Ramble On

¨Gonna ramble on, sing my song ... Gonna work my way, round the world...¨

Not only is it a great Zeppelin song, it is also a fantastic street in Barcelona! La Rambla is right downtown and is a famous street in Barcelona. It is a 1km long ever-changing theatre of action, colors, sounds, smells and entertainment. There is a wide promenade down the middle which acts as the steage for all of the characters on the street – sketch artists, buskers, living statues (which I was amazed by!), tourists, and pickpockets, just to name a few! Tom and I noticed that it is seemingly divided into sections with birds and pets being sold at the top (if this seems random to you, it did to me as well), flowers in the middle, and sketch artists at the bottom. I am quite sure that I could spend hours on this street and never grow bored! (And I did in fact make a point of walking down it every time I was in the area).

I have to make a point of mentioning the incredible architecture in this city. Over the course of my 12 days there, I spent hours just wandering through the streets admiring the beautiful buildings. Somehow even the most mundane apartment building looks incredible, with the narrow wrought-iron balconies framed by wooden shuttered doors that fold open to let the breeze in. As Barcelona is also home to the famous architect Gaudi (if you are not familiar with him, take a minute to look up his stuff as it is just amazing), his work is evident all over the city. One of his most famous buildings is Sagrada Familia (take a look at Tom´s blog for a description of our visit here!) as well as Casa Mila or La Pedrera, which means ¨stone quarry¨, as the facade appears to be carved out of rock. There is not a single straight line in the building, as all of the walls have an undulating shape and are surrounded by ¨light chimmneys¨in the middle, resulting in every room in the building having access to natural light, either from the chimney or from the windows to the outside – what a concept! Even the panels of the doors in the apartments were of frosted glass, so as to maximize the amount of light that can pass through. Definitely my kind of place. The rooftop terrace was so creative as well, with odd shapes projecting all over, all covered in the colourful tile mosaic that Gaudi is famous for. Casa Batllo is another one of his famous buildings, as well as Parc Guell, all of which I posted pictures of….

Unfortunately my journeys with Tom came to an end when he left Barcelona on Aug. 10 to head home to Ottawa. We both wished he could have stayed longer, but we saw a alot of amazing things, and have many great memories of our time here in Spain. This now marked the beginning of Phase II of my trip - 5 ½ weeks travelling alone. I stayed on in Barcelona for 8 days, as Sarah (great friend from Queen´s ) was kind enough to offer me the use of her room while she was in Chamonix for the weekend (thank you SO much again Sarah!). This was fabulous as I really had time to not only see everything I wanted to (and more!) I also felt that I really got a good feel for the city. It seemed like when Tom left he took the hot weather with him, as the remainder of my time in BCN it was rainy and cool! (Definitely not what I expected from this city!).

A few other highlights from my time in BCN – the Magic Fountain of Montjuic. There is a picture of this posted – it is a HUGE fountain that has lights that are choreographed to classical music. The fountain can produce so many different images by varying where the water comes out, how it comes out, and how much comes out, that you feel as if you are watching a ballet! It was just beautiful. Such a relaxing way to spend an evening – watching the fountain with a bottle of delicious and cheap wine alongside you! Another highlight of my time was a day trip I made to Figueres which is 90 min north of BCN by train, and the home of Salvador Dali. I went to his museum there, and it was by far my favourite museum of the trip thus far. Again, if you aren’t familiar with his work, take a minute to check it out as I can guarantee you that you have never seen anything like it! A lot of his work is the epitome of the ¨face or a vase¨ illusion. As I walked through the museum, I felt as if I were in a feverish dream, a feeling that remained with me throughout my 2 ½ hours there. I found that with a lot of his work I had to let my eyes adjust to see past the initial distraction of the shapes and colors and comprehend the true image beneath. The building itself is so unique – brilliant burgundy in color and covered in, what I couldn’t help but think, looked like rows upon rows of unbaked peanut butter cookies! Top that off with figures reminiscent of Academy Award trophies lining the top of the building, and you have the Teatre Museu Dali.

