Barcelona Trip (Part 1)

Before I start, let me just say that I really like Barcelona~! It's a rather lively city, and above all, has amazing, fantastic architecture. Like no other city I've seen in the world. It's a city Gaudi, Picasso and many other amazing "artists" left their mark. Whilst I learnt more about Jews in Berlin and experienced Eastern Europe in Prague, Barcelona was an architectural feast. So much so that I'll be blogging Barcelona in 2 parts + a special extra part on the works of Antoni Gaudí.

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Day 1

The 6 of us met up at Hauptbahnhof (which we usually write as Hbf) and took an S-bahn train to Munich International Airport (MUC). At the counter the lady was amused: She received passports from 2 Japanese, 1 Korean, 1 Hongkonger, 1 Singaporean and 1 Malaysian. Ah, the fun of diversity.

So anyway, soon enough we were flying off to Barcelona. We were on board Clickair which was recommended by Victor. It's one of the cheapest LCC that flies Munich - Barcelona.

One thing that was pleasant was that instead of feeling that I'm the average height of women (here in Germany), I felt more of less the average height of men in Spain. Haha.

Ok so it was already kinda dark when we reached Barcelona, so we bought a T10 card (for 10 trips. Since we shared it amongst ourselves we used up 6 straight away). Went to our hostel HelloBCN(Nice hostel btw. At least the security is top notch) to check in. Eng Han (a guy whom I met during CSP8 and who was going to show us around Barcelona) suggested we eat something cheap first so we had some kebab. He showed up later and we had introductions blah blah...

As it was kinda late there wasn't much we could do. Walked a bit round La Rambla and Plaça Reial. Then he brought us to this bar (geez. I forgot the name) that was popular among foreign students. There we bought 2 pitchers of authentic Sangría (spanish wine punch). Had quite a long chat with Eng Han (about Malaysia, education issues, US universities etc. ). Was 1+am when we went back to sleep.

Day 2

We woke up rather early and bathed. For this morning we planned to follow the suggested route by Lonely Planet and meet Eng Han near his university in the afternoon. Went to Plaça Reial again. It was all quiet there. The palm trees were interesting... guess I find it a bit strange to see them in Europe.

Anyway, we continued on the route, passed some historical/important buildings but nothing particularly striking (as in, like buildings elsewhere in Europe). However there were some apartment-like buildings with nice balconies, and there was a mix of different architecture everywhere.

Bridge of sighs. Didn't know what it was then. Just found it interesting.

Went into a cathedral, La Catedral de Santa Eulàlia. It was different from most other churches/cathedrals coz there was an open air space where they bred ducks (for what? I dunno). I've gotten quite tired of visiting cathedrals/churches but I can see the designs are always different. It was a plus this time as there were 2 architectural students accompanying us.

Sketches on a wall. Someone famous drew them but I can't remember. Isn't it interesting that so few lines are sufficient to portray an event?

Continued walking (getting lost/confused at times, but still fine). Went into Mercat Santa Caterina, which is basically a market. The place had been a site of activity for centuries but new additions have always been made, the most recent being the colourful wavy roof. Anyway, nothing much to do inside coz we didn't wanna buy meat and stuff (if you are interested they sell rabbit meat as well, which apparently is rather popular in Catalonia).

The market

We walked through some of the narrow alleys too and at one spot we could see Santa María del Mar church and it looked rather pretty bathed in sunlight as we approached it. After that we went to Palau de la Musica Catalana, a museum for Catalan music. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to visit it.

Santa María del Mar

Palau de la Musica Catalana

After finding the Picasso Museum, we then proceeded to meet my friend at Plaça de la Universitat, which is in front of Universitat de Barcelona. Along the way we passed by Plaça de Catalunya, which had the largest amount of pigeons I have ever seen in my life. Had to stoop down when a huge flock flew to the sky.

Anyway, met with Eng Han and he brought us for lunch at this restaurant along Carrer d'Aribau (I think). It was €7 but was inclusive of a pasta main dish, choice of 3 spanish tidbits, salad, a drink + dessert. Hard to get a deal like this in Europe. Eng Han suggested this Tigernut drink so we all tried it. It was nice! Kinda like almond + soybean.

We then walked down Passeig de Gracia. We saw 2 of Gaudi's works along this road, Casa Batlló and Casa Milà (also known as La Pedrera "The Quarry"). It was expensive (and from the advice I've heard, not worth it) to go into Casa Batlló. Casa Milà was much cheaper (even with an audio guide). The scenery on the roof terrace was nice as it was nearing dusk and we took lots of photos. Will blog more about them in a future post. So no photos too. Haha.

Didn't meet up with my friend after that as we didn't want to trouble him too much. Walked around to some places like Arc de Triomf. Wanted to do shopping but most of the shops were closed. Went back to the hostel and slept.

Part II coming soon!