Spain: Day 3

Our third and final full day in Barcelona we spent on the eastern part of the city touring through Ciutadella Park. Entering the park off of Passeig de Lluis Companys, we stopped for pictures under the Arc de Triomf. This arch was built in 1888 to serve as the entrance to the Universal Exhibition of the same year. Each top side of the arc is crowned by the royal coat of arms. The detailed carvings are beautiful and ornate. As we walked through the arc we could see down the long stretch of pedestrian walkway down to the main park. To the left sits the Palau de Justicia, or Justice Palace that rises up out of the trees with eight stone towers. The palace was built between the years 1887 and 1907.

At the end of Passeig de Lluis Companys is the Ciutadella Park, the second largest park in Barcelona. The park restson the site of the former citadel of Philip V's troops and was later used as a prison. The citadel was originally built in 1871 but was demolished to build the park. As I already mentioned the 1888 Universal Exhibition was held in the park and featured the following art installation.

We walked on past the installation and found our way down a small dirt path to a large opening directly in front of the "Cascade," an enormous fountain with waterfalls, dragons and lush greenery growing among all the sculptures. I wish I had a decent picture of it as I know if I had one it would be very recognizable. Unfortunately, it was under construction. Argh! Just past the Cascade sits an enormous mammoth statue. Of course Kimbo had to get her picture hanging from its trunk. Just across from the mammoth is a lake full of flowers and lily pads. Just up the path is the Catalan Parliament building across from the central square inside the park, Armes Square that contains an oval pond with "Desconsol" (Grief), the most famous of works by the sculptor Josep Llimona. Also within the park we walked by various natural science museums, including the Geological Museum (Martorell Museum - the oldest in Barcelona) and the Zoological Museum. Lastly, the Barcelona Zoo, which was founded in 1894 and is known as one of the finest zoos in all of Europe. Previously, the zoo was well known for its albino gorilla Floquet de Neu (Snowflake), the only primate of its kind ever found. Snowflaked arrived at the zoo in 1966 at age 3 and died in 2003.

Leaving the park we began to search for the post office to mail out a bunch of post cards to friends and family back in the States. What seemed to be miles later, but was only blocks, we came upon Passeig de Colom and the Moll de la Fusta on the port overlooking a mass of sailboats. The area, which was recently renovated, sits atop what was once the sea wall. It was demolished in 1881 and is now home to various modernistic sculptures, such as a giant lobster. Still no luck finding the post office. No building in our vicinity looked like a post office and just as we were about to give up there across the street we noticed a sign reading something Telegrafos on the facade of a huge building. Yep, it was the post office and the nicest looking one I have ever seen. When we walked into the main room of the post office it felt like we were walking into Grand Central Station. A large glass dome rests at the top of the building. It was truly incredible to see such a large structure with what seemed to be no support.

After mailing out our post cards we headed back up La Rambla and caught a beer and watched a street show. It was an awesome way to spend the last day in Barcelona. So relaxing to sit back, kick up our feet and have a nice cold beer. I decided it was my goal for the night to find a pub some where that would be shoing the World Series so I could support by Bo'Sox. Luckily not to far from our hostel on La Rambla we found a cool Australian pub. Due to the time difference, the game didn't begin until 3 am Barcelona time so we got to the bar around 2 am and chatted with a group from New Zealand and made friends with the bar tenders from some Eastern European country. I was pissed to find out that the bars closed at 3 and thus I would miss the game. I was not a happy camper but we found some kids our age to hang out with while finishing up our beers. As it was too late to get any more alcohol from the bars Kimbo remembered that our hostel had the best invention ever...a beer vending machine. We gathered all the change we could find and Kim ran off with a few of our new friends and came back with handfulls of Estrella Damm. We grabbed the beers and walked back down to the pier. We had a blast hanging out and talking politics and everything else with our new friends. Before we knew it, it was 6am and Kim and I had to be at the airport at noon to catch our flight to Florence. Ugh. We barely made it to the airport in time and then were rejected when we tried to check in. Finally, after pleading with them, we made it through check in and through security. We made it, hungover, but we made it. Off to Florence!