God), and together we found our way around to the front entrance and the desired monuments. Those were amazing. I cannot emphasize enough how incredible Gaudi's work is. A lot of the work there--benches and fountains and houses--were done in large part in mosaic tiles, which must have taken ages. But more than that, there's just a shape to Gaudi's work that I have never seen and whih is incredibly appealing. I'll put pictures up when I can; it's really fantastic.

So then the Chillean girl (her name escapes me now) and I walked over to the Sagrada Familia--a much further walk than I had anticipated, but again, totally worth it. And it was handy to have a Spanish speaker around to ask directions. The Sagrada Familia is now my favorite church in Europe. As I was explaining to a very nice Catalan guy in a park yesterday, all of the churches in Europe are done in pretty much the same style--big archways, stained glass windows, carvings of various saints in various numbers, Jesus on the cross, etc. They are beautiful and moving, but after seeing so many in so many cities over the last few years, they're a little boring. The Sagrada Familia follows the blueprint of these--the archways and windows and carvings--but Gaudi makes it so much more interesting with his modernist shapes. The carvings were much more emotional than the normal ones of dead saints--they depicted actual scenes from the Bible, with very human expressions of abject sadness and faith and determination. Most churches have a much more staid feeling to them; something about the Sagrada Familia is much more accessable. And again, the shapes that his buildings take are so abnormal but beautiful. You wonder what was going on in his mind to have been able to create these things. It's really been my favorite part of Spain so far.

Leaving there, I made one last trek accross the city for a final walk down La Rambla, then stopped for some fantastic Paella--whoever came up with that is a genius too--and made my way back to the hostel. Now it's time for bed, and more Spanish adventures tomorrow.