Parc Güell & a Party

Parc Güell, The park that Gaudi constructed and decorated every inch of elaborately, also our destination for the day. Our friend Xenia bought tickets for me, Chad, and my roommate Chris to get into the park, we set up a meeting point outside the metro that’s next to the park, and off we went. As an afterthought I grabbed my rain-jacket as I headed out the door…good call. It was raining the hardest it has yet as I exited the house and my lightly colored pants quickly became streaked with dark marks as I made my way to the metro. Chad, Chris, and i made our way down into the warmth of the metro and realized we were on the wrong side… so we went out of the metro and back in the other side…. That was a waste of a ticket…attention to detail huh? Anyways, we made it successfully to the right station and our friend Xenia was there to greet us (of course with the customary two kisses for each cheek).

       We walked from the metro and made our way to the hill which we had to climb to get up to the park. We joked about how in the states people would demand a shuttle to be put in so that they don’t have to walk up the big slippery hill. Right on cue we came to a rise where there were elevators built in…score! Maybe we are all lazy and just show it differently? The park was amazing but ill let the pictures do most of the talking. It is extremely elaborate and the notoriety that surrounds the park is very well deserved. I loved it. Gaudi is strongly influenced by nature and as a result tried to limit his straight lines and go for more intrinsic shapes. His intentions definitely showed and i liked being surprised by unexpected things here and there.

      From the top of Parc Guell we saw a hill with some cool looking crosses on the top. Xenia said that there typically are people playing music and that it is a really cool spot so we went to check it out. We hiked up that hill to the sound of pidgeons cheering us on and reached the windy summit. Indeed there was a man playing music up there and what a sight he was. Dressed in full leopard print, boots with jingle bells on them, a rusty old guitar, and as he sang loudly he had foam gathering at the corners of the mouth. His singing was made up of grunts and howls and he danced all the while kicking his boots around. He was insane. The crosses were windy, crowded, crumbling, and out of fear that i might get pushed off the side like a game of "king of the hill".... i went back down. 

    I thought i missed dinner the other night. it was rounding the corner on 10 o'clock so i hung up my Facetime with the parentals and went to go eat the left overs... No leftovers. So i walk to the kitchen and Josefa is still slaving away making the food, good grief! We surely don't get feasts every saturday? At 11 Josefa's son Fabian came and got chris and i and ordered us out the front door and down out into the entree-way of the apartment complex. One in the entree-way we were led into a cellar through a door which i thought was always just there for decoration. It felt like a scene from harry potter as the candles on every other step illuminated the skinny spiraling tiled stairs and cast our shadows on the adobe walls. We got to the bottom and after going through two more ancient iron gates Fabian led us into the main room. Goodness i would have never guessed we lived under an old ancient cellar that the romans built! Seriously, i asked Fabian's wife and the romans built the thing back when "Barcino" was just a roman colony. Oh, the perks of living in the gothic part of town!! Anyway, it was Fabian's brothers birthday and the room was filled with kid, adults, and elderly. Chris and i were greeted by about 30 or so "Holas" before we took our seats. The atmosphere was warm even though the stone cellar was pretty cold, most people kept warm by sipping wine. We had appetizer plates of meat and salads to warm up for the main dish which was a rice and chicken. Good stuff. Then out came the fruitcake with candles and one of the cousins grabbed the classical guitar to lead us in the happy birthday song. The words "Cumpleanos Feliz" replaced the "Happy Birthday to You" but at least the melody was the same so i could pretend like i know what i was saying. I was pretty pooped but i didnt want to be the first one out the gate. The presents were unwrapped as a song was sang to the classical guitar once again. Pretty cool, i wish we had a present opening song at our birthdays, everyone seemed to know it too. Luckily at 2 in the morning we had sleeper of a grandpa so he got up to leave and i was in the clear. After a handful more had followed his lead of leaving the party I gave a "feliz cupleanos" to the birthday uncle and a lot of "hasta luegos" to all the others. It was great to get into bed that night. it felt well deserved. it was about 2:30, i could still hear the kids screaming and having a good time down in the cellar with the adults. Good thing 3 others in the family have birthdays in February :)