Sunday, November 18, 2007

Barcelona Continued!

Day 2!

We went to see another one of Gaudi's sites. It was very close to our hostel so we walked there. Its called Casa Batllo (accent over the o)...Gaudi was seriously crazy! All the detail and the little features he added to this apartment building were amazing. I loved how he used the roof to create a haven of abstract forms and he had a reason for it all! Check out the pics for sure! It is impossible to explain his buildings without looking at them for yourself! The pictures dont even do justice!

Next we went to explored Las Ramblas which is this long long street that leads to the ocean, but basically its the Rodeo Drive of Barcelona. It has all the designer and fashion stores, an open market in the center, and lots of resturants and cafes! We also checked out this big statue/monument of Christopher Columbus. They are crazy about him (obviously since he was spainsh)!!

We planned to go to this big fountain show at night. It was suppose to start at 830 so we waited until 915 and nothing had started. We figured it was just the usual spanish schedule where everything runs late, but a few of us went to the bathroom and asked the custodian guy. He said that in the month of november it does not run because they clean the fountains! LAME! The one month we visit Barcelona, the fountain show is not running. Our guide books never said that!

After that we headed back to the hostel and ventured out for dinner. We ended up walking around for a while a night, and didnt have the energy to go out to clubs or discotecas.

Day 3!!

The next morning we woke up early because we had to check out of the hostel and fit in a couple more sites before our train left at 10pm that night! We went to see La Pedera which was another one of Gaudis apartment buildings! I learned a lot about all of his work at this location because it had models and pictures of all of his buildings and examples of different types things that he used has inspiration for his textures and styles in the buildings. For example he used bee hives texture and style and different skulls, the shell of a turtle, and more! In addition, when you see all the pictures you will see that Gaudi had unique angels and forms in his buildings. He used chains to creates arches which offered more support and stronger structure! In La Pedera there were models of the style of apartments in his building. He made it so the occupants could take out certain walls and move them around to change the lay out of their home! He thought of everything. The whole apartment allowed a lot of light into each room except for the maids quarters!

Next we went to Parquel! It was this huge park that is up above the city that Gaudi designed! The day was beautiful so we hung out there for awhile, admired the view, checked out the interesting sculptures and arquitectural figures Gaudi designed and then found a cafe to eat lunch in.

We spent the rest of the day exploring little shops and resting until our train left! Once we were on the train back we even discovered that we had better seats! We werent in the ghetto uncomfortable seats like last time. Our train must have been nicer we had individual little rooms with 8 people in each, and all the lights turned off plus the seats reclined!!! I got a lot more sleep on the way back, even if it wasnt as comfortable as being in a bed!

All in all the weekend was great! And i think that Barcelona might be my favorite place i have visited thus far

Oh i totally forgot to include this! I had sushi twice in Barcelona and it was AMAZING! we asked where a chinese food place was because we were sick of spanish food for the time being. A lady suggest a buffet with chinese and japanese food. We were a little skeptical but we figured we would just find somewhere else if we didnt like it. The place ended up being amazing! It was like the sushi places where the food comes around on the boats, only it had tempura and other yakisoba stuff in addition to the sushi. The buffet was all you can eat and it was only 13euro which is not bad for all you can eat especially when the sushi was so fresh and delicious! We watched the chefs make it right in front of us. I figured the sushi wouldnt be too bad because Barcelona is right on the water! We loved it so much we ended up going back the next day for lunch because a good meal with enough food is hard to come by here without spending 20-30euro since Spain is so expensive and Barcelona is such a big city.

Also i am going to Portugal for the puente (my long weekend in the beginning of december!) I am so excited to go to a different country! I will be staying in Lisboa for3 days and then spend 3/4 of a day in Madrid, Spain.

Next weekend im going to Galicia on my last excursion with my whole program!!

Cant believe its only 34 days til im home!