The following is an excerpt from my zine, ‘Barcelona to Tetouan’, available here.
Immediately greeted by the iconic distinctive exterior of Casa Battló as I stepped off the metro at Passeig de Gràcia, my brain made an instinctual presumption on how my time in Barcelona would feel compared to my wider travels across Spain. And my next 25 hours proved this to be exactly right.
Whether it’s the streets (which are arranged very nicely in an easy to comprehend grid), the architecture, or the people, each inch of the city feels distinctly self-identifying. My short time there leads me to believe it’d be almost blasphemy to lump such an impressively unique city alongside its other Spanish counterparts, or any other major city for that matter.
And it is impossible to overstate the impact which Antoni Gaudi, a name I’d hardly heard before but now will never forget, has had in crafting the city’s avant-garde identity. I chose to take a tour inside ‘Casa Milà’, a shining example of the Catalan art nouveau movement, the driving force behind what makes the city so visually unique. With its curved exterior and beautiful light interior, it’s a magnificent example of design that pairs perfectly with its juxtaposed surroundings of mountainous greenery, deep blue sea, and vibrant coloured buildings, and was certainly worth the visit.
But the true masterpiece of the city, an ever-growing testament to the brilliance of Gaudi, is the Sagrada Familia, which completes the skyline of Barcelona (despite not yet being completed itself, 140 years or so on). Even for the non-religious, laying your eyes upon this magnificent beast of a Church will leave you lost for words at the sheer overwhelming power it has upon you. Everything from the stained glass to the detail in the exterior justifies the steep entry fee it’s often associated with.
Gaudi and his architecture are not the only pillars of Barcelona’s existence, however. Its people alone would make a visit worth it. With my broken Spanish, and even more broken Catalan, the people of the city were helpful, patient, and polite with me. I found this to especially be the case at Alsur Café, where i enjoyed delicious (and filling) late night choco-banana kaiser pancakes, as well as a tasty cúrcuma latte, capping off the perfect time spent in the city.
I’m uninformed on the complexities of the debate, but I’m inclined to believe that the Catalonian case for independence is more than justified. My time in Barcelona felt just as though I’d travelled to a different country. It was truly a unique experience that can’t ever be fully captured, never mind recalled, not unless you see it for yourself.
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