Beauty and Awe- and Some Heebie Jeebies! (June 28)

So, second day in Barcelona! It was definitely MUCH better than the first.

We woke up at 8 and went to breakfast on the ship, as planned. My plan for all the countries is completely centered on saving money while still experiencing the culture, so in order to do this I stuffed myself at breakfast. I pretty much ate two breakfasts. Eggs, cereal, croissants, pancakes, and orange juice galore. Since we were all zombies at breakfast, we got through and went back to sleep, planning to meet at 10:45 for the 11:00 shuttle (only 2 euros!). Oh, and at breakfast we talked to Darwin and asked him about the girl we saw him with! They were cute together!

I napped and woke up 20 minutes before we were meeting. And of course, I had to break my alarm. *snap!* RIGHT in half. Hey, I guess that’s what you get when you wake me up from my peaceful slumber. Maybe I can find super glue somewhere and bring it on the ship…if they don’t consider it a weapon.

Even though we heard it took hours, our plan for the day was to return to La Sagrada Familia and get there by foot. Yes, crazy I know. At first I was going to wear my Toms. Then I realized we would be walking ALL day, and my blisters would hate me if I didn’t wear my running shoes- as nerdy and touristy as that looks. So that’s what I did. :)

We walked for a couple hours, and finally got too hungry to keep walking. We stopped at a little café on the way and I got a ham and cheese Panini on Focaccia bread (normal pink ham). I tried jamon (prosciutto) that a friend got that pretty much looks like large bacon and I didn’t really like it. It tasted like pig. Like, not like pink ham or even bacon- it had a very very strong taste that made me think I just cut open a pig and took a bite. At least I tried it!

Michelle and I fawned over the desserts and shakes they had, but somehow decided to wait a little longer. We continued on our way to La Sagrada Familia, stopping to look at shops and such on the way of course. We also saw the two Gaudi houses again, up close this time. They’re still amazing! FINALLY, we got there. My roommate said to pay for the lift to go to the top when we bought our ticket to go inside because it’s worth it. We paid the extra money and made our way inside. Again, I can’t even describe it. I wish I had brought my fisheye lens so I could have captured as much of it as I could in one picture- that’s the only way to take it all in. Actually, it’s not even close to possible to take it all in at once! It’s that amazing. It was designed by Gaudi for those who are inside to feel like they are under a canopy in a forest- the pillars are large tree trunks that rise up, and on the ceiling the branches spread. There is so much detail and height, it’s incredible. The stained-glass windows are amazing. They are so full of color, and depending what color sequence the sun is shining through, the inside lights up different colors. While I was there, it changed from red/orange to yellow/green to blue/purple. It was absolutely amazing. After an hour, it was time for us to go up the lift (makeshift elevator). We crammed more people in that were supposed to be in there and shot up to the top of the highest bell tower. This was possible because the La Sagrada Familia is still in the process of being built. It is projected to be finished around 1926. We decided we’re going to have a reunion in Spain when it is complete! Once at the top, we saw the most amazing view of the city! We had the option of taking the lift back down or taking the narrow, tightly curving staircase. Majority vote was the stairs, so we went on our way! It was all so pretty and we stopped to look out at the view many times.

As we were starting to go down, Michelle leaned over to look down the bell tower, freaked out, and told us to look. OH MY GOSH. I’m not one to be afraid of heights- I LOVE pretty views and I’ve even been skydiving! But looking down this bell tower was SO scary. It gave me major heebie jeebies. Like big time ones. I kept looking down imagining someone falling- they’d be dead meat! But they would be falling for so long! It went straight down. SO far. Oh my gosh I can’t even describe it- you’d have to see it in person. You look, and your perception is so off that your eyes can’t even gauge how far down it is, and your brain can’t comprehend it either. The La Sagrada Familia is HUGE. We finally got to the bottom- having to speed up at the end because some girls got dizzy and claustrophobic- and took a couple cute group pictures, then decided to go. After all of our walking (it was now about 6), there was a unanimous vote to take a taxi back.

Now a bit about the taxi ride! Our taxi driver talked endlessly. We did ask him where we could get churros con chocolate, but we didn’t think he’d tell us 20 different ways to make the chocolate at home. And it took about ten minutes for him to understand what we were talking about.
Us: Where is the best place to get churros (pronounced like an American) con chocolate?
Him: What with chocolate?
Us: Churros (same pronunciation).
Him: Idiots?
Us: Huh? (15 tries later)…Nevermind.
*5 minutes later*
Him: Oh, you know great dessert you should try? Churros!
Us: THAT’S what we’ve been saying!

Well, it turns out that Kelsey couldn’t roll her R’s at all, and that’s the proper way to say churros. If you don’t roll the R’s, it sounds like the Spanish word for idiot (a slang). That whole time, he thought we were asking him where we could get idiots with chocolate. When we finally got the communication down, he told us all about it. It’s not season for hot chocolate, why would we want it? Get iced chocolate. No season for hot chocolate. You crazy. Nobody serves. Well some do but they shouldn’t. It is morning food, you will not find now. Look in morning. He ended up writing down a couple places we should get churros con chocolate, along with some good sangria recommendations. Another thing the taxi driver said was that today was the hottest day of the year so far! 35 degrees Celsius.

After we got back, we ate dinner and got ready to go out again. We were meeting Kelsey’s friend (who is studying in Barcelona for the summer). However, my eyes can’t seem to stay open so the rest will have to come later!