Friday November 18 – Barcelona Day 2/ La Sagrada Familia/ Parc Güell

                We got up to go to Sagrada Familia, it was more impressive than I remembered it from the time before, we even went inside and it is absolutely amazing. It is by far the coolest church that I have seen in my life, the inside was built to look like a forest, it is a must see if you ever go to Barcelona. A couple cool facts I learned was that Guadí died in 1926, the church was burned during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the pope blessed the church on completion of the interior in 2010, there is a choir loft that holds 1,000 people, Guadí used a string design from a ceiling with little weights and then looked at it through a mirror to get the design right side up, and many other things in the building are based on nature. For lunch we went to Subway and I had a baby sub for a Euro that was basically a hotdog bun with a slice of turkey and a little lettuce.

                Next we went to Parc Güell (Guadí Park) and when we started we did not know that it was so far away, we got directions from a nice guy. He told us that it was a long walk but we decided to do it anyway, it is amazing that when we leave Andalucía, south region of Spain, it is so much easier to understand Spanish because they do not shorten their words and they talk at a normal pace. We made it to Parc Güell and it is an unreal park, it is very Guadí-like, I am not sure how to explain it. There are lots of mosaics and a great view from the top of the city and many other sculptures around the park. We walked awhile and then found a subway to take back to the hostel. Our hostel also gave us a coupon for a restaurant for a free dinner so we ate that and then we walked on Las Ramblas, a famous street in Barcelona. We went to a store to get some drinks and we were talking with the owner and he asked Derick and me where we were from we said the USA and he said he was from Afghanistan, Derick and I did not know what to say besides “Oh” and then he said he was just kidding that he was actually from India, we had a good laugh after that. We walked to a dock and sat at a restaurant and then tried to walk to the beach with sand but was too far so we turned around and went to bed.