Barcelona Part 3 - Exploring the city

I think this is the building for the Archdiocese of Barcelona.  I thought the artwork was kinda neat :)

This is the Museum of the Archdiocese of Barcelona.  Antoni Gaudi designed the doors (he was a very devout Catholic).

An example of the artwork inside the Barcelona Cathedral.  Honestly, the church buildings in this city were amazing!

Leaving Barcelona was pretty sad for me.  I had such a great time seeing the sights and meeting new people!  But I definitely made the most of my time in this city, especially over the last few days!

One of our first sights on the Walking Tour was...  a replica of the statue of David (reminder - the original was by Michaelangelo and is in Florence) staring down on us.  Why?  I have no idea!

The flag with the red and yellow stripes is the flag of Catalan, the area that Barcelona is a part of.  The blue triangle with the white star makes it the Catalan flag of independence.  Given recent political developments...  Let's just say the next time I come to Barcelona, I may need to take another train to get into Spain :P

What I did: 

• September 30, 2012 - Barcelona Cathedral, free walking tour with Travel Bar, dinner and a night out with some new friends ;)
• October 1, 2012 - Free bike tour with Travel Bar (noticing a theme?), flight to Lisbon

La Rambla

More of La Rambla!

Highlights:

• Travel Bar Walking Tour - OK, I have to give a shout out for the Travel Bar Walking Tour and Chris G., our awesome Aussie tour guide!  This dude was probably the best tour guide I've ever had!  He was very cool and had such a huge wealth of knowledge about Barcelona and Catalonia.  His insights definitely helped me enjoy Barca even more.
• The folks I met on the Travel Bar Walking Tour - Yup, lots of good people here!  Had a great time hanging out, having a few drinks, and singing on stage at an Irish karaoke bar!  :)

Lowlights:

• Leaving :(

More paella lol

Can't Miss:  My man Chris G. and the Travel Bar Free Walking Tour!!!

 

That was a wicked bike!

At least, that's what I thought at first...  Riding around Barcelona on it was somewhat less awesome, lol!  But we did get lucky with the weather, because it ended up being a gorgeous, fantastic day for a bike ride around the city :)

Barcelona Part 2 - How to cook (and eat) Paella

Mercat de Sant Josep, just off of La Rambla

On this day, me and Kelven split up and each went our separate ways.  It was a crummy rainy day, which was surprising because I've never heard anybody talk about relentless rain like this in Barcelona before!  But in any case, it's all good.  I went to the market which was...  colourful...  and much different from what I expected a European market to be (see pictures below).  The paella cooking class was fairly disappointing in terms of the "cooking class" part because it was more of a cooking demonstration (ie, the guy does the cooking up front and you don't actually get your hands dirty).  However, they provided us with all the sangria that we wanted which was probably foolish on their part and made the night a lot more enjoyable for us!  :D

Lots of 1 Euro juice stands

At least they warn you it "sucs" lol (actually, I do know that sucs means that the juice is "sweet" in Spanish hahaha)

That's a lot of mutherf***ing eggs!  Also, a little creepy with the chicken dolls around...  Like they're happy that you're eating their offspring...

What I did:

• September 29, 2012 - Wandered around Barcelona (it was kind of a miserable rainy day), went around the Mercat de Sant Josep / La Boqueria, joined a Paella cooking class

Holy crap, by the size of that salmon head that fish is big enough to eat her!  That is, if she hadn't already cut it up lol

I tried some of the jamon iberico (basically the highest grade "ham" that you can find in Spain).  So fatty and rich...  oh yeah...  :D

Soo good :D

Yup, those are skinned rabbits.  Graphic eh?  Oops, I guess I should have warned you.  Sorry!  Was crazy to see this though, I felt like I was in Asia!  In hindsight, maybe I should have tried some rabbit while I was in Barcelona!

Highlights:

• The food markets - I visited a few other ones while I was in Barcelona, but Mercat de Sant Josep was the best (in my opinion) and definitely the largest.  It's so interesting to wander around there because I feel like you learn a lot about a culture from seeing where they get their food!  Also, I really like food...  hahaha
• The sangria drinking class - Oops, I mean the paella cooking class.  Met a bunch of cool American girls (umm...  from Chicago, going to school in St. Louis, doing exchange programs in Spain and France...  if I recall correctly), some Aussies & Kiwis, and an Austrian who will appear (hilariously) in a few of my photos below.

In his defence, he really put in a lot of effort explaining what he was doing and even providing back stories on paella!

Lowlights:

• The "cooking" portion of the cooking class!  But they made up for it with the "drinking" part so I forgive them hahaha.

Representing my Canucks!

Making new friends!  That's Babsi (Austrian) in the middle and Camilla (Australian) on the right

Can't Miss:  Chilling with new friends over a few pitchers of sangria!  :P

 

Long story short, Babsi had a few too many and ended up behind the bar.  Thought the Austrians could handle their booze???

Well, the bartender wasn't impressed but at least he was amused!

Barcelona Part 1 - La Sagrada Familia & Flamenco

Wow...  Breathtaking!

Obviously the fat guy in the red pants isn't impressed with the Lord's sacrifice, lol

Hey what's that kid pointing at?

Whoa!  That's cool!

