September 17th, Saturday
Day 3 in Barcelona and we decided to visit two major works of Gaudi - Sagrada Familia and Park Guell. Traveler's tip: Sagrada Familia has its own line found in L5. The train system in Barcelona looks confusing at first but once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to connect train rides in order to reach your desired destination.
From the outside, it looks like the church is plain boring. But trust me when I tell you that it's worth the wait. To be honest, the wait isn't that long - it will only take about 20 minutes just to get inside.
There is but an entrance fee to get in but again, it's all worth it! Since I am a student, I was able to get my ticket cheaper. I got the deal where I can enter the church and enter the house of Gaudi in Park Guell.
This are some of the images I took of the front of the church. Imagine, Gaudi conceptualized all of these!! These are all scenes from the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.
The minute I entered the church, I seriously felt jitters and butterflies in my stomach! This church is by far the most amazing church I've ever been to.
The church was so serene and peaceful.
They even a holy water place for the Filipinos!
These pictures I posted don't reflect whatsoever the beauty of the church. You really have to go inside in order to appreciate the beauty of it all.
The Paterrnoster. The central part of this bronze door contains the entire text of the Paternoster in Catalan, and on the 2 sides, in 50 languages, the phrase "Give us this day our daily bread."
Yey! It was pretty cool seeing that Filipino was one of the 50 languages!
This part of the church was dedicated to the nativity of Jesus. Gaudi really is a genius - he interpreted and executed the scenes very well.
We also went inside the museum. In here, you can some of the models he used for his creations. Gaudi is an unconventional artist. He's the type that doesn't like planning his work through blue prints. He like sculpting miniature versions of it. As you can see in the following slides, they also look like even they're models only.
Apparently, this is how Gaudi looks like!
After about 2 hours in Sagrada, we took the L3 metro to go up to Lesseps. This is the nearest stop to get to Park Guell. From the station, you'd have to walk uphill to get to the park.
Seems like the locals don't like tourists at all! Haha. Anyway, don't worry guys! The last stretch of walking uphill is the easiest part because there are elevators!
This is yet again built by Gaudi from 1900-1914. It's a garden complex with architectural elements. As you can see in the map, the floor plannings is out of this world. There are so many different parts of the park that you that's just so much to see in every section.
The municipal garden is filled with mosaic art. There are also a lot of vendors situated at the center of the garden. Mind you, it's not really a garden garden with flowers and grass. This is one area of the serpentine beaches along this section.
This part of the park really looks like a cave!
It even has a hidden woman! Haha
And a hidden tree!
These pictures are the many few tile artworks that I love the most. Do you notice the materials Gaudi used cups, glasses and plates! I'm now inspired to use broken pieces of glass to create art pieces again! :)
I couldn't help it - I just had to pose here. Kid at Heart pose!
Our last stop was to pass by the house of Gaudi. There was this awesome hallway that Kwi and I took turn in taking paparazzi shots of each other!
Beside the hallway, was this tree filled with cheesy cravings/writings..
..And I just had to write on it! HAHAHAHA. When I come back (hopefully in 2-3 years), I'll surely come back here and laugh at my childish ways!
The house of Gaudi had so much wood. I'm pretty sure my dad would have enjoyed viewing his house!
Look out the quaint looking bathroom!
And again, another gold man! It's amazing that I haven't seen any duplicate of characters. Check out the pose of this man - I don't know how he does it. He's been sitting like that for a long time before I took a picture of him.
We took a detour back to Catalunya, and yes by walking back to our hostel. Before hitting home, we wanted to check out another casa (I think it was Casa Vicens if I'm not mistaken). Anyway, when we got there it seemed like it was close (or maybe because we were during siesta).
We decided to end our afternoon with the heavenly 1EUR churros in Xurreria! :)
We agreed to attend Travel Bar's Flamenco and Tapas night. Traveler's tip: for those who want a whole package experience of Spain, I suggest you see a flamenco dance. Travel Bar offers tours and other classes that are very reasonable! The Flamenco and Tapas night costs 23EUR with discount (this means to say you have to show their flyer in order for you avail of the discount).
The catch is to all meet up in Travel Bar and from there, a promoter will approach you and take you to wherever the show is.
Our promoter/guide took us to Tarantos. I've never heard of the bar but since it had flamenco dancing it was worth to watch!
The show not only consisted of flamenco dancing, it also had singing and a guy who was playing the Spanish guitar! I'm quite amazed with the guitarist. I heard that the Spanish guitar is the second hardest instrument to play so hearing this man play beautiful notes was truly amazing! It seems like there are two guitars playing!!!!!!
After the show, we were brought to Port Bar (an affiliate bar of Travel Bar) and this is where we had unlimited Sangria and tapas (nope, the tapas was not unlimited).
Oh the best part about this night was that we were only 3 travelers! Kwi and I met this German named Johan who was the third traveler. Haha. So here we have it - the typical tapas preparation.
First, you rub the tomato against a slice of bread and then you pour a few drops of olive oil into the bread. After which, it's up to you on what topping you want - it can be manchego, olives, onions, or the jamon. Delish!!!
Here's the other tapas that was given. We had pimiento, calamari and tortilla. Super super good again!
And aside from our tapas, we were given a baby cup of paella!!!! Oh this was really an awesome night :) :)
xx
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