Mosaic Mania [Antoni Gaudí's Masterpieces, Barcelona]

I knew nothing of Antoni Gaudí before I started the day. Now, it feels like I know everything there is to know about Barcelona's genius architect.

Park Güell was originally conceived as an elite township, and Antoni Gaudí was called in to design it. It ended up being commercially unsuccesful and was eventually bought by the city council. A rich guy called Güell made Gaudí name it after him and convert into a public park. And so it became one.

Gaudí loved mosaics; he devoured them. Thus, Park Güell became the Museum of Mosaic. We chose not to go inside the Park due to the 150-odd people queued up by the tickets counter, but we did see it from all angles outside. We didn't have to go inside to see how mosaics could make wonders; Park Güell was beautiful even from the outside.

Central Park has nothing on this. Private residences, hotels and offices are all over the Park but they don't take the charm away: this is one neighborhood I would give an arm and leg to live in.

Artists and shops line the streets. I bought some wrist jewelry for myself from this shop which was another mosaic museum. A few meters away, we saw this man:

Every tourist was determined to found out how this man was balancing himself, for how was this even possible?! I deduced that thee  was something passing through his large sleeve that he used like a chair. Still, we'll never know. The point is, in Barcelona you never cease to see such wonders.

Casa Milà, more commonly known as La Pedrera ("The Quarry") was our next stop: another one of Gaudí's works. This had been an apartment complex for the upper classes before being turned into a museum, and much like the Park, some of it is still under private ownership. 

Located in the city center, La Pedrera is a tribute to Antoni Gaudí. The roof has all the traces of his work: modernism, mosaics and creative use of materials. The attic is specially designed to contain heat during the winter, with its parabola arches. Various models made by him were displayed alongside slideshows about all his masterpieces. Exact replicas of chairs, couches and tiles designed by him were available to sit on which was fantastic - I had been unaware that wooden sofas could be comfortable.

The last part of the museum was the best by far. The apartment, or 'El piso', was basically one of the original apartments designed by Gaudí put on display. Equipped with early 20th century Catallan furniture, this apartment was the best thing I'd seen in Barcelona so far. I was transported back to that period and it was the most real remodelling I'd ever been in. The young boy's room was exactly how my brother's room would've been and I appreciated the underwater-themed tiling (we later found out that the specific tiling was the most popular choice of tiles in all of Barcelona). The stiching and ironing room, the cloak room, the kitchen, the study, the bathroom, the teenage girl's room, the master bedroom with the attached bathroom...you name the kind of room you want, and it was there. Completely furnished and decorated. It was beautiful.

By the end of the day, we had seen all of Antoni Gaudí's works, either from the open-to-air bus, outside, or the inside. It left me enraptured and captivated, but it also left me hopeful that maybe one day, I would be able to create something beautiful like that, too.