so we got to barcelona yesterday, via ryan air from madrid to girona - a small airport about an hour and a half south of barcelona - and then a cheap bus ride. apparently it’s very expensive to fly directly to barcelona (which of course has it’s own airport) so most people fly to girona or reus.
yesterday i was in a pissy mood for some reason. maybe it was our frat-house hostel, homesickness or worries of spending my last dime on tapas and having to sell my body on the street to get back to lyon at the end of the month. in order to ease my pain, jess and i had dinner with the gays in the gay-borhood of barcelona which has a catalan name that means “left of the example” at this fabulous and cheap cafeteria that was packed. an injection of gayness got me through the night and today, after doing some much-needed laundry, i booked it over to casa mila by gaudí.
learning about this building in high school got me pumped, and i gotta say, the slides just don’t do it justice.
i love this picture that shows the contrast with gaudí’s crazy curves and blocky flatness.
then i took a metro, a bus and a funnicular up a mountain to this :
this church is called tibidabo and lives at the top of a huge mountain that overlooks the entire city. it’s the highest point for miles and from it you can get a 365º view of barcelona and the surrounding area. think mulholland drive but religious.
*take special note of jesus up at the top there.
i love taking pictures of churches with the sun behind them. it’s kind of like my little atheist photo gag. 
yeh. so that’s the same jesus that’s at the top of the church. and yeh. i’m standing right underneath it. after paying 2€, taking a lift, and walking up a bunch of really old steps i got to the tippy-top of tibidabo where i got to witness this amazing panorama :
yay!
then i looked down :
hehe…
what i loved most about this church (other than the fact that is is wicked high up with a beautiful view) are these awesome figures overlooking the city, keeping watch.
i couldn’t help compare barcelona to madrid (my first spanish love) on arrival and that didn’t initially bode well for bcn. it seemed like a bum town - full of great but underappreciated art, northern european tourists and hippies. but when you wade through the tourist scum of any city you always find something more genuine.
today on the funnicular i spoke in broken english and spanish with this woman who talked to me about monserrat, describing it as “the heart of catalunya,” with a gesture to her chest. i thought about the catalan people and their communal diversity, artistry and struggle and felt a warmth that i hadn’t seen in my limited experience of the city yet.
tonight barcelona won a big soccer game against chelsea and there were fireworks and parties in the streets. i was a little scared, but moved.
tomorrow jess and i are taking a guided tour of the familia sagrada cathedral, and i anticipate being moved again. i’ll keep you posted.
Tags: barcelona, casa mila, gaudí, hippies, madrid, spain, tibidabo