I won't be home for Christmas Blogisode 2 ------Finally

Sling mud at a brick wall, watch how it clumps and slides down the side of the wall as it dries in the sun.   This was what I imagined when I saw the Sagrada Família for the first time as I stood in the long line that rapped around the cathedral.  While discussing the wait time with Alicia and her boyfriend I kept staring at parts of the massive Catholic Church wondering where Gaudi imagined up these designs that reminded me of mud.  As waiting is not one of my favorite things to do my eyes scoured the outside of the building trying to find figures, animals and symbols like I was a five year old searching in an I Spy book.  Confused at what I should be feeling while gawking at one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, I realized maybe that was Gaudi’s intention, he wanted the viewer to be confused and a little unnerved by his unusual design. 

 

It wasn’t until I stepped inside that I literally held my breath at what was the most insert synonym for gorgeous here sight I had ever seen in my life.  My camera immediately began snapping pictures as I was in a pinch-me this is to unreal moment while my mouth was wide enough for bird to make his home in.  As I fought other tourists with their cameras for some prime picture spots I couldn’t help think how much work and manpower it took to construct the massive structure. This time I wasn’t confused, more so overcome by the massive elegance that I was lucky to be standing in.

Eventually I had to leave and follow the rest of the tourists to the museum and read a little history. After that Alicia, her boyfriend David and I headed to the Park Güell, which inspired us all over again.  I couldn’t help imagining being transported into this wonderland of gingerbread houses with icing roofs and gummy statues.  Park Güell reminded me of a real life Candyland, except this board game was real life and the gingerbread houses were just the imagination of a great artist.

On the way back to our awesome hotel the last day of our visit I was tapped on the shoulder by an old lady inside the metro station.  She told me “ tienes un pequeño muñeca en su espalda,” or something like that. It translates into you have a small doll on your back.  I was very confused as Alica grabbed my shoulders turned me around and started laughing as she pulled off a blue paper shaped like a stick man that had the word gaupa on it with a smiley face. 

Earlier that evening Alicia, David and I were in Starbucks (heaven) and they were telling me the significance of the holiday December 28^th El Dia de inocentes.  They were explaining to me that the holiday is similar to our April Fools day were family and friends go around playing jokes on each other.  The newspapers also run fake news stories and a television program that’s on every year pulls pranks on celebrities and raises money for children with disabilities.  They also mentioned to me that it’s popular for young people or teenagers to go around and stick little paper dolls on to people’s backs as one of the traditional jokes.  The victims of these jokes are called inocentes.  That night I was one of those inocentes as I had one of those paper dolls tapped to my coat.

Alicia thought it was funny, I thought it was a strange coincidence as 30 min before we were talking about the holiday and David was upset that I didn’t have enough situation awareness.  He kept asking me why I hadn’t felt someone tape that to my back without me noticing it.  My excuse was my jacket was thick and padded, which it was.  As we laughed and talked about my little surprise on the way back to the hotel, Alicia mentioned that it was the perfect way to leave Barcelona.  I thought so as well and even more pleased that the paper doll read guapa, which meant beautiful.