Street Performance with Giant Puppets
I have been so busy since I got back to Costa Rica I have not had time to write about my trip to Europe. While Paris was a beautiful city and defiantly a fun time the highlight of my trip was Barcelona. I arrived in Barcelona ahead of my friends because I had opted to take the cheapest flight I could find which also happened to leave at about 6:30AM. Despite the exhaustion upon arriving I immediately felt at home. After a week of being unable to communicate with anyone in France it was a relief to actually be able to talk to people again with ease and to know what was going on around me. I had been nervous before arriving that this might not be the case. Barcelona is in Catalonya and the official first language is Catalan, not Castilian Spanish. While there are many similarities and I found I could read a lot of signage in Catalan I could not understand it spoken. However, except for a few older people I encountered, everyone spoke fluent Spanish and I had only a few minor problems with the accent.
We spent a day on the beach and took a dip in the Mediterranean Sea. The beach and ocean were beautiful but the pudgy and hairy nudists on the beach were not quite as soft on the eyes. There are no designated nudist beaches in Barcelona. However, the laws read that one may be nude on the beach as long as one does not create a “public disturbance”. So, I suppose the old man scratching himself was well within stated laws but I could not help but feel “personally disturbed” at the display. I choose to focus on the waves.
Barcelona has some of the best architecture in the world and has managed to maintain a uniquely Medieval feel to much of the city. We spent a day wondering the narrow labyrinth like streets of the Gothic Quarter and took in the Picasso Museum as well as the Pre-Colombian Art Museum. While small, it held some amazing pieces including a few from Costa Rica. We also caught a traditional Sardana dance being preformed in front of the Cathedral.
One day was spent awing at the work of architect Antoni Gaudí. I will devote some other posts to my visits to Park Güell and Sagrada Familia. However, I will say in passing that the Sagrada Familia is the most beautiful architectural work I have ever seen. I have already vowed a pilgrimage for its completion in 2026.
I also took some day trips into the country side around Barcelona. One day was spent visiting the Theater Museum of surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and lounging on the beach of the rather frigid Costa Brava. We also went to the mountain top monastery of Monserat and hiked through the clouds and around strange bulging rock formations. As I post pictures I will write about these experiences more.
By the end of the trip I consumed about 17 pounds of seafood saturated paella and enough sangria to fill an automobile fuel tank. I also sampled some absinthe in the spirit of early 20th century modernism. However, the green fairy and I did not seem to suit each other well.
After spending nine days in Barcelona I felt like I added two or three sites to my list of things I wanted to do for everything that I checked off the list. When the opportunity arrises I will have to go back for another visit.