" the fairest of discords "

Because we only get to travel during the holidays,
where there are longer vacation days,
spending Christmas in Barcelona was a memorable experience for us. ^0^
But most of the time x'mas were spent in southeast asian countries.
and during that season, the streets are pretty lively and festive,
and shops even extend their closing time.






That was quite the opposite when we're in Barcelona.
Almost all of the museums are closed,
except for Casa Batlló and other Casa's by Gaudi.
even finding a place to eat was difficult.
except for tourists (like us) and a few commuters and locals.
We had Passeig de Gracía all to ourselves
and you don't even have to worry about pickpockets!
i guess, they needed a break too.
This was before lunch by the way,
so the streets were still quiet and deserted. ^0^







We highlighted our map and head to the fairest of discords =
Mansana de la Discòrdia.
We lazily walked from our hotel to Gran Via (de les corts catalanes),
all the way to Passeig the Grácia (the Eixample area)
and saw a handful of nice architecture from a whole lot of Casas here and there,
following Cadogan's handy guide book.
Now some people adore food, while others like shopping.
Me, I love gazing at different structures and they never seem to bore me.
I was enjoying capturing every moment,
There was no one blocking my view or someone popping out of nowhere,
the weather was breezy but not too cold and the street literally became our 'museum.'
yes, the tempting thought of shopping and buying a few things
did crossed my mind now and then,
but what can we do, the whole area even the biggest El Corte Ingles was also closed, so... :(



Aside from admiring the works of Gaudi's Casa Batlló's Exterior.
we didn't get the chance to see its interior.
haha, the stingy mode got the best of us. ^0^
spending 17 euros for the entrance and an hour or more inside
didn't seem a good idea at that time,
we wanted to do more sightseeing.

there was Lluís Domènech i Montaner.
his works are utterly astounding,
we were too late to discover that he's famous for designing
Palau de la Musica Catalana, which we didn't get to visit.
But at least, we got to see Casa Lleó Morera.
which isn't hard to find as the one occupying that space right now is the famous Loewe .
















Beside Casa Batlló's museum is Casa Amatller,
the façade, which is decorated with ceramic plaques of blue, pink and cream tiles,
with unending geomteric patterns are called Sgraffito.
It was designed by Puig Cadalfach, yet another remarkable artist.
I could go on with more pleonasms so for now, let the photos speak for itself. ^-^








Here is Casa Batlló's exterior.
a contrast to its next door façade.
Josep Battló was a known tycoon who got bored and commissioned Gaudi to revamped
the whole thing.





The nice flow of Trencadis, the signatured undulating curves,
bulb dome and the cross of St. George was among the many highlights of this museum.





It's already past 2 in the morning and i'm still typing,
my mind isn't sleepy yet but my eyes are seeing double already. ^0^
I'll try to post more of this walk on my next post.