Barcelona is a treat.
The last time I went, I was heading to La Tomatina in Brunol back in 2013. As I typed that I don’t even remember if that’s true. No, it is. Anywho, this time around I wanted to see inside the Sagrada Familia and other Gaudi works because last time I didn’t book tickets and the line up was loco as they say in Spain. I’m such a local.
This time around, I tried to book tickets online in advance the day before because fool me once. But then it was fool me twice because both Sagrada Familia and Park Guell were all sold out for the next 5/6 days.
I had to rearrange my busy schedule that was filled with very important whozits and whatzits.
My plan was:
- Barcelona
- Andorra
- Girona
but I had to do Barcelona, Andorra, Girona, back to Barcelona to see the coveted Sagrada Familia and Park Güell by that guy Guadi. I would like to say the travel rearrangements were worth it.
eat.
I didn’t eat anything spectacular while in Barcelona. I went to Rec Comtal 21 for tapas that turned into wine at 1pm. It was good, but for the price I couldn’t stand behind my choices.
I adore iberico ham- I once wrote a love letter to the pigs that graciously give their lives for those thin slices of goodness. I spent nearly €50 at RESERVA IBÉRICA on like 8 slices of it LOL. I normally scarf it down like said iberico pig to a trough, but I have it saved in my cupboard for a special occasion or more likely for when I come home drunk and need a snack.
cheap.
Me and cemeteries, what can I say- they have no entrance fees. I went to Cementiri del Poblenou and saw the Kiss of Death.
This is a weird one. Considering how long I spent at El Born Center for Culture and Memory, I have no idea what was going on there. There were ruins, but then the description slides didn’t match up with what I was seeing. Maybe I read them out of order? Either way, it’s a covered area so if it’s raining it’s a good walk-through route to the Lidl supermarket close by.
I went to El món neix en cada besada- I didn’t see what the picture was until I googled it afterwards. I feel like my 1995 edition of I Spy book didn’t prep me for this.
travel.
Sagrada Familia boasts a €26 entrance fee without a guided tour. I can only assume Jesus is rethinking that whole resurrection thing because the rolling in his grave expression doesn’t work here.
€26 FOR AN UNFINISHED PROJECT!
When I don’t finish a project, people are all like “Corrine, what are we even paying you for?” but when Gaudi does it, he gets praised? Men. I swear. If anyone pulled that shit with me- using the whole I died by getting hit by a horse-drawn carriage baloney I would hulk out.
Honestly, Sagrada Familia from the outside is a bit of an eyesore. It reminds me of this papier-mâché 3D art project that my bestie did back in highschool- she used too much glue and she didn’t let it dry long enough so it got mouldy. Throw in some cobwebs and you got yourself this:
Inside is kinda okay.
Don’t get me started on Park Güell. It is literally a public park that they put a gate and smacked a €10 price tag on. The buildings that Gaudi designed you can see from the street outside the paid park area.
I think the money goes towards the outdoor escalators leading to the park. I was SHOCKED that an outdoor escalator was working. Not once, nor twice, but thrice! The escalators in my new building work maybe 6 out of 10 times I’m there.
Inside the park, which you can see from the outside, there are these two ice cream cone meets gingerbread houses, one now is a giftshop that you can’t go upstairs and the other is Gaudí’s former house. I waited 45 minutes to enter his shack, and the line wasn’t even that long. It was deceiving because they allow maybe 10 people in at a time but they wait until everyone exits before allowing another 10 people in. I don’t understand what everyone was looking at for so long because I was inside for less than 4 minutes.
airport woes
Getting back to the Barcelona airport- pay attention to the Terminal that the bus goes to. It was €7.25 for the Aerobus, even though a week prio,r when I took the bus from the airport to Barcelona it was €6.75. I got on whatever bus (probably with PTSD from that price inflation from less than a week), not realising it was going to Terminal 1, which is a 15-minute bus ride from Terminal 2.
