Barca FC, Gaudi design & Barca Nightlife
Trip Start
Unknown
1
59
109
Trip End
Ongoing
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Friday, September 3, 2010
The tour also took you through the away team’s change room and at first you’re like I wish you could see the Barca change room but as the audio guide said think of all the players that have been in this change room – Pele, Charlton, Best, Beckham, Ronaldo, any great player over the last 100 years would have been in this change room but I dare say the rooms 100 years ago would have looked a little different to how they are now.
You then got to walk down the players tunnel and they have audio of the Barca crowd going wild and then you can walk along the side of the pitch which gave you a great perspective as to how large the stadium is. It can hold 96,000 and is always sold out. Also got a look at the press room where the players talk after the game, the media boxes which is almost the whole length of the pitch and would have like 100 seats all for the press to analyse and write about the game. This game really is a religion over here.
The final part was a multimedia display where you could see goals and great moments in the history of the club. I saw one of the greatest goals I’ve ever seen by Messi where he got possession on the halfway line, moved the ball past 6 players and around the goal keeper to score. I really think he is the greatest player of our generation and I think he’s only 24 so can possibly become the greatest of all time and he is very modest not a pin up boy or full of himself, so he is now my favourite player. I was so going to get a shirt but 90 euros was a bit too much, especially as I would never wear it at home.
Okay enough soccer talk, from there I went to the Casa Batllo a house designed by Gaudi. This place is incredible. Gaudi never wanted there to be straight lines so all the walls and ceilings are curved. This house belonged to a family named Batllo, a very wealthy family and it’s like 6 floors, not sure how many rooms. There is a huge skylight that lights most of the house. There is an elevator in the middle and a staircase that wraps around it and as you go around you see all these tiles that change colours as you move higher up. Then the roof, wow, he decorated the chimneys and they look amazing. He used a lot of tiles and because nothing was straight he would break the tiles into pieces. You just cannot imagine how he was able to picture all this in his head and bring it to life, just amazing.
Tonight was party night. I had been able to dodge a big night since my big night in Lisbon that resulted in a hangover and flu that I’m still dealing with. But I couldn’t leave Barcelona without seeing it’s nightlife. So a small group from the hostel joined up with people from the other hostels , there’s a chain of about 5 hostels in Barcelona, and we went to a roof bar overlooking the Magic Fountain. It was a great view. We have befriended a couple of guys from Manly, Sean and David, sisters from Seattle, Sam and Kelly and a married couple from Canada, Graham and Chelsea. The roof bar closed at midnight and from there we moved to a bar that was like a big beer hall. I really liked it, the smoke meant I was a coughing like a 2 pack a day smoker but it was great to just sit down and chat. We ordered Sangria which was nothing like Rafa's’s at the hostel, it was terrible, so wish I had gotten a beer instead. The bar closed at about 3am and from there we were heading to a club called Razzmatazz. I wasn’t tired but knew I would be so didn’t really want to pay 15 euro to get in. So I went back to the hostel with some from our group and Mel went into the club with the others. Mel would tell me why it was 15 euro because they had an awesome band so I kind of wish I had gone in but think I made the right choice because I just knew my body was still not 100% yet and I just would not have lasted.
Comments
Mand Thanks for the comentory about the barca team I didn't realise how popular they really are, mate you rae so lucky to be able to get so close, goodonya.