Day 81 - España Solo - Barcelona

8 hours later, I've finally arrived at Barcelona Sants Station. Well, it's actually a 7 hours ride. But it's DST day, i.e. at 2am on the last Sunday of March, the clock is tuned forward by 1 hour, so that more of day time will have the sun. Great, now the sun will set at 9+pm instead of 8+pm.

Spotted on the Metro in Barcelona. I think it's a great design - the station you're approaching will be blinking, while the station that has been travelled to would light up.

Here in Barcelona, the countdown for the metro's arrival is not by the minute, but by the second! Of course the train didn't reach at exactly 0 sec, about 10-30 seconds.

I headed off to my hostel. The lady at the counter said "why only 1 night in Barcelona? It's not enough!" But oh well, I know what I want to see. The mix dorm room wasn't ready by the time it was time to check-in, so they upgrade me to a twin sharing room for the same price. Nice people.

Immediately, I dropped of my bags and head of to the key attraction of Barcelona - the La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family), Antoni Gaudí's masterpiece.

It's still under construction, since 1882

The queue is really long. Sigh. But it moved quite fast. I waited for about 15 minutes. Proceed to rent the audioguide.

Sculptures at the West facing facade, or the Passion Facade. Intentional for the Passion of Christ to be depicted on the facade that face the setting sun.

The Passion of Christ depicted on the facade. The sculptures were intentionally made bare, to express the sufferings of Jesus.

A picture of what the La Sagrada Familia would look like from the top.

The current spires representing the Apostles and Evangelists are already so tall (about 100+m). Yet, the tallest one that is planned(the one with the huge cross) has yet to be built. It's suppose to represent Jesus, at 170m. Gaudí planned it to be shorter than a representation of God elsewhere in Barcelona, as according to Gaudí, nothing should be higher than God.

My favourite facade. The headphones were from the audioguide. The facade was suppose to feel like it's made of bones.

No, it's not Sudoku. According to the audioguide, no matter how you add up the numbers, it will be "33", the age which Jesus died. And no, the 2 sculptures are not kissing lah. It's from the scene where Jesus told Judas to do what's suppose to do, i.e. betray him.

Words from the gospels, with key words about Jesus being highlighted in gold.

Beautiful stain glass. The blue represents water, while the red represents life.

Instead of flying buttress, modernist Gaudi mimic the trees of a forest to design the pillars. It's suppose to symbolise how the religion "shelters" the flock, and to induce a contemplative state as well. Notice that the pillars are of different colours? Well, cause it's made of different stones. Stronger stones, bearing heavier weight are at the bottom, while weaker stones, bearing lighter weight, are at the top.

The East Facade, or the Nativity Facade. A lot more joyous and elaborately decorated than the Passion Facade. It depicts the birth of Jesus mah, of course must be joyous! Intentional that the facade which depicts the Nativity faces the rising sun.

A mountain tortoise. Why got a sua ku here? Well, there are 2 tortoises here in the facade, "supporting" everything. The one that faces the sea is a sea turtle, while this suaku here faces the hills of Barcelona.

See the greenish thing in the middle of the 4 spires? It represents a cyprus tree, with a dove on it, symbolising the eternalness of the religion. The "bridge" between the 2 middle spires have a bronze carving of Jesus, symbolising his ascension.

I thought this facade is a little too much for the minimalist me, but it's still beautiful nonetheless.

Gaudí did not use equations to design the La Sagrada Familia. Instead, he hung weights on strings, like this, to determine how the structure should be like to support the weight. If you invert this around, you'll notice that it looks like the design of the temple. No, it's not an excuse for you not to study your maths.

Still under construction. There is suppose to be a Glory Facade as well, as planned by Gaudí. I wonder what it would be like.

What can I say? I'm blown away by the architecture and the symbolism. The audio guide was really worth every single cent - I spent 3 hours with it! But what struck me most is how religion motivate and inspires Gaudí to create such a wonder. And I think the beauty of this place is not it's size or height, but the little symbolism and "codes" added by Gaudí. Too bad he died before it can be completed. Oh yes, your admission ticket? It goes into the fund that finance the construction of this temple.

Next I head off to Parc Güell, another Gaudi's work. As usual, it's filled with tourists.

A park with mosaic galore, along with curves, nature-inspired modernist designs of Gaudí

Basker playing a "Hang". It sounds like a Caribbean steal drum.

View from the top. See if you can spot the La Sagrada Familia, with the construction cranes. Much of Parc Güell is out of bounds unfortunately.

Tree-inspired design for this walkway. I was told this was used for Meteor Garden 2, but I didn't watch it, so I don't know.

More mosaic beauty.

I thought Parc Güell is a little over-rated. But a wonderful view of Barcelona. So no complains lor. Continued walking down to explore central Barcelona.

Casa Mila, or La Pedrera, another of Gaudi's modernist work.

The famous La Rambia.

After walking for like 5km? I took a break. Chocolate (pronounced as Chor-co-la-teh) con Churros, a Spanish breakfast thing. Super-thick hot chocolate with dough fritters. I mean really thick.

I went back to the La Sagrada Familia for night shots. On the way, encountered a duo who pretended to be fake police to attempt to scam me. But sorry, your cloth badge that looks like it was bought from Golden Mile covering your details in your IC is just too suspicious to be true. They said "if you don't show me your passport, I'll call reinforcement". Call lor. Besides, why would you demand for my passport before checking that I'm a tourist? In the end, he took out his phone, dialled some numbers, and said that I could go, while he retained the "tourist" who was asking me for directions before those 2 popped out. Strangly, he showed them his passport and had it returned, yet he was retained? They walked away together, which I suspect that they are a team, and that "tourist" is there to keep me in place and feel that it's ok to pass them my passport. Please lah, want to scam people, can be smarter or not?

The Passion facade at night. It really looks like it's made of bones.

Bumped into a Korean lady who asked if I could help her take a picture with it. I used my tripod. Then she offered to help me do the same. Hehe.

Nativity Facade at night.

Bumped into the same Korean Lady later. Did the same thing.

I then walk back to the hostel for a break. The hostel is arranged in an apartment manner, where a few rooms share a kitchen, 2 toilets and a living room. Turns out I'm sharing a room with a Vietnamese girl who's studying in the States and doing exchange in London. Along with her are 2 Chinese girls who are studying in Singapore and are on exchange in London as well.

Had a long talk. They were telling me how their paella was crappy here (thank goodness I had it in Córdoba) . I felt uncomfortable sharing a room with the Vietnamese girl, so I offered to sleep on the sofa, even though she's fine with me sharing the room. Then 4 spanish guy came back, asking if I mind that they watch TV. No problem. They were even nice enough to smoke outside at the balcony, even though it was cold. But the only problem I had was that they were watching soft porn on TV. Luckily they were only watching it for 1 minute before switching to some Spanish comedy.