Barcelona Weekend

This picture is taken inside of Gaudi’s park in Barcelona.  The famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi designed this park.  He created some very odd buildings during his life.  One of which is the apartment building pictured below.  In this building there are no straight lines/planes anywhere besides the floors. As you can see from the outside’s curves, this is true.  

This is a picture of the beach in Barcelona. Besides it’s beauty, it has many other appealing features.  One of the first things I noticed from the beach is the intense diversity.  I strolled along the shore for a short while one afternoon and realized I have never been to a more diverse place in my life.  Within the twenty or so minuets I walked, I came across: elderly people, young people, Indian people, Asians, American students, English visitors, Spanish natives (of coarse), homosexuals, fit people, obese people, you name it- I saw it.  I have never heard such an array of different languages spoken in one place either.  Another unique feature of this beach was the architecture.  There was a ‘building’ about two hundred yards away from the sea in the sand of the beach.  This building was about three stories tall and served no purpose except for ‘eye appeal’.  It was a form of modern art that I found rather intriguing.  This beach was very exceptional to say the least.      

This is the Casa Milá in the Eixample, Barcelona. 

This past weekend I went to Barcelona along with a few other classmates. It was a remarkable city! In Barcelona, I was able to see first-hand the constant ‘internal’ conflict that we learn so much about in my classes here. There has been a conflict for a long time now between Barcelona and Madrid.  The main argument is that Barcelona should naturally be the capital of Spain, mainly because of its geographic placement.  It is conveniently situated along the Mediterranean Sea and very close to the rest of Europe.  Madrid on the other hand, is in the center of Spain with no geographic advantages of any kind.  This has made travel to the city a pain throughout the centuries.  Also, Barcelona is significantly wealthier than Madrid is as a city, thus giving it even more reason to be the capital.  However, one fall back I see is that in Cataluña (the province Barcelona is located in), the official language is Catalan, rather than Spanish.