Episode 18, 6/07/09 – More Gaudi, Leezards, and the beach

For our last day in Barcelona, we decided to finish our unintentional tour of Gaudi (following el plan that Rachel prepared for us) and see the last few remaining sights. A long metro ride later, and we were at Park Guell, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Spain. Park Guell, similarly to Casa Mila, was a park that Gaudi redesigned in all modernist flair, creating depth-perception-defying illusions and some very famous sculptures.

First, the hike from the metro to the Park was epic. Guell is located over, by my estimate, 300 feet above the rest of the city. In 105 degree heat, we trekked up stairs and a series of steep escalators to climb the mount. With luggage, mind you, as we had checked out of the hostel by this point. Once getting there, one is immediately greeted with impressive vistas of the city and the ability to see all the major landmarks (especially Sagrada familia).

The park itself is a ways back down the hill, split off to the side. What makes it interesting is the modernist design. Gaudi constructed platforms, alcove seating, and fountains that look like a surrealist interpretation of melting ice cream and neoclassical forums. It’s fantastic. The highlight of the entire park is the famous fountain, exhibiting the unofficial mascot of Barcelona, the dragon. But this thing doesn’t look like a dragon at all, so I have dubbed it “the leezard”. The leezard is a very colorful creature, with water pouring out of its mouth instead of fire. It’s quite impressive and attracts lots of Japanese tourists with cameras…and then it eats them. Not really. One can see the leezard on a number of other Barcelona paraphernalia including t-shirts, stamps, and keychains. Very famous, very cool. The rest of the park is just as impressive as said leezard, and after saying goodbye to said leezard, we left said park.

We had another super long hike to a metro station to get to the beach, but along the way I was struck by what appeared to be “real” Barcelona. Being a city, it’s often easy to get caught up in the touristy/commercial aspect of it. Park Guell is quite a bit removed from the center of the city, and is next to really cool/seemingly affordable neighborhoods that gleamed in the sunlight. I took some photographs and promised that I’d buy one of those apartments when I get rich and famous.

Next stop on the fun bus was the Picasso museum of Barcelona. Though not containing some of his best known works (eg. almost nothing of cubism), it wielded an impressive number of his early works, namely some of my favorites from the Blue Period. It was cool to see in person, certainly, but nothing earth-shattering. I am sad, though, that I can’t show you any photographs of these places. Oh well, if I had tried to take a picture, I’m sure one of those burly bad-attitude wielding Spanish security guards wouldn’t have appreciated it too much.

That was the last of our nerdy museum expeditions and we all could sense that we were getting a little tired. Thankfully, we’d scheduled the rest of the day for the beach. After a long walk there, we were assaulted by the Barcelona beach experience.

And yes, I do mean assaulted. Let me explain. Remember that cool/sparely populated beach we went to previously called Matalascanas? Well, this isn’t it folks. Barcelona beach is SO CROWDED! Think of an L.A. beach, but add twice as many people. We thankfully found an open spot (stalking some people who were leaving) and set up shop. Unfortunately, there were these ANNOYING merchant vendors who were trying to shop on us a little by offering a variety of novelty trash while screaming at the top of their lungs. “Aguacervezabeer! Aguacervezabeer!” the damn cry is like death-knoll! And then the Asians with attitudes asking us if we wanted a massage! We first politely thanked them…but then they returned…the same ones! I’ve dramatized the resulting effects for your pleasure.

Vendor: Quieres masaje? Doyouwanna massaasagggee?

Justin: Go away…

Vendor: Very nice, yes?

Colin: No. It’s not.

Vendor (grabbing Nick’s arm): Massage?

Nick: NO! Please no.

*wait for three minutes*

Vendor: Doyouwanna masssaaaggeee?

As you can imagine, it made the experience a little frustrating. As always, the experience was assuaged greatly by the presence of friends and companionship. I’ve been so glad to be able to get closer to some of these amazing people. These truly must be the friendships that I will never lose.

Back to the blog: We left the beach feeling rested and prepared for the trip home. Little did we know of the adventures that still awaited us. Coming “home” to Sevilla was a little bit like the last 1/3 of the movie Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Everything that could POSSIBLY prevent Frodo from throwing that damn ring in prevents him from throwing that damn ring in. We went to the train station to catch a train that would lead us straight to the airport (and we could use our metro passes). As we looked for the train to take us there, we couldn’t find it on the map. We individually asked some attendants who had never heard of this line before. Uh-oh. Challenge: you have 30 minutes to find an alternate route to the airport since the train line you were going to take doesn’t exist at all. Through some studying of maps and asking more attendants, we managed to find a route, though it put everyone on thin ice in terms of sanity. Thankfully though, we DID find a route that would take us to the airport and we managed to make it there with a little time to spare. We were absolutely exhausted and one long plane ride later, we finished up our epic weekend in Barcelona.