Miracles In A Straight-Lined World

One of my favourite pictures overall-the ceiling in casa battlo’s morning room

flower pots on wall

There is an odd, asymmetrical pattern to Antoni Gaudi’s works that I find enchanting. The glaze on one tile will be duplicated in darker or lighter shades on opposite sides of Barcelona, on two structures that couldn’t be more different from one another, and you just stand there going “….how did…..” And then shake your head and just accept all the imperfect geniuses of the world.

  I remember when an elder man in my town proudly showed me pictures of one of his great loves-Casa Battlo-and I just sat there trying not to cry. It was that beautiful. And I thought, if I ever get to see this, my life will be complete.

Now I have seen it.

And it’s not.

Because of course I want follow-up. To sit for hours and sketch and observe and watch the light play over the walls and curves and tiles. Feel the textures; trace the shell-like spiral on a column, the roughness of the stones, the smooth arm of a chair (little known fact that before Gaudi’s architecture career kicked off he designed beautiful, ridiculously comfortable furniture).

  And then there’s the Sagrada Familia, which, dare I say, is almost too much for little human brains to look at all at once and simultaneously appreciate. That takes time, attention to detail, staying in a place for a day, a week, years…..

Gaudi arch

Stairway to heaven 

Casa Battlo, House of Masks

luminous hallway

the dragon's spine atop the roof

Parc Guell-As though a deep fissure had opened, streaming sunlight down, and we were able to descend and wander about in Hell’s anteroom, a Dante’s Inferno-esque landscape of twisting pillars and craggy angels and jagged stalactite jaws. Also I just felt like a Middle Earth dwarf. 

 We also took a stroll (with our stellar, bottomless-wells-of-kindness hosts) through a textile community that Gaudi helped design, “Colonia Guell.”

World's longest bench

looks like a ship deck
Sometimes I feel as though we bumbled our way through this trip-not planning anything, not googling the best sights here, the best restaurants there.

And other times I feel as though what we ended up doing by chance-stumbling across things and into famous squares or along main streets-was perfect. Just the thing to do. Why 
explore cities any other way?

Of course you have to tailor your preferences and needs according to your location and all, but it was nice not to feel tied down by reservations.

  I felt- in order not to panic and think about all the things we wouldn’t get to see-I just had to let go, walk around, live the situation, and accept that yes, right this moment we could be doing this or this, but we’re not, we’re here. Look nearby and see what there is, etc.

There were times when we made special trips to things-like La Ramblas, the Sagrada Familia, or the train stations for departures and arrivals, but other than that we came upon most of my favourite memories by accident. Simply rounding a corner, and oh look, there’s the local market or the Picasso museum or Santa Maria del Mar or….