Danwen at Penn: Episode 32—Trip to Spain (1) Barcelona

Hey guys, I am writing my blog about my traveling on the plane back to Philadelphia. Traveling to Spain and United Kingdom, the two amazing countries in the world, have been an eye-opening experience for me. Everything was a bit different from the United States, and I was greatly relishing in these inexhaustible varieties that the world can offer to those explorers.

While I was on vacation, I was thinking about how I should recap the places that I had been to, given that I am not a kind of person who would write travel journals. On one hand, I would like to share with you what an amazing country Spain is. On the other hand, considering that I am not an expert of writing beautiful descriptions, especially those paragraphs you will see in the travel magazine, I am afraid that what I am going to write will not do enough justice to the real scenes I have seen. Therefore, as always, I would love to share pictures with you, and my feelings about them—architecture, food, people and the culture.

So for Spain, my 10-day itinerary follows like this: Barcelona, Granada, Nerja, Sevilla, Madrid. Barcelona was the first stop to kick off the trip. It is a city of art, architecture, and delicate cuisine. It may not be those cities that would come off the top of your mind when you think about the best or the most dynamic city in the world. But it would blow your mind in its own way.

One cannot talk about Barcelona without mentioning Gaudi, a form of art expression created by Antoni Gaudi. His works have become an inseparable element of Barcelona, considering most of the famously built architecture, buildings, or parks all belong to Gaudi, as an art form. By visiting the spectacular Sagrada Familia, Casa Batillo, La Pedrera, Park Guell etc, I couldn't help but fall in love with this type of art.

This is the exterior designing of Sagrada Familia. An interesting thing about it is that it is an unfinished masterpiece, and it is still under construction. However, it does not blemish its reputation of being one of the greatest basilicas in the world. Visitors from all over the world come here to appreciate the artistic works of Gaudi.

A close-up will better reveal the delicate design of Sagrada Familia. The figures sculpted tell the story of Jesus's born.

This is La Pedrera, also known as Casa Mila. It shows the early form of Gaudi.

The Casa Batillo represents how Gaudi uses his unique art form in interior design.

Also, Gaudi's works can be greatly appreciated in Park Guell.

Besides Gaudi, Barcelona is also famous for its food. It is where you can taste authentic Spanish dishes. From my personal view, Chinese people are more likely to fall for Spanish dishes because the food tastes similarly, and probably they have overlap in cooking. I really like the way they make seafood. ( My boyfriend and I are both seafood lovers, so for every meal, we ordered at least one fish dish--the perk of living in a city that has coastline.) Oh, don't forget Tapas, if you'd go to Spain. It is a typical spanish dish that serves a small amount of food, and you can choose different contents for your Tapas.

A sample Tapas looks like this. But it varies according to different restaurants.

We tried the authentic Paella (with Lobster!), and it was really really tasty! We dined at this restaurant twice, and ordered the lobster Paella twice. I can still remember how it tastes by looking at the picture.