When Shirly and I went to Sagrada Familia yesterday, the line was so long and it was so hot, we just thought stuff it. Our grand plan was to get up early and be there when it opened today. Joined by Alex from Oregon, we set off about 8.30am. We arrived at the Sagrada Familia to the pavement that was full with people yesterday empty. Yes, our plan had worked. So we walked around to the ticket office. Hmm, turns the line was just running in the other direction today. And a lot of people also had the same idea. The one saving grace was that it wasn't that hot at all. We waited only for about 30 minutes and just as it started to rain a little, we were let in. The towers were closed because of the weather so we could't go up, but staying on ground level was enough.
I was blown away by the attention to detail on the exterior, but inside is just as impressive. It's huge. Shirly got an audio guide but I settled for reading the signs around the place. To give you an idea of the scale, inside, the choir galleries can fit 1000 singers. Underneath is a museum that has a range of pictures and models of the building. A lot of Gaudi's orginal models were destroyed during the Spanish civil war, so there is a fair bit of work in trying to work out what the guy had planned.
Because it was a week day there were quite a few workmen about. Apparently July/August is a bit of a slow time because of the heat though. Can you imagine the conversation at dinner? `So honey, what did you do today?' `Oh, just working on the Sagrada Familia, same old.'
I had arranged to meet a guy from Barcelona who contacted me through Couchsurfing, so Shirly and Alex tagged along. Xavier is studying English, for no reason other than he wants to, and is keen to practice. Although he was quite modest, his English was pretty good. He has an exam coming up to reach the second highest level he can in his studies. I had a look through his text books, which were quite interesting. They are really quite advanced and it really made me realise how silly our language is. It was also interesting talking to him about the Catalan and Spanish languages. He speaks Catalan at home, but Spanish is getting more widely used. He also isn't religious, which he said is very common among his generation. This is a little surprising given how God happy the country seems to be.
When Xavier left we realised we were about on time to make a walking tour that Alex had suggested. This one was of the old city and Gothic quarter. Our guide, Chris, is a Brit, who moved to Barcelona four years ago. He was very interesting but also very laid back. We walked around for about 2.5 hours. It was great to see some of the back streets as so far when I've been in the centre, I've stuck to the bigger streets.
When the tour was finished a few of us decided to do a pub crawl with the same company that night. Shirly, Alex and I returned to the hostel for dinner and found some other girls who were also going, so there were about 7 of us heading along.
I'm really turning into a weakling in my old age. I was yawning when we arrived. Shirly and I stuck it out until the last pub but caught a taxi home before they moved to the club.
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