Business Trip #2

Went to Barcelona a couple of weeks ago for work and stayed for a few days. Admittedly I spent most of my time in a conference hall in a business hotel, but managed to get out for one afternoon and one morning. This is the third time I've been to Barcelona so had seen most of the touristy things before, but decided to see the touristy things again since I didn't have much time and things are popular for reason.

First I went to the Sagrada Familia on a Thursday afternoon. As you probably know, they are still completing the twisty Gaudi cathedral, so every time I go back, it's a little bit bigger and a little bit more modern. The photo is of a new wing that wasn't there three years ago. I'm a bit torn about the new stuff. In some ways, I wish they left it in its original form as a monument to Gaudi, without the new bits.

It's not like the new bits are bad. I think they fit in, but they look different. The colours are not quite the same and the new statues and too angular and not worn away like the original sculptures. In the museum part of the cathedral, I learn that most of Gaudi's plans were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War, so I always wonder how much of Gaudi's original vision remains.

But there are also pictures of the completed cathedral. And it's massive. It's the work of a crazy man, obviously, and unbelievably ambitious. It's like something from a gothic comic book that looks great on the page but unworkable in real life. Then you look around and realise they are trying to make this image real. And it's going to take them about 100 years to finish. And then you wish you could live long enough to see the finished product.

After Sagrada Familia I walked to Park Guell, taking the escalator up the hill. The sun is beginning to set so people are leaving and coffee shops closing. Which is a shame, because I really needed a pee. For the whole time walking around Park Guell, all I could think about was I needed a pee and how they hadn't built in public toilets for people to pee in. There weren't even any secluded corners to hide in or trees to stand behind. I had to rush around a quick a possible and then leave the park to pee down a side road down the hill. Not really the best way to see the park, in my opinion.

Evening was spent by the port, hassled by every restaurant owner to eat paella and the best seafood in Catalonia. I did what I always do in these situations and went for the place with no-one hassling me to go into but still had people inside it. Had cod salt balls. Which were nice.

The next day, my final morning, was spent in the old town which was busy, full of happy snappy tourists. It was still nice to walk around the narrow streets and alleys, nice to try and get lost but somehow always ending up near La Rambla and trying to get lost again. I ended up sitting on the steps of a huge old school bank, watching people enjoy themselves. I listened to Bob Dylan on my Ipod singing about Spanish steps. I know this is in Rome but I'm not there. I'm in Barcelona.