Montjuïc

*note: Both of the pictures in this post were found on the internet. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me on Montjuïc.

Montjuïc is a mountain that starts near La Plaça de Espanya that has steep slopes and is home to a castille at the top that served as a sort of fort during the Spanish civil war. At the top you can see all of Barcelona. I located la Plaça de Catalunya with the humungous Hyundai ad and La Sagrada Familia sticks up into the clouds to the right. Tibidabo sits far across,  high atop a mountain of green. On the backside of the castle you can see the water, the industrial port, and rows and rows of shipping containers. Since I was on a hike I have no pictures. But what pleasantly surprised me was the cemetery that we stumbled upon.

I knew there was cemetery on the mountain but I had forgotten about it and wasn't planning on visiting it that day. On our walk my friend noticed a sort of stone city, glistening of glass. We changed course and walked towards it. As soon as I stepped in I realized what we had encountered. It was the Montjuïc cemetery... and it was beautiful. Three of my grandparents are buried there, like most of Barcelona's deceased. It was opened back in the 1880s and now must have over one million burials and cremation ashes.

I thought about my grandparents and for some reason felt better seeing that their bodies were placed in a special part of Barcelona. My grandma told me later that night that all of her relatives are also there. Something about that is reassuring. The cemeteries I have seen in the United States are very different... and for the first time I feel like I can appreciate a cemetery as a beautiful place.