Barcelona

This is going to be a long one. I just couldn't cut it down anymore. We saw so much in Barcelona and everything seemed to be more impressive than the last. For some reason, Jess & I could not sleep during our last night in Madrid. We passed out during the 2 hour Spanair flight to Barcelona and woke up to this gorgeous sight. It is probably the nicest airport I've ever been to. I should've known that any city with an airport this beautiful appreciates its architecture.

The Hotel Guillermo Tell was also excellent. Complete with free wireless internet which we loved. I checked my gmail before I settled down for my nap, of course.

Placa de Catalunya, Barcelona's city centre

Bus tour again!

The Casa Mila by Antoni Gaudi (famous Catalan architect). This man's work is all over the city. If you keep scrolling down, you'll see why.

Parc Espanya Industrial. It's known for those light post looking things in the middle.

interesting metal sculpture

La Sagrada Familia. Gaudi's Roman Catholic church masterpiece.

The doors at the entrance were covered with these letters.

It has been under construction since before 1900 and it's expected date of completion is around 2030. There was scaffolding and men in hard hats everywhere.

Rear view of the church



Look at the amazing detail

We decided to pay to take the lift to the top. The money from ticket/lift ticket sales goes towards the building's construction costs. Here's the view from the top.



We made a friend from Colorado at the top. She took this for us.

Unfortunately, it was a one way ticket and we had to walk down. It was dizzying.

Beautiful stained glass. I doubt we'll see anything that beats this during the rest of the trip.

Gaudi love

I ran out of cash so I took pictures of things at the gift shop instead.

Front entrance

Pavellons Guell. I tried to get a shot of the dragon gate.

FC Barcelona Stadium

HUGE Sephora. I bought some lipgloss :)

cheap & good wine



It was the solar festival or something? People were lighting fireworks ALL over the place.

We walked and walked and got lost a little...and then walked more. All to find this restaurant that Heather recommended :). But we found it!!

such a cute theme

and good gazpacho

and mushroom omelettes

We tried to catch the Torre Agbar lit up, but it was dark. Apparently it only gets lit on weekends til midnight?

This is what we wanted to see (pulled this off of google images).

Oh well...still happy!

Mmm Fresc Co buffet. We searched high and low for this place too.

This lady was passed out on the ground in the middle of the day! It kinda reminded us of what we may have looked like in DC...but at least we went for the grass and not concrete!

Welcoming mural on the way to Park Guell.

Park Guell

The theme of the trip is totally BUBBLES.



the open terrace

everyone was just chillin & listening to the music.

bird's eye view of the entrance

mosaic tiling

everywhere





it was another HOT day











Doesn't this kinda look Chinese?



So many things to see in this one park...we spotted this from across the way and walked along the ridge to get here.

The top is so much better than the bottom.





gorgeous

even the plain white



The real lizard!! (not the fake one that I took a pic of in the gift store the day before)

close up

In front of the entrance (we went backwards).

Look at these metal window guard thingys...so much more stylish than the one's at USC. If I ever end up back in South Central, I want these!

Flower pics are my new fave hobby.

Lavender...smelled so good too!



Gaudi's house







inside the house/museum

green room!

alien

i liked the dragon detailing

There were embellishments everywhere.

more wrought iron

and through the trees I spied a model doing a photoshoot. She has bigger hair than me!

I found a DRACULA popsicle! (and bacon cheetos mmm)

It was black on the outside, red on the inside AND there was ice cream on the bottom too!

Sleeping in parks is totally accepted in Europe.

Japanese food in Barcelona!



Beer & Sake.

"sangria" to go

cinnamon gelato

free shots

boulevard

they had a hiphop room!!!

This guy is studying abroad in Rome but he goes to LMU (small world again) so we talked LA! His name was Dale.

Pita Inn. It was pretty damn delish.

We got off on the wrong metro stop. Photo op at Placa d'Espanya.





taking the Funicular up Montjuic

Olympic Stadium







I'm not sure what this thing is. I think it might be a telecommunication tower that happens to look nice also?

Front entrance to the stadium

Closer look

Volvo Bus!

I think my foot is bigger than Lance's...weird.

But not bigger than this guy's.

Olympic Museum

We didn't go in, but we snuck a little peak.

The Teleferic de Montjuic--a great view and so much better than walking up the hill.

look at that view behind us

All the way up to the top to see Castell de Montjuic.

on the bridge

pretty gardens

walking up to level 1



view of the harbor

chillin



I felt like a kid in a playground.

Killer views

silly

always silly

going to the roof

it was pretty high



You could hardly tell where the ocean ended and the sky began.

Look who I found napping on the job. No surprise here.

Trying new angles.

It was massive.

The center of it all

These big things were everywhere too.

heading back down

One last shot of the city.

Our last day in Barcelona wasn't done yet. We wanted to rent bikes.

We got these winners.

Such a tourist

Look at this pic that i took...note that I got Christopher Columbus AND Jess in the same frame.

Now compare it to the one Jess took for me...BIG diff.

I wanted a closer look at the statue so I crossed the street to the middle.



They stayed on the other side.

These bikes are special. You pay a monthly rate and then you can pick one up at various locations throughout the city and then leave them in designated areas when you're done. Such a cool concept!

Segway tour!

lobster sculpture

colorful sculpture

Biking up to the Barri Gotic.







I forget the name of this, but it's a famous market...look at the colorful tiles on the roof!

It was closed :( bet it's an awesome place to visit.



Museu Picasso entrance

We didn't have time to go in so I just took pictures of it instead.

There were these weird plastic things above...do you think people can walk through them?

It looked so delish

After walking around for 30 minutes...we finally found the Chocolate Museum!!

It was closed, but we didn't want to go in anyway...just look. Museum devoted to chocolate...how amazing!

Look at this interesting paper chandellier...

Taking pics while riding on the bike...true talent.

Carousel by the aquarium!



more people sleeping in parks

more her size

another sculpture

Port Olimpic

lots of boats

boardwalk

delicious paella...I've been dreaming about this ever since we had it.

Jess enjoyed it too.

finally getting dark (at 10pm)

exhausted

one last fountain shot...so pretty at night

I didn't sleep again. 6:30am flight to Amsterdam, rough.

Favorite airport


Can't wait to make it back to Barcelona...most beautiful city of the trip so far!
xx