Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Sagrada Familia and Big Brother

The Sagrada Familia's been on my to-do list for the past fifteen years now. I remember seeing it in a travel doco when I was a young'un, and the image of those weirdly shaped towers kind of stuck with me. For the past five months, I've been asking questions about it to everyone who´s been to Barcelona.

The reports don't do it justice.

First thing, it is a construction site in the middle of a cramp suburb. It's a bit deflating when you get there because the sightlines are obscured by cranes, fences and workers' shelters. All the knobbly bits of the older, Gothic parts are grimy and stained, and all the newer bits are glaringly clean in comparison.

It's not until you walk around the picture postcard facade to the other side that it starts to come together. Amazing portico of the Passion of Christ, and when you enter, you're hit by the tree-shaped columns that branch out to support this vast, vast roof and...

I really can't be bothered. 

I'm watching Spanish Big Brother right now. I was never a fan of the Australian Big Brother, but the Spanish version ain't bad. Still the same premise - pretty young things chatting vacuously and looking pretty in front of surveillance cameras - but they're all talking Spanish, which gives it a certain something. I suppose it's along the lines of the fascination that comes from ignorance - they could be talking absolute rubbish, but it doesn't matter because all I can see are Spanish people looking pretty and chatting vacuously. It's very compelling. 

Barcelona's nice, but I sure wish I'd come here when my enthusiasm was higher. 

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