Gothic Barcelona

Gaudi church: Copyright-Emma Coleman

Santa Eulalia statue

Last night, Marty told us about a free tour of Gothic Barcelona. We had our breakfast and headed out to meet at a travel bar to meet our guide in Central Barcelona. Our tour guide was named Max and he had just arrived from Australia. We walked the way of the great Spanish artists Picasso and Gaudi. Max took us to some ancient Roman Ruins of ancient Catalucia. We almost had to laugh. We see these types of ruins everyday. We were almost not phased by them at all. We have seen more interesting ones in our backyard. One of the most interesting stops was in the area that Santa Eulalia was martyred. She was subjected to 13 tortures. One that sticks with me the most is that she was thrown in a barrel with knives stuck in it. She was then rolled down a steep part of the street over and over again. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eulalia_of_Barcelona This website is a nice summary of her history. When she was crucified in the piazza it snowed. It never snows in Barcelona.  She is such an interesting person to read about. I would give in after 1 torture let alone 13 tortures.
    We then headed over to the school that Pablo Picasso's father taught at. This is where he received much of his early art education. The odd thing about this area is that it is considered throughout history to be the "red light" district of Barcelona. One of Picasso's famous paintings of the many naked ladies is said to be of the whores that inhabited that street during his early years. Interesting enough, we walked through Plaza Real and Plaza Tripe. These areas are known for their architecture and for the known drug dealings of Gothic Barcelona. Hmmm, at least this tour was free. One of the more interesting stops was the church that Gaudi frequented. The focus was on the bomb damage on the outside of the church. King Ferdinad ordered Mussolini to drop a bomb in the Plaza as to make known the Spanish regime meant business. The bomb damage can still be seen to this day.
   Our tour was then ended back at the travel bar. We decided to stay at the bar to have lunch and shared a beer with Max. He told us of a man that walks the Olympic beach that is called Elephant Man. His butt is tattooed to look like a speedo and the front like an elephant. I will let you use your imagination. Needless to say, we headed to the beach after lunch only to fail at finding the said Elephant Man. We ended up walking across the Millennium bridge to see all of the illegals selling every knock off brand imaginable. All of these illegals seem to be of Northern African decent. They all have the same look and they all sell the same off brand merchandise that the same group of people sell in Italy. We headed back to our Hostel and came upon the famed street Las Ramblas. To best describe this famous street it is a twist of Las Vegas and Bohemian art. The street performers are amazing. There was this one that was pretending to look like a statue. He was the Devil and when you dropped a coin in the can he would come to life. The weird part of it all is that this puppet he had would turn around and freak everyone out. Everyone seemed to have a marketable skill from statue art to volleying a soccer ball head to toe. My thought is that these soccer people should actually put their skill to work and play for a team not pan handle on the street. I have played soccer both on a university level and semi-pro. My volley skills sucked compared to these men.