The Heart of la Sagrada Familia

Although I never intended this blog to be a tourist guide of Barcelona, I believe that a post about La Sagrada Familia had to happen some day or another.

I was raised and still live literally 1 minute away from the famous temple, which means dealing with hordes of tourists taking pictures at it every day. (People sometimes ask me if I’m not tired of it, but  actually it’s not that bad if you walk a few blocks away, and I get great views while walking around my neighborhood).

I’m pretty sure you’ve seen images of the most famous Gaudi construction from the outside, so let’s take a look at the heart of it:

If you’ve bought your tickets in advance (highly advisable), you’ll enter by the Nativity’s Façade designed by Gaudi to serve as an example of style for the rest of the temple. I find it quite peculiar, at least different from other catholic temples.

Once on the inside, the style is completely different. A high and spacious nave surrounded by columns. I must admit I was impressed by its beauty when I first entered the building after its renovation in 2010 (and understood the ticket price). The light shines through the stained-glass windows coloring the walls. It gives an overall feeling of peace and admiration, certainly what a religious temple aims to produce.

Now let’s see some other pictures from the interior, hope they make you wanna visit the building if you still haven’t done so!

The main nave and the stained-glass windows

The altar

The 45 metres tall ceiling

Colored stained-glass windows

The impressive organ

What do you think? Worth paying a visit?

Images of Mexico

Soundtrack

Better late than never.

I may have taken my time to update this blog, but I wasn’t going to give up so easily! Lazyness has been my companion for too long, but today I decided it was time to shake things up.

So basically I went to Mexico after New Year’s to visit my sister and had lots of fun. I visited Riviera Maya for a week of rain and cold and then went back to Mexico City where surprisingly the weather was much better. I took some pictures, which I thought were great but ended up being just  O.K., and then decided that I wanted to show them to the world and say a few things about this amazing country that has many beautiful places to go and too much bad publicity.

Riviera Maya has lots to offer

In spite of the bad weather, the views and landscape in Riviera Maya were like paradise. When in Yucatán, relax in your hotel, visit the ruins of Cobá, Tulúm or Chichén Itzá, swim admist fish in a cenote, take a boat to Isla Mujeres and if you have extra time and money, go to a park like Xcaret.

Swimming pool in front of the Caribbean see in Riviera Maya

Barcelona’s Science Museum through a kid’s eyes

I remember when I was little going to the Science Museum with my school class. I loved it, especially the Amazonian Forest and all these things you could touch and play with. Remember the electric ball that made you feel you had all the power in your hands?

The Barcelona’s Science Museum, or CosmoCaixa, is located in the uptown, surrounded by splendid villas. It’s quite an excursion to get there, but it’s definitely worth the view.

The museum is arranged around a 6 floor high staircase that goes in circles around a huge “tree”. It’s a sculpture by Catalan artist Enric Pladevall who spent over a year building this 23 meter-long “Tree of Life“.

As a grown-up I’d been back a couple of times, but I’ve always been kind of disappointed. Everything seemed smaller and less exciting. Not too long ago I had the chance to go back with a 2-year-old kid, and it was fantastic to see how excited he was. It made me see the museum as if I was a kid again, getting all amazed by the different devices like in a funfair.

Here you can see him playing as a DJ. Just by flipping over color cubes on a special surface, you were able to make different music sounds and feel like David Guetta.

Another activity that especially caught his attention was a facility where you could appreciate the decomposition of white light. Pushing 3 different buttons you could choose how many primary colors you wanted to see. You don’t need to understand the functioning of it to enjoy the scene: