BARCELONA.
I'm trying to make a hard-boiled egg out of scrambled right now. Hopefully this will help. My brain is the egg.
1.31
--> We left at 4:30am to get to the train station for our 5:58 departure. The ride was long with some good views and mostly sleep. That was what was on my mind. Arrived in Barcelona at our hotel around 1:30pm and were allowed time to settle and get lunch. We stayed on the "time square" of the city, on Las Ramblas (there are multiple places called this but we stated at the biggest one). Our (Eliza, Marie, and I) hotel room was on the second story (called the first in europe) it was on the front of the building so we had a great view of the strip.
Lunch a some small weird place. Bought spanish phrase books that weren't that great.
At 3 we walked to the Picasso Museum and spent the next two hours looking at his hugely vast assortment of work. He started as a protogy, the son of an art instructor. His work really is quite amazing. As he aged is when he started to develop ideas and new working methods, but I suppose it would get old to always be doing the same classical work. He never really went into intese detail with his pieces and often left them unfinished - but they were still really awesome. Then about the time his work started to take it's change into cubistic I was very tired. Looking at that much art and analysing it in the mind is very intense and really tiring after a while.
Ate at a chinese restaurant next to the hotel. Tired so I went to sleep.
2.01
--> Started the morning early with the Museum of Textiles. It was really cool to see all these pieces (tapestry, embroidery, weavings) done hundreds to thousands of years ago. They didn't have machines to do it all yet things were so ornate and embellished. Seeing this museum was quite a shift from looking at the work of Picasso. All the works in the textile represented to many years and lives of many many people put into it. Picasso's was one man's lifetime - less than one hundred years. I enjoyed the vintage clothing the most. The fabrics were really awesome but I couldn't really look at them very well because of the low lighting in order to preserve. All the detail put into the clothing is outstanding. When I looked at the clothes from the 1960s on I thought they were just so boring and unimaginative. Dull, lackluster. One portion of clothing from the 1900-1930 could insprite an entire line of modern clothing. It was so cool.
Lunch was at a very traditional Spanish "tourist" eating place. After that everyone else went to another museum, but I was not feeling one hundred % so I walked around on my own then went back to the hotel and napped.
I met up with some folks and we went to H&M! I bought some goodies - they were having mondo sales. The clothing was different than what I saw in Avignon, FR. More colorful and bold. Perfect. Sandwich supper.
Then later than that I went to a Flanmenco show with Marie, Noelle, Eliza and Amelia. It was really cool. Following spanish tradition we went in search of a resturant for Tapas (small munchies). Found a really yummy place and had pumpkin dip, hummas all on tomato bread.
2.02 DALI DAY.
--> Took the train to another town about two hours out of Barcelona and spent a majority of the day at the Museum created by Dali. This was an intense experience. I have not been much of a fan of Dali, but after seeing this massive four story thing he created I have a respect for the man. The amount of work, not just work. Well thought out, very planned peices was just astounding. Marie compaired it to a drug trip. Happy, tears, paranoia, overwhelming. I personally didn't have quite that extreme of a reaction, but I did buy the book about the place. After the exhibit my mind was just so tired. It was crazy.
At this point people had split off into groups and we were allowed to take what ever train back to Barcelona we wanted (they occured about every hour). Well, I was with Marie, Noelle, Virginia, and Janet. We ended up missing our intended train due to misinformaiton and had to wait for another hour or so. Making the most of the situation we went to the grocery story and got supplies and had a lovely picnic on the ride back.
What did we do when we got back to Barcelona? Go to H&M of course! Yep, More clothes.
Later got some ice cream with the girls (well, there were only girls on the trip asside from Henry the painting professor).
But then Marie and I were hungry so about 11:30 we went in search of supper. We just wondered to find a restaurant. Marie is a veggie so it poses a problem when finding dinning. Often (there are quite a few vegitarians in our group) they end up eating pizza or pasta so the goal is always to find more balance in the diet. It is not easy to be green in Europe. But we did find an amazing place full of people enjoying their dinner and we followed suite. We sat there having our meal at midnight just like the rest of the city. If we were good Spaniards it would have been time to hit the dance clubs, but we were tired Americans so it was time for bed.
