Rivers & Roads

     After traveling every weekend for the past month, I was very much looking forward to staying in Barcelona for the next two weeks. I was also very excited because my two cousins, Rosy and Lulu, were coming to visit me for thanksgiving! This was very exciting for multiple reasons, number one: I hadn't seen any of my family in over three months, number two: this was the first time I would be out of the United States for thanksgiving, and number three: This was the first vacation we had ever taken without the older generation of our family!Both of them arrived on Thanksgiving day and Rosy was only going to be in Barcelona for a grand total of three days so we really had to pack a lot into each day.
Rosy landed first, so while we were waiting for Lulu to arrive I took her on a little tour of my neighborhood and to my favorite coffee place that served large coffee's (which equal the size of a small coffee in the states)!

      This morning our program took us on a free guided tour of the Sagrada Família which was amazing! Not only was the tour great, we also didn't have to wait in the huge line that is normally outside of the church. I remember mal and john saying that they highly recommended taking a guided tour when they were at the Sagrada and I would agree. There is so much information about Gaudí and the building that it would be very overwhelming trying to grasp it all on your own. A few fun facts that I learned are that it is technically a Basilica not a Cathedral because Barcelona already has a cathedral and there can only be one in each city. Construction started in 1882 by a different architect, who quickly gave up after building just part of the foundation, and then Gaudí took over. They are hoping to finish the basilica by 2026, for the hundred year anniversary of Gaudí's death. Gaudí died by getting hit by a tram on his way to Sunday mass. By the end of his life he had become completely obsessed with the Sagrada and had no money. When he was hit by the tram, he looked like a homeless beggar so no one knew for a few days that it was Gaudí, and he died days later. The tallest spire that has yet to be built, which will symbolize Jesus, will be almost twice as big as the spires we see now and it will have a huge cross at the top with lights shooting out of it like a light house.There is a museum down underneath the main part of the church which is also where current architects are working on creating models for what has yet to be built. We were lucky enough to see some workers in action with their fancy 3D printers making beautiful little spires. It is fascinating to see how far technology has come from when Gaudí started planning using string and sand bags to 3D printers. But I guess it's still all in the theme of modernisme! Here are a few photos:

     This past weekend (by weekend I mean Thursday-Tuesday) was another big holiday here in Barcelona called La Merce! It involves big parades every night followed by free concerts in all of the major plazas throughout the city, fire dances, human towers, fireworks and much more. Also Matt (Jb's bff) was traveling through Barcelona this weekend so he stayed at our apartment for a few days which was really fun! Having this festival going on made it a little harder to show him some of the big attractions of Barcelona because a lot of things were closed, but it was also a really fun weekend for him to be here. It also forced me to do some more touristy things that I had been putting off but were well worth it in the end. This is the first moment I have had to breath all week, so as much fun as the festival was I am looking forward to a much more relaxing weekend here in Barcelona. Here are a few photos from the weekend:

September 11th here in Barcelona is much different than back in the states. Here, sept. 11th is the National day of Catalonia, so in protest of the Spanish government not letting Catalonia succeed form the rest of the country, this year they formed a human chain along the whole coast of Catalonia. It span over 250 miles with over 300,000 people and it ran right through the middle of Barcelona. It was really amazing to see the whole city come out in support of their culture. I don't have much background information on this issue so I can't really say whether I'm in favor of this succession, but seeing so many young people so excited and passionate about something was really amazing. Some friends and I happened to be right in front of the Sagrada Familia right when the human chain began so we got stuck I this huge crowd surrounding a giant Catalonia flag chanting about independence. It was very inspiring to see so many people involved and emotional about this cause. Here are a few photos from the day: