Happy Holidays!
Well, I survived my first (and hopefully only) Chrsitmas away from home. Cassidy and I were at home in Brussels and we did all the traditional Christmas stuff: had a tree, went to church on Christmas Eve, opened presents Christmas morning, and made ourselves a nice Christmas dinner.
On the 23rd, we returned from our trip to Barcelona, Spain! It was absolutely wonderful! Barcelona is in a region of Spain called Catalunya, and they speak a language called Catalan that is a lot like Spanish. It's a big city with a huge port and lots of fabulous things to do and see.
We arrived on saturday, Dec. 17th, just as it was getting dark. After finding the hostel, we wandered up and down the nearby street called Las Ramblas. It is one of the major streets of the city, as it leads from the harbor into the center of town. The median is really wide and is for pedestrians only and is filled with vendors selling live birds, flowers, magazines, art... everything. There are also street performers dressed up in various costumes (trees, robots, soldiers) who will perform if you give them money... it's amazing how still they can stand in-between times!
One of our roomates was an American named Lindsey who is doing her student teaching in Germany, and we spent a lot of time with her on our trip. That Sunday, we used the "hop on, hop off" bus like we did in London, but there wasn't nearly as much commentary. Regardless, we got to see a good deal of the city and get really cold trying to sit on the upper deck! We got off at the Picasso Museum and spent a good while there. It is fascinating! When I thought Picasso, I thought Cubism and weird portraits, but now I've been able to see that he did so much more, and he did a lot of work over his lifetime (and I suppose, before you can create new styles of painting, you have to prove you can do the requisite portraits and landscapes...) I really liked a series he did of black-and-white bullfight scenes...
We ate lunch in a local cafe and managed to navigate the menu fairly successfully. After a stop at a pretty chintzy Christmas market, we got Starbucks, which I then realized I miss.... Anyways, we got back on the bus to go to the Sagrada Familia. This is a cathedral designed by the architect Gaudi, whose work is everywhere in Barcelona. This cathedral was still under construction when he died in 1926, and they stopped working on it, but started up again in the 50's and are still working on it. It is the only cathedral still under construction in the whole world and they say it will take 20-30 years to finish it... it is fabulous! So very many details, a lot of tall towers, beautiful carvings... one side has a more flowery facade with the depiction of the birth of christ. the other side has a more contemporary-looking facade that uses multiple carvings to show the Passion... betrayal by Judas, rooster crowing, crucifixion... it's really amazing. I climbed up (a lot of) steps to get up into one of the towers... the view was amazing and it was also neat to get close to the carvings and decorations on the church. This was probably my favorite thing that I saw there....I put lots of pictures up, which probably don't do it justice, but I had to try!!
Day 2, Monday, brought more Gaudi. Cassie and I went to the Parc Guell, which is an amazing park designed by Gaudi, with walking paths, stone structures like tunnels and walkways, and this enormous open area surrounded by a snake-like bench covered entirely in mosaics. Underneath this area was a pillar-filled room with mosaics on the ceilings... Gaudi had a thing for mosaics! We even climbed a long ways to get up to a hill called the Hill of Three Crosses, which provided a stunning view of the other side of teh city. It was also beautiful and sunny that day, which made it all the better!
We spent part of the afternoon at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which turned out to be more contemporary than we thought it would be... I saw some really cool pieces, and also some things that really disturbed me and made me wonder "what can we call art??" (Obviously, I have no real answer to that one!)
To top off the Gaudi experience, we visited another of his creations, Casa Batllo. There are hardly any straight lines in this whole house, and every detail was attended to. He designed it with the natural world in mind, so many of the features mimic things like seaweed, water, a whale's backbone, a whirlpool, etc. The roof has these fantastic chimneys that are covered with (what else?) mosaics. Somewhere amidst all these mosaics, Cassie and I decided we need to make one of our own...
Day 3, Tuesday. In the morning, we took a walking tour of the Barri Gotic, the oldest part of the city, that was originally built during Gothic times. Most of the original buildings have been rebuilt or restored, but some of them still have gothic architecture. Our guide told us a lot of interesting things about the history of the city. We even saw the outside of the hall where Christopher Columbus gave his initial report to Ferdinand and Isabella about the New World. The streets are winding and narrow and the building are tall on either side, and it's dark down there even when it's sunny. After this we headed to THE BEACH! Yes, I have now "been in" the Mediterranean Sea! (by this, i mean i have stuck my hand in the water... it was a little cold to go swimming!). It was beautiful and sunny and we wandered along, looking for sea glass and shells. On the way home we took a quick look at the Park Cituadella, with a really huge fountain thing that was pretty cool.
Tuesday night, Lindsey, Cassie and I went to a FC Barcelona futbol game! (that's soccer for us Americans!). WE went pretty spur-of-the-moment and got there just as it was starting. Our seats were way up high and we climbed a lot of stairs to get there, but it was a blast!!
Wednesday: Cass and I went up to Montjuic, a big hill that overlooks the port. It was really warm up there and we walked along the edge of the hill and looked around a bit at the castle that is up there. We walked a lot, and we were tired, so we went back to the beach after having lunch - and it was warm enough to sit outside and eat! It was wonderful!
Thursday: the final day. We went to an art museum featuring this artist name Joan Miro. I think I was art-and-architectured out by this time, so I didn't really look to closely, except at this really large weaving that took up a whole wall, looked like a bird/cat/women and reminded my of bad shag carpeting....
The afternoon was spent at Poble Espanol, an old-time village reconstructed using models of actual buildings from places all around Spain.
Friday: We left. It took forever. We took a cab to the bus station, then a bus to the airport. Then we flew. then we took a bus to the train station. then we took the metro and the tram to get home. Whew. And our house looked so pretty, all decorated for Christmas... I was so happy to see it! (I now understand how my parents worried about the house while we were away... I kept hoping there were no fires, floods or other emergencies!!)
So that is the short version of my trip, which for a blog is actually quite a long version... I've got pictures up, click on the link to the right....
posted by wicky @ 8:57 AM
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