City Exploration and the Sagrada Familia

Friday it rained all day. It was perfect for a day dedicated to museums!

I marked my maps with the top five museums I wanted to go to. I ended up going to three since my feet were in pain from all the walking I did by early evening. 8-9 hours of walking - amost everyday - will do that to you! But it was a good pain. I saw so much.

I went to the Picasso Musuem, the Museum of History of Barcelona, and the MEAM.

Unfortunately, no photos were allowed to be taken in the Picasso Museum. The museum is curated in a way that you see Picasso's early works from when he was 11 and throughout the rest of his life. You can identify the periods of tim, especially when he was experimenting (including the famous "Blue Period") and how/why he was inspired to start painting in a certain style. 

Going through this museum I felt inspired to start painting again. One of my favorite works I saw that I felt had a huge impact on me, was the Woman in a Mantilla.

The canvas was huge and on it's own wall so I felt drawn into it. It is a mixed style of pointillism and realism and was half finished, which I really liked. I always loved pointillism. It is a repetitive technique I find really relaxing - to use and to look at. I haven't used this technique since I was a freshman in college.

I kind of want to break out my paintbrushes again one day and start being more creative outside my job. I already was looking into scupture studios a few months ago. Perhaps I should start looking again.

After the Picasso Museum, I walked over to the History of Barcelona Museum. I was really excited to see some pre-modern ruins and history. The museum is built ontop of ancient Barcelona (when it was Barcino in Roman times). You're basically time traveling from the Roman era, then when the Visigoths ruled, ans on and on until you reached modern time.

The elevator took you down to "-11" after going down from the 2000 to indicate time on the monitor where it would display the floor level. I thought that was really cool.

Down here there were areas where you could see the original city walls, spas, fish salting / sauce making factory and wine making factory. 

I probably spent the longest time here, maybe two hours? There was so much to see and read about. 

It was 2pm by the time I finished so I was seriously hungry. I went to a restaraunt recommended by the hostel manager "Mosquito". It was a chinese tapas restaurant though it only has a few tables and a bar. I sat at the bar!

Obviously, I inhaled everything. I got dumpling noodles for the first time 😍 10/10, would come back to Mosquito. When I told the evening hostel desk guy, he fist bumped me and said that is the best place to get Chinese food in Barcelona.

After that, I debated going to the MEAM or the Comporary Art museum. I decided to go to the MEAM because it was closer and my feet were already killing me once again. I thought I would see classical European modern art ... or something? But it was not like that at all! It was modern art, as in, art between 1970s to 2017.

It was odd but also kind of cool? Definitely a different art experience for sure. I got to see a painting class occur in one of the open studios in the museum. They were all so good! 

 

 

i've seen these paintings on the internet so i was really surprised to see these here!

painting class

can you believe this is a painting???? i thought it was a (broken) screen at first glance!

Thus concludes my day of the museum. My feet were hurting and the rain was pouring so I was feeling like I was done with the day. I wandered around a only a few minutes more before catching the metro and walked back to my hostel.

Saturday is a little more exciting! Today was the day I was finally going to go inside Sagrada Familia. Passing by it everyday was great, but it built up my excitment to go inside. My entrance ticket wasn't good until 4pm, so I had a lot of time.

And I had no plan whatsoever for the day. Took me a while. I ended up winging it.

Decided to explore Plaça de Catalunya since I never had the chance to explore it on my first day in Barcelona. Great big square - should be named Plaça de Pigeons instead, since there were hundreds of pigeons waddling around without a care. There were some great sculptures to see as well.

Even though I had breakfast at my hostel, I saw this cute cafe while wandering around Plaça de Catalunya and got some cappuccino and avocado toast. You may be enticed to make millenial jokes here. Though I didn't expect the toast to be so big! Barcelona does not jerk around.

From there, I wanted to see the Theatre and the Mercat de Sant Antoni. Basically checking off the bigger landmarks I could see on my map. I also purposely decided to end my day at Mercat de Sant Antoni since the metro goes straight to the one closest to both my hostel and the Sagrada Familia.

The theater -- with legs sticking out of it!

