This is a shot of two of my friends, Kate and Maggie, walking through the narrow streets of El Born District, which is located within Barri Gotic. (to give you a reference to how old the “old town” is, Barri Gotic was the location of the Roman reign of Augustus starting in 27 BC). The first two weeks of my time in Barcelona mostly consisted of wandering through Barri Gotic finding cafes, museums, and shops. Good food, but the shopping doesn’t appeal to me (shopping never has appealed to me and European shopping doesn’t do it either). The central feature of Barri Gotic is the cathedral (see picture below), which was built in 1298… interesting fact: this was the location of the baptism of six native Caribbean who were brought back to Europe by Columbus in 1493. Columbus landed in Barcelona when he returned from his trip, and Spain thinks this is very important.
The Cathedral at night:
Another addition to my last post:
Here is a picture of Sagrada Familia (mentioned above) from the outside. Every inch is as intricate as this, and Gaudi’s detail like this explains why it’s still not finished (started in 1883). It also indicates his intense Catholicism, and how he probably did drugs when designing his stuff.
Sorry for all the nerdy historical detail in these updates. My friends make fun of me for always having my travel book out reading about everything we see, and making them listen to me explain all the significance behind stuff. I think I get this incredibly annoying trait from my father. (I have also picked up his habit of reading every word written in a museum, no matter how worthless it is)
I will write again soon about my past weekend... but this is all for now.
Congratulations to all the Bears fans (my relatives); I heard they will be playing in the Superbowl. I think I´ll be in London for the game but I think the game will be at 1:00 or 2:00 am so I don´t think I´ll see the whole thing.
Love and miss all of you,
Laura
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