Spain - Park Güell, Barcelona

It may seem that I was in a gingerbread house wonderland... but no. I was in Park Güell, Barcelona, and when people say "Barcelona", it has to be Antoni Gaudi.

We entered from the back side of the park. There were hundreds of stairs to climb before we reached the gate, and the gate is not the entrance to what I would call the gingerbread house wonderland (or officially, the Municipal Garden).

One sad thing I found was this graffitti:

I'm not sure why. I saw a number of locals jogging in the park, but they don't seem bothered by the tourists. Anyways, I don't find the locals unfriendly to tourists. At the very least, I don't feel any hostility towards the tourists. Maybe it was just a prank. I mean, if you truly love a place and don't want tourists to - let's say - destroy the properties or something, then you shouldn't vandalize it right?

Well, here's a little snippet of the gingerbread houses from the top of the park.

Man, even from far away, the structures are just so gorgeous!

To view the Municipal Garden, you'd have to pay 8 euros. Otherwise, the entrance to the park itself is free. There was a relatively short line to enter this attraction (as compared to the line to enter Sagrada Familia).

If you bought the ticket, you'll be provided with a guide map. I didn't really use the map because you can't really get lost in the Municipal Garden. The Municipal Garden itself is not very big.

 The first weird structure in the Municipal Garden was this viaduct. Very typical of Gaudi: it's not something I can understand, but it made me amazed nevertheless.

And then there is a fancy pavilion close to another entrance of Park Güell. It's just really hard to deny that this looks like a fancy gingerbread house with white sugar icing on top.

Oh, and that's not all. The terrace was stunning!

It's really full of wonders.

I had the chance to take a close up photo of the famous salamander (or also known as el drac). Apparently, this salamander was once vandalized in 2007, and then was restored.

I think it's really worth the money, time and effort to visit the park. We spent only about an hour here because we only had 2 and a half days in Barcelona.

Gaudi's works never stop to amaze me.

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Spain - Barcelona

I had been wanting to visit Barcelona since last summer, but I was glad that I visited it in autumn. It would have been very hot there, and queuing in front of Antoni Gaudi's masterpieces in scorching heat might not be a good idea, especially when I am not too fond of getting sun tan.

Since Barcelona is located in Catalonia and apparently Catalans do not like to be associated as a part of Spain. But anyways, the ticket I booked still says "Barcelona, Spain". So I'm going to leave the title of this post as it is.

Barcelona is a really beautiful city, and to my opinion, I could also call it the Gaudi city. Why? Because most tourist attractions are made by Antoni Gaudi. I'd like to post each Gaudi attraction individually, but here are snippets of his works:

Guell Palace

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Guell Park

Casa Batllo

Casa Battlo

Casa Mila

Fascinating, don't you think? :)

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Norway - Oslo City Hall

You're travelling abroad to visit the City Hall? Why not! Oslo's City Hall (rådhus, in Norwegian) has more than what it looks from the outside.

The front side of the city hall is decorated with wooden sculptures depicting stories of Nordic mythology. I am somewhat familiar with some part of the tales like Ragnarok and characters like Odin, Fenrir... (thanks to reading lots of manga based on this story, and also the game Ragnarok Online), but sadly I don't know that much about the mythology when I was there. I wish I read Wikipedia more often these days.

Fenrir, calling for Ragnarok

Those aside, there were still more surprises to come. Inside this seemingly plain-looking building are beautiful murals and paintings.

Simply beautiful. And standing in the middle of these murals felt absolutely different from looking at the unprofessional photos I took.

The second floor is accessible for viewing. The view from the City Hall was stunning. If I was not restricted by time, I would have spent more time just gazing outside the window, looking at this panoramic sight.

If you like to pay attention to more details, try looking up the rooms in the City Hall. The ceilings are embossed with alluring patterns.

The designs in the City Hall are very pleasing to the eye. There are just a lot of objects around the rooms worth examining in greater detail. Well, you can say I have a weird hobby, but I think these little details make a great impact on the overall aesthetics of the City Hall.

Oh and by the way, Oslo City Hall hosts the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony every 10th of December (and I didn't know that when I was there! Thanks, Wikipedia!).

If you go to Oslo, you definitely must visit the City Hall, even if it's just for a short 5-10 minute visit :)

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