Barcelona Baby!!!

La Rambla
So, on the day after Christmas, Karin, Steph, Joe and I went to Barcelona. Steph and Joe are fellow teachers from the Czech Republic who also did not go home. We flew into Girona, about an hour from Barcelona. Immediately upon getting outside, we noticed a huge change in the temperature. It was at least 30 degrees warmer. (Bratislava has been in the low 20's and Barcelona was in the upper 50's, even low 60's). Off came the winter coats, hats, scarves and gloves. That in itself was a Christmas present. We go to our hostel, checked in and then decided to wander the streets. We took off and just walked for several hours, finding our way around the neighborhood and eventually finding the touristy/main street, La Rambla, in Barcelona. The next morning we again took off for La Rambla and just soaked it in. There are kiosks up and down the street selling souvenirs, flowers and (my favorite), pets. Yes, you can buy birds, mice, lizards, hamsters, even rabbits. We found an amazing outdoor market that you could tell the locals frequented. It sold all kinds of food. ALL kinds of food. Check out the pictures for the incredible but true facts.
La Rambla is also famous for all the street performers it has. I saw angels and demons, soccer stars and headless men, Elvis and Michal Jackson, clowns and magicians. Most just stand still, ready for pictures with tourists. David told me that a few years ago, the mayor had outlawed all the street performers, but they protested, so he relented. Now they have strict laws demanding that each performer have a permit, be in his/her place for a certain number of hours, rotate with other performers and so on. La Rambla would certainly not be as colorful without all of the street performers.
We wandered down the pier, saw the statue of Christopher Columbus pointing towards the Americas. While Columbus started his journey to the Americas farther south, Barcelona was where he sailed into port at the end of his journey. It was also where the Indians from America were first introduced to European culture. Seeing the ocean was therapeutic for me. It is one of the things I miss most about home. We took a cable car up to the Barcelona castle, which overlooks the ocean as well. We wandered around, looking at the different views of Barcelona. Steph and I ended up just sitting on the castle wall, breathing in the ocean air and watching the water. After our time at the castle, we decided to get dinner. Spanish culture however, has a very relaxed time schedule. Most restaurants close around 3 or 4 and don't reopen until 8 or 9. Even in the tourist part of town. We quickly adjusted to this schedule, sleeping in late and staying up late. Not a bad schedule.

Gothic District
The next day, we took a walking tour of the Gothic part of the city. It was a good way to see part of the city and hear about some of the history of Barcelona. One of my favorite parts of the tour was going into a castle, which is know a museum, and seeing the room where Christopher Columbus told the King and Queen of Spain all about the land he had discovered. The old houses in the Gothic part of the city were works of art in themselves. Most had courtyards with fountains, one with a tremendous amount of tile work all around. One had a great mailbox, which you see in the album below. It is about one foot by two feet. The birds symbolized lawyers and how quickly they come out and the turtle symbolized justice and how slowly it moves. Each house that we saw truly fascinating features. That evening, we met up with the Spanish teacher from our school, who is from Barcelona and was there with his girlfriend. He showed us around the city, took us out for drinks and pointed us to a wonderful, little, smoke-free restaurant. Karin ordered the salmon and I ordered the lasagna and we split them both. Yum!

Montserrat
On our third day, we changed hostels and then made our way to the train station to go to a monastery. The Barcelona Montserrat Spain is a spectacularly beautiful Benedictine monk mountain retreat. We took the train about an hour northwest of Barcelona. From there, we took a cable car up the mountain to the monastery. It is high up in the mountains and was started in 880 when a small group of shepherd children saw a bright light descending from the sky in the Montserrat mountains. Their parents and a local vicar confirmed these reports and the monastery was started.
The view from the mountains was breath taking. We hiked around the lower ground for a while and then took a funicular up to the top (at a 65 degree grade). From there, we hiked around and saw the caves where some of the monks lived many years before. The view was so awesome! It confirmed again to me that we serve an awesome and amazing God!
We came down the mountain and visited the church/cathedral there. While it was a beautiful church, it was hard to be very impressed with all the natural God-made beauty surrounding us outside. Our God is an Awesome God!

Sagrada Familia
The next day, we went to the most famous church is in Spain, Sagrada Família. This church was built by Antoni Gaudi. At first look, it looks like so many other churches in Europe, undergoing renovation. However, upon going inside, we found that this was not true - it is actually under construction still. It was begun in 1882 and is scheduled to be finished in 2026. I was not sure what to think of this church at first. The plaques called it a temple and said it was dedicated to Saint Joseph. The price of admission was quick steep and it felt like such a huge tourist attraction that it was hard for me to feel that it was a church. The outside is mostly finished and we ended up spending much time outside looking at the facades. There are three facades, the Nativity, the Passion, and the Glory. The Glory has yet to be completed. The Nativity is facade is huge and covers almost every aspect of the story. The shepherds, the wise men, Mary and Joseph, the birth of John the Baptist, the dedication of Jesus at the temple, even Herod's execution of the newborn boys.
The Passion is also quite amazing, with the figures looking gaunt and tormented. The main doors under this scene are towering and etched into them is the entire account of the Passion. The names of God are each highlighted with gold and stand out prominently.
Underneath the church is a museum explaining more about Gaudi, his work and the church. Gaudi was a visionary, ahead of his time. His work brings to mind the verses, "If they keep silent, even the rocks will cry out" and "the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." I do not know what Gaudi's relationship with God was, but every detail of the church pointed to how amazing God is. One part of the museum in particular showed this. It showed how Gaudi got his inspiration for so many of his designs from nature. The columns in the church were modeled after a tree next to his studio. The staircases, modeled after spiral shells. Even small details like door handles were modeled after pieces of wood or shell. This building seems to shout to the glory of God and His amazing creation.

Goodbye 2007 - Hello 2008!
On New Years Eve Day, we went to visit one of the private residences that Gaudi designed. We were able to go inside and see one of the apartments in the house. The house is built in three circles, think a figure eight kind of design with 3 instead of 2 circles. Not very practical to live in perhaps, but a cool design. The roof was the most amazing part, with many different levels and huge towers. You could see out over the whole city and had a good view of the Sagrada Familia church.
We left to find dinner around nine and decided to stick close to our hostel, thinking it would be easier to find a restaurant not so close to the touristy area of town. Not so much. All the restaurants we went to had special menus for the night, with one or two choices, and a hefty price tag (65 Euros a person was the cheapest we found). So we ended up going out for Chinese. Very tasty, loads of food and a great price tag.
After dinner, we took the metro down to the main square, with most of the rest of Barcelona. It was packed. And the police were patting down everyone who wanted to get in, checking for glass bottles. Barcelona doesn't have a special program for New Years, but in years past, it became famous for the amount of bottles broken on the main square and La Rambla. The police were handing out plastic cups for people to pour their alcohol into. It definitely cut down on the glass, but did not eliminate it completely. It was kind of an anticlimactic feeling as there were no fireworks, countdown or dropping ball. After the stroke of midnight, we wandered down La Rambla with the crowd, just soaking up the interesting people, sights and sounds.

Park Guell
This park was designed by Gaudi and was built in one of the more affluent neighborhoods in Barcelona. It was enjoyable just to wander around, soaking up the sunlight and being outside without being all bundled up. We wandered up to one of the highest points of the park and I found a place to sit that looked out to the ocean. Again, I sat and just stared out at the water. It made me a little homesick, but it also did my soul a world of good to just sit and stare at that vast expanse of water. We went back to the Gothic part of the city to do some souvenir shopping, have dinner and taste some Spanish ice cream. The next morning, it was up nice and early to make it to the airport for our flight home.

Barcelona