It's time to talk about the trees in Barcelona. These trees, called Sunshine Trees or Scrambled Egg Trees were all over the city. They flower year round and drop these cool, yellow flowers all over the ground beneath them. A little breeze would make yellow flowers rain to the ground and each morning the sidewalks were covered with yellow. These were probably the reason everyone started to be a little snotty and sniffly by day 5.
Day 5 was a day off with no scheduled group activities. Most of us were completely sold on Gaudí at this point and we saw his influence all over the city so it just made sense to visit Las Pedreras/Casa Miló, a private home designed by Gaudí. This place was mind blowing from the start.
We had pretty much mastered the Metro and we easily found our way to the ticket office. This photo was taken just inside at the start of the audio tour.
This interior space was designed for a automobile entrance and private parking. Every detail was considered and every detail matched Gaudí's idea of creating a building that was a "living organism".
There were beautiful colors added to so many areas to prevent this from ever looking like a boring high rise residence.
Specific colors started to stand out from all across the city. We called this one Gaudí green.
The tour took us up to the roof to work our way down. All of these forms on the roof were functional and yet each one was designed as part of this large, residential sculpture.
There were ceramic mosaics like the ones at Park Guell.
This was our Gaudí group for the day. We had started to gel as a group and from this day forward, this became our core group. Some days we'd lose a small group and some days we'd gain a couple of people.
This is the attic, just under the roof where there was a little museum with models and artifacts about Gaudí and his influences.
He would begin designing towers like the ones at Sagrada Familia by hanging chains from a piece of wood and then placing a mirror under it to reverse the forms. We couldn't wrap our heads around this kind of thinking. We were more convinced than ever that he was from the future. (Hi David and Emily!)
And hi to Katertot, Anne and Sean sitting under the arches that were definitely inspired by a living creature...
Like the ribs of a whale or a snake like this one.
Then it was down into the interior of the building where no detail was left un-Gaudí-ed. He designed his own handles and knobs for doors.
And his own moulding for doors and walls.
We saw the tourist photoshoot coming a mile away, but we were so down for it. The told us to act like we were living in the past and they gave us some clothing props for the little video to go along with our black and white photo. Of course I bought it and then shared it with everyone.
Iphone maps continued to do us wrong but we were able to eventually find a small lunch restaurant with coffee and food. Poor Anne somehow ended up in almost all of my coffee/food photos.
We had planned to also visit Gaudí's Casa Bottlo but when we arrived by Metro, we discovered there was a big ticket price. We decided to wait for some reviews from others and we opted to find some vintage shops in the neighborhood instead.
Katherine's research paved the way for this. She had looked up the top vintage shops in Barcelona before we arrived and she had a list of the best ones for us to find. I think everyone enjoyed this, even though it's not something I would have thought to do on a trip.
Some shops were more vintage than others but we found a few good deals. We were at the end of our shopping time so we split up and all meandered back toward the hotel finding different snacks and things along the way. We recharged phone batteries at the hotel and changed into our beach clothes for another beach outing.
There were still plenty of people trying to sell us "water, beer, mojitos fresh!" but the beach was a little less crowded on a Monday evening. We still took turns standing guard over our belongings but we all go to get back in the water and enjoy.
Taking photos on the beach was a tricky situation. Or at least it felt that way. There was nudity every few feet in every direction so I felt odd taking photos. But everyone else on the beach seemed to be taking photos at will so I tried to embrace it. I would scan the desired photo area to make sure I didn't see a ton of nakedness before raising the camera, but no one seemed to care. I guess if you're topless or nude in public you don't care if you end up in the background of someone's photos. It was a safer bet to photo the water. I didn't bring my phone this time so these were from Sean's phone. That's Jericho, David, Emily and Sean in the water.
I did not pack light. I did not leave extra room in a suitcase to bring back souvenirs. I had every intention of eating all the money I spent, meaning, I only planned to buy food. I did buy a few very small things like buttons and a t-shirt from a museum, but I knew I could sit on the suitcase and get those to fit. However, vintage shop number 1 forced me to buy this cool military jacket for 20 Euros. I resisted but not a single person in our group supported me. They all said, "dude, that's so you, you have to get it." So there I stood at the end of day 5 in the hotel bathroom completely without buyer's remorse. It was a cool jacket and that was cheap. But I was probably going to have to wear it home.
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