2.03 ZACHARY'S 13th BIRTHDAY!
--> This was a gaudi day. We went to two places designed by Antoni Gaudi - one of the prime forces of the Art Nouveau style. The first was the Sagrada Familia - a church dedicated to the Sacred family. It is still under construction and has been since the 1800s. It is massive and just so intracate in design and there was meaning within everything. The design was just so intent. And just so complicated. I am very impressed by Gaudi - I bought a book about him and the Sagrada. The only thing that I was completly turned off by was the use of a church as a tourist attraction. This was a building with no church. No place of worship. There were so many people there to see it too.
After the Sagrada we went to see the apartment building designed by Gaudi. It too was amazing. There was a residence decorated in the intended style of the period and the place had an amazing gift store of time period novelties and such. Of course I bought two more books. One full of photos fromt the 1920s and another about La Padrera (the name of the building). The shop even had a ton of textile design books and others about many subjects. It might just be the best gift shop I've been in.
After we visited those places it was free time. But more importantly it was way past lunch time. Marie, Noelle, Viginia and I ended up eating at this resturant we just happened upon. It was a vegitarian buffet - not a very common occurance especially for Europe. Noelle is also a veggie. So it was perfect. For 10 euro we got an amazing salad spread with soup, four or so hot dishes, a our chioce of dishes from the kitchen, a drink, and dessert. A really good deal for such a specialized meal in a city.
Deciding to skip the subway we walked back (not to far but quite a walk). Of course we stopped in shops along the way. It was a nice walk. Along the way Noelle stopped a girl with rollar blades on and asked where she bought them so we later found the place and she was able to get a pair. She really missed hers. In Savannah she is part of a Rollar Derby team.
We went to the produce market and got food for our long return train ride.
Noelle had made friends with a street performer the night before and made arrangements to meet up with him that night and do a performance together. She mad an abstract costume out of construction trash and white tights. She is very creative. It was really cool. It was a bull with baggettes on it's head. She wore here rollar blades and skated around Las Ramblas. It was fun. Marie and I trailed her. At one point I took off my coat (I bought a red jacket at H&M) and acted like a madador. It was corney but fun.
Maire, Viginia and I went to find some supper. It was about 12am so most of the places we went had stopped serving for the night (suprisingly). We walked and walked and wound up eating Falafals in a small chain resturant where there was this weird old guy starring at us.
The next plan was to meet up with Noelle at 1:30 and go dancing. We went to our rooms so Noelle to take off her make-up. Marie and I decided to take a wink of sleep, but ended up both falling asleep in our coats and not waking up until Eliza came back around 2:30am. We were tired. Normally the Spanish are still going strong until about 6am. At least we were woken by people still out on the streets at 5am. And most things don't open until after 10am.
2.04 DEPARTURE DAY
--> Slept past 8 for the first time on the trip. Then Marie and I got all packed and ready to go and went out to find more food for our lunches. There were the little stores that we stopped in. I bought peanut butter (a very difficult thing to find in France) and Marie got some hummas. We also found a little panaderia where we bought some sweet and a loaf of bread. I accidentally grabbed someones elses crossaint off the counter but didn't find out until later when we were eating. We then managed to get lost and unlost in a matter of 10 minutes giving us five minutes to grab our things and get down to the hotel lobby before we were running late.
The train ride back was long and I am still recovering (the changes in pressure and altitude really screw with my inner ears). Luckily there were those cute Belgian boys to gawk at and eventually chat with. They made the ride interesting - one is studying in Paris so hopfully he can show us the city when we go in two weeks.
Fortunatly, we are not going to Paris for two weeks. I will need the recovery time. I am enjoying the peace and quiet and the time to read a book and work on projects. Yes, I started a book about the Art Nouveau style. Gaudi really made an impression on me. I am really liking it so far. Much of the movement stemmed from the lack of satisfaction from the mechanized produciton and constant revival of classic art styles. They wanted something new. My book says it "responded to the will and desire for transcendance on both a social and an artistic plane." I can totally see this mentality surfacing agian in the future. A desire for uniqueness and substance. I know it is something that is coming to my mind more so.
Well, I think that has been a mouthful for now so I will cut it off there. French lessons in 15 minutes.
All in all, Barcelona was great, but I am so happy to be back in a quiet atmosphere.
PHOTOS: --> http://scad.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045421&l=f01f6&id=39604174
I'm trying to make a hard-boiled egg out of scrambled right now. Hopefully this will help. My brain is the egg.
