The Wanderer

I wish I could travel as a profession.

This past weekend, I did a solo trip to Barcelona, and it was amazing. As much as I love group trips, it's always liberating to travel alone. I hate feeling rushed by others when I want to take photographs or go to a million different sites.

Because it was a quick weekend trip, I tried to pack in as many destinations as possible. I arrived in Barcelona around 11:30am and decided to take the Renfe railway into the city. Barcelona has a handful of transportation methods, and they get very confusing. I bought a one-way ticket into the city and the stupid cashier woman shafted me 5€. Not cool.


My first stop was my hostel--Sant Jordi Diagonal, recommended by Liz from Behnisch. It was a bit pricier than other hostels, but it was clean, the staff were awesome and informative, and it was in a perfect location on a main street.

After I dropped off everything, I headed for Gaudi's La Pedrera (Casa Mila). Gaudi is everywhere in Barcelona; it's impossible to miss his works. I was never a fan of Gaudi until this trip. Although you could enter the building, I decided to pass because I'm still on a student budget. I walked around the exterior and examined the structure. Absolutely fascinating how Gaudi's mind works.
 
Across the street was Toyo Ito's Suites Avenue Hotel. The ground floor is retail, but above are hotel rooms. Not sure what the interior is like, but from the outside, it was "ehhh." The facade is just waves of strips, but I would bet the rooms are pretty sweet. Because of the waves, it creates opportunities for balconies, which in turn frame the view of the street.

Next stop: Sagrada Familia. It was a nice day out so I walked along Diagonal Avenue towards the church. By the time I arrived, the clouds had moved in and turned the sky gray. Again, I decided just to walk around the exterior and not pay to enter, and that is the one thing I regret from the trip. From what I've heard and seen from the France group, the interior is gorgeous. Stupid me. Guess I'll have to return to Barcelona someday. From the exterior, the church just looks crazy. There's so so much detail and a ton of scaffolding. 


Before I came to Barcelona, a few people recommended the hop on/hop off buses, so I bought a two-day pass for 27€. I should have planned my itinerary before buying the pass because I only used it for one day. The bus has three lines (red, blue, green) but the green line doesn't run during the winter months, so I ended up buying a Metro pass for Sunday anyways. The bus stops by the most popular attractions around the city, but sometimes it's a pain because it only goes one way, so if you want to go to a previous stop, you would have to ride the bus all the way around again, which can take up to two hours.

From Sagrada Familia, I took the bus to Park Guell, also designed by Gaudi. It was here that I became an admirer of Gaudi's work. Initially it was supposed to be a garden for some housing complex, but because that fell through, it was eventually turned into a public park. The park is huuuuuuge. I spent well over an hour there, and I feel like I only explored a fraction of it. I'm simply impressed by all of it--the materials, the structure, the plans... I can barely wrap my head around it. There were a ton of people there, from tourists to vendors to street performers to artists. I wouldn't mind spending an entire day there.

On my itinerary, my next stop was supposed to be Camp Nou, the largest football (soccer) stadium in Europe, redesigned by Norman Foster, but because the bus took so long to get there, I decided to skip it since I'm not a fan of football anyways.


Next up: Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe!! I have loved this building from afar ever since sophomore year when I studied it as a precedent for my public market. It's so simple--a few columns here and there and some planes to create spaces. How wonderful! This was one of the main reasons I decided to visit Barcelona in the first place. It is so surreal to be able to see these buildings in person after reading about them and studying plans and sections and elevations and photographs. Sometimes I still can't believe where I am.
As expected, the pavilion was fantastic. I'm so glad it did not disappoint. It only cost me 2€ to enter and walk around the site. I must have taken over 200 photos there; I didn't want to miss a thing. I loved the reflections on the various surfaces (water, marble, glass) and the way Mies directs and frames views. It was all perfect.

I hopped back on the bus again and headed towards Santiago Calatrava's Olympic Antenna. Calatrava's another architect I admire because of his ingeniousness when it comes to engineering. I never understand how his structures are standing up!


I had planned on watching the sunset while riding the Telefèric de Montjuïc, which is a cable car that brings you up to the mountain, but because of winter hours (stops at 6pm) and because I took so long at the other sites, I missed out on that opportunity. Instead, I took the bus to Mirador de Colom and walked along La Rambla for a bit. The street is like Venice Boardwalk with tons of little vendors and eclectic street performers. Crazy.

