Sagrada Familia and the Quest for the Lost Pact

Sagrada Familia, Boqueria Market and the Quest to find the location of our proposal

Boqueria Market

Every choice in life involves trade-offs. When you stay in a well situated apartment in the center of town across from a historic church with bell towers you enjoy proximity, prime people watching and the constant awareness of the time. However it also requires you to endure the sounds of late night drunken conversation, garbage collections and the regular intervals of bell ringing that make sleeping in challenging but necessary. Needless to say, our second full day in Barcelona got off to a late start.

We hit the ground running with a trip to the Boqueria Market on Las Ramblas. This large market is the most famous in Barcelona. It has both small eateries with prepared bites as well as fresh produce, meat and seafood. We went with the intention to buy ingredients to prepare a meal while in Barcelona but ultimately the decided the kitchen in our studio apartment was too small to prepare a decent meal and that there was not adequate time for one with our current schedule of reservations. Alas, another time.

Collection of photos from the Boqueria Market in Barcelona. Not sure why I am making that face in the bottom right. I blame Sean always trying to capture awkward moments. But the octopus in the bottom right photo is incredible!

The market is roughly organized by food product with all the fruit and vegetable stands together, the meat together, the spices and dried goods together, etc. Jostling shoulder to shoulder like the crowded Pike's Place Market in Seattle we explored the offerings and partook in a street-food brunch. We started out with fruit cups from a stand. Fresh cut pineapple, watermelon, kiwi, papaya, coconut, strawberry and melon. A much needed source of fiber economically priced at 1 Euro each. Next we split an empanada from a Latin American dumpling stand filled with diced ham (~ 3 Euro). Finally we ended our journey by sharing a cup of boiled octopus from a seafood stand (~5 Euro). Grand total of 10 Euro for two people! The octopus by far was the star of the show. We made a few laps of the market before making our purchases and each time I found myself eyeing the octopus. During our last trip to Los Angeles in December we went to the Grand Central market and had some incredible boiled octopus ceviche. Octopus is notoriously difficult to cook. It requires slow preparation to break down the meat and runs the risk of having an unpleasant rubbery texture if under-cooked and a soggy texture if over-cooked. When well prepared Octopus is one of my favorite undersea proteins. The Boqueria market did not disappoint. The Octopus was perfectly cooked and tender. Lightly dressed in a lemon herb vinaigrette. It was chilled and refreshing.

We also picked up a kilo of fresh cherries for 2.89 (~ $1.50 per pound) to enjoy later. Once again we are reminded about how inexpensive locally grown produce and food is in Spain.

Sagrada Familia

Collage of the Sagrada Familia. June 2018

I struggle to write about the Sagrada Familia; not only because there are no words that can do it justice but because the mere attempt to verbalize the experience feels hollow. No poet could adequately describe it. No photograph can hope to capture its essence. Not even video can recreate the magic of walking into a church truly unlike any other.

Three Photospheres taken at the Sagrada Familia. One exterior (the Paradise facade) and two inside.

Our trip last year to Italy was a tour of food and God. We visited more churches in three weeks than I had visited over the course of my whole life prior. I had meticulously packed clothing with sleeves. I had mapped out the locations of some of my favorite pieces of art. So often in Italy, I was drawn to a church not for the space but for the art it contained. It was like a special type of museum. The Sagrada Familia does not feel like any of those at all.

Sagrada Familia: Sculptures from the Passion of the Christ Facade. June 2018

The overarching vision is credited to one man but the execution has evolved over the 130+ years it has been under construction. It still will not be completed for another decade or two (the tentative completion date is 2026, on the 100 year Anniversary of Gaudi’s death but likely finishing touches will take another decade or so). This is a church on the scale and grandeur to rival any in Italy but it has all been constructed in recent memory. Its history shaped by the Spanish Civil War, two world wars and advancements in engineering and technology. The artists and craftsman working on it are still alive and producing. The technology used to produce it has evolved, where Gaudi would sketch and then build models aspects in plaster, today they design with computers and 3D print their models.

Sagrada Familia: Current construction and active workshop June 2018

  I still intimately remember seeing the Sagrada Familia during our last trip to Barcelona in 2011. We woke up early to get tickets for the day and were some of the first people inside that morning. It was a weekday in September, overcast and we had much of the grounds to ourselves. When I first walked into main chamber, I started to cry. Thinking back on that moment now, I find myself fighting tears. It was the most beautiful creation I had ever seen.  

