An Irish Semester: Barcelona

In mid-April I traveled to Barcelona, Spain, along with my apartment-mate Maggie and friends Tara and Barbara - I think one of the most beautiful and fascinating cities I have been in. Above is the view as we left our hostel on Day 1 (the panorama was worth climbing the massive hill it was situated on!)

Day 1: Our explorations began with a walking tour of the old quarter of the city.

Barcelona is filled with beautiful buildings; the one above is decorated with sand mosaics.

The Parliament of Catalunya, sporting the flag of Spain and the flag of the Catalunya region.

What our tour guide dubbed the "protest del día" - apparently a pretty ordinary occurrence.

The 1992 Olympic torch, in front of the church of Santa María del Mar, built in the 1300s.

Lunchtime tapas... tiny but delicious!

The monument of Christopher Columbus

Parc Guell, designed by Antoni Gaudí and one of Barcelona's most famous parks

Parc Guell = Candyland?

Day 2 started with a visit to the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia, the church designed by Gaudí.

Construction started in the 1880s and is supposed be completed by 2030 - the sign above shows the towers and portions of the exterior left to be built.

Enormous and incredibly intricate - difficult to imagine what it will look like once completed.

The architecture inside, so unique from any other church I've seen

Loving the sunshine and palm trees!

An afternoon spent at Barceloneta Beach

A little too chilly to swim... but we did stick our feet in the Mediterranean.

Gardens at Montjuïc hill

Just some meditation in the park.

A great view of the city from Montjuïc

Barbara and I in front of the Palau Nacional, which houses the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

The Font Mágica of Montjuïc... fountain show set to music entertained us for a good hour, at least...

Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina

Have now seen musicians trying to make money everywhere, including... the metro. (This one happened to be terrible, all the more amusing.)

Day 3 began a morning walk down Passeig de Grácia, reputedly one of Barcelona's prettiest streets

Palm Sunday vigil in Barcelona was an unusual experience - no palms in church, but plenty of street vendors selling what were arguably the biggest Palm Sunday palms I've seen.