Last Thursday, May 19, I had a very busy day. Not only did I go on an excursion with my history class, but I also went out to a super unique bar and finished up my Shadow of the Wind walking tour! Nine miles of walking later, I returned to my apartment exhausted. Since I managed to pack so much into one day, we'll just be going over the highlights of the excursion in this post and save my gushing over the Shadow of the Wind for another.
The day started at the Palau Güell, a palace designed by Gaudí (of course, because I'm now pretty sure that nothing Barcelona wasn't designed by Gaudí) for Eusebi Güell, a rich guy who did not limit Gaudí's spending in any way at all. I wish I had that kind of budgeting! What this means is that this palace is jam-packed with a lot of truly exotic materials. In the music room, there were doors made of wood imported from the Caribbean and the shells of turtles now extinct from overharvesting. You can imagine, I was thrilled. Beyond the questionable resources used to design this palace, I was impressed by the structure of and thought that went into it. Gaudí never fails to impress.
The reason we visited Palau Güell is because we were studying the Catalan industrial revolution and emigration for the purpose of setting up commercial networks. Güell amassed a great fortune via the textile business he inherited from his father. Meanwhile, the poor were starving because the unequal distribution of land caused the performance of Spanish agriculture to be extremely poor. So I hope you're cool with this income inequality stuff that's going on now because it's been around a while and probably not going anywhere soon.
After Palau Güell, we carried on to the Casa Batlló. The Casa Batlló was on my to-see-in-the-last-weeks list! Naturally, I was thrilled that our excursion brought us there and included audioguides that I might have cheaped out on if I went on my own. Casa Batlló is of course beautiful in that over-the-top way of Gaudí works. It's also locally known as the "House of Bones" because its façade has an oddly skeletal structure.
Even more odd, though, are the tourists inside. People were taking pictures of a picture in the house of the house's façade. This is something I will never understand. You are in the building. If you want a picture of it, walk outside and take one. But you haven't really seen ludicrous until you've seen a place selling bottled water as a souvenir. Just... why? Maybe because the house is designed to make its guests feel as if they're underwater, they thought this was a relevant and unique souvenir? Seems misguided if not simply silly.
Casa Batlló is also known for its arched roof, commonly likened to a dragon's back. Some say that the turret at the side of the rounded part represents Sant Jordi's lance, plunged into the dragon's back. Sant Jordi is the patron saint of Catalonia and Gaudí and Güell were both highly religious men, so this seems to me like a probable theory. For more info on the dragon roof and what some of the other features of the house have been likened to, check out this super cheesy ad!
Then, I took myself to lunch! More than a year ago, I found this list of 21 insanely unique bars, noticed one in Barcelona, and decided I was going to eat there. So after my audioguide had finished chatting my ear off, I marched on down Las Ramblas and made my way to El Bosc de Les Fades (a.k.a. The Fairy Forest), a bar associated with the Museo de Cera (Wax Museum). It was challenging to capture a decent image of the bar's interior because of its exceptionally dim lighting. However, my ham-and-cheese empanada, large hard-boiled-egg-and-veggie sandwich, and cup of sangria (my first!) only cost about $14. For the atmosphere and quality of food, I felt happy with the cost. Plus, no one tried to stop me from running around the bar like a small child.
That said, this bar is extremely family-friendly, fairly affordable, and yummy. I'd suggest stopping by for a unique Las Ramblas experience. Personally, though, I skipped the Wax Museum itself. I'm not a big fan of creepy, rubbery statues staring at me with their not-quite-dead eyes.
Until next time!