Visiting this time was very different. Security had been increased. It was difficult to purchase tickets on the day of entry and it was substantially more crowded. The location of the entrance had changed from when we last visited as one façade had been completed and construction is now occurring on what will become the main door. Parts that were being worked on in 2011 had since been completed and other areas were closed. The ubiquity of smart phones and proliferation of selfies had transformed the space into a massive photo booth. And yet, it is still one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Sagrada Familia: Collage of Interior Shots. June 2018

The cavernous interior is lined with columns (none straight) each gently curving in parabolas and hyperbolic arches that branch upward like trees in a canopy. Each column is unique in terms of type of stone, shape, adornment and branching. 

The space is bathed in light, the walls covered in stained glass windows with deep saturated colors towards the ground that get ever fainter as they approach the heavens. Unlike most stained glass which attempts to use the colored panes to depict an image, these windows only serve to exhibit form and function. There are no saints personified or stories told. There is only a simplistic beauty that radiates out from the walls.

Sagrada Familia: Collage of Interior Shots. June 2018

Spiral staircases curl along the four interior towers each imbued in a single color like the four stones in the Fifth Element. Just standing within the massive color-filled space feels like being inside of a kaleidoscope. As the sun moves through the sky, the interior transforms and the space feels completely different after even an hour.

Sagrada Familia: Collage of Interior Shots including Spiral Staircase Top Right.

In 2011, our visit lasted much of a day as our ticket included the main cathedral, the towers, cloisters and crypt. This trip we opted just for the main cathedral and museum which meant we finished our early afternoon visit right around tapas o clock. In Spain, breakfast is an espresso and pastry. Lunch is served only between 1:30-3pm and is the primary meal of the day. Tapas which are small bites and snacks typically enjoyed with drinks (much like happy hour) is between 5-6:30pm. Dinner, typically which is usually a light affair is served between 8:30-10pm. Eating outside of these windows generally results in having street food/snacks or diner cuisine.

From the Sagrada Familia we walked a few blocks to El Petit Porquet, a small brightly lit café that specializes in charcuterie. We shared a board with a variety of freshly sliced cured meats including Jamon Iberico. This tender flavorful ham comes from wild pigs whose entire diet consists of acorns), chorizo, salami, and cured pork tenderloin. We enjoyed these mouthwatering meats with traditional Catalan bread which is slightly toasted bread smeared with tomato, olive oil and salt. And of course there was vermouth.

Collage of Images from El Petit Porquet

The Quest

With 9pm dinner reservations at Restaurant Montiel, the first tasting menu Sean and I enjoyed together the night we got engaged we had several hours to hunt for the location of our impromptu betrothal. We tore Barcelona city map out of the Lonely Planet Spain book and set about defining the scope of our search. In 2011 we stayed at the NH hotel, we marked it on the map. That afternoon we had gone to the Picasso museum (marked) went back to the hotel before we set out to get drinks before dinner at Montiel (marked). We were able to narrow the search to the El Born neighborhood, a rectangular area about 1000 m by 600 m. Our goal was to find a small corner store with outdoor seating (our collective memory suggested it had a wooden deck which was quite unusual in Spain). This small corner shop was located in a small square a few streets off from a much larger square with many restaurants. I had a very good memory for the path we took from the big square to the small one. So if we could find the big square, we could find the place we got engaged.

Map in hand, we set out among the winding streets of Barcelona. There was an excitement, an electricity in the air. Whether we found it or not, the act of looking was exciting. On our way from the Gothic Quarter to the El Born neighborhood we stopped briefly at an unusual shop that sold only rubber duckies. I took this as a sign.

When Sean and I first moved in together, my little sister came to visit us and hid dozens (at least 50) tiny rubber duckies all over our apartment. Even years later we would open a random cabinet and find one. When we moved, I meticulously gathered them all and they now live collectively in a vase in our game room. In honor of this whimsical tradition of rubber duckies, our wedding cake was adorned with a large bride and groom rubber ducky. Now as we prepared to search for the place where we got engaged, there was a rubber ducky store. I turned to Sean and said “I think we’re going to find the spot.” I also went inside and bought a rubber ducky decorated like a Gaudi lizard in honor of Barcelona, it only seemed right.

