BARCELONA, PART 2

Sunday has been christened "Gaudí Day". Most of what we did on Sunday had something to do with Antoni Gaudí, the Spanish architect who's famously unique work can be found all over Barcelona. We started with a bus ride to Park Güell, a fantastic park designed entirely by Gaudí which boasts impressive sights such as buildings that look like gingerbread houses, the longest park bench in the world and ceramic-tile mosaics everywhere. I took tons of pictures, so check those out.

After a lunch break (authentic Spanish Tapas) and some more excellent home-made ice cream, we took a walk on the Passeig de Gràcia to find Gaudí's Casa Batlló, which is locally referred to as the "Casa dels Ossos" (House of Bones) because of its skeletal appearance. We didn't get to go in because it closed earlier than we arrived, but the exterior was very cool. Further up the street we found the famous La Pedrera- I recognized it immediately and didn't even know I was looking for it. We were excited to find out that the interior, the attic and the roof were all open to tourists, so we got to see all of the amazing architectural features of this building. The outside of La Pedrera is wavy and resembles an ocean, the roof has chimneys and structures that are devoid of anything resembling a straight line, and the attic is composed of a series of archways. Very cool. We could see the also-famous La Sagrada Família cathedral from the roof of La Pedrera, so we decided to go there next.

La Sagrada Família is Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece and has been described as the world's most visited construction site. It is a crazy looking pointy structure that is surrounded by cranes and construction materials, but it is remarkable nonetheless. Only eight of the 18 planned towers are completed and the interior is filled with scaffolding and machinery, but what has been finished is beautiful and unique. The details on the exterior of the cathedral are incredible. Really, see the pictures. I think James, Izzy and I have all developed a certain fascination for the work of Gaudí over the last two days. James has already purchased a coffee-table book on his work and I spent some time reading up on what I saw when I got back to Lyon.

When I was buying my camera with my dad last November, I started talking about studying abroad with a girl in line at the store. She had just studied in Italy and had one recommendation for my semester in Europe- dinner at Les Quinze Nitz in Plaza Reial, Barcelona. I figured it must be good since it was the only place she mentioned and it wasn't even near where she spent all of her time, so I had her write it down and I managed to keep the paper until now. I was warned that the line would be hours long, so I made sure we went there an hour before they even opened the kitchen at 8:30- good thing, since shortly after we got there at 7:15 the line was about 60 people deep. We were seated immediately, and €19 later I had the best spinach cannelloni I'll ever eat, plus my own appetizer and dessert. That was definitely a great way to wrap up the trip.

After seeing all that we could in one weekend in Barcelona, all three of us were in complete agreement that we couldn't have picked a better place to go so early in our semester. Lyon is a nice place, but I think we all needed to see something more exciting in order to really enjoy the idea of being abroad. I don't know if it was the beautiful weather, the amazing food, the people, the language, the architecture, the art or something else, but Barcelona was just impressive. Hopefully all of my upcoming weekend adventures will be equally as enjoyable.