1.31
--> We left at 4:30am to get to the train station for our 5:58 departure. The ride was long with some good views and mostly sleep. That was what was on my mind. Arrived in Barcelona at our hotel around 1:30pm and were allowed time to settle and get lunch. We stayed on the "time square" of the city, on Las Ramblas (there are multiple places called this but we stated at the biggest one). Our (Eliza, Marie, and I) hotel room was on the second story (called the first in europe) it was on the front of the building so we had a great view of the strip.
Lunch a some small weird place. Bought spanish phrase books that weren't that great.
At 3 we walked to the Picasso Museum and spent the next two hours looking at his hugely vast assortment of work. He started as a protogy, the son of an art instructor. His work really is quite amazing. As he aged is when he started to develop ideas and new working methods, but I suppose it would get old to always be doing the same classical work. He never really went into intese detail with his pieces and often left them unfinished - but they were still really awesome. Then about the time his work started to take it's change into cubistic I was very tired. Looking at that much art and analysing it in the mind is very intense and really tiring after a while.
Ate at a chinese restaurant next to the hotel. Tired so I went to sleep.
2.01
--> Started the morning early with the Museum of Textiles. It was really cool to see all these pieces (tapestry, embroidery, weavings) done hundreds to thousands of years ago. They didn't have machines to do it all yet things were so ornate and embellished. Seeing this museum was quite a shift from looking at the work of Picasso. All the works in the textile represented to many years and lives of many many people put into it. Picasso's was one man's lifetime - less than one hundred years. I enjoyed the vintage clothing the most. The fabrics were really awesome but I couldn't really look at them very well because of the low lighting in order to preserve. All the detail put into the clothing is outstanding. When I looked at the clothes from the 1960s on I thought they were just so boring and unimaginative. Dull, lackluster. One portion of clothing from the 1900-1930 could insprite an entire line of modern clothing. It was so cool.
Lunch was at a very traditional Spanish "tourist" eating place. After that everyone else went to another museum, but I was not feeling one hundred % so I walked around on my own then went back to the hotel and napped.
I met up with some folks and we went to H&M! I bought some goodies - they were having mondo sales. The clothing was different than what I saw in Avignon, FR. More colorful and bold. Perfect. Sandwich supper.
Then later than that I went to a Flanmenco show with Marie, Noelle, Eliza and Amelia. It was really cool. Following spanish tradition we went in search of a resturant for Tapas (small munchies). Found a really yummy place and had pumpkin dip, hummas all on tomato bread.
2.02 DALI DAY.
--> Took the train to another town about two hours out of Barcelona and spent a majority of the day at the Museum created by Dali. This was an intense experience. I have not been much of a fan of Dali, but after seeing this massive four story thing he created I have a respect for the man. The amount of work, not just work. Well thought out, very planned peices was just astounding. Marie compaired it to a drug trip. Happy, tears, paranoia, overwhelming. I personally didn't have quite that extreme of a reaction, but I did buy the book about the place. After the exhibit my mind was just so tired. It was crazy.
At this point people had split off into groups and we were allowed to take what ever train back to Barcelona we wanted (they occured about every hour). Well, I was with Marie, Noelle, Virginia, and Janet. We ended up missing our intended train due to misinformaiton and had to wait for another hour or so. Making the most of the situation we went to the grocery story and got supplies and had a lovely picnic on the ride back.
What did we do when we got back to Barcelona? Go to H&M of course! Yep, More clothes.
Later got some ice cream with the girls (well, there were only girls on the trip asside from Henry the painting professor).
But then Marie and I were hungry so about 11:30 we went in search of supper. We just wondered to find a restaurant. Marie is a veggie so it poses a problem when finding dinning. Often (there are quite a few vegitarians in our group) they end up eating pizza or pasta so the goal is always to find more balance in the diet. It is not easy to be green in Europe. But we did find an amazing place full of people enjoying their dinner and we followed suite. We sat there having our meal at midnight just like the rest of the city. If we were good Spaniards it would have been time to hit the dance clubs, but we were tired Americans so it was time for bed.
2.03 ZACHARY'S 13th BIRTHDAY!
--> This was a gaudi day. We went to two places designed by Antoni Gaudi - one of the prime forces of the Art Nouveau style. The first was the Sagrada Familia - a church dedicated to the Sacred family. It is still under construction and has been since the 1800s. It is massive and just so intracate in design and there was meaning within everything. The design was just so intent. And just so complicated. I am very impressed by Gaudi - I bought a book about him and the Sagrada. The only thing that I was completly turned off by was the use of a church as a tourist attraction. This was a building with no church. No place of worship. There were so many people there to see it too.