One last thing, as this is getting long…actually two more things, quickly! I had a very lucky day, of being in the right place at the right time, as I happened to stumble upon a huge festival – Festival Gracia that was taking place in BCN. In the Gracia neighbourhood, all of the streets were decorated, with things hanging above, and all along the sides of the street. Each street had a different theme, and there was everything from star wars to pac-man to a library to fairy tales! Incredible the amount of work that went into this. I also managed to show up at the precise street at the exact time when the huge parade to kick off the festival was starting! I usually do not have this kind of luck! It had many traditional Spanish dances and music, but definitely the two most entertaining were the castle builders – a large group of people that do different formations, trying to get as high as possible, with the smallest child scrambling fearlessly to the top! (For Queen´s people reading this – I just about fell over when I saw their first formation which was EXACTLY like the greasepole, minus the pole!! I guess we are not the only crazy ones around…) The other act was these people wearing fire proof suits and carrying long poles with firecrackers on them that ran and danced crazily through the streets waving the poles frantically – what a display! (see the pictures of this festival below…)

Finally, I took another day trip to Montserrat – a monestary that is high up in the Montserrat Sierras. Although the cathedral and basilica were nice, the highlight of the day was definitely the hiking I did there. The mountains were unlike anything I had ever seen before – very rounded and bulbous in shape. Much different from the sharp angular lines of the Rockies! The view from the top was spectacular – 360 degrees for as far as you could see – wow. Pictures to come on this later…

PHEW this was way to long – congrats if you have made it this far! I am in Santiago de Compostela right now, and am leaving for Portugal tomorrow. More to come when I have a chance…..

¡Hasta Luego!

P.s. if you are wondering about the random picture I posted of a guy with ugly hair – it is one from the ¨Particularly Bad ( or good?) Mullet Portfolio¨ that tom and I had been compiling…just to give you an idea.

Barcelona in Pictures..

More pics and stories....

¡Hola!

If you are interested in more stories and pictures from London and Spain, check out Tom´s blog at: tomandshane.blogspot.com.

I will post details on Barcelona within the next few days.... promise!

Hasta luego,
Jenn

Pictures and Observations

Hola!

As promised here are some pictures , with more to come of Barcelona. The ones posted are in sequential order from the bottom up:
1. Westiminster Abbey in London where we were lucky to arrive at precisely the right time to attend a sermon, which was done mainly in song - quite incredible!
2. In Almeria, Spain - I took this shot from the top of the Alcazba (fortress) that we saw there. The view was really neat, as you could see all of the town and the port as well (as well as the beach, which is how we realized this is where everyone was on a Sunday).
3. Tom on our hike in the Sierra Nevadas, just outside of Granada. Spectacular views and we had them all to ourselves!
4. Me in front of a statue at the Reina Sofia art museum in Madrid. (Can you believe it is wearing a cowboy-like hat? So fitting for a girl from Calgary.)
5. Tom and I sitting in the player´s ¨bench¨(which would more accurately be described as incredibly comfortable and posh leather chairs, which I don´t know why the players would ever want to leave to go out onto the field) at the Real Madrid stadium.
6. One of the many beautiful plazas in Madrid.
7. Cathedral de la Almudena in Madrid - the ceiling was just spectacular with such detail and vibrant colors.
8. A rainbow of spices in a market in Madrid

I still need to write about our and my time in Barcelona, but am putting it off as there is too much to say and to describe...... for now, a few observations and lessons learnt thus far:

1. The idea of ¨siesta¨is definitely real. It was more noticeable in the smaller city of Almeria, where EVERYthing shut down from 1:30-5:30pm for siesta. This meant that if we didn´t plan our eating around siesta, we would be going hungry until the stores and cafes opened again. It also meant that we tried to plan our travel time during siesta, so when we got to our new destination we wouldn´t arrive to find everything closed. Tom and I still can´t figure out how anything gets done in this country, when it seems half of the day is taken up with eating and sleeping! However, I must say that it is refreshing to be in a country that places such a huge value on quality of life...