Eventually I found the market but unfortunately it was closed for renovations. I was really bummed out until I did some more walking and found that they had a temporary market set up.

I felt like I was the only tourist there! 

(snails!)

Eventually the food turned into clothing and home goods....... which I forgot to take a photo of with my phones, whoops! Just imagine the food stands above but with clothes, sometimes reachng to the ceiling! It was pretty cool. Seems like a quick cheap way to get things.

I took the metro back to Monumental, the metro stop closest to my hostel so I could rest my feet and charge my phone power bank for an hour or two. 

I walked to Sagrada Familia around 3:30, my tickets allows me entrance starting at 4:15, so I sat at the steps at the base of the church after admiring the outside in close detail.

Finally got in at 4:15 and got the audio tour piece which kinda did not help me since they employed earphones rather than headphones or those kinds you place against your ears like a phone (which the History Museum used and that worked better for me!) 

First part of the audio "tour" was some information on the exterior - explaining each tower and sculpture symbolism. 

Once I went inside through the iron doors (made to look like a garden of roses), it was a totally different feeling than the imposing and chaotic exterior.

It was light. Colorful! Geometric.

After taking a million photos of this central room which essentially took up most of the church, I decided it was time to visit the Nativity tower (which costs extra vs a standard ticket).

There was an elevator that takes 5 people up at a time, and then 400 stairs to go down to exit. The Nativity tower has a bridge you cross from the elevator to get to the tower, as opposed to the Passion tower which you just go up and down. I chose Nativity tower for this reason. This way, I get to see/do more out of this visit.

And so, up I went until the people were small dots on the ground.

And I crossed to the tower, and then down I went. 

400 stairs!

The exit door you kind of have to duck out of. So nondescript and unexpecting!

Kind of sad my last big adventure came to a close. I returned to my hostel to pack a little and to get my book. I headed to the Gaudì Avenue to find a place to eat dinner. 

I ended up at a restaraunt that was next to the one I ate at the other night prior. It was so good! I couldn'thelp  myself with the tapas. I ordered the eggplant crisps drizzled with honey (yum?!). I really want to try to recreate it.

l finally got a sangria - fitting that its on my last night in Barcelona. The "copa de Sangria" was much much larger than I anticipated. But I finished it all. Excuse the burger... I was definitely hungry.

I made it past page 400 of my book that evening. Reading has gotten a little easier.

I returned to my hostel and watched a few epsides of Star Trek Voyager in the common room until around 11pm, mostly to keep the evening hostel desk guy company - he just needed someone to talk to/vent about life and work. Everyone else was out late since it was Saturday night. 

I slept in (only slightly) the next morning. I quickly packed and ate breakfast. I checked out and talked to the morning desk host guy to get the quickest/cheapest way to the airport. When I arrived in Barcelona, I took an airport bus shuttle to Plaça de Catalunya and walked 40 mins to my hostel.

This time, I took the metro since I got more familiar with it. I walked to Sagrada Familia metro (one last time with a view) and took it to a stop where I switched to a diffferent line. I took the second line all the way to the airport. With this ride, I juuuust used up my T-10 metro pass. It was just enough for my stay.

I had time to spare, so I got to explore the airport a little, buy something from Zara (a fall coat, something that would be cheaper to buy there rather than in the US) and enjoyed some coffee and small proscuitto sandwich. I used the last of my euro bills.

A short flight and layover later in Frankfurt, I was well on my way home to Boston.

As I write this, I am halfway over the Atlantic Ocean.

It is going to be weird when I get back.

Work will be different. A coworker has left, a new one has replaced her, my manager will be starting to exit her position as creative director, my role will change a little to adopt more managerial tasks, and my desk will likely be in a different place.

Traveling alone was definitely rewarding. I had to think for myself and figure out how to go to places or do certain things on my own. I also got to do whatever I wanted to do, at my own pace. I'd like to think I grew a little more as a person. And surprisingly, I got inspired.

But it did get a little lonely, sometimes. Sometimes I would experience something and I would want to share it with someone. Sometimes I'd see something that I knew a certain person would appreciate. I had definitely missed my family and friends.

Maybe I wasn't really alone after all. Thanks for following me along this trip.