i woke up on my second day in barcelona, and it was rainy. NO! oh, well. i decided to trek it over to barri gotic to see the barcelona cathedral, the roman ruins, museo picasso, and then see what struck my fancy from there. the barcelona cathedral was... dark.
the weirdest offerings ever - this was the only stall where they had electric offerings, all the rest were real candles. this one, you put 10 cents euro in, and a little electric light lit up. weird.
me in need of coffee and sunshine.
i loved the "streets" in the barri gotic quarter.
it was the corpus christi festival, which entails a lot of dancing eggs - literally, eggs dancing on top of fountains. everywhere. i saw, like, three different egg-laden fountains.
these geese are descendants of roman geese that have been hanging out in the barcelona cathedral yard for thousands of years. and that first one is EEEEE-vil.
i went to the roman ruins, then to museo picasso (which was pretty disappointing). it started getting sunny out, so i walked towards parc de la ciutadella and the arc de triompf.
the waiter at museo picasso was so sweet - i told him i wanted to go to fundacion joan miro on montjuic and wasn't sure how to get there. he came back with a printed out google map, complete with written-in directions for which metro and funicular to take. so sweet! and he had on the same shoes as me - all black converse allstars. this was wandering down the coastline toward montjuic, right in front of me.
barcelona from montjuic.
fundacion joan miro! i was so sad i couldn't take pictures inside. it was a seriously amazing museum. you walk in, and the first thing you see is this gigantic tapestry/yarn amalgamation of a woman with moon and stars behind her. i can't even describe it - amazing.
the next day, i decided to trek it to montserrat. i got to the espanya train station, then bought a ticket to montserrat. however, i was checking the map to see where i really needed to go, and this train worker walked up. he spoke spanish and french - i speak SORT OF spanish, so we had a detailed conversation that involved a lot of hand gestures. basically, i found out i should take the train up rather than the cable car at the end of the journey - much prettier. i also learned that he loved the sopranos. he ended up being my train driver out to montserrat! i got off the train, and he was leaning out, like, "hey, mi amiga, buenos dias a ti!" and i felt all special and in the in-crowd. this is the town at the base of montserrat:
also from the train - pretty freaking beautiful.
the basilica at montserrat.
next, i made my way up the mountain in one of these trams - insane!
the view out the freaking CEILING of the tram up.
it was pretty much overwhelming. i went up this way soon after getting to the top and met a girl from china. she and i ended up taking pictures of each other all the way up. awww, my little buddy, jessy, from china!
me and awesome rocks.
this is when i met jessy!
the monk hermitage. i could totally be a hermit here for a while.
ancient, steep, scary stairs down the side of the mountain.
me and all my teeth (this was the night i lost a tooth) and the hermitage.
i would totally grill a dog in here.
me and jessy and those steep stairs! we ended up even riding the train back to barcelona together. she was a sweet girl, working in germany for the summer and traveling around europe whenever she could.
those rails on the right? that was the scary pathway we were walking along.
i got back and bought a baguette and brie on las ramblas, then came across this random dance party. old men dancing with young women, all races, all ages... it was really cute.
okay, get ready - this is where the night of tooth-losing begins. i got back to the hostel and went to the bar there for a beer or two. i was EXHAUSTED after hiking all over montserrat. anyway, i ended up meeting craig (texas), linda (scotland), and chris (ireland). i went out with them, and i had a great time. here's linda, craig looking like a homeless man, and me.
chris hamming it up while cleaning up a glass linda broke. i had the BEST time that night... we went to countless bars in barri gotic, i talked up all these barcelonians at the bars... it was a blast.
it started raining at one point, and, as we were walking back to the hostel, we passed through placa catalunya. as we were coming up on it, i was like, "it looks like an ice rink!" and it did. and it was slippery. so, dumb drunk girl that i am, chris and i start sliding along it. WHEEEE!!!! the next thing i knew, my feet flew out behind me. i got a hand down and my knees down and even my CHIN down... but i managed to break one of my front teeth almost completely off. blood. suddenly, all was not right in the world. i am so thankful that craig stayed with me the whole night, through searching for an all-night clinic, then an all-night dentist (who spoke no english and thoroughly freaked me out for a bit). for the record, though, it only costs 68 euro to get a tooth extracted at 5 in the morning in barcelona. it didn't even hurt - i don't know if it was my adrenaline or what. craig was amazing - as we wandered around barcelona, trying to find this non-descript all-night dentist, he kept remarking on how his shoes squeaked and it was SO ANNOYING. i knew exactly what he was doing - distracting me - but it completely worked anyway. when she pulled the tooth, it came out like nothing, so it really had to come out. the next day, all we could really manage was barceloneta beach and dinner. i was joking about getting a gold tooth on the metro to the beach and had this german guy busting out laughing. at least i'm funny looking!
me and craig on barceloneta beach.
gauzey, baby. i'm just glad i didn't break an arm or a leg or my head. it could have been worse. i had a few hours where i felt REALLY sorry for myself... then i napped and got over it. i'm super tough.
i think i had definitely lost weight at this point. collarbone, what?! but i got it all back, thanks to italian pizza and gelato.
serious lack of tooth there.
thank god craig had the smarts to ask for my removed tooth. i should make a pendant out of it.
yeah... hit the chin on the way down, too. my nose is still numb, and i'm beginning to think i did some serious nerve damage.
linda took my shot at the scene of the accident the next night and, bless her heart, held my hand as we walked through the placa in search of dinner.
dinner wreckage in barri gotic. i got "omelets," which is basically quiche, because it was soft and i could eat it.
craig looking at pictures at the dinner table. how rude! :)
my favorite, linda hamilton. (that's really here name).
convenient... if i knew celsius to farenheit calculations.
my last day in barcelona was rainy, too. craig and i met up and went to casa batllo, another of gaudi's creations and two houses away from our hostel. this was a freaking STAIRwell. awesome.
spiral ceiling.\
me and my audioguia.
the inner courtyard.
the inner courtyard through the glass.
the attic of casa batllo. i could have hung out here forever.
but... i went up to the roof instead. amazing. i have a serious crush on gaudi.
george and the dragon.
i love this picture - this was a stairwell.
and this, with the "why not do lights this way" aspect. pretty awesome.
then we went back to the hostel, and i pretty much chilled and watched italian nascar until my train left for paris. however, this was a car that was both cuter and smaller than dolores the yaris. i saw a LOT of these throughout europe... and a lot of scooters, of course.
and finally. my first overnight train to paris.
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