Oh my Gaudí! (Barcelona, Day 1)

¡Hola! Soy Sabine y durante mis vacaciones, fui a Barcelona, la capital catalána. No puedo hablar o escribir en catalán, pero es fácil leer. Como consequencia, voy a practicar mi español. No importa porque todo el mundo en Barcelona habla español...

Sí, I'm practicing my written Spanish. During my break, as you might have already guessed, I practiced my spoken Spanish. My brother, his girlfriend, and I went to Barcelona for a weekend. We had an amazing time and saw plenty of impressive sights. Tonight, I'm posting about el Parque Güell...or Parc Güell in Catalan (and French).

So, the park might look familiar to you if you've seen the second Cheetah Girls movie on Disney Channel. Instead of "strutting", I'm going to give a little bit of history as found on the pamphlet I received. Now, part of the park is open to the general public. For the monumental part, you have to pay a small entrance fee. It's totally worth it, though. Ok, let's begin!

This colorful, mosaic tile artwork is EVERYWHERE in Barcelona. Why?

Let's just thank el señor Antoni Gaudí, the famed Spanish-Catalan modernism artist. Barcelona is very much HIS city; his work can be seen almost everywhere. The Parc Güell is only one impressive sight of his. Entrepreneur Eusebi Güell hired Gaudí to create the park, which was built from 1900-1914. It opened to the public in 1924. 

Here are some photos of the mosaics seen on the main terrace... 

Here is the view from the terrace. One of the buildings is a museum for the history of Barcelona. The smaller building (on the right) is a gift shop.

Here is a beautiful mosaic dragon. It was vandalized in 2007 but has been restored. It's terrible that people would do something like that.

Here's the view near the main entrance. If you've seen The Cheetah Girls 2, you probably recognize this.

Here's the gift shop! It was just too pretty.

That was my first adventure in Barcelona. I also stayed in a hostel for the first time. It actually wasn't that bad. We met some super cool people, especially these two girls who were traveling Europe alone. I'd love to travel the world alone someday. That's really how you meet people and have adventures. I do love the company of my friends or family, but I also like the idea of having adventures and meeting people from all over the world. So, I leave you with this:

What is your favorite type of art? Were you familiar with Gaudí before this post?

Besos,

Sabine