Tibidabo

Tibidabo!  Or, the mountain overlooking Barcelona with a church which glows at night (okay, maybe it's just lit up, not glowing) and a children's theme park.  What a great combination!  This place was the last on my touristy-things-to-do-list in Barcelona.  I went with one Cornell friend from my program, a Cornell friend on a different program (but also in Barcelona), and the friend of the second friend who is on the same other Barcelona program and also from Cornell.  (Confusing, eh?)

Getting to Tibidabo was an interesting adventure.  It involved 2 different trains, a tram, and a funicular.  Wow-- that's three different methods of transportation!  Here's the tram:

Goodbye dinner

It's time to say goodbye!  At least one person from my program seems to be leaving every day... and my turn is coming up soon this Thursday!  Unfortunately I still have some school work to do before then... ugh, I'm not quite done. But CASB was smart enough to organize a goodbye dinner for all of us last Friday-- the last day of classes.  We traveled a good amount of time on the metro to get to a restaurant called La Mamasita.  We had a 3 course meal (as per the usual program dinner) and it was quite filling for obvious reasons.  So much food!

Palau Güell

The very last Gaudí creation I will see in my time in Barcelona! (I leave Thursday-- so soon!!!)  This Gaudí has been under renovation for the last 4 years and it just opened its doors back up for visitors May 26th, so of course I had to go!  It's most like Casa Batlló-- nicely decorated on the inside, and a fantastic roof.  Also, an audio guide was included in the admission price.  Although the audio guide wasn't as interesting as Batlló, it kept playing music composed by Eusebi Güell's daughter... who cares, honestly?  This 'palace' (i.e. mansion) was built for the Güell family (obviously very rich people) before both Casa Batlló and Casa Milá.  So it was one of his first real art-nouveau/modernist pieces and served as a precursor to all the other ones.  I toured the house with 2 friends from my program.  Here's a picture of the outside: