We woke up early again (getting really tired of that charade) so that we could get to the Sagrada Familía. For those of you who don't know, Sagrada Familía is a cornerstone of Barcelona architecture that was designed by Gaudí and construction began on it in 1882 ... they have yet to finish. Now, let's all take a moment and say, 'Oh, Spain.' Yes, despite the fact that they've been working on this thing for the last, oh, 128 years, THEY'RE STILL NOT DONE. AND THEY DONT' THINK THEY'LL BE DONE UNTIL 2026. Dude, Spain, seriously, get it together. Why hasn't Jon Stewart done a piece on this yet?
Anyway, Gaudí is really famous for taking elements in nature and using them in his design which has resulted in what can only be described, as Sandy so eloquently put it, 'The Lady Gaga of churches.' Both ridiculous and unnecessary, and yet, somehow, it still pulls us in. We beat the crowds by getting there early and headed straight to the Nativity (or Passion, can't remember) Tower and went up the elevator to the top! Definitely a cool view, but it was obstructed by the facade of the tower. You could see the beginnings of the 'Jesus Christ Tower' which will be the center piece of the church and on it's top there will be a giant cross that shines light from it's three points. Dear. God. I think even He would throw up His hands and say, 'Dude, Gaudí, too much. Too much.' It really is quite an amazing church and one that everyone must see. It is difficult to describe the church in words, so hopefully the pictures below will demonstrate just how just absurdly awesome it is.
Absurd.
The back, a.k.a. the side Gaudí did not work on ... clearly.
The beginnings of the Jesus tower. Who knows when they'll finish.
Inside ... just as ridiculous.
The House of God? The House of Gaudí? Or the Haüs of Gaga?
After Sagrada Familía we went to Parc Güell, Gaudí's other creation. It is basically a large outdoor park that Gaudí originally created with the intention of being a park for rich people. Too bad for him, that didn't quite pan out, because now it's a public park, overrun by tourists and black market sellers. Wonderful. You (Mom) may remember the park from a season of America's Next Top Model ... I think they were running through the arches in the park? Anyway, it's a nice park, but it's just a bit weird ... and brown for my taste. But the mosaic patterns were really nice.
Parc Güell ... no rich people here.
I liked these porticos ... but they weren't mind-blowing.
Outside of the mosaic plaza.
Oh hi.
Following Parc Güell, we headed back to the hostel. Sandy went to rest, and I met Igor at Plaça de Espanya for another walking adventure. This time, we went up the Magic Fountain first and headed towards the Olympic Village and the Olympic Stadium where Barcelona hosted in 1992. It was really cool to see the stadium, although a bit surprising because it seemed really small in comparison to, say Beijing for instance, or even the venue for Sydney. It was really awesome to see where the whole thing happened though, but we weren't done there. Oh no. This was an Igor tour after all! We continued to climb Montjuïc to get to the fort at the very top; man was it a hike!
Do I hear 'Summon the Heroes' playing?
You can see the white spire of the Olympic Village.
At the top we walked around the old fort that used to guard Barcelona during World War II and sat and chatted like we always used to do. Igor and I always had such lovely chats and it was so wonderful to be able to just sit and talk again. I miss that a lot about His Royal Highness. Following our chat, Igor and I walked down the other side of Montjuïc. On the way down, we found a beautiful man-made waterfall, a really manly statue of a flamenco dancer, and, most importantly, A ZIP LINE!!!!!! It was just there, so we figured, 'why not?' and jumped on it. Igor's height gave him the advantage so he was able to go all the way across with hardly any effort. Tall people ... ugh.
Photo taken from the fort, courtesy of Prince Ihar.
At the waterfall.
Igor and the really jacked flamenco dancer. We're still debating the statue's gender.
Igor on the zip line!
After this Igor dropped me off at the hostel. We said goodbye, both incredibly sad that our time had ended, but with the reassurance of 'we'll definitely see each other again'. Igor and I will make it happen!
But our story doesn't end here. Something I haven't mentioned about Sandy is that she has a deathly, and frankly, irrational fear of gingers. As in, she is horrified by them. I get back to the hostel and walk into our room, and Sandy said, 'OMG! The worst night of my life is about to occur!' She then proceeded to tell me that, not just a ginger, but a 6'10" bearded ginger was sleeping in the bunk below her. I nearly died laughing. But when he came in, he and I hit it off really well because he's from Tacoma, Washington and we're both big fans of the Mariners and had an awesome chat about the glory days with Ken Griffey, Randy Johnson, Alex Rodriguez (before he became a traitor and a jerk), Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez ... it was like revisiting my childhood. Sandy just looked at us funny. We closed out the evening with dinner at Hard Rock where they have this awesome haystack salad. Good way to end a grand day!
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