Day 3 in Barcelona

Another gorgeous day! More hiking! Another park! Views! Today began (and let's be real, ended) at Park Guell, Gaudi's other masterpiece. The park is situated up on a hill and we took a bus there because we didn't want to walk. We had no idea what to expect other than the fountain and we were absolutely blown away. My favorite things were the massive viaducts. They seemed almost Aztecian in nature but at the same time, completely original. (In other news, I recognized the viaducts later as being the location for the final runway show of America's Next Top Model Cycle 7..... don't ask...) You could climb on the top of or walk underneath the viaducts and they were just absolutely spectacular.

There was also a lot of hiking up and down hills involved in Park Guell because it was also built up on a hill, like Montjuic. We wandered up and down paths and stairs, both paved and rocky and just basked in the glorious, warm sunshine. There were musicians playing, including one lady who played a version of the steels drums, and lots of people selling jewelry and little trinkets.We had some great views again of the city as well as of Mount Tibidabo, which was my favorite name of everything we saw this trip.

 Eventually we wandered back down to the fountain, which was all about Gaudi's colored tiles. There were SO many people around but there were some great views from the top of the fountain of the Hansel and Gretl style houses at the bottom. And of course, the famous lizard that was covered in tiles.

I really don't know what to say about this fountain and this whole area. It was just absolutely glorious.

We were STARVING by the time we finished so we took the bus back and got off at this little stree that turned about to be Gaudi Street, in between La Sagrada Familia and this beautiful old hospital that was being renovated. We found a place on the street for lunch and got Gaudi Pizza and an omelette with potatoes, onions and courgettes (zuchinni). Although it took FOREVER to arrive, it was absolutely delicious. 

We had a few more hours to spare so we went to the Music Museum at the Symphonic Hall. There were no pictures allowed but the exhibit was spectacular. They had such a huge collection of instruments dating back to Renaissance times up until today. They covered European music as well as international music and in each section, they had music playing that refelcted the theme of each section (for the classical music section, along with instruments that were used during the classical era, they had a video screen with pictures and paintings from that period accompanied with pieces by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Boccherini). The final room was an interactive room where we played the keyboard and a rudimentary organ, I played on a cello whose bow needed A LOT of rosin and even picked up Bach's Minuet in G on a harp. Such an incredible museum and we did not regret going there!

 It being New Year's Eve, we sat home for awhile and "rested" before heading out a little after 11 to see what Barcelonans did to celebrate. We walked down to Playa Catalunya and watched people and watched the clock. It was very different from celebrating in the states. There was no count-down clock, so groups of people celebrated at their own time. A group of Italians were already cheering and spraying champagne around and singing, while a found of French boys were still counting down. It wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be and although it was a fun experience, Shiri and I escaped pretty quickly and went to hang out at the Arc, which was totally empty.