barcelona!!!

ok. so. this weekend was basically amazing. ah. may. zing. (btw, the spanish socialist healthcare system is marvelous, and after one trip to the farmacia i got 20 pills for 75, count 'em 75, cents and they worked wonders, so i feel great). my plane landed in barcelona at about 8:20pm, and from there i had a 1/2 hour cab ride into the city. from there i met brock and his (and now my) friend linnea at the hostel. from there we went out for dinner, where i introduced them to tapas. yum! then we walked over to la sagrada familia, one of the gaudí cathedrals in barcelona. let me tell you how crazy this thing is. he designed it upside-down, so the whole thing literally looks like it's melting. and it's all lit up at night, gorgeous.

friday morning we got up and walked over to la pedrera, which was originally an apartment building, also designed by gaudí. the roof and exterior of this place are so alien! this is what you can see from the street (as always, click on any picture to enlarge):


and this is the ridiculosity that is the roof. what?!! love it:


from there we made a rather epic hike up to park güell, which is again gaudí. for those of you who are america's next top model fans, you will recognize this part of the park as the final catwalk in the season finale between caridee and melrose where they were the corpse brides. the whole park is like this, and the thing extends halfway up a mountain:


then we came across casa botlló, or house of skulls, again gaudí. are you starting to get a feel for his architecture yet? thinking maybe he was a little loopy? me too:


then we went back to la sagrada familia and this time we went in. here are a few pictures of the most bizarre cathedral i've ever seen. this is the new side, the passion:


and this is the old side, the nativity:


from there we went to a supermarcado and bought ourselves some dinner, and then we were gonna go to the beach and have a picnic, but we ran across this amazing little jazz quartet in a park, so of course we stayed and ate dinner there instead. good change of plans.

saturday, then, we started the day by hitting up a flea market, which was seriously like 6 city blocks jam packed with venders and hagglers. then we went back to that same park as the jazz concert, whose name is like 8 years long so i'm not even gonna try to type it, and ran across boats for rent! another happy little hiccup in plans. so we rented a boat on a lake. yay! then it was off to the beach for some much needed relaxation. that night we went to the football (you yanks would call it soccer) match for eurocup, again surrounded by overly enthusiastic spanish fans (spain won, woo!). and then, sadly, it was time for the weekend to come to an end, as we all had to get up waaay early flights (brock and linnea were up at 2:30, and i slept in to wake at 3:45).

now i'm back in sevilla, and up this week we have a bull fight tonight, which i opted out of. i'm not peta or anything, but i just don't think i could take the slaughter of an innocent animal in front of my eyes. academically, i have 2 quizzes, a paper, and a 15 minute presentation. yippee. so i should probably get back on that, haha. hope you're all faring well in the wet! today it was 39c/104f here. happy father's day!
-kl