Freitag, 6. Mai 2016

Barcelona and Colorful Tiles

Holaaaa!

Here comes my second blog post in English! Last weekend I finally made something happen that I've been wanting for a while: a visit to Barcelona.


From Santiago de Compostela I flew to the other side of Spain where I would join four lovely EVS volunteers from Alicante: Hanna from Germany, Anne from France, Patricia from Portugal and Brandon from Ireland. After an hour or more of me walking through the city trying to find them I eventually did so in La Rambla, one of Barcelona's famous streets full of shop stands and people.
We started walking down La Rambla to the harbour, had lunch there and continued through the streets to a beach and then strolled through the gothic part of town all day.
Did you know that in Cataluña they don't just speak the typical „Castellano Spanish“ but another official language that sounds like a mix of Spanish and French? Walking around reading signs (and not knowing French) I would have also believed it if someone had told be that I'm in Paris. Well, ok, not quite.

We were curious at trying a sweet wine that is typical for the area and shared two glasses between the four of us. I do say, even a few small sips made me giggly, I'm just not used to it. 
In the evening we arrived at the hostel and fell into our beds after midnight.





The next morning was exciting: We went to see several building that the famous Antoni Gaudí had designed in the early 20th century. First the Casa Batló, then the Casa Milà and at last the amazing cathedral Sagrada Familia, its name meaning „sacred family“ and with which Gaudí referred himself to the church. We arrived to the cathedral after a walk through an yet unseen part of the city and by then it was late afternoon and almost all the tickets for the day had been sold out. So we reserved some for the following day and continued to the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña and explored the park, saw the sun set with a great view of the city and sat at the steps of the castle in twilight. 
Many men tried to sell us water, selfie-sticks and other things which showed that there evidently are a lot of beautyful sights and places, yet also injustice and poberty as in any other city.


















The following day we searched and found a market with lots of yummy fruit, smoothies and other spanish foods. I got myself ten medjool dates and a „tutti frutti“ smoothie- mhhm! 
It's fun to be vegan, I eat nature's yummiest and juiciest gifts! Plus, it's cruetly free and healthy!
So, then we walked up the mountain and had planned to visit the Park Güell, another magical place by Gaudí but they said there weren't any tickets available until 7 PM. I was a bit disapointed because I would have to leave the city at 5 PM to catch my plane back to Santiago. The others were lucky to have another day so we went to reserve their tickets. Hanna heard a man selling one last ticket he had left and we approached him asking about the price and if what he did was actually legal. Yes, and the price was that of any ticket. Wow! So, thankful I had this opportunity, I got the ticket and visited the park while the others waited in the surrounding park outside the entrance. 
I loved the view! And I really like Gaudí's style as it's inspired by nature, it's colorful, different. He used a lot of mosaic which is such a beautiful way to create art and also very sustainable because of the reuse of old, thrown away tile pieces. To but it in a nutshell: thumbs up!
And lastly we arrived at Sagrada Familia and when I entered I had a big smile on my face.
It's just different in there and the tinted glass windows dipped the air into rainbow light. 
I walked around, sat still and thought, walked around some more and had a snack outside. 
After a long visit it was time to leave and say good-bye to my new friends that had welcomed me so warmly to their trip. Thank you Hanna, Anne, Patricia and Brandon!
I got to the airport without complications and flew across Spain in the sunset. What a trip!























And if you're curious to see some more, I made a video of the trip as well on my YouTube channel called The Inspired Travel Mouse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKzmsfmumQo&feature=youtu.be

Hugs from Spain,
your Travel Mouse/ Reisemaus 

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