Gaudí-riffic
I only booked at BCN for 2 nights, because that’s all they available for the cheapest price. I figured in a new city with no hostel recommendations anyway, I should leave myself open so I can move around, check out different areas and all… So on Monday I moved to Hostal Windsor (also called Rambla & Catalunya Hostel on the online booking systems.) It’s north of Plaça Catalunya on La Rambla, number 84… so not too far away, but just far enough that it was a little bit of a bother late at night coming back from the strip. It was also cheap (€19), but they just packed beds in… There was no key, so not particularly safe… and I could NOT figure out how to get any hot water out of the shower. After three days you’d think I would have figure it out, but no… And, there was construction being done on the building, so everyone morning my alarm clock was jackhammers and pounding, after sleeping in the hot room with no fan. They did have a computer with free internet access, but only one, and you’d have to wait a while to be able to get on it. There was a common area and kitchen, but both were closed from midnight til 7. Pretty much a pain, because night is when I would rather hang in the hostel common areas, and if I go out and come back late and want some food, I’m screwed. All this sounds like I’m bitching… I’m not. I didn’t have an unpleasant experience, but I’ve stayed at enough hostels to know that this place could be a lot better for the same price.
However, due to my northern location, it made for the perfect Gaudí Day. I was right around the corner from Casa Batlló and La Pedrera, and a lot closer to La Sagrada Familía and Parc Güell.
Casa Batlló is a house Gaudí designed. I didn’t go inside, because it was €16… so I just took photos from outside. The façade alone is quite interesting. The shapes of the balconies and railings remind me of bone, and the mosaic typical of Gaudí covers the walls with blues and greens. It’s a bit eerie of a look, like something out of a movie.
From there, I headed around the corner to La Pedrera, an apartment and office building. I also elected not to go inside here, but just take photos from the street. In true Gaudí fashion, there are no straight lines to be found. I didn’t find this one to be as interesting as the other Gaudí sights I saw. Of course, if it were the only building like this in Barcelona, it would be quite a sight, but compared to all the others, it didn’t strike me as so. Although, I understand that it’s the inside and the roof that are the true spectacle of this building, but alas… I did find the work on the iron balconies to be interesting, though.
Next was La Sagrada Familía. I had no idea what to expect. I hadn’t ever heard about it before what I read in my LP. It rather caught me off guard when I rounded the corner to see it. The amount of detail involved in this…. Amazing. Very surreal, and it’s not even done yet. The project has been in the works for over 100 years. This one I did pay to go in. €8 alone, or €9 for a combination ticket that gets you into the Casa-Museu Gaudí at Park Güell. I’ll let photos do the talking…
You could also take a lift to go up the towers. From there you get a better view of some of the elements up there, as well as a great view of the city. It cost an extra €2, which I thought was kinda lame when I already paid admission. Why not just add it to the door price? Getting down from the top of the spires required going down a very tight wind of steps. Looking down reminded me of the cover of the Nine Inch Nails Closer remixes album.
From there I jumped on the metro to Parc Güell, which is free to walk around. This was a park that Gaudí was hired to design, and as such, has some crazy architectural ideas. As the park was on a hill in the north of town, there was a great view of Barcelona to the Mediterranean. You can see La Sagrada Familía in the lower left, behind the tall white buildings. The entrance to the park is flanked on either side by buildings that remind me of CandyLand, like gingerbread houses with white frosting on top or some shit, and the bridges that ran through looked as if they had been from a sunken ship that had rusted to a point of fuzziness. The museum there that I gained entrance to from the combination ticket at La Sagrada Familía was a house Gaudí lived in for some time, displaying some of his interior design and furniture making architecture. But what really struck me most with the park was all the mosaics everywhere.
Back downtown, Gaudí also designed the lampposts in Plaça Reial, his first known works.
Tags: Gaudi, Barcelona, Europe, Spain, Travel
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