Sunday, January 23, 2005

Sagrada Familia, Port Olimpic, Parc de la Ciutadella, Arc de Triomf, and Torre Agbar

I slept in and made some breakfast and then relaxed for a while. I wasn’t sure if we were going to go anywhere as a group, but I didn’t want to just sit waiting to find out, so I ventured off on my own. I went to the Sagrada Familia because I hadn’t seen it up close yet. It was only two Metro stops away, so that wasn’t a bad ride at all. I spent some time walking around it, taking pictures (of course). The thing is massive...and it’s not even finished at all yet. I think it is projected to be completed in 2020. It’s so crazy though. It is a totally different style than anything before it. Gaudi had to have had some crazy drawings and stuff for this church. And it’s really cool because you can see the new construction mixed with the old. There are huge cranes up everywhere and there were a lot of tourists, of course.

After taking about 50 pictures, I got back on the Metro and went forward to the next stop on the Blue Line (the line that the Sagrada Familia was on) and went to see the Hospital de Sant Pau. I got off at that stop, walked a few blocks to the hospital and took some pictures. I didn’t spend much time there...just checking it out.

Once I got all the way back to the apartment, everyone else was up and there was talk of going to Port Olimpic and some other places. So we got ready and then headed out.

We first went to Port Olimpic and walked around the area and the beach. This is the area that is right around the two tallest skyscrapers in Barcelona. It was a beautiful day and it was a nice area to walk around.

Then we went in search of the Parc de la Ciutadella. It took much wandering around, but we found it. It was a really nice park with a huge statue/fountain in it. I’m pretty sure Gaudi designed it too. We walked around the park and passed by this huge concrete statue of a Mammoth, and a dried up canoe area. We kept walking and after a while we wound up at the gates of the zoo. Admission was like 14 Euros, so we decided not to go in. But directly behind us, down this long avenue, we could see the Arc de Triomf, so we headed in that direction. Once we got to it, like 10 minutes later, we took some pictures and then got on the Metro (there is a stop right next to it). We then figured out how to get to “The Penis Tower.” That’s what we’ve dubbed it because...well... Even the some of the locals call it “El Torre Pene” which means the same thing. The actual name is Torre Agbar. It is the third tallest building in Barcelona at the moment. It’s shape is very similar to a building located in London (and the people refer to it the same). It’s design is very different in terms of the actual exterior of the building. It has all of these angled windows and about a meter behind it is the actual building. There is a weird color pattern on the actual building, but it still looks cool.

By that time, it was already cold outside, so we came back to the apartment. Some of the guys went out to eat, the rest of us (myself included) cooked and ate in the apartment. Then I took a nap and around 9 we got together in Mike and Scott’s room and watched the movie Akira. Then I went to bed.

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