barcelona, day 2, day of gaudi

our first whole day in barcelona, we decided to do a start of checking out some of gaudi´s works. we went to one of his famous works first, right on the passeig de gracia. i already forget the name of it, garrett would know but he´s across the room right now. anyway, it is this crazy place with an amazing attic and rooftop. the rooftop has these little helmeted dudes that show up in a lot of gaudi´s work.

then we made the pilgrimage to la sagrada familia. when we were on the rooftop of the previous building, garrett pointed out the pointy towers of it and even from far away, it looked stunning. from up close? no words. it is SO DENSE. there is so much. every square inch of that place is something to stare at. really incredible. we went upstairs to the roof and noted signs at the lift that said - you go up using the lift and down using the stairs. WARNING - very narrow spiral staircase going down - if you have vertigo, claustrophobia, asthma, or are old, do not go up. i looked at garrett and said - i have 3 out of four of those but figured it would be ok. um...i whimpered/screamed the whole way down that staircase. by the time i finally reached the end, i couldn´t really feel my legs.

last night, after a full day of wandering around this amazing city, we struck out to forage for food. garrett thought we should get some tapas and then a full plato at this place in the gothic quarter. we went to a tapas joint close to our hostel, had a glass of rioja, a few little yummy things. as we walked outside, i looked to my right and saw a WALL of water and people running. my first thought was - wha??? the next second, the storm reached me and i was getting drenched. i have never stood in a dry spot and seen the rain coming at me. it was crazy!! eventually the skies kind of dried out but it still was raining on us as we made our damp way to the gothic quarter. we had a bit of a wait to get a table at the restaurant but it was well worth it. garrett said it was one of the best meals of his life and well...i had a lot of wine and port so i was pretty happy myself. but as we´re in this groovy little place, the skies open again and our soundtrack to that dinner was thunder and lightning.

we went to park guell today and got DRENCHED again by a sudden thunderstorm. here´s a picture of garrett in the little grotto we hid in while it rained cats and dogs