Ross & Kara's Catalan Adventure - Day 4: Multidisciplinary Nerd-dom
Saturday 29th October, 2016 - Barcelona's Old Town
So it's our last night in the center of Barcelona, and we've been celebrating with burgers, as has been our tradition so far. We called in an order to La Central once again, so I got to skip the queue and ran home to enjoy my "Iberico". Kara was not as impressed with her "El Tona" burger, made with mozzarella, pesto and sun-dried tomatoes. We have both sat down to let our creative juices flow while "The Dark Knight Rises" plays on my new tablet. It's been very nice to set up our little home away from home, with a little TV and a table to sit and eat our meals.
The two of us started at a different pace this morning, with Kara hanging out in the flat while I took a couple of hours to do some exploring on my own, knowing that we wouldn't get a chance to go otherwise. The plan was to visit the "Nerd Triangle" near to the Arc de Triomph, where I quickly found that "Norma Comics" and its many nearby comic shops don't open until at least 10:30am. It was yet another example of the strange cultural asynchronicity that exists on the continent. Getting up early doesn't really mean that you'll be able to do more, it just means that you will be waiting outside, staring in at awesome collectors items and books you can't read as they're in Espanyol! I used my extra time to visit the Triumphal Arch, which was certainly impressive, but there was a distinct lack of information to let me know why it was built, or by whom. It had some very cool bat gargoyles, but not much else going on.
When I finally got back to Norma Comics, I spent about ten minutes just gazing at the expensive collectibles in the entryway. They had some very impressive stuff, but ultimately, I felt quite depressed about not being able to afford the cost or suitcase required. I did make a mental note to look up "3rd Edition" when I get home. These guys make books about famous games and their development process, and they're working on translating some of their books on FF7, Zelda & Dark Souls. They're lovely looking hardbacks, so they'll be nice collector's items.
After a little bit of browsing, but not spending any money, I made it back to the flat with some bread and croissants. We enjoyed some lunch before we set out to enjoy some more culture. We started with "La Pedrera" or "The Quarry"; the block-sized apartment building designed by Antoni Gaudi. We had deliberated over the idea of pre-booking a slot to visit, as all of the online reviews had recommended that we do so. We were worried that by booking timeslots, we'd have no flexibility to our daily plan. We got pretty lucky, only having to wait for about half an hour or so to get in, but I read anecdotes about two-hour long waits. Maybe visiting in October was a really good plan!
One of Kara's panoramic shots from the roof of La Pedrera
A small model sculpture of La Pedrera
Some of the impressive chimneys on La Pedrera's roof
Even the stairways are beautiful.
The attic museum was cozy, but full of interesting displays about the building.
La Pedrera was great, with ornate styles that are such integral parts of the building, it seems that the building would be unique, even without the vibrant colours that cover so much of Gaudi's work. His design is so multi-faceted, it's amazing. From how light is distributed to the hand-sculpted door handles and incredibly stained-glass windows, he had an aesthetic and practical reason for everything he did. Of course, this trip wouldn't be complete without a trip to an old-fashioned museum, and I was lucky enough to visit the museum of Egyptology. It was a little odd to discover that one of the best collections of Egyptian artifacts are housed in a Spanish museum, but we were pleasantly surprised by a relatively cheap, quiet and peaceful museum with a myriad of wonderful and truly ancient artifacts, including mummies, 4,000 year old stone tablet and even some mummified animals, such as crocodiles and cats. I didn't discover anything new, but it was all still super-cool!
From there, we wandered over to "Casa Batllo", where I expected to have some time before we got to the front of the line. This expectation led me to order a hot sandwich with two pork chops, bacon and cheese. I returned to the line to find us almost at the front of the queue, forcing me to inhalte a hot sandwich in about 4 minutes, right in front of a bunch of people. I must have looked like some kind of pig/man hybrid.
Even the stained glass is designed to balance light, depending on time of day.
The tiles of the lightwells are darker at the top and brighter at the bottom, balancing the light as it gets dimmer further down.
Ceramic mosaic is another theme that Gaudi uses extensively throughout his work.
We left to see the building lit up. The balconies remind me of eye sockets on skulls. That may be Kara's influence, though.
The Casa Batllo is similar in a lot of ways to La Pedrera, with Gaudi's distinctive elements of natural influences and amazing practical and ergonomic embellishments. The unique design comes more from the way each building feels like an entire entity, with the design being consistent across every floor.
This was a good day. It felt a bit strange leaving the house in the morning without Kara, but it was also nice to spend some time wandering the Borne district's narrow streets with very few people out and about, given that it was very early by Spanish reckoning. Kara got a bit frustrated with me on this holiday, as I was stressing over the fact that we weren't squeezing the most out of our time there, trying to see everything we could, waking up really early and being productive. I know that's something that a lot of people want from their holiday, but I also knew that we should be relaxing and that I should stop trying to control how our days went. I think that part of it was that I'd become quite tired of our no-oven, top of a building, mattress on the floor apartment, and I just wanted to be out and about. By the time we got settled in Girona, I certainly felt a lot better about just lazing around like a proper holiday.
Norma Comics is really very impressive, much like the big flagship Forbidden Planet stores over here in the UK. There were lots of cool collectibles in the cabinet, including Metal Gear Solid V statues and some very cool feudal Japanese/Star Wars cross-overs, but by this point, we'd blasted through so much money, just in the course of seeing all the cool stuff, so I was hesitant to spend any more on myself. The comic books were just a tease, though. Some very cool stuff that I couldn't read and I just took notes of so I could look them up back home. One thing I noticed is that the comic book shops in Barcelona all share a deep love of TinTin. I was always more of an Asterix & Obelix fan, growing up, but there were some really nice (and expensive) TinTin models in pretty much every nerdy shop I entered.
The two Gaudi museums we visited were incredible, and I am not one to gush over architecture, especially when it's from the last century, but his work is out of this world. The first thing I noticed was that for every visually striking feature that you see (such as the strangely shaped windows, doors or chimneys), there's always a practical reason to compliment the beautiful design. The second thing I noticed is that the buildings contain a consistency that never breaks you out of the reverie that you feel as you admire the futuristic designs that feel as ingenious today as any modern piece of architecture. I guess Gaudi's idea of starting with the designs found in nature and extrapolating them out into architecture makes sense, when you consider that so much of natural evolution is based on efficiently performing essential tasks. Even the door handles were incredibly ergonomic, looking like half-finished sculptures, easily cradling the thumb and fingers as you open the doors.
The Museum of Egyptology was a real treat for me, as this day had been spent surrounded by tourists in warm buildings, trying to read a sign over the shoulders of people who were stood in front of you. The museum was quiet and cool, with a few people roaming around, and a very small cover charge at the door. While it wasn't the reason to come to Barcelona, I'm a fan of learning about ancient cultures, and the chance to be inches away from a real mummy that's thousands of years old is an enticing prospect.
This entry into the journal ends a little abruptly, but I think it was because I was starting to mentally prepare for leaving Barcelona behind. Much like Rome in 2014, I enjoyed my time in Barcelona, enjoying the sights, seeing unique and enchanting works of art and sculpture, but I am a person who like seclusion and privacy, making the crowds and constant noise a bit of a frustration for me. Combine it with my own awareness that it was silly to be frustrated about crowds in a major city, and I was ready to head off to somewhere more "peaceful". Girona beckoned.