Barcelona!  My first time in Spain.  Did not know what to expect (I must be a terrible planner because I say that for almost every place I visit lol).  I knew I had to visit La Sagrada Familia (does anybody who visits Barcelona not go here???) but I wasn't sure what else there was for me here.  By the time I left, my to-do list had definitely gotten longer!  I was generally pretty good with the amount of time I spent in each place that I visited during this trip (except for 5Terre where I think I probably had two surplus days), but the amount of time I had in Barca was not enough (probably one or two days from 5Terre would have covered it actually).  This blog post goes over the things that Kelven and I did together here.  Check out my second and third posts for what I did after we parted ways!

Honestly, even the doors are cool.  This Gaudi guy's pretty good eh?

The columns inside the church are designed to evoke trees.  Who DOES that???  Such cool design, so unique for a Catholic church.

What I did:

• September 27, 2012 - Miserably early start to the day (it's a loooooooong way to the Naples airport from Positano), flight to Barcelona, checked out La Rambla (the big street that all the tourists go to)
• September 28, 2012 - La Sagrada Familia (or as it's actually known, La Basilica y Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia), Flamenco show

How amazing is this going to be when it's FINALLY finished?  (FYI, construction began in 1882)

Highlights:

• La Sagrada Familia - ...  this place is amazing.  You can't imagine the scale of this thing...  It's ridiculously impressive!  It looks kind of creepy from afar because the spires are so weird and it's still under construction, but when you get there and see it, it takes your breath away.  Make sure you go to the website I linked to earlier and buy your tickets in advance so you don't have to wait in line (ignore the thing that says how long you get to spend in there, nobody will kick you out until the end of the day when they close).
• La Sagrada Familia (continued) - Because it's so awesome, I had to highlight it twice!  The symbolism there is incredible.  Gaudi was a genius!  I definitely had one of my religious experiences there, which I didn't expect because it got pretty loud from the crowds and the sounds of construction.  When this place finally gets finished (probably another 50 years or so lol) I'll absolutely have to go again!  But next time, I'll have to make sure I wear long pants (they wouldn't let me into the quiet prayer section because I was wearing shorts that day).

Of course I had Paella...  Can anybody think of a more typical Spanish dish?  Yes, I know it's not exactly a Catalan dish, but I don't know what a traditional Catalan dish would be...

Lowlights:

• La Rambla, surprisingly!  It's super packed all the time, you're paranoid because you always hear about the pickpockets (I was fortunate that I didn't run into any trouble in this department), and there's always those damn guys making those duck noises and trying to sell you those stupid glowing things that they toss into the air (I wonder how those guys make money because I've NEVER see anybody EVER buy one from them - it must be a front for drug dealing or something).

And the Flamenco show!  Recommended by our hostel as a very authentic experience!

OK.  So the guy behind the mic claps his hands and mumbles things (that I'm pretty sure aren't in Spanish and aren't the result of speaking in Tongues), the two people behind him clap along and yell encouragement, and the guy with the guitar...  ok he plays the guitar

There we go!  This is what I had expected at a Flamenco show!  But overall, was pretty cool :D

Can't Miss:  La Sagrada Familia, La Sagrada Familia, LA SAGRADA FAMILIA (lol)

 

Well now that's just plain offensive!  lol

Our new friend Micah (on the top left) finds this amusing.  The restaurant owner (top right) decidedly less so...  hahaa

Amalfi Coast 4 - Naples

I wasn't actually sure if I wanted to go to Naples at all.  I'd heard some bad things about it, and a lot of people I spoke to just generally seemed to want to avoid the big cities in Southern Italy.  However, I'm so glad I did take a day to explore the city.  It had the largest immigrant population I've ever seen in an Italian city (East Asians, South Asians, Africans, and probably even more that I didn't recognize).  It was dirty, and grimy, and gritty...  but super interesting just to wander the streets.  I never felt unsafe (like I was going to get mugged or anything), but then again I wasn't there at nighttime.  And the museums were pretty awesome.  My highlight was actually the Cappella Sansevero and the sculpture of the veiled Christ.  Unfortunately, photography is not allowed in there so I have no photos to post below.

Pizza?  In Napoli?  How cliche...

The Farnese Bull - the largest single sculpture recovered from antiquity.  You should see this thing...  Huge, incredibly detailed...

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

Poor Atlas...

BOO!

This is a mosaic taken from Pompeii.  As you can see, people made artwork about their dogs even back then.

hahaha the midget's the size of the chicken...

The Duomo in Naples.  My timing was excellent, I arrived during the Festival of San Gennaro and kissed the vial of his liquefied blood (yeah...  OK that does sound weird...  it's a religious thing I guess lol)

Dinner with a couple from Texas I met waiting for the bus in Sorrento.  Say hello Jessica & Joseph!

So I'm not sure what that says but it probably has something to do with the guy walking around playing the guitar while we're eating...  Never had a musical dinner experience like this before, but it was fun!  Thanks for bringing me out guys!

A club in a cave in Positano.  It looks a little Halloween-y and creepy in the photo, but it's cooler in person

Unfortunately, the crowd (and the dancing) was less than stellar.  Saw some creepy local dudes trying to pick up foreign girls (with hilarious results) hahaha