BARCELONA!

Fun Fact of the Day and a bit of history for you!

At the end of the touristy Las Ramblas district here in Barcelona you can find the Christopher Columbus Monument (Monumento a Cristóbal Colón)...here is a visual!

 

What is particularly interesting about this specific Columbus monument (because there are several), is that back in the day when Christopher had the bright idea to sail to the East Indies in hopes of furthering trade between Europe and present day India (and had no clue that he would stumble upon the shores of the Americas), he first came to Catalonia requesting the funds for his journey.  Catalonia is now a region of Spain but a few hundred years ago it was it's own separate country (hence, why here in Barcelona, the Catalan language is widely spoken, although most everyone here also speaks Spanish).  Anyways, the government of Catalonia turned him down on his request.  So, Columbus went on his way, travelled to Madrid, asked the King of Spain at the time for the money to make his voyage and was happy to receive the money from Spain instead of Catalonia....fast forward a few hundred years after Columbus has discovered 'Merica and after Catalonia has now become a part of Spain, and you have the request from the people of Barcelona to build a Christopher Columbus monument in their city.  The Spanish government in Madrid thinks this request over carefully before replying that yes, there could be a Columbus Monument here but since Catalonia, regrettably, did not have any part in Columbus's discovery of the Americas, the monument here in Barcelona must not have Columbus pointing west, across the pond, to the Americas (like all of the other C.C. monuments in Spain).  So instead, if you are here in Barcelona and looking for directions, good ole Christopher Columbus that stands in Las Ramblas can point you towards Algeria!

My first week here has been jam packed!  I have been meaning to write this ever since I arrived but between being a tourist the first few days, happily running into an AXO friend from home and touring with her a couple of days, and starting my TEFL Certification course here at Oxford House, I am just now getting around to it!

I arrived about a week ago after not sleeping on my 7 hour flight across the pond because I was too focused on all of the free movies that I was able to watch - I chose to watch American Hustle and The Other Woman!  Customs was a breeze and I luckily had a very nice and informative taxi driver that told me things about the city as we drove to my new apartment in Gracia.  My hostess/roomie is also fantastic.  And very trusting.  She was at work when I arrived so her neighbor let me in and gave me the keys!  After taking a 4-5 hour nap (which you aren't supposed to do after an overnight flight and now I understand why because it throws your sleeping schedule off completely and makes jet lag worse...), I headed out to explore my new city!  Here are some pictures from my first days in this awesome Mediterranean city!

Also in Las Ramblas are a great number of street performers...or pretend street statues?...

 If you tip them, then they come "alive" and you can take a picture with them! This one scared me...

This one did too...

 

 I chose to tip the friendlier Galileo and have my picture taken with him!

 I also took a boat tour in the first few days I was here to see the city from the water.  In this picture if you look to the right you can see the Sagrada Familia which is an icon of the city and still under construction, but more on that in a minute!

 

This is me, Heather and Lauren (Lauren is an AXO friend from college) and they just happened to be in Barcelona the first weekend that I was here so we were able to be touring buddies!  During our free tour of Barrio Gotico, which is basically the oldest part of the city, dating from way back in the medieval days, we decided to check out the Barcelona Cathedral but since they didn't approve of our attire we had to purchase scarves to drape over our shoulders and to cover our legs!

 

The Barcelona Cathedral...almost couldn't fit it in the picture!

 

The inside of the cathedral...places like this just can't be done justice with a camera! Obviously I couldn't fit everything in the picture!

 

I was happy to be on the beach! But I was missing my swimsuit! I went back today with my swimsuit but avoided the beach because of the jellyfish alert!!!

 

AXO!

Sippin' sangria! A Barcelona must!!

 

Something else that was incredibly exciting is that the lady that Lauren and Heather were staying with was on a committee for the Fiesta de Gracia (Gracia Festival) that starts this coming Friday right here in my neighborhood!  About 12 different streets will be closed down for decorations, food, music, vendors, and a carnival! And all of the decorations are made out of recyclable items which is super cool! We cut out several of these leave things that will be included in the decorations (they will be spray painted) and we signed our names! We had a fun time with the locals!

 My pigeon moment...I think the video speaks for itself!

 

We also went to Mont-Juic...

...along with all of the other tourists...

...for this awesome water fountain show!

 

Lastly, was a mind blowing trip to the famed Sagrada Familia by Barcelona's famous architect, Antoni Gaudí.  He passed away almost 100 years ago but his most famous work is still a work in progress.  Regardless, I have never seen anything quite like it. I visited here during my first trip to Barcelona about 11 years ago but was not able to go inside like I did this time. I somehow managed to get a picture where you can't see the construction cranes looming above it!

 The detail is just incredible...seriously just come to Barcelona and see it for yourself!

 

And then you step inside and everything is so ethereal...I'm not honestly even sure that I know what that means! But it was just stunning. Gaudí's idea was that it should like God's forest inside so the pillars represent tree trunks and they branch off to mimic the branches of a tree at the ceiling.

 

 A confusing picture, I know, but this is the ceiling of the cathedral!

 A trip inside is not complete without a trip up to the towers for some amazing views of the city!

 

 Back in the main part of the cathedral, these are just a small portion of all of the stained glass windows that are there.

 

The doors to the Sagrada Famila had several words written in all languages on the doors.  Jesus's name was a different color to stand out from the rest.

 I took this picture just because I liked that I found a rooster amongst all the detail on the outside of the church!

 

This is the outside of the opposite side of the Sagrada Familia from the first one that I posted.  And those towers were what I was referring to on my pictures above when I took pictures of the view of the city.  It was seriously such an awesome place to visit!

 

So there is just a portion of my first few days in this amazing city!  I could go on and on but my computer just can't load my photos fast enough!  I started my TEFL Certification course last Monday and so far it has been awesome! I taught 3 days last week and I teach again tomorrow - so far I am really enjoying it! But that will be a whole 'nother blog post!  Here are a couple pics of me and my new TEFL friends! More about my teaching course later! :)

 

 We were quite enthusiastic for our metro ride! We were on our way to eat dinner at this delicious empanada and pizza place close to my apartment!

Cheers to new friends in a wonderful city! I love Barcelona!