Rubber ducky in hand, we continued across the city until we reached the Northern boundary we had drawn on the map. We cross off street by street marking tiny Xs on our paper map as we used our phone GPS to track our location. When we came upon the modernist Catalan concert hall Petit Palau, an unusual red and green building surrounded by modern art we were certain we had not traveled this far North in 2011. We made note of the building as something worth checking out in the future and then redrew the boundaries shrinking the area by a few hundred meters. We set off again, determined and meticulous. Systematically going through the area like an underwater rover mapping an uncharted sea bed (or searching unsuccessfully for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight). The area looked a lot different than we remembered it. While this area has always been a notably eclectic and a cultural hub, there had been significant gentrification over the last 7 years. It was a lot more polished and some streets had succumb to a more hipster aesthetic compared to its former unconventional flare. Maybe it was naïve to think we could find it given how much things in our own city had changed in 7 years. If the business that was there had been transformed into something else, would we recognize it? We weren’t sure.

We came upon one of the handful of squares depicted on the paper map. It was modest smaller than our collective memory of the “big square” but similar enough that we marked the map with a question mark. If this was the “big square” then the small square would be nearby. We walked down each of the side streets that lead out from the bigger square but none of this looked familiar to me. There was a smaller square but it looked nothing like my memory. That couldn’t have been the big square.

By now we had been walking over an hour. We were no longer confident we could recognize the big square much less the smaller one that contained our spot. Our memories of that evening different in terms of which details we remembered. I had a very clear memory of our path from the big square to the little square. I had a clear memory of what the big square looked like. But the small square and even the shop itself was hazy. We both agreed there was a wooden deck (which was unique) but we hadn’t seen a single wooden deck this trip. Sean was very certain our spot was in a smaller square but I didn’t remember it being a square at all.

Looking across from our question-mark big square, I saw another street in the distance, larger with motorcycles driving through. I had a memory of motorcycle parking and the street along the square having traffic. Maybe it was over there. When we crossed the street we entered into a square. This was the big square! It had to be. It was on the correct side of the busier street, it had motorcycle parking, and it was the right size. I could feel my heart beat quicken as I turned around to orient myself and confidently declare that we needed to walk down two blocks and turn left. Sean’s memory of the directions were not that good but my mental map was clear. 7 years ago, hot, and thirty it felt like we were on a quest. I remember walking around and searching in futility for a place to get a drink and sit down that wouldn’t expect you to order a meal. With it being dinner time and a busy Saturday night, it was difficult to find a place that met those specifications. We walked down the two blocks and there was a yellow arrow on the side of the building pointing left. “See Sean, it knows where we are supposed to go.”

We walked down to the left half a block and the buildings parted into a small square. Sean was right. It was in a square. Kids played soccer in the dirt square. Two old men sat on a bench talking. We looked around and declared this was it. On the corner was an ice cream shop whose interior was pristine and suggested it had been recently renovated. There were tables in the courtyard but no wooden deck. Still, this had to be it. The business next door, a corner shop was closed. But we were at least 90% certain this was it. We dropped a pin on google map to mark the location. We took a selfie on the corner much to confusion of the locals. Another yellow arrow marked overhead.

We were a few doors down from Montiel. Neither of us remembered it being that close but when we walked around we decided that after we got engaged we walked around and came to the restaurant from the other side which would make it feel a few blocks away enough though it was on the same block.

A lot has changed in seven years. I asked Sean if he had planned to propose while on the Barcelona trip in 2011 and he said he didn’t have a plan. He knew he wanted to get married soon and making it official just happened. Because there was no formal proposal or ring, I had always downplayed that moment in our relationship. Only through the experience of being happily married, learning and growing from/with your partner have I come to look fondly on the start of that chapter. Like so many stories in history, the mythology developed long after the act itself. It felt good finding the location. The mutual desire to go look for it, a testament of how much we love each other and how much that moment, one of many had come to shape us. We found the location using the same set of skills we had in deciding to get married: excitement, compromise, communication, teamwork and a lot of luck.

Select images from our Quest! Bottom Left: Map of our search of the El Born Area (as much as Google could easily track via my phone).  Top Middle: The Rubber Ducky  Top Right: Our Wedding Cake 11/11/11. Bottom Right: The spot.

Up Next Our Meal at Montiel (Recent Recipient of a Michelin Plate!) 

Barcelona: We meet again...

Barcelona Day 1: 6/10/2018

The setting:
2018 has brought me back to my beloved Spain. While in Venice (No post complete), during our last few nights in Italy (September 2017) we found ourselves wishing we had gone to Spain. We had been to Spain in 2011 and again in 2015 and were tempted to make it a third trip in 2017. Ultimately we decided it was better to branch out and explore Italy but during the end of that trip there was a sense of... remorse. Spain has been our shared loved since our very first trip abroad.

