mmm so. getting to barce took some kinda special force, in that from holland it was like 2 trains a bus a plane a bus and a metro to naoise's house. but it was alright! i'm so glad i met j(squared) because the two of them make sure i was where i needed to be and when :)
the first day i was in the city, i left my monster bag at the guys' hostel, and was able to walk around a bit. we wandered up and down las ramblos, a center piece of our city explorations.
we also saw our first vision of gaudi's architecture, shown in this house. annie called it a little mermaid house. very valid point. actually maybe that was inspired by gaudi. go figure.
we wandered around the gothic quarter, and sat on the beach in the sun, drinking estrella... mmmmm beer. barcelona was beautiful, and the weather while i was there was SUCH a perfect compliment. there was warm sun, a bit o' wind, palm trees... SO NICE!
bet you wish it was over 90 degrees F as well ;)
we wandered around as well... barcelona is full of these little archways...
when i got to naoise's, brendan was there too! i haven't seen him in aaaaaages, not since that one christmas years ago when all of them came over to america... SO nice to see them. basically i'm going back to barce as soon as i can afford it.
naoise has a bar within his house... sean helped him make it. it's class.
the following day, i wandered by myself a bit... shopping! yaaaay! then i met up with jeroem and juerd for lunch, a typical traveler's lunch with french rolls and cheese and some ham and olives and peppers and fresh tomatoes. well damn my mouth is watering just thinking of it.
you know what i noticed, walking around barcelona? how fluent language is! i've heard so much there... from the dutch boys to spanish and catalan and all sorts of romance and germanic languages... whoa communication.
you know, in spain, most people are answering their phone: si? ... yes?
and in dutch, the boys say what for me would translate to: with chris.
in italy, they say: pronto! ...i'm ready!
and for us in US: hello? or.. what's up?
seriously, though, communication. and here i am having chosen to study latin and old irish and bits of greek... all dead languages. go figure ;)
anyway, after my lunch, the three of us headed back to the beach to lounge in the SUNSHINE!
after the beach, we wandered to the main park in barcelona (the parc de la ciutadell,) and found the cascadas... picturesque!
we finished our wander at the arc de triumf
on wednesday of my barce trip, i started looking at gaudi's arcitecture. SO AMAZING. can i just say, HOW revolutionary that must have been in the early 20th century? i mean if looking at all of it now still makes my jaw drop, it must have been something special then. and temple de la sarada família still isn't completed, 80 years after gaudi died. conrad was right when he said that guy must have been on some special sort of drugs... his work is brilliant. i've a million photos i'm going to show you. from the temple first, though, an aerial view:
look how these columns split at the top, obviously inspired by trees.
and here's the nativity scene designed by gaudi himself
after i saw that, i met j(2) for lunch again, mmm it was yummy! later, i met up with brendan to go look at the park full of guadi's work--güell. all his mosaics have SUCH vibrant colors! this little fella here is one of his most famous pieces, on pretty much every postcard:
brendan, and columns..
me, and a different sort o' columns..
this square was, according to naoise, supposed to have been used originally for an open air market. when we were there, there was a musician just playing in the middle... the acoustics were beautiful. as was the architecture, o'course ;)
here's more mosaic benches...
at the top of the park were all sorts of nice views. the picture of the temple i took from up there as well...
here's me and bren, anyway. :)
you can see the monastery atop the other hill in the background. (i think that's what it is... but it looks cool anyway)
and a view of the city
that night, i met hanna, naoise's girlfriend... and he got behind the bar for us ;) that is, the one in his house!
on thursday, i went out to lunch with sean and my cousins. we went to this hotel school, where they train students as they work to run 5 star hotels. the food was excellent, and sean was teaching us 'bout fine wine. always good to know. it was interesting to watch the three of them during lunch, because i can see which characteristics of sean's were passed to the boys ;) they're probably going to kill me for saying that... =D
and supper was with naoise's and bren's mother, angeles, who i haven't met since i was sooo little. it was good to connect and meet her, i seriously am so glad that i did.
i got to update all of them on my sisters and family... and how alanna and cade are all up and growing up and all that stuff. :-D
as for that dinner, very catalan.. i had crema de catlanya for dessert, yum yum yum! and at some point during this trip, i had butifarra, a sausage type thing... and mongetes.. like beans? but there's typical catalan.. :)
following this, the three of us headed to the music underground area.. just to the west of the top of las ramblos, full of colorful graffiti and bars and clubs... the hipster area, if you will.
we went to this one place with art everywhere, more of a gallery with a bar in it and sofas than an actual bar... there, we just kind of sat and drank. bren's friends weren't drunk enough to practice their english, so i played with my camera for a while. i wish i had becky's understanding of spanish, though!
naoise, clearly deep in thought regarding his beer ;)
me and bren
after this, a few more bars, and a club... a country club!!?! it was all these older spanish men dressed as american cowboys. something isn't right in this picture?
but my favourite part was when all of us, me, bren, and the folks from his class, were sitting in the same park as the fountain, and they picked up a box, just a wooden box, and were making music for hours! at least it seemed that long...
one of the spanish lads was dancing, too, like spanish women usually dance. he legitimately reminded me of Dave the Monkey.
and then when the morning breakfast places opened, we went there for a final drink and eggy delight in the morning.
this night, along with that one in utrecht, ties as the best on my trip. it was absolutely brilliant.
brendan and i took the train back to naoise's, and i had just enough time to grab my bag and make for town, where i had to meet the dutch boys to head to.... girona! (i was amazing at my brilliance of packing the day previous..)
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