Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona: city of sun, sea and sangria. Exactly what I needed after my hectic final week in London. The journey to Gatwick was a trial in itself. Decked out in an outfit designed to outsmart stringent suitcase weight limits, I met Kathy, Niki and Edward a mere forty minutes late, barely caught the train, and tried very hard to leave my laptop behind in the overhead baggage area. Revived by one final packet of caramel digestives, we flew into Barcelona without further hassle.

Hot stuff coming through!

Dropping our bags at the apartment, we poked around the neighbourhood looking for food, and eventually found our very first tapas bar. The delicious variety of fried things included calamari, croquettes, empanadas and a potato omelette. And there began my love affair with Spain.

We slept in almost every day: paradise. Rather than leap right into the typical touristy stuff, we started out with a long circuitous stroll around the city. We made our way down Las Ramblas until we found a most incredible (and addictive) fruit market. Here we bumped into Maddie completely at random. Small world.

Las Ramblas led to the marina and the many adorable puppies being walked there. On the way home, we found a cathedral that I very incorrectly proclaimed to be Gaudi’s famous Sagrada Familia. Next stop was paella, of both veggie and seafood varieties, and a fruitless search for churros.

Maddie joined us at the apartment on Tuesday, and the five of us took a day trip to Ocata, a beach half an hour’s train out of the city. The train tracks were set about 100 metres from the water. The whole gorgeous set-up wouldn’t have looked out of place in a James Bond film. Picture blue sky, blue sea, white sand, and bright red screaming sunburn on the fronts of my legs. My thanks to the beauty products outlet from which Kathy and I scooped full handfuls of sample aloe lotion to slather onto my legs in the middle of the street.

Wednesday was for fruit market brunch (mango and coconut smoothies, strawberries, nougat-type stuff and pastries) and Gaudi. Gaudi means touristy stuff. He was a rather extremely famous Spanish architect who was into modern architecture way before his time. We visited the Casa Battló first, a house constructed as a sort of organic seascape. The décor included rising blue tiles, a dragonish roof, ceilings and doorways moulded in the shape of waves, and general seashell décor. You have to see it to believe it.

Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia – a famous church still in the process of construction – was somehow even more astounding.

Niki and I hooked ourselves into audio guides and received a fairly thorough summary of Gaudi’s inspiration and creative process. The outside of the Sagrada Familia has three facades, each featuring a different set of biblical episodes in spectacular style. Though unfinished (and currently covered in cranes), the church sports scores of bell towers and steeples with fruit and flower-based tips. There’s even a scatter of gargoyle-like creatures running down the sides of the outside walls and towers as if to escape the altar.

The church’s inside is a fascinating interpretation of a traditional Catholic cathedral. Leaning, twisting columns sprout branch-columns that finish in a leaf-like canopy on the vaulted roof. Gaudi intended his canopy to enclose and protect the congregation. He deliberately restricted the volume of light that could enter the church through the stained and plain glass windows, believing that too much light could blind worshippers just as well as insufficient light.

The functionality of Gaudi’s design was just as interesting as its aesthetic style. The leaf-canopy plastered to the roof was specifically shaped to enhance the acoustics of the 1000-strong choir intended for the church. 

Long story short, the Sagrada Familia was pretty freaking awesome. I’m definitely coming back in twenty or thirty years when the whole thing is finally completed. 

Maddie left on Thursday and was replaced by Tash, who would be travelling with us for our Greek island tour. Tash popped off to meet a friend, leaving the rest of us to take a walking tour of the Gothic quarter, where we learnt that Catalonia used to be a separate country to Spain. We also stumbled across George Orwell.  

After a restorative churro session, we took the metro up to Park Guell, a park designed by – you guessed it – Gaudi. It was very pretty, brimming with flowers, slanting columns and typically weird/wonderful Gaudi mosaics.

We spent our last day in Spain exploring Barceloneta beach, strolling along palm-lined avenues, visiting the fruit market one last time, and eating churros. Too soon it was time to come home to pack and prepare for our very early flight to Greece.

Note to self: get back to Spain!