Well the day has finally come, off to Barcelona!! We woke up at the crack of dawn to catch the taxi we scheduled last night. It was a good thing that we were skeptical of this to begin with, as all of our fears were confirmed after a half hour of no taxi. Thank goodness we didn’t have to pay until we got there, so the only loss was a bit of our sanity. We ended up taking the Metro towards the city until we noticed a lineup of taxis on the side of the road. We had read last night that a Rome initiative made all taxi rides to either airport from the city a flat rate of 30 euro, so we pounced on the opportunity. The ride was a blast! The hectic driving (they use lanes as general guidelines to be noticed at red lights only) and our route back through Appia Antica was pretty amazing. We got to the airport in plenty of time, made it through a surprisingly chill passport check and security zone before boarding our plane. If I had to describe Ryanair (aside from the best budget company ever), it would be this: the kid’s table at any family gathering (namely Passover Seder). It is much louder, pays less attention, and gets the cheaper stuff (sparkling grape juice is better anyway) than its more established counterparts.Anyway, the flight was good and when we landed, we got through the airport quickly and got on the bus into the city. The ride was pretty awesome; we rode through great countryside and saw a bunch of the city. When we got into the center we got a three-day pass for the Metro and took it to our hostel. This was probably my favorite hostel so far: it was right in the city center, very lively, had free unlimited wifi, free breakfast, and the coolest rooms ever! It was like we were in a submarine because the room was about twenty feet high and fifteen wide. On the bottom floor there was a small aisle with five beds lining each side, all of them in their own little cubicle. About eight feet above them was an identical set of ten cubicles, which was pretty crazy. We unpacked and began our first day! A side note: to my great chagrin, I discovered that my new recollection of some Spanish will be semi-useless here because they speak Catalan, which is surprisingly different.
We started walking up the main street that our hostel sits on and came to the Santa Caterina Market. This was a precedent for one of our studio projects this year, so it was pretty cool to see it in person. It is a phenomenal market to begin with, filled with the grandest assortment of fresh fruits, meats, seafood (the yucky real kind) and sweets that I have seen, and the roof is what makes it fantastic! It is a curvy, colorful structure that makes some pretty great moments at both the entrance and the interior. The back was decorated with wooden pieces that were references to the crates that the vendors used to wheel around, and it was pretty great because it looked cool and the buildings around it were given similar accents.
From there we walked across a cool exterior space that had parking underneath to the Barcelona Cathedral. Unfortunately, the first reality of traveling on our own became apparent here: having to pay for our own visits. That was ok, since one peek into the space convinced us that we had to go in. Even there was tons of construction going on, this was still a top-five space for me. The interior was a Gothic masterpiece, which means extreme height and dematerialization. The huge space was supported by humungous bundled columns that must have been at least twenty feet around! There were some awesome side chapels that followed the entire periphery, what would have been an awesome dome (it was tarped over), a great center space that was gated off, probably for VIPs of the church, an amazing crypt that sat directly below the altar and apse, and some amazing decorations all over. After walking all over we took an elevator ride up to the roof, where we got to see our first amazing views of the city as well as the awesome spires on top, even though they were scaffolded to hell. Our luck also continued, as the sun came out just as we got there! The forecast called for rain all weekend, but the sun came out within an hour of our arrival and never went away. After we came back down we went out to the cloister, which was completely different from any that I have seen before: the center was inaccessible and filled with some amazing natural gardens. The perimeter was lined with more amazing chapels, and after a quick stop in the museum off to the side we left this amazing space.We set our sights north towards some Gaudi work. Along the way we saw some cool buildings and some awful “modern” works, and stopped for some Burger King (hahaha) before heading on. Some info on Gaudi: he is easily the most famous Spanish architect, and is one of my favorites. He examined nature and used the forms inherent in plants, animals, and even humans to become structure in his work. He has one of the most distinct styles of any designer, and did things structurally that were so foreword-thinking that they are just now being understood. Anyway, we stopped first at Casa Batllo, which has a pretty fantastic façade filled with bone-like structures. One thing that we didn’t know was the area around it (as I have discussed earlier, the site is always the best part about visiting these places), and the juxtaposition of the curvy, natural forms here next to the rigid and semi-goofy design of the Casa Amatller. The line to get in was absolutely bananas, and it cost something like seventeen euro to get in, so we skipped it for now.
