Some pictures from yesterday's long walk

Yesterday we began the tricky process of looking for an apartment here in Barcelona. To this end- we wandered through many different neighborhoods, trying to get a sense of each. Some are quite elegant, such as the majestically beautiful Gracia, with its Art Nueveau detailing; others are simpler and quieter, with hints of old Spain in the occasional "garden house" that appears in the midst of brick apartment buildings, such as Horta-Gordinando and Vallcarca. The Eixample is fancy with high-end stores and restaurants, and the "Ciutat Vella" contains the neighborhoods of El Ravel, El Gotico, La Ribera and El Born. Sants, Poble Sec, and Montjuic head towards the hills with areas that are a mix of fancy and quaint. At this point we're hoping to live in either the hill neighborhoods of Horta-Gordinando, Vallcarca, Montjuic, or Sants. We of course love Gracia but it's out of our price range, I believe. Another nice area we're exploring today is near the Natural History Museum, just north of the Old City. We're looking at an apartment near there today.
In the midst of our all exploring yesterday, we climbed both up and down the hill that contains Park Guell, designed by Barcelona's favorite son, Gaudi. The park itself was mad with tourists; some paths were almost impassible due to streams of people. Luckily we found a way to escape that insanity and, at the same time, end up slightly lost on some winding paths that seemed to be rather not paths at all. When we did pop out of the park at last and find a road, we discovered an amazing neighborhood (maybe part of Horta-Guidardo? Not sure) that containing tiny streets of little garden homes, that reminded me, most of all, of Havana, Cuba. Sort of funny but it actually took me a moment of reflection to figure this out. I stared at the buildings and thought to myself- "Golly. This looks so familiar somehow. It reminds me of somewhere." And then-- aha!-- I realized, yes, this is the famous "Spanish" architecture that was transported to Latin American cities such as Havana, Granada, Nicaragua, and others. Reminded also a little bit of Alejuela, Costa Rica. I've included some pictures here. The first is of a funny door knob that was begging to be photographed. Then, a garden home from the hill area. Also, two photos of Gracia- one of the street and one of a building with these elegant stained glass-window porches. Also included here is a view from the hills, down a little skinny set of stairs. The hill neighborhoods are full of steps going up and down- not unlike Montmontre, in Paris.