today was a great day. i really felt like alice wandering in wonderland. so many wows packed into one day :

la sagrada familia
staggering experience. gaudi is truly a man beyond his time, an ambitious achiever, a true artist. this is a man who paid homage to god, with god’s creation in mind. his inspiration is nature. his last masterpiece is truly an absolute masterpiece, every inch of it. i was blown away and am SO in awe with the church.

hospital de la santa creu i sant pau
from the church i took a slow walk to this hospital. again, the architecture is so alive! and full of wonderment. quirky crosses, beautiful stained glass windows, tiled roofs with so many vibrant colours. it was right out of some fantasy movie!

park guell
a park filled with miscellaneous gaudi works including his famous lizard, and a museum of his house. it was a nice stroll and i certainly enjoyed gazing at his work. gaudi likes fluent flowing designs as he said there are no straight lines in nature.

tapas and sangria
i stopped for a quick bite. had some lovely tapas - pineapple and ham, mushrooms. yummy. washed it down with some lovely sangria. i was good to go and ready for another gaudi goodie.

casa batllo
if la sagrada familia didn’t convince me of this man’s genius, casa batllo definitely hammered that nail in. gosh…….what a masterpiece! this guy is such a genius lunatic to be able to even envision a building so ALIVE. the whole apartment had a very aquatic feel….the blue hues, the “flowing” walls and ceilings as if underwater, the white skeletal rooms that felt as if we were in the belly of a whale….what an experience. gaudi totally blew me away. this is architecture orgasm.

la rambla
by this time it was already dark. i took a slow stroll through la rambla and soaked up the atmosphere, stopping by very quickly at merkat de la boqueira for some freshly squeezed fruit juice. the streets were alive with performers, human statues, bands. a guy playing drums with buckets (and damn good at it too). even saw an mtv being filmed. i walked towards the picasso museum as it closes the latest at 8pm. figured i will end my day with some artistic contemplation. on my way there i saw el rei de la magia shop….it was a family establishment and they train magicians. i was going to visit their museum tomorrow as they have a magic show every saturday. out of curiousity i entered their shop….it was like stepping back into time. the wooden shelves were packed with all sorts of magic stuff and just so…mysterious. there was a curtain, and every customer stepped behind the curtain to do their business transaction. at first i thought it was a tarot reading session, or some fortune telling thing going on…then i realised, that’s how they sell their magic wares! behind curtains! for magicians to test their goods, woooo….mysterious….hehe. am all set for their magic show tomorrow, the lady said i was in for some good magic, funny magic she says. am excited!

walked and contemplated on some early picasso art. i really prefer his earlier sketches before it got insanely abstract.

so that’s my day! tomorrow - more museums, and more gaudi! woo hoo!

published on Nov 29 08 at 4:29 am under category : travelling.