Back in 2011 when we first came to Spain we went to Barcelona. Nobody spoke English. Internet was difficult to come by and we had to actually pack a camera. It was my first trip outside of the United States as an adult. It was a 17 day whirlwind adventure on a shoe-string budget. But it all started in Barcelona. On our second full day in Barcelona we went to the Aquarium, the Picasso museum and then planned to have a fancy multi-course meal at the restaurant Montiel. Our dinner reservation was at 10pm and while we were walking around beforehand we stopped at a small very informal cafe that served coffee and ice cream and cheap sandwiches. It was on the wooden deck of this mostly forgotten establishment that Sean asked me to marry him. It was September and we decided we wanted to get married on our anniversary November 11th. He didn't have a ring. And he didn't plan on asking me before it happened. It was a huge life changing moment and yet we didn't even mark the occasion with a picture or take the card of the cafe.

Over the years we have independently scoured google maps to try and find the location of this fateful cafe. Our memories were hazy and influenced greatly by each other's recollections. This November we will have been together 10 years, a decade,  which is a crazy thought. We will have been married for 7 years and we are thinking about adding a member to our family soon. With this in mind we hastily planned a short trip to our beloved Espana. Many of our previous trips were the work of meticulous planning done months in advance with every accommodation and every train change carefully planned to maximize our enjoyment. We booked plane tickets to Bareclona less than 2 months ago. We still have not booked accommodation for our last two nights.

We are again starting this trip with a few days in Barcelona, the city that captured our hearts and imagination. We are very different people now than we were then. More traveled. More confident. More secure with our place in the world and each other. We are excited to see the city from this new perspective. To walk the streets and look for what has changed and what has remained the same.


Our journey begins...
We arrived in Barcelona late Saturday night after nearly 16 hours in transit. Knowing we'd be arriving late, we opted for a hotel our first night instead of an apartment to ease check-in. We stayed at a relatively inexpensive hotel a few km outside the main city center in the Clot neighborhood. This neighborhood dates to medieval times when it was part of the former municipality of Sant Marti which only became part of Barcelona in 1897 during the city's rapid expansion. Historically El Clot has been a manufacturing district near the port. The history reminded us a lot of our own home in Ballard, which was a Scandinavian fishing and manufacturing city that was only incorporated into Seattle in 1907.

Sean campaigned heavily for this photo he took of me to be included. His exact words were "It is a side of Krystal most people get to see." Not sure what side that is but I have included it so you can see it. Whatever it is.

Much like Italy, there is a very short window which dinner is traditionally served in Spain: between 8:30 and 10pm. By the time we got back to the hotel, took a shower, changed and were ready to go out it was after 10pm. Even on a Saturday night, seeking dinner after normal dinner hours can be a challenge. Luckily after scouring a few blocks we walked past El Rovell del Clot (Translates to 'The Yoke of Clot' in Catalan). Their sign depicted a vibrant raw egg yolk that was quite eye catching and to top it off they were crowded. They managed to seat us on the patio and offered us their menu in Spanish since much like our time in Girona, they tried to speak to us in Catalan and well they just aren't that similar.  Far from the traditional tourist districts, we were the only native English speakers in the restaurant. The menu focused on Catalan Gastronomy and fusion cuisine. We started our meal with two vermouths each garnished with olives and an orange slice. We started with our favorite fried padron peppers although in June none were spicy. Sean and I both ordered from their chalkboard of daily specials. Sean got a Catalan-Japanese fusion dish: A teriyaki style pork cooked in a wok and I got the Tuna tartare. We ended the meal with a tiramisu style pudding and coffee. It was an excellent start to what promises to be a very exciting trip.

Three Gaudi works. Sagrada Familia (Left). Casa Batllo (Middle). La Pedrera (Right).

Gaudi part 1: Our hotel, tucked away in the quiet neighborhood by the port, was named Catalonia Sagrada Familia which might make one believe it was near the famous Gaudi-designed church; however it was a good half a mile away. We woke up early on Sunday morning and tried to get a jump on our first full day in the city. We both shared fond memories of waking up early and getting tickets for the Sagrada Familia, having had the church much to ourselves for the first few hours it was opened when we were here in 2011. We made our way over to the church only to find they held Mass on Sundays and that they had no tickets available for that day until 6:30pm and they don't sell any tickets in advance for subsequent days (only online). The prevalence of internet bookings for tickets had made it challenging to be spontaneous. But we made the most of our morning. We stopped by a tourist counter to inquire if they had a walking map for Modernism architecture (what Barcelona is most famous for) and the woman laughed telling us that no one would walk between all the places. That it was a 2 hour walk between the Park Guell for example and the Casa Batllo.

