The weather was great, and the city was bustling. I hopped on the next airport bus to the city centre, maybe a 20-minute trip, before switching to the metro at Placa Catalunya. The thing about Barcelona is it's the capital of the Catalonia region, which is highly nationalistic - that is to say, they want to be their own nation. The Catalan language is as, if not more common, than the official Spanish language of Castellano (the language which we know simply as Spanish). Following various language reforms all the place names in Catalonia are in Catalan, and it remains in common usage alongside Castellano. In Barcelona most things are trilingual - Castellano Spanish, Catalan and English - but in smaller cities they often just Castellano and Catalan, and in the countryside no-one uses Castellano at all.
I descended at the correct metro stop and successfully checked into my hostel, dropping my bag off before heading out for the afternoon. Though far from the city centre, my hostel was conveniently close to what was, I confess, essentially my entire reason for coming to Spain, and especially Barcelona - La Sagrada Familia.
Though I knew very little about La Sagrada Familia before I arrived, there were two things of which I was particularly unaware:
1) La Sagrada Familia is a church. Though most intricate, decorative structures in Europe are religious buildings, for some reason I had assumed that Gaudi had simply created a pretty building without any greater significance. As it happens, La Sagrada is one of the most important Basilicas in Spain, consecrated by the Pope himself.
2) It isn't finished. Though construction began during chief architect Antoni Gaudi's lifetime in the late 1800s, over a century later the Basilica is still not complete. The interior and main facades are complete, but only 8 of the planned 18 spires are currently built. In fact, though the Basilica was consecrated once the interior was complete, this was done by Pope Benedict XVI - the current Pope, in 2010. Ongoing lack of funding is the main obstacle, but completion is currently envisioned for 2026.
Incidentally, the name 'La Sagrada Familia' is Spanish for 'The Holy Family', dedicated to the 18 central figures of Catholicism and Christianity. Each spire on the Basilica represents one figure - 12 external spires for the Apostles, four central ones for the Evangelists, a tall one for the Virgin Mother, Mary, and one giant spire standing 170 metres tall to represent Jesus Christ.
La Sagrada Familia was absolutely incredible. That's the only thing I can say about it. Words cannot describe it. If you ever get the chance to go there for yourself, do. The outside is an absolute labour of love, intricately carved on every facet and loaded with symbology and religious meaning. The inside is, somehow, even more incredible. It's a modern design carried out in an ancient architectural style, and far from being distasteful, the result is actually awe-inspiring. I have never been in a church that can create such a feeling of joy and welcome in its atmosphere alone.
Since La Sagrada was so important to me, I decided to pay the bit extra to go up one of the towers. The views of Barcelona were amazing, and you get a really interesting angle of the Basilica too. Though my ticket was for the Nativity towers (on the Nativity facade), they sent me up the Passion towers (Passion facade) so that I could take the lift down as well as up, because of my foot. It ended up being a blessing on more than one front. Though not as high as the Christ spire, the Passion towers are more than high enough to trigger my acrophobia - acutely. As I realised that the staircase before me was the one descending to the ground, the fear of what lay before descended on me around the same time as the realisation that it was more than my foot could handle. Even beating a retreat to the elevator to await a mechanical descent didn't help. I had to step back from the platform to avoid a panic attack which, I confess, has never happened before. One day, when I have two feet again and someone to hold my hand, I will walk all the way down those towers, phobia or not. One day.
I've always had a special sort of affinity for Barcelona as a city. I was an Olympic baby, born a few months after the 1992 Olympics were held in Barcelona (damn! Just gave away my age there ^^), and both of the official anthems of the Barcelona Olympics have been among my favourites since I was a kid. It was a little weird and overwhelming finally being here at last - something that, as a kid, I never really imagined that I would ever do.
The next morning, after my first night in a coed dorm at the hostel (nice hostel, coed dorms nothing particularly stressful or exciting) I hopped on the metro and headed back to Placa Catalunya, the main square of Barcelona, for a walk down La Rambla, the main street. After going north instead of south for a while, I backtracked and made it on the true Rambla. It was nice, if a little touristy with all the booths, and the flowers were wasted on the girl who takes an aeroplane home and can't mail plant material through Australian customs. I found a cute fresh fruit and veg market and stopped to have a look, happily purchasing some fresh raspberries for a euro to eat for lunch.
I turned off the Rambla a little further on and made my way to the Barcelona cathedral. Apart from La Sagrada Familia it does have a regular cathedral as well, a nice Gothic construction largely dedicated to Saint Eulalia. After wandering through the church and the cloisters (the cloisters enclosed a courtyard containing geese. Geese!) I took the lift up to the towers. This seems to be a theme in Barcelona.
The wind up there was amazing, but so was the view of the cathedral and Barcelona. I braved the gusts as long as I could to enjoy the architecture from up close, but after 10 minutes or so I headed back down and continued south down the nearest main street towards the ocean.
I didn't have the legs or the time to go right down to the beach, since I wanted to get back to the Rambla in time to buy some things I'd seen on the way down and I calculated later that I walked nearly 10 kilometres that day anyway, but I did go for a walk along the waterfront and enjoy the views of the boats, the water, the sun and the city behind me. When I reached the statue of Cristobal Colon, I knew I'd reached the bottom end of the Rambla and turned north (oh yeah, the Anglo pleb translation: Christopher Colombus. It sounds sooooooooo much cooler in Spanish). I wandered back up to Plaza Catalunya and took the metro home, doing some shopping on the way.
I clocked up the rest of my 10 kilometres in trying to find the small supermarket I found coming back from La Sagrada Familia so I could pick up some cheap pasta to cook up in the hostel kitchen. I eventually gave up and bought a lasagne at the bar in the activities floor of the hostel - it's a large, purpose-built hostel. The bar guy turned out to be a transplanted Frenchman from just across the border, so we had a nice chat in English about - guess what? - Lance Armstrong and the Tour.
The following day I set out for the Mercat del Encants, a four-times-a-week market near the hostel that had been commended to me by some Italians who left the hostel the day after I arrived. It was cute, and fun to look at, but I couldn't find anything that I'd been looking for there - it was more for locals. Instead I headed back to the Rambla and picked up some fresh strawberries at the market.
I had to leave Barcelona that day - exactly when was up to me, but with only a few hours either way there didn't seem a lot of point in going to a museum for only a handful of hours. That, and Barcelona and I were having a bit of a bad day. I figured it was time to therefore call it a day. I bought a ticket for the next train outta there, collected my bag and boarded the train.
And if you have no idea where the title of this post comes from, then you clearly need to brush up on your Freddie Mercury, though I'm more familiar with the Russell Watson remix, myself.
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| The Nativity facade of La Sagrada Familia |
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| Inside La Sagrada Familia |
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| Inside La Sagrada |
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| The ceiling of La Sagrada |
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| Stained glass in La Sagrada |
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| The nave of La Sagrada |
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| Views from the Passion towers |
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| The Passion facade of La Sagrada |
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| The Cathedral of Barcelona |
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| Geese! Geese in the cloister! (Thought you ought to know) |
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| La Rambla |
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| Barcelona from atop the cathedral |
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| Cristobal Colon |
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| My market off La Rambla |
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