From there we continued walking towards another famous Gaudi: Casa Mila. This façade is much more subdued, but the forms are still amazing as the entire façade appears as one structure that happens to be broken a few times for windows. Sadly, there was another epic line here so we set our sights on the most famous building in Barcelona: Sagrada Familia.
When we got there, there was no line to get in (although here were tons of people inside already) and it was only twelve euro for the ticket and a trip up to the top! This was the best building I have ever seen, and I had my breath taken away when I walked in for only the second time (Hagia Sofia being first). We walked around the outside for a little while admiring the unbelievable scale of the spires and the supports, the great park that led into it, and the very cool and different religious ornament. When we walked in, my jaw hit the floor. We were in one of the most mind-bogglingly large spaces that I have ever been in, and the light inside was like nothing I have ever seen. Massive columns sprung from the ground all over to support the most intricately designed roof that sits a few hundred feet above the ground. Beautiful natural light somehow entered the space from everywhere, giving the space an extremely ephemeral feel, even though the mass of the walls and columns is crazy. The roof itself is a series of amazing designs that seem like the bone-structure of some fantastically magical beast. The colors of the space are in general very subdued, but there are moments in the stained glass and the hanging cross above the altar that shine with such brilliance that they warm the entire space with their glow. 
After wandering slack-jawed through this space for probably a half hour at least we walked outside the back to look at the “main” façade. The three main facades of the church represent three different religious themes (Nativity, Passion, and Glory). The back façade (Nativity) was filled with the most intricately designed ornament, composed of religious figures, animals, flowers, and ambiguous textures. Literally every square foot was accounted for, and although it was quite chaotic, the overall composition was extremely unified and beautiful. From here I went downstairs to the crypt, which holds a museum all about the construction and history of this project. I didn’t mention the fact that this work is still very much in progress, and has been since the last decade of the 1800s (the date for completion is set for 2026). This references the unbelievable designs that he created here, most of which were impossible until very recent advances in structural engineering.The museum was pretty fantastic, filled with process photos, original and restored models, drawings from his time as a student (when he first began this design), as well as the original hanging structure used to create the form of this building (Gaudi used sandbags and chains to explore gravity, and the inversion of this chandelier of sand would create the form of the building). After finishing here we met back up for our elevator ride up to the top. We got a 360 degree view out from the one of the main spires, and then began our descent down an amazing spiral stair through another of them (there are going to be eighteen by the end of construction). Once we reached the top of the main structure we entered an extremely tight stair that gets its shape from the structure of a shell.
After a few more pictures inside and a quick perusal of an exhibit about Gaudi and nature (awesome), we finally left this masterpiece (three hours later). Our next stop was at the complete other end of both the architectural and success scales: the Torre Agbar (or the Gherkin 2.0 as I call it). It was pretty awful, due in large part to its smallish scale (comparatively to where we just came from, so I suppose that is unfair), pretty ugly outside (crappy colored plastic instead of Faberge egg), and a terrifying site (the only place here that I did not feel safe). Although after a little while they turned the lights on outside, which made the building slightly more tolerable. After a little while we caught the Metro (thank goodness it was nearby!) to head out to the Barcelona Forum.
Designed by Herzog and de Meuron, one of my favorites, the forum is essentially a floating blue cheesecake, which sits on the water. We got here at night so the area around it was pretty fantastic as all of the modern towers were lit up (there was a pretty great building that was so sharply angled on one side that it looked like it was slicing through the earth). Sadly, the Forum was not lit up, and since it is more of a blueberry cheesecake, we didn’t really get the full feeling for the space underneath. However hope was not lost because we discovered a carnival that sat along the waterfront!
We believe that this was for the celebration of dance, as there were tons of tents set up with different groups performing where you could eat and watch (we think they were various boosters). There were tons of stands filled with an amazing variety of food, candy, toys, games, and pretty much any other fair-stuff you could think of (no cheese on a stick though…). The carnival ended up being absolutely gigantic, as it sat in a massive complex on one level before dropping down to the waterfront where there was a huge boulevard of rides. We walked around for a few hours just to see everything before grabbing some food (I had Buñuelos, which were tiny donuts covered in strawberry goo!) and leaving. We staggered back to the Metro and by the time we made it home we were essentially sleepwalking, so after a quick shower we collapsed in bed after the most amazing day of exploration that I can remember.
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