20. La Boqueria, Picasso, Paella-ish and Gaudi!

Let's take a moment to be thankful for sleep. I'd like to thank sleep, without which this day might not be possible!

This morning I woke up to some lovely classical music, an adorable little pup and a warm, warm room. The couple I'm staying with is just lovely. They play classical music whenever they're home, and have given me my own space in the fridge, in which I have chosen to store watermelon and water, watermelon is so cheap here! It's also very delicious. 

I shared with them my plan for the day, and they told me that there is no way I would get into Segrada Familia (a church designed by Gaudi) without a 3-hour wait. They had mentioned it a while back but I didn't get a chance to do it, so they helped me print out a ticket this morning. Wonderful men.

I headed out, sweating a little bit, which changed after the light rain passed. The first stop was La Boqueria, a food market. Guys, I know that St. Lawrence has been voted best in the world, but this place is really damn impressive, and very, very busy with tourists like me. I bought a piece of pizza, for lack of the proper Spanish term, as well as a little cup of watermelon. Delicious!

Here are some pictures of the outside and some of the vendors. I bought some chocolates from one woman, and man alive are they out of this world. Half of them melted throughout the day so the bag is a mush-pile, but that's going to be such a delicious pile once it hardens in the fridge!

That's effing marzipan!

This is where I bought my chocolates from.

From there I walked, and walked, and walked, and walked past where I was supposed to be, and walked back. I finally got to the Picasso Museum. This thing is really tucked away, and as was the case for Segrada Familia, I should have bought my ticket beforehand. Oh well, a 20 minute wait didn't kill me. No pictures allowed, but we got to see a lot of his early work, as well as some different pieces throughout his career. It was all very well-preserved and presented, and I had a great time. There were about five things I wanted from the gift shop, but decided that I'm sure there were more genuine items from Barcelona to come. This is what I was allowed to take a picture of from the museum.

From there I kept walking and came across what seemed to be a very touristy shop, but I had been in a few and saw one thing that I thought was just adorable. The woman told me that they're for kids rooms, and to that I said, "I'm a grown woman who loves colour and hot air balloons, oh well!" She laughed.

It's about 5" wide, and I love it!

Then I walked a bit, realizing of course that I had overestimated my ability to make it to Segrada Familia on foot, and because of the immense sweating, hopped in a €5 taxi. The best use of €5 ever.

I realized that I hadn't eaten since La Boqueria, so stopped in at a place next to the church. I had one of their more Americanized paellas called Fideguay (not even sure if it's classified as one technically), but it was outrageous. I ate the whole thing! It was not my intention. It was also not as large as this picture makes it look.

And finally, this is Segrada Familia.

It's something that I have never seen anything like, nor will every see anything like again in my life. This was an amazing experience, I couldn't leave! I just sat/stood there taking more pictures for fear that I might forget what it looked like. 

It's really, exceptionally, very, super, duper, brilliantly brilliant!

This is the front exterior.

This is the back exterior.

This is the interior. Cannot breathe. Too beautiful. Honestly, guys, what LOOKS like this!?

The next one shows the windows that aren't done yet. A guy, whose name I don't remember, has been working on the stained glass windows since 1999, and the project as a whole isn't expected to be complete until 2026. Man.

Of course they have a Bose system!

The rest of the pictures here are of the models, and Gaudi's working process. Of course they didn't have the 3D printers back then, but we get to benefit and see the sketches come to life today.

There were models made upside down to get the shapes that Gaudi was looking for. Those brown things are all little sandbags.

Modelling and testing room.

These are apparently his old drawings, and the set up of how he liked to work.

This is the state that Segrada Familia was in when Gaudi died on June 10, 1926. 

These are the people working on the building as we all went in and walked around. It's crazy that it's still not final. Amazing.

I can't get over that place. Apologies for the absolute abundance of pictures, but every one was better than the next!

And now I'm sitting in a restaurant called Nuria, along La Rambla, and I've ordered two tapas items from the menu, as well as a cooked vegetable plate from a most adorable Spanish man. 

Now back at "home" to relax for tomorrow. I think I might play the full-on tourist and jump on one of those tourist buses. They are "jump on, jump off", so you can catch them on a lot of places, and you can get on and off at whatever stop you want and just meet them at a designated stop when you're done, then on to the next place. We shall see what tomorrow brings!

Buenas noches! (I think that means "Good night"...)