On Wednesday, we woke up and went to breakfast at 9:30. One of the reasons we chose this hostel was because of the free breakfast. I had some pan (bread) with butter and jelly, a bowl of some very plain (but not terrible) cork flake-type cereal, nasty fake orange juice, and hot chocolate. Afterward the girls took forever taking their showers and getting ready for the day while I waited around. We planned for the first day to be mostly sightseeing while the weather was still pretty nice. First, we took the bus to the outskirts of town to visit Güell Park. This is a park designed by Antoni Gaudí, and it is amazing. Everything was inspired by nature, and Gaudí believed that in nature, there are no straight lines. It has everything from columns in the form of palm trees, paths shaped like waves, gingerbread-looking houses, benches in the shape of your spine, and mosaics everywhere. This was my second time visiting, and it was still just as cool. Also, it’s at the top of a hill so the view overlooking the city is really nice.
After visiting the park we headed to La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family). It is a huge church, also designed by Gaudí, but it is unlike anything I have ever seen before in my life. It is very different from all of the buildings around it so it stands out really well in contrast with the other buildings. Gaudí was alive for the construction of the first three towers, and after he died someone continued to construct the church in his style according to his plans and designs. It’s kind of cool to be able to see the parts from all different time periods. It is supposed to be finished finally between the years 2025-2030. The outside has a lot of detail and depicts several stories from the Bible. The inside is amazing as well. All of the columns are in the shape of trees and the whole inside appears to be somewhat like a forest. The ceiling looks like a bunch of tree tops, and it’s really cool. The stained glass has a sort of mosaic style with all sorts of different colors. It was neat to see the people working on the building and the sculptures while we were walking through on our tour. I hope to be able to come back when it’s finished to attend a service there. Well, I could probably talk about La Sagrada Familia forever so just ask me if you want to hear more about it!
We stopped at a grocery store to buy bread, lunchmeat, and cheese and ate lunch on a bench near the church. Afterward we tried to catch the bus back to our hostel, but of course we had problems as usual. Apparently we got on in the wrong direction and didn’t realize it until we got to the end because we weren’t familiar with the streets. I knew what the bus driver meant and dreaded hearing the words “se acabó (this is the end)” because it was not the first time that I had heard that. We had to get off and then pay to get back on in the other direction. Of course our stop was almost all the way at the end so we ended up being on the bus for about a total of an hour instead of the 15-20 minutes that we had to be. When we got back to the hostel, we all took naps and the girls took showers and got ready for the night. A girl from Germany moved into my room so I chatted with her while they were all getting ready.
