I don't really know why I titled it that way, I just like the alliteration.
Anyway, it was a 7 1/2 hour bus ride from Madrid to Barcelona. We left Thursday night at 11:59PM, and got to Barcelona at 7:45AM the next morning. Now I didn't realize that the sun doesn't rise until after 8AM, so it was strange arriving in the dark when people were doing their rush-hour traffic things to get to work and what not.
Like any whirlwind weekend trip, we got to Barcelona on not a whole lot of sleep, or comfortable sleep (there was a horrible smell on the bus...hard to sleep through it). But that didn't stop us from simply dropping off our stuff at the hostel, and beginning our adventures. We started with a walk down Las Ramblas, the famous main streets in the center. We made our way down to the harbor, then just kind of wandered. We met up with Erica later that night (she got there a week before me) and the whole weekend was just site-seeing, eating, sleeping...rinse and repeat.
Besides the sun-not-waking-up-until-after-8am thing, the other surprise was the weather. I didn't have to have my jacket for a lot the time, which made me excited to see how not fat I was without all those layers worthy of Chandler doing lunges (Could I BE wearing any more clothes?). That first night was the best, then it gradually got a bit colder the other two days we were there.
Antoni Gaudi is on my list of heroes now. His art nouveau architecture is a reflection of his influence from nature--a lot of his work kept reminding me of Cappadocia. The La Sagrada Familia cathedral is so awesome. It is incomplete, and it is so cool to see his work in the process of realization. As Rica says, his work is like a Dr. Seuss book. I like it a lot, the almost cartoonish look, yet with wonderfully detailed expressions.
We also experienced the small Picasso Museum that had examples of his work and evolution since he was a young student artist. His completed Las Meninas rendition of the Valazquez original is marvelous, both the color and the black and white versions. My favorite, though, was a simple work from his Blue Period, La Copa y la flor (something like that, the cup and flower). Just a wine glass and an orangish-reddish flower. I just like the color combination of orange/red and blueish hues.
Oh, and on the second day, Swayni, Isabel, and I almost died from the falling sky! The day was a very very windy one, and mopeds and chairs kept knocking down. Dust and garbage and dirt, everywhere. Street vendors didn't dare come out lest they be cast away by the mighty mighty fury of the winds. And as we were about to cross a street, not 6 feet from us, this large plastic panel form the skies above nearly lands on top of us. It was quite a dramatic moment. It was such a windy day that, as Erica later recapped to us, four kids died from a wall falling over in some park in Barcelona. Quite sad.
Well we survived the bus ride back--no strange smells this time. We came back and slept and slept and slept. I put up some of my little camera's pictures up from Barcelona, but for some reason the pictures from my Nikon aren't able to upload at present. I will try again later. Now I am getting ready to venture out again to see more of Madrid. I feel like I saw more of Barcelona in one weekend than my week in Madrid. I gotta step it up! Swayni has exams to study for and final papers to write. Oh, to be a student again.
