It's getting better all the time

Barcelona is definitely growing on me. I knew that once I got my bearings and got a chance to extricate myself from the massive crowds for a little while, I'd feel better about the place. And I do. I might still like Madrid better, but Barca definitely has charm.

After getting lost repeatedly on a short walk this morning (bad sense of direction, remember), I surrendered temporarily and claimed a bar stool at a cute little place called the Paris Cafe, hoping to consult my maps and get unlost, or at least less lost. The combination of a great sandwich and pleasant surroundings can really lift the mood, can't it? :) Under big black and white photos of Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, and with Ella singing in the background, I had the tastiest, simplest lunch: just a baguette with tomato, mozzarella, and a touch of olive oil, salt, and oregano. Plain and perfect. The baguette sandwich is an innovation that I will definitely bring home with me.

In any case, I didn't really get unlost, but I did get less lost, and after some meandering and backtracking eventually I found myself at the Block of Discord. It's a set of three apartment buildings on the same city block all designed by different architects, in different styles--hence the name Block of Discord. The buildings are so surreal that when I rounded the corner and saw them, I involuntarily stopped dead in my tracks and broke out in this huge grin. It's like stepping into the pages of some crazy children's book. The houses almost look like they are trying to elbow each other in a grab for your attention. The first look took my breath away.

The most famous of the three houses is Casa Batllo, brainchild of Gaudi, the leader of the Modernismo architectural movement. Casa B is now open to the public for touring. The design is absolutely nuts--you can see some of the pictures that I posted earlier today. There are almost no flat surfaces or straight lines in the entire building--the walls and ceilings are constructed in rounded waves, the windows and doors are oddly shaped, and the light fixtures are all quirky. The building is set around two interior atriums which distribute sunlight from big skylights, and the atrium walls undulate. Because the atrium is covered with tile, the construction teams had to individually break the flat tiles and create a mosaic to cover the walls. Everything, everything, everything in the house had to be hand worked, from the floor baseboards to the built in cabinets. Amazing.

After that tour, I walked a few blocks to another Gaudi masterpiece, La Pedrera, which was also an apartment building. Like Casa Battlo, it's been purchased for preservation purposes and parts of it are open to the public, including the roofdeck which houses a sculpture garden. The tour was informative and interesting, but the best part was being on the top of the city surrounded by all the crazy sculptures and being able to see La Sagrada Familia and the sea in the distance. I can't get enough the Gaudi architecture. I love it. One of the audio tours I listened to today said that as he was graduating from architecture school, one of his professors said he wasn't sure if Gaudi was an architectural genius or an architectural lunatic. Honestly, I don't think it matters--I'm just glad that these funhouses exist.
This evening I went on an organizational rampage and scheduled a great day tomorrow (lots more Gaudi to examine) plus all my arrangements for Morocco. I'm flying to Marrakesh on Monday. Keep your fingers crossed that it all goes smoothly, please! :)