Barcelona II

Day 2: 12 Mar

We spent the most of the second day visiting Gaudi's architecture, for which Barcelona is famous.

In the morning we went to Sagrada Familia, a grand cathedral that has been under construction since 1892... and still is. Partly because Gaudi died and so stuff slowed, partly because it was supposed to be built on donations and I think partly also because the architecture is just SO intricate. We paid €5 to get in and it was really worth it; if I hadn't gone in, I would have thought that the building was hideous. Then of course there was more architecture to admire within the building.

After the Sagrada, we went on to Le Pedreda. It looked deceptively near the main street on the map but we only found it after bb asked for directions twice and walked for ages along Passeig de Gracia. While we were looking, bb was like, "This had better not be a small lousy building or I'll be very pissed." Haha, happily, La Pedreda was worth every ounce of our efforts.

La Pedreda was originally built as an apartment building and it was Gaudi's final civil work. It was a culmination of all his architectural innovations including the final evolution of the lightwell into an internal facade and the use of arches in the attic to free up space for practical usage. The view from the top was breathtaking and the sculptures dotting the roof itself were art pieces to behold.

By the time we finished La Pedreda, it was late afternoon and we haven't had lunch. So we went in search of food and ended up in Macs... mostly because the lousy restaurant put us off unfamiliar food for a while. I had a McFlurry sitting by the roadside! As in at the roadside cafe. Chill man! Haha, pw found it terribly amusing that I'm so taken by McFlurry's that I had to eat it everywhere I went.

We took a long time for everyone to find food and along the way we dropped by Placa de Catalunya, a shopping street whose name I can't remember and Hard Rock Cafe. Ain and bb bought T-shirts. Most shops were actually closed as it was Sunday. How amazing is that?? This was a totally foreign idea cos back home, crowds will be thronging the streets most of all on Sundays!

By then it was dark and we found ourselves back on La Rambla. Wondered around and ended up taking weird photos when we were at the port area. Haha, the crazy things we do!

We returned to our place to dump stuff and headed out again! That was at 11.30 pm I think! We wanted to explore the area near our hostel cos the nice lady at the hostel told us that the area was safe at night and that there were shops and food all around. We walked and walked and found that not many things were open actually.

We finally ended up at a turkish kebab place at around 1 am very very hungry indeed. But that place was a real gem! The kebab was very good and the chilli sauce even better. bb found the wine there very good and very cheap and he was very happy. The very friendly owner was even happier!

PS: there's sth wrong with my freaking internet connection, so i can't upload any pictures onto blogger! go look at my flickr for the moment k.