[2016-06-22: San Jose to Barcelona]
Today is the first day of our world trip. I can’t believe that it happened already. At the airport we tried to check-in our bags, but the ticket agent said that our flight was canceled! She said we had to fly the next day. Our travel agent canceled the flight without telling us!
Luckily we were able to book the next flights. We had dinner at the airport and set off on our journey.
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2016-06-23 Barcelona
As we flew over the city, we spotted fireworks. As we drove to our apartment a 12 am, we saw kids younger than me walking to the park to celebrate. It was a holiday. Yet still tomorrow, it would be a weekday, and you have to go to work and school. I was amazed by their party.
2016-06-24 Barcelona
Today was a holiday in honor of Sant Joan (Saint John). We were jet-lagged and decided to just take a walk in our neighborhood, El Born.
The city was beautiful. I was amazed to see modern buildings right next to old ones. There were still fireworks going off that day from yesterday’s holiday. We got to see many cute alleys that had family-owned shops.
We first went to a park near Arc de Triomf, called Parc de la Ciutadella.
Arc de Triomf
Beautiful Fountain in Parc de la Ciutadella
After that we had lunch at Mercat Princesa (note: Barcelonians eat long and late lunches, they also go to bed very late).
After that we went to Port Vell, and then visited the nice beaches. I was shocked to see that women were allowed to go topless at beaches in Barcelona.
El Peix, The Fish, Statue, By Frank Gehry, looks like a potato chip from the front
There was a SUP and sailboat rental at the end of the beach called Playa Vila Olimpica, but we couldn’t rent the sailboats.
2016-06-25 Barcelona
We took a walk to a castle called Castell de Montjuic. On our way we went through the Gothic Quarter. It was full of old fashion buildings, churches, houses, and cobblestone roads. There was one wall that exposed the pottery plumbing made of what looked like roof tile. We also saw Catedral de Barcelona and an apartment with eyeballs!
Old “Pottery” Plumbing
Catedral de Barcelona
We then went through a neighborhood called El Raval. There, we went to Placa de Catalunya, then to a road that separates the Gothic Quarter from El Raval, and goes down to the beach. We ate at a market called Mercado de la Boqueria, it was huge!
Mercado de la Boqueria
After that we went to a palace called Palau Guell made by the architect Gaudi. It had air vents, beautiful stairways, and even a china toilet. We could see how much work Gaudi had put into the building.
Rooftop Air Vents @ Palau Guell
After the palace we got onto a Metro funicular that took us to the base of Montjuic, then we took a taxi to the castle. The castle was amazing. It had bunkers for gunners, loopholes for archers, cannons, and a heavy duty artillery. It was amazing to wander through the endless hallways. It was funny to see modern army equipment in a castle. From the fort, we could see La Sagrada Familia, the world’s largest church!!
2016-06-26 Barcelona
Today we went through the Gothic Quarter of the city. We walked to the famous street, La Rambla. La Rambla had a huge market called La Boqueria that was full of fresh meat, vegetables, and fruit.
After buying and eating lunch we went to the beach. There we swam laps and played in the waves. There was a lot of fish near the shore that you could easily see if you had goggles.
2016-06-27 Barcelona
Today we visited La Sagrada Familia. I wrote “La Sagrada Familia’s Sculptures” for my school work in my next post.
In addition to its impressive sculptures, La Sagrada Familia also has beautiful ceiling. The ceiling is domed and rounded. The domes are decorated with many gold embroideries. The columns are made out of different kinds of stone, based on the size of the column. The columns also split halfway up as if they were trees.
2016-06-28 Barcelona
My sailing coach Udi introduced me to Monica at Club Nàutic El Masnou, which is near Barcelona, so that I could sail. My family took the train to the harbor. At first I was nervous about sailing there because it looked as if I would be the only Opti sailor, but more sailors came and I ended up really enjoying sailing there. The swell was about three feet, and there was about 15 knots of wind. We did a two-lap course for the races. The races were fun even though there were only three people. I made friends with one of the sailors, Juan, he taught me something about how to surf waves. Monica was very nice, she even showed us a pool at the club!! I feel more confident and am probably going to go there again.
After the sail, we went to the Picasso museum. The earlier drawings he did in his life were very good. They really captured the light, and were realistic. His later works weren’t realistic and he especially liked to draw mis- proportioned nudes. Later, he drew more abstract portraits with noses on the forehead, eyes on the chin, and ears on the neck. I think that what he did in his later life was a bit weird.
2016-06-29 Barcelona
Today we returned to the sailing club. Today there was much more wind, and gave me the pleasing thrill. We did some more races. This time, though, I sailed against Picos. A pico is a two person sailboat. One of these picos, there were 3 small kids. After a while, more optis came. I got tired, and went back to the dock. We didn’t go to the pool today, we took the train back to see Park Guell.
Also designed by Gaudi, Park Guell is the Guell family’s’ summer home. Gaudi lived there for some time while overseeing the construction. It was huge! We didn’t enter the main building, but we could see it from the outside. The garden arches and balconies here were very rocky and natural. They looked very unstable, and a bit scary.
We then drove to the modernist buildings. They were very unique. I really liked them, but we didn’t go into these either. We didn’t go inside because we were running out of time. One was wavy, and the other had fish scale-like roof.
Casa Mila by Gaudi
Casa Batllo by Gaudi