I took the Metro towards Torre Agbar by Jean Nouvel. When I arrived, the tower was dark, and I was disappointed because I had seen pictures of it lit up. I walked under a bridge to get closer, and as soon as I got to the other side, the tower was shining! It must have just turned from 7:59 to 8:00. Perfect timing. Definitely an interesting building; it reminded my a lot of the "Gherkin" (Swiss Re) tower in England just because of its form... I wish I could have gone inside like the France group did. 

I decided to walk back to my hostel from the tower. On my way back, I stopped by the hotel where the France group was staying, and then I realized I didn't have any way of contacting them to tell them I was outside. So I walked back to the hostel to get online to coordinate with them. A group of them ended up walking over to me, and we went out to dinner at a restaurant called Marcelino. It was great to see friends from the other study abroad group! We were at dinner until midnight or so and headed out to a bar called Espit Chupitos. The place serves over 500 different shots, all for 2€! It was a nightmare trying to get through the crowd of people, but once we made it to the back of the bar, we had a fantastic time. We did some of the most ridiculous/awesome shots. One was called the Boyscout, where you get marshmallows on sticks, the bartender lights the bar on fire, you roast your marshmallow, dip it into the shot, eat it, and take the shot. Another was a Harry Potter shot, where the bartender pours the shots, put oranges on top and coats them with sugar, then lights them on fire before you bite the orange and take the shot. Awesome night with awesome friends.


The next morning, I woke up at 7:30 (don't ask me how I found the motivation) and was out of the hostel by 8. First stop: Forum building by Herzog and de Meuron. Unfortunately it was closed (like every other place on Sundays) so I could only see the exterior. The form of the building is essentially a triangle at an angle. Very interesting materials. Like I said before, they're the masters of facades.

Nearby was Parc Diagonal Mar. I walked through just to look at the structures in the park. It was almost like a playground for adults. I had the urge to climb on top of everything, but I refrained because there were workers around.


I got back on the Metro and made my way to another Calatrava structure: The Bac de Roda Bridge. Beautiful bridge with great geometries and great views.

At some point, I ended up in Catalunya Plaza as I tried getting to MACBA (Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona) designed by Richard Meier. As soon as I saw white square panels, I knew I found it. Before entering the museum, I walked around the exterior and photographed a few panoramas. On the inside, the space is flooded by light. My favorite aspect is the frosted glass blocks on the floor. When someone on the floor above you walks, you can see their footsteps. It was like the sidewalks in Seattle; the glass blocks served as a way of filtering natural light.

After walking through the exhibits, I headed for the Torre de Gas Natural by Enric Miralles. Fascinating office building. The form was so strange. I don't know what to make of it.

I walked over to Port Vell next. I wanted to grab some food and a glass of wine by the water, but the restaurant that I wanted to eat/drink at had terrible service. I seated myself outside, and it took forever for me to get a menu from the douchebag waiter. Then he proceeded to ignore me for another 10 minutes while I waited for him to take my order. One of my biggest pet peeves is wasting time. I got fed up and just walked away.

I took the Metro to the Santa Caterina Market, a building we learned about during sophomore (or maybe junior?) year that was redeveloped by Enric Miralles. Sadly, it was closed (I didn't think that one through) so I photographed the exterior. As I flipped through my Frommer's guide book, I noticed that it recommended food at a restaurant in the market, and as it turned out, it was open! I went in and sat at the bar and ordered tapas and a glass of cava. Delicious! And I got to see the interior!

I swung by my hostel to pick up my backpack before heading west to my final stops. First up was the Hesperia tower by Richard Rogers, which I believe is a convention center and hotel. I didn't go inside because I was tight on time, but I walked around the exterior. It's a very strange tower... like elements were just glued on the side/top of a tower.


Last site was Torre Fira by Toyo Ito. Unfortunately I didn't know how to get there, so I could only see it from a distance. From what I've seen, I like it. It has a very organic form, and you can't miss the fact that it's bright red.

Finally, it was time to leave.


I'm back in Berlin until Thursday, when we have our first long weekend! I'll be flying to Athens before taking a ferry to Santorini with a fantastic group of girls (some from the Berlin group, some from the France group). I'll update again soon with my adventures from today, but now, it's time to do some work!