Images from our unguided walking tour of Barcelona. Including Roman Cemetery in Las Ramblas (Top Right), Passeig de Gracia street (Champs Elysee of Barcelona, Left Middle), Fountain in the Plaza Catalunya (Center) and Images of Sean and Krystal taking pictures of each other outside the Sagrada Familia (Top and Bottom Left).

Undeterred we set out to see much of the city on foot. Walking from the Sagrada familia to the Gothic center of the city passing by two famous Gaudi works, the Pedrera and the Casa Batllo. Each of Gaudi's works can be experienced from the street but to explore the interiors requires admission. At around 20 Euros per location, we needed to make decisions about which we wanted to explore. We decided on the Casa Batllo, after complications with getting admission to the Sagrada Familia, we took to the internet to secure admission! We found that they were having a special event that evening offering late night admission that included access to their roof top terrace at sunset, a concert by local band Roller Disco Combo and two drinks.Well they had me at Roller Disco Combo. So we decided to make an evening of it and booked admission to their "Magic Night".

After we spent the whole morning walking around the city, we took the metro back to grab our bags from the hotel and check into our apartment in the Gothic District. Our apartment overlooks a small plaza and faces the medieval Gothic-style church Iglesia de Santa Maria del Pi. There is a certain irony to the fact the pace of life in Spain is deliberately slow and yet the passage of time is marked so regularly by the bells of the church. Lying in bed in the morning with the bells going off every 15 minutes makes you feel like the minutes are ticking away.

Images from Zona d'Ombra wine shop in Gothic district of Barcelona. Including one of the best set of bathroom signs ever (Top), Krystal eating a Padron Pepper (Left), Snacks (Right).

After a siesta we headed to a well reviewed wine and tapas bar in the Gothic quarter. We enjoyed local Catalan varietals at the bar with a variety of local snacks. We managed to miss a sudden rainstorm that seemed to wash the city in brief but torrential downpour.

We ended our first full night at the Casa Batllo. This amazing structure feels like you're in some kind of mermaid palace under the Sea. This was originally built in the early 1900s as a private residence. The home features several stories surrounding a skylight that extends through the center like a core of light. Like many of Gaudi's unique designs it is inspired by nature and feels very nautical in theme. There are curves like waves. External windows are shaped like turtle shells. Internal windows are colorful stained glass. It is an amazing piece of architecture. The self-guided interior tour features an audioguide and augmented reality (AR) experience where they attempt to make some of the special features of house come to life. For example an augmented reality where if you hold the cellphone audio guide up to the windows that look like Sea Turtle shells the windows come to life and Sea Turtles swim through the space before you. It was a cool use of AR technology that really helps tie some of the design choices to their original inspirations.

Collection of Images from our visit to Casa Batllo. Featuring Roller Disco Combo (Top Right).

As the sun was setting, we made our way to the roof-top terrace where Roller Disco Combo, an indie rock band made up of three hipster looking Dads (two acoustic guitarists and an electric guitar) played a few original songs as well as covers of classic rock (Simon and Garfunkel, Beatles, Beach Boys). Enjoying a drink on the roof of a work of art listening to live music had to be one of the coolest and most surreal experiences. The waning twilight and soft rock creating this dream-like quality although I am pretty sure in my dreams no one is playing covers of Coldplay. The event was listed as sold-out but the number of people who stayed for the concert couldn't have been more than 60. It was intimate and memorable. Certainly one of the coolest experiences we have had on a vacation.

Images from our late night Kosher meal at Shaq Shuq. Yum!

The event ended around 10pm leaving us in a similar situation as the night before and to make matters worse it was Sunday. I have been to Spain three times now and I still do not understand the cultural rules for Sundays. It seems like a lot of things are closed. People do not eat dinner or they eat at home or they eat at a different time. I am honestly not sure. Walking back from the Casa Batllo to the Gothic Quarter looking for a restaurant was like being on a poorly designed scavenger hunt. We spent over an hour looking for a place to eat. No respectable restaurant was open. Most of the bars that served food seemed to cater to 'frat boy' culture. Whole streets were either completely vacant or filled with drunk young men. By 11pm, I was ready to settle for a Donor Kebab but a quick google search revealed none nearby. We had almost made it back to our apartment ready to give up when we came upon Shaq Shuq, a Kosher Israeli restaurant still open. Dinner was saved!



All in all it was a pretty special day in our favorite city. We walked about 8 miles soaking up modernisma architecture, went to a roof top concert in a work of art and managed to eat before midnight. Up next the Boqueria Market, Sagrada Familia, and the quest to find our engagement spot!