Episode 17, 6/6/08 – Barcelona is expensive/expansive/Gothic!!

This is a continuation from the last blog post on the same day because the day was so long and epic, that I couldn’t possibly put it in only one post. Continued from our chocolate deliciousness, I will resume my tale of travel.

After the chocolate museum and our foray into Modernism, we made a trip back in time and into the heart of the city, the aptly-named Gothic quarter. You must imagine my excitement going into a place called the “Gothic quarter”. How metal, right? Indeed it was. 50% or more of the buildings have some remnants from the 12^th century, the highlight of which is of course la Catedral de Barcelona. In every city I’ve ever been to in Spain, if it has a cathedral, it’s almost criminal NOT to visit it. Unfortunately in this case, I wish I would have skipped it.

Thankfully la Catedral de Barcelona is free entrance. And I suppose that should say something about the quality of the preservation of the cathedral. Whereas the Catedral de Sevilla and the Catedral de Toledo (forthcoming episode) are preserved excellently and take into consideration the lighting and display of “tersoros” (treasure/artifacts) of the church, Barcelona is clearly in ruin. They’ve actually tried to initiate a “save the cathedral” kind of program by encouraging visitors to donate and “sponsor a stone”. Clearly, this hasn’t been working well for them. Another example of a flawed Spanish business model.

The outside looks nice enough. The facades are quite gothic, lots of pointed arches, all that lovely stuff. It’s a really well-built cathedral, but the problem is that no one is keeping it up… We went inside, but were sorely disappointed to realize that we could only enter about1/4 of the entire cathedral. The stones are dirty, the floors are “original” in the worst sense”, and the lighting doesn’t showcase much of anything besides dirt. We got to listen in a little on a mass that was going on (part of the reason why we couldn’t see very much of the cathedral).

Something else I must mention because I feel like it epitomizes the …how should I say…difficulties that the Catholic Church has been having in adjusting to the modern age. Take a look at the following photo. It’s an offertory with prayer candles. Electric prayer candles. You put in a euro and a small “Lite-Brite”-esque light pops up. I’m not going to parse words; I was quite offended at the sight. Without going into too much detail, there’s something inherently comforting and spiritual at the glimpse of a burning candle and the idea that your prayer will be heard, represented by this flickering tenuous mass in front of you. Don’t tell me that the Barcelona parish, albeit poor, couldn’t afford some daggum votives! This is one instance in which adapting to “modern” ways just isn’t a good idea, guys. It’s not quite the biggest issue that the Catholic church is facing right now, but I just can’t let this go unpunished and uncommented.

The rest of the Cathedral was unimpressive, so we went outside in under 15 minutes to the rest of the Gothic quarter. Uncharacteristically gothic (perhaps), there was a market, called the “Mercat Gotico” that sold a variety of medieval styled antiques (some of them genuine, some of them cleverly disguised neogothic imitations). In any case, the display of goods was impressive, and I couldn’t go without splurging just a teensey bit.

But wait, our day isn’t even finished! One last stop before dinner at the famous Arc de Triunfo de Barcelona which was made in 1888 for the Exposicion Barcelona. It was super-big, super-red, and very photogenic. It’s also located in a particularly cool part of town, so we sat down and chilled for a while before returning to the hostel and dinner.

I should now divulge some insider info that one wouldn’t know unless one has been to Barcelona. It is damn expensive. I’ll turn back the hands of time (like R. Kelly) for a second to Friday night (one day before this blog post). It was that night that we realized that Barcelona is expensive. VERY expensive. Everything costs about double what it would in Sevilla. So when we tried to have “a nice sit-down dinner” that night, we were quite surprised at the menu’s list of prices. Specifically, there are so things that are different in Barcelona besides just meals. The metro is the quickest and easiest way of getting around (avoiding the heat, especially), but at the same time, constant ticket purchases WILL stack up. For our Saturday night dinner, we decided to do things a little differently and cook dinner at the hostel. Stephanie and I prepared Tinto de Verano concoctions in addition to pasta with red sauce while Nick helped and provided excellent cooking music from his laptop. I never thought that Ruff Ryder’s anthem could be considered cooking music. Overall, it was a cheaper endeavor than the Friday night dinner and provided for a lot of fun laughs and memories.

NO, that’s not all, folks. To top off our couldn’t-get-any-better day, we took the metro to Las Fuentes Magicas, again, aptly named, the magical fountains. Magical they were indeed. Las Fuentes Magicas is a light/water show that is put on in a big plaza near the government offices in Barcelona. It’s awesome in the truest sense of the world. Our merry troup merrily alighted on a wall (yes, on top of a wall) and had a terrific view of the spectacle. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, hopefully. Add to that good conversation and a soft fountain spray and it’s a day I’ll never forget.