"Todo lo que no es oro brillo no todos los que vagan están perdidos." J.R.R. Tolkien

Qué bonito es no hacer nada y luego descansar después. -Spanish Proverb.

Ok, sorry sorry! I know that I haven't written anything for about a week, but I have good reason, it's been ridiculously busy!

Thursday we had class in the morning and then caught a bus at 3:30 to Valencia. We meant to take a train shortly thereafter to get to Barcelona, but since it takes about three 3x the amount of time it should for our group to go anywhere (because there are so many of us) we skipped the stress and decided to take a break in Valencia and grab some food. Joe, Kathryn, Priscilla, Bill, Betty and I walked all the way to the square in front of the Cathedral because I really wanted to get some chocolate and churros a few other people had been raging about how ridiculously good they were there. And I was completely satisfied, they were great! Definitely worth the walk over :)

After that we caught a 8:20 train to Barcelona and were able to find the hostal with only about 10 minutes of walking in the wrong direction (which actually truly is not that bad for us!). We checked in and it turned out that we had to all pay up front for the 4 days in cash, and that we were going to be in two different buildings, which was frustratings, but it worked out alright. The hostals weren't that terrible, but after the last one that we had stayed in I think there certainly were some unreasonably high expectations for this one. Ah well, such as life. We all survived just fine :) And we made some friends with the neighbors staying in the same flat. The night was saved by finding a decently priced dinner, which turned out to be pretty good with some fantastic sangria.

The next day we started out early after some breakfast at the hostal. First we headed to the Picasso Museum since we figured that it would be a good way to ease into things after a day of travel. We weren't able to take pictures, but we were able to negotiate a group price. To see some pictures from the museum visit here. One of the things that is neat about Barcelona is the artistic history. It is most famous for the work that Picasso and Gaudi did throughout the city, as both spent much time there.

After the visit at the Picasso museum we walked to the Church of Santa Maria which was known for being constructed by ship builders. Ship captains would put models of their ships at the feet of Mary at the high altar to ask for a safe travel. The other thing that is remarkable about this church is the columnns shown below. Gaudi used to visit here and the columns, which almost have almost a nature-like aspect to them, inspired Gaudi in later works.

After a quick lunch we headed to the Sagrada Familia which was/is Gaudi's most famous work. It is a church that Gaudi designed but died while still working on it. There is some controversy over continued construction of the church since most of Gaudi's designs were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War, but Barcelona has decided that it is something that needs to be done. I personally have to agree though I know that the building has come on and off, but though unfinished it had some of the most interesting and intriguing architecture that we've seen on the trip so far. Below is the Passion facade which was completed recently (and was not designed by Gaudi). If you follow the progression of pictures in a reverse "Z" starting at the bottom left of the picture it shows Jesus's life ending in the figure perched on the bridge that is meant to portray Jesus's spirt ascending into heaven.The next two pictures are from the interior of the church (or the Nave), the most unfinished section of the church. Most of this was covered in scaffolding so we couldn't see that much, but the size was still impressive. All the white windows have plans to be changed to stained glass in the future.The ceiling:The nativity facade on the opposite side of the church from the passion facade. This side was completely designed and finished by Gaudi first. Part of the purpose of it was to inspire investors to continue funding since Gaudi knew that it would be a challenge to have consistant funds for the building of such an extravagant church.
More work that was finished on the church. We had to pay 2.50 euro to go to the top of the tower, but I think it was worth it, we got to see many other parts of the church that we otherwise would not have noticed.Look how high up we are! Notice the shadow on the ground :) After the Sagrada Familia we headed over to Parc Guell which is a park which was originally designed to be a residential housing district for the upper classs. Designed by Gaudi it is quite extravagant and intriguing. It didn't end up being sucessful as an elite neighborhood because it was so far away for the inner social circles. Main entrance:
Part of one of the side walks:On the ceiling in an area with many columns, shown below:The girls! We're sitting on the famous bench that Gaudi designed. It wraps all the way around a large open area and is completely covered in mosaics.The boys as well:The view:After Parc Guell everyone was pretty tired. We headed back towards the hostal after getting some information for the traveler's center and walked part of Las Ramblas. The building that I stayed in was right on Las Ramblas (one of the main streets of Barcelona. The best shopping is at one end, the port at the other), which made for a nice view, though it was somewhat loud at times. We grabbed some food and then ended up going out for a bit. I actually left early and headed to bed after our first stop, I was tired!
Saturday we woke up and headed out on a Barri Gotic walk, which is an area of the city. After seeing a few churches we stopped by the Cathedral, which was very neat. It has an enclosed courtyard attached to the church, and is home to 13 geese. The geese were once used a cheap "burgler alarm" for the monks, and as tradition, still live there today. I didn't get great pictures, but to see some more, and for more information visit here.
The outer courtyard:
The inner CathedralThe geese! After seeing the Cathedral we headed to Camp Nou,
which is the stadium that FCBarcelona plays at. Unfortunately there will be a U2 concert there on July 4th so they were building the stage on the field while we were there, but it was still pretty neat. I went into it excited, but not expecting much, but the tour was fantastic. We got to walk almost right up the the field
and see everything from the chapel, the press box to the presidential seats. The tour ended in the museum.
After spending some time in the museum, and a thorough inspection of the store, we headed back towards the inner city to see some more of Gaudi's work. Casa Mila is one of his most famous, but we also go to see a few other's on a guided tour by Rick Steve's.After a short nap and dinner we ended up having a mini-fiesta in our room with our new-found neighbors (there were Americans, a few English and some Italians) and basically just had a good time all-around, and headed to a dance club.
The next morning we went to church at the Cathedral and while some spent some time sleeping and shopping, the rest headed to see Montjuic. We walked to the port (yay!) and then took a Gondola up to the Montuic area. While we didn't go see the castle, we did go see the Olympic Stadium
and the Catalan Art Museum. We made good use of the grass nearby and took a 20 minute nap since it was so ridiculously hot out. After that, and a short metro ride, we went to see a bull fight!
The bull fight was intense....fascinating...and a little confusing. Long story short, 3 matadors fight two bulls each, which ends up in the bull getting killed. If you'd like to know more about bull fights, this is the wiki opinion. By the time the bull fight was over we were starving, but managed to find a Dominoes and so were quite pleased with ourselves. We were going to take the metro to a club that we had heard about, but found out the metro was closed. So after a short night we all crashed and caught up on a bit of sleep.
Monday morning we all slept in a bit and spent some time trinket shopping before spending the rest of the day taking the train back to Alcoy. (We even did some homework on the way :p) Rocio and Pau were nice enough to delay dinner for us, so we were lucky enough to have food to greet us so we were all happy.

Today class was moved until the afternoon so we all (for the most part) caught up on some sleep and worked on our Notebooks all day until class. After some dinner, El Internado and some intense catchup on email, SLEEP!

"All that is gold does not glitter not all those who wander are lost." J.R.R. Tolkien
How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterwards. -Spanish Proverb