After the Sagrada we went to see the apartment building designed by Gaudi. It too was amazing. There was a residence decorated in the intended style of the period and the place had an amazing gift store of time period novelties and such. Of course I bought two more books. One full of photos fromt the 1920s and another about La Padrera (the name of the building). The shop even had a ton of textile design books and others about many subjects. It might just be the best gift shop I've been in.
After we visited those places it was free time. But more importantly it was way past lunch time. Marie, Noelle, Viginia and I ended up eating at this resturant we just happened upon. It was a vegitarian buffet - not a very common occurance especially for Europe. Noelle is also a veggie. So it was perfect. For 10 euro we got an amazing salad spread with soup, four or so hot dishes, a our chioce of dishes from the kitchen, a drink, and dessert. A really good deal for such a specialized meal in a city.
Deciding to skip the subway we walked back (not to far but quite a walk). Of course we stopped in shops along the way. It was a nice walk. Along the way Noelle stopped a girl with rollar blades on and asked where she bought them so we later found the place and she was able to get a pair. She really missed hers. In Savannah she is part of a Rollar Derby team.
We went to the produce market and got food for our long return train ride.
Noelle had made friends with a street performer the night before and made arrangements to meet up with him that night and do a performance together. She mad an abstract costume out of construction trash and white tights. She is very creative. It was really cool. It was a bull with baggettes on it's head. She wore here rollar blades and skated around Las Ramblas. It was fun. Marie and I trailed her. At one point I took off my coat (I bought a red jacket at H&M) and acted like a madador. It was corney but fun.
Maire, Viginia and I went to find some supper. It was about 12am so most of the places we went had stopped serving for the night (suprisingly). We walked and walked and wound up eating Falafals in a small chain resturant where there was this weird old guy starring at us.
The next plan was to meet up with Noelle at 1:30 and go dancing. We went to our rooms so Noelle to take off her make-up. Marie and I decided to take a wink of sleep, but ended up both falling asleep in our coats and not waking up until Eliza came back around 2:30am. We were tired. Normally the Spanish are still going strong until about 6am. At least we were woken by people still out on the streets at 5am. And most things don't open until after 10am.
2.04 DEPARTURE DAY
--> Slept past 8 for the first time on the trip. Then Marie and I got all packed and ready to go and went out to find more food for our lunches. There were the little stores that we stopped in. I bought peanut butter (a very difficult thing to find in France) and Marie got some hummas. We also found a little panaderia where we bought some sweet and a loaf of bread. I accidentally grabbed someones elses crossaint off the counter but didn't find out until later when we were eating. We then managed to get lost and unlost in a matter of 10 minutes giving us five minutes to grab our things and get down to the hotel lobby before we were running late.
The train ride back was long and I am still recovering (the changes in pressure and altitude really screw with my inner ears). Luckily there were those cute Belgian boys to gawk at and eventually chat with. They made the ride interesting - one is studying in Paris so hopfully he can show us the city when we go in two weeks.
Fortunatly, we are not going to Paris for two weeks. I will need the recovery time. I am enjoying the peace and quiet and the time to read a book and work on projects. Yes, I started a book about the Art Nouveau style. Gaudi really made an impression on me. I am really liking it so far. Much of the movement stemmed from the lack of satisfaction from the mechanized produciton and constant revival of classic art styles. They wanted something new. My book says it "responded to the will and desire for transcendance on both a social and an artistic plane." I can totally see this mentality surfacing agian in the future. A desire for uniqueness and substance. I know it is something that is coming to my mind more so.
Well, I think that has been a mouthful for now so I will cut it off there. French lessons in 15 minutes.
All in all, Barcelona was great, but I am so happy to be back in a quiet atmosphere.
PHOTOS: --> http://scad.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045421&l=f01f6&id=39604174
Wow, sounds like you were pretty busy! How much is 10 euros compared to American dollars?
ReplyDeleteI could not make out some of your pictures, they were too dark. Art can have that effect on me, it can overwhelm your mind.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures I could make out were amazing. I would have loved to have been there with you. All that artwork stimuli fuels my imaginative creativity.
ReplyDeletesharonsharonsharon!!!
ReplyDeletei have a blogspot!!
hooray!
love you!