Playing Catch up! Adventure number 1 - La Sagrada Familia...here in Barcelona!

     Yes, I know I have been promising you guys so much about my experiences and all these places that I have seen and I have yet to write about any of them. Inconsiderate I know. So day trip number one with a few other members from our API group. Okay, so I'm going to have to admit to you guys up front when it comes to history and geography and things of the sort...my IQ seems to drop quite a bit. So seeing all of these Cathedrals and I mean just anything relatively historically important is unbelievably impressive. One more thing -- our first day here we went on a walking tour with our entire group and well we saw at least three cathedrals (keyword "at least") and seeing one after the other after other makes each cathedral start looking the same...we all know what I am talking about. So, of course the friday that we visited La Sagrada Familia I am borderline tempted not to go -- more tall ceilings, more beautiful pictures of Saints and Gods, more stone arches, more intricate tiled floors, MORE OF THE SAME STYLE ARCHITECTURE! Contrary to these uninterested thoughts I motivated myself to going and am so thankful I did! And so begins the day, camera in hand, euros to spend, and anxious thoughts running through my head, we bordered the metro and went two stops on the green line to La Sagrada Familia.

     I mention the metro just for the sole fact that I get to tell you all about my new found love for what used to be such a foreign type of transportation. Being from the suburb's of South Carolina it should not come as a shock that I have never seen a metro/subway/train station, let alone been on one. Well this love for the metro came one night when I had to get home from class. It was already a miserable day -- sick, pouring down rain, soaking wet from previously walking to class in the rain, and no money for a cab...Just one of those days. So being completely desperate and over the whole "Im going to get exercise  walking to and from class" notion for the day, I asked David for money to get a metro pass and also well instructions on how to use it. Instructions were free. So we get to the metro station and at this point Im just so over it...If I end up an hour away from home then mehhhh at least Im not a walking rag. The first stop David and I are still together. Then we part ways and I am thinking to myself, "Oh goodness here it goes." But NO the next thing you know I am at Diagonal which is the metro stop five minutes from my apartment. MADE IT! And from that moment on I have used the metro to get anywhere I need to go! Bam. Okay, now back to La Sagrada Familia...

     After walking a block from the station the unfinished cathedral pokes its tall cathedral head out to where we could see just the top of it. When we finally got into full focus of the church I was slightly confused -- this was not what I was expecting but then I again I'm not really sure what I was expecting...so yes, confused. We round up the troops after waiting outside for a good hour and make our way inside, but not without admiring the beautiful handcrafted scripture that decorated the entire front door. The door is made of stone and is absolutely HUGE. The scripture is carved into the door and there are ZERO spaces between the different lines of scripture. It of course, was in another language, unknown to this onlooker, but the door made its point. 

Walking into La Sagrada Familia, eliminated all those indifferent thoughts about cathedrals running through my head. Completely different than the first handful that I got to see. Although this is an older building the architecture on the inside seemed so modern in comparison to any of the architecture that I have seen here in Barcelona. Inside the sunlight beamed through the red, blue, purple, yellow, and green stained glass windows, illuminating the entire room with brilliant arrays of color. Im so glad we decided to go on such a beautiful day! The entire atmosphere of the church would have been completely different. As for the rest of the church I provided a video that I took inside! I could try and sit here and explain detail for detail the feelings I felt and the beautiful architecture I saw but there would be so much to tell -- each corner and each part of the cathedral held its own distinctive traits! I hope you enjoy! 

**Okay well I specifically took this video for this post...but an error has occurred. Ill try posting the video again tomorrow!