Barcelona 22-28 July

This year I went on holiday with my boyfriend, Alfie, to Barcelona. Neither of us have been to Barcelona before so it was such an amazing experience to travel to a new place together. This was the first time we had been abroad by ourselves and so with this came a large sense of freedom whilst we were there. Travelling and exploring new places is something that I love to do as I get to immerse myself into different societies and cultures. Accepting all cultures is something that I feel strongly about and I think that we should celebrate having such a diverse ones ourselves in Britain.

La Sagrada Familia

On the Sunday we walked along the beach front and then up to La Sagrada Familia where I was astounded by its intricate design and sheer size. This Roman Catholic church was designed by Antoni Gaudi and has been in construction since 1822. Barcelona's centre is full of architecture that has been designed by Gaudi which brings a more eccentric vibe to the city. This large scale project is supposed to be completed by 2026, but it is still open to the public now. The photograph that I took of La Sagrada Familia looks almost out of focus, but in fact it is the weather that has made it appear this way. Although it was very humid this day, it was also cloudy and so these two factors combined has covered the photograph in a hazy film.

Whilst visiting the area that attracts most tourists, Las Ramblas, we sat down on a bench at the side of a street where an advertisement stand stood in front of us. At first I walked past this without taking any thought to it, but when I sat down I realised the amount of advertisements that had been placed on the board in the past. This ages the advertisement stand as it has been there long enough to add layers upon layers of posters, where as if the previous ones had been took down, the age of the object wouldn't necessarily be thought about. Another aspect that appeals to me is the bright colours used on the posters for music events and theatre shows. There is also a contrast that splits the stand in half vertically, as the darker colours on the left contrast the vivid ones on the right. This captures the dark nature of the theatre production being advertised at the time, compared to the music festival on the right. This stand shows how there are different audiences within the area, those who prefer to watch shows and those who prefer to go to festivals. I don't fit entirely into either of those categories as I enjoy and appreciate both of these for different reasons.

In Barcelona there was a striking amount of graffiti which couldn't go unnoticed whilst visiting. Here the graffiti had a happier vibe as opposed to the dark stamps that gangs often spray on our walls in England. It seemed that this was something that was not frowned upon in Barcelona as there had been no attempts to cover any of it up like you see on our motorway bridges at home. I enjoyed walking around to find new art that included such a variety of colour and themes such as cartoons or lettering. In this case, my outfit matches the colour palette of the graffiti so I stood in front of it and had my picture taken.