Rivers & Roads

      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 our program took us on a two day, one night excursion to Valencia! We left Saturday morning from Barcelona and drove an hour and 1/2 to a small town called Tarragona. We had about an hour to just walk around, it was pretty early still so not much was going on it the town yet but we did get to go into a beautiful church located in the center of the town.

From there we drove another hour or so to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, seriously I don't know how people find this place, to eat some amazing authentic paella from where it originated in the Valencia region. We started with a very interesting salad which was made up of lettuce, shredded carrots and beets, tomatoes, slices of some sort of pork, cheese, and a few other vegetables I cannot name. Then they brought out the biggest pot of paella i have ever seen filled with TONS little sea critters (rosy you would have hated it). It was a little nerve racking seeing a mixture of clams, mussels, prawns, squid tentacles, rabbit and who knows what else, but hey when in Spain right? It of course turned out to be amazing and I definitely went back for seconds. For dessert they brought us some sort of cake/flan mixture, the texture was a little weird for me so I did not eat much of it but I was sure to have the shot of espresso they were handing out.

Officially in a food coma, we all got back on the bus and drove another two hours to finally get to Valencia. We checked into our hotel and then we went on a bus/walking tour of the city. Once again the tour was very interesting and informative but we were all very tired at this point it was hard to keep our interest. After this we had free time to find food and rest before all of us young folk went out to the bars. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain, but it definitely felt much smaller than Barcelona which was kind of nice. Drinks and food were also much cheeper.

The next day we went to the Aquarium which is located in this area called the City of Arts and Sciences where the architect Santiago Calatrava has built many of his famous buildings in Valencia. Calatrava is said to be to Valencia what Gaudi is to Barcelona. His buildings are incredibly beautiful and elegant, but many people in Valencia feel that they are too modern for their city and are taking about from the traditional architecture.

After the aquarium we went to the beach for about an hour which was very nice. The sand in Valencia is much nicer than Barcelonas, considering all of Barcelonas beachs are man made, and the water is beautiful.
Here are a few photos:

Blogging is difficult! I do not have the self discipline to update this every day but I will try to be better!