Universitat de Barcelona

Our plane from Santiago to Barcelona was delayed by eight and a half hours. We were supposed to leave at 6pm, fly through the night and then arrive in Barcelona during the day; instead, we left at 2:30am, flew through the day and arrived late at night. We lost a day in Barcelona, but sometimes, so goes travel.

Shocking to no one who follows us, we did a walking tour today. I already like Barcelona a lot. It has a great energy about it, it’s super lively with coffee shops and restaurants filled to the brim day and night. Seemingly every turn there is a little cubbyhole of a restaurant that is jam packed both inside and out. There are bike lanes that seem to parallel all the roads, and I almost always forget to look for them in addition to the cars.

We walked around part of the Old City today, with its Gothic style buildings mixed in between modern European architecture. They blend so well that one could think they intentionally designed the city to be a blend of both their past and future. We went to the main palace (famous for where the inquisition happened) where Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand wanted to bring their divided country together.

To do so, they wanted to unite their country around religion, Catholicism. Those who were Catholic could stay and those who were not had to go or be converted, we all know how. Then we learned about St Jordi (George).

Once upon a time a fearsome dragon was terrifying the inhabitants of a small town in Catalonia called Montblanc.

So, to soothe the dragon's anger, the town's inhabitants decided they would sacrifice someone every day, drawing lots to see who they would offer as a token of their good will.

One day, it was the turn of the king's daughter to be sacrificed. But, just when the dragon was about to gobble her up, a handsome knight appeared and confronted the beast. This was Sant Jordi (St George). He drove his lance into the dragon and a bush of red roses sprang out of the blood that spilled.

Love these kind of hero stories and apparently so did Antoni Gaudì. Casa Batllo is designed around this Catalonian mythology. The shingles of the building are designed to look like the dragon’s back, while what looks like a cross on the left is the hilt of St Jordi’s sword piercing into the dragon’s heart.

The balconies are all set to look like the skeletons of all the dragon’s victims and below that is supposed to be the pile of bones upon which the dragon rests. The upper most balcony with all the blue coming down from it is supposed to be the dragon’s blood that created the rose bushes which St Jordi gave to the princess. Undoubtedly they lived happily ever after.

We then took a metro to get to our next location. When it was time to get off the train, Stacy got nervous that we weren’t going to be able to get off with our group because the train was so crowded and instead ran for a different door, never once thinking to take her husband along too:) I was able to get off the train but guess when they say it’s every man for himself, that’s only because all the women have already left 😂Lue lisää