2. I have been extremely surprised and impressed with how clean the cities have been here, particularly Barcelona and Madrid! For large cities, it is amazing how there are seeemingly always people sweeping the streets and driving down in vehicles cleaning the streets and sidewalks with pressurized water.

3. Most cafes/bars etc. have 3 prices - good to know if you are trying to save money! The cheapest option is to eat at the bar. You pay a little more to sit in the cafe and eat, and then much more to eat on the patio. (In some cases the ¨patio price¨was almost double that of the¨bar price¨.... you can guess where we did all of our eating.)

4. Barcelona = Quebec. This may sound odd, but here is why: Barcelona is part of the Province, Catalunya. Unlike most other places in Spain, who associate themselves with being Spanish, Barcelona associates itself with being Catalunyan, not so much as being Spanish. Thus: Quebec = Quebecois, not so much Canadian and Barcelona = Catalunyan, not so much Spanish. The result: most people here speak Catalan, not Spanish. This means that right when I was figuring out how to get by on my limited Spanish, the language changed! Keeps things interesting...

5. I am living in an 80´s rock video. Mullet. Classic Mullet. Dreadlock Mullet. She-Mullet. This is not a joke.
Apparently no one told people here that this trend died just ¨a few¨ years ago. I cannot believe the variety of mullets I have seen here! I didn´t even know that so many existed! Tom and I started a catalogue of ¨sneakily taken photos of particulry bad (or good?) mullets¨. All I can say is that this trend definitley makes for some entertaining metro riding.....

I am concluding my stay in Barcelona this evening when I am taking the night train to Bilbao. I will write about my time in Barcelona once I figure out how and what to describe of the great time I have had here. More pictures to come as well.

Adios!

Pictures!!

¡ Me gusto España !

Hopefully this entry stays around for more than a few days before it gets deleted! I am writing from Barcelona, a city which I am absolutely loving, as it is so beautiful with so many interesting things to see and do. However, more on that later.....

I left off my last entry in Almeria, where Tom and I started our adventures through Spain. I commented that I called Almeria the city of fountains and plazas - I quickly realized that this was not unique to Almeria, as every city we have been in Spain thus far, has the same abundance of plazas and fountains - so nice! From Almeria we took a train north to Granada, where we spent two nights. As Spain´s Sierra Nevada mountains (not the same ones as in California!) are only a one hour bus ride from Granada, we took the opportunity to do some hiking. This was fantastic, as with no trails and not many people around, we had the spectacular scenery to ourselves (as well as with a herd of 30 mountain goats that we came across!). As we were scrambling back up towards the end of our hike, I asked Tom if he thought mountain goats ever slip and fall down the mountain? Talk about foreshadowing - not even 5 minutes later we came across a bone amongst the rocks......we soon found more and more - seemingly a goat had met its end here! There was the spine, jaw, leg, skull and other random pieces all around! A little bit ominous if you ask me - needless to say, we were very careful after this.

After our time in Granada we took a bus for 5 hours to Madrid, where we had 3 nights to spend. I immediately noticed the change in environment, as after Granada and Almeria, Madrid felt huge! It is a beautiful city though, and the architecture is something I especially love - all of the buildings have narrow, wrought-iron balconies with wooden shuttered doors that fold open to welcome the breeze. Makes our rectangluar, cement buildings seem quite mundane in comparison! We had a chance to see a lot of sights in Madrid, including the stadium of the Real Madrid soccer team (SOO nice!), the Museo Nacional Del Prado, a huge and impressive art museum, the Palacio Real de Madrid (incredible Palace with 2800 rooms, compared to Buckingham´s 600!), and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Both art museums happened to have temporary exhibits on while we were there, of Picasso´s works. Very neat to see the work of such a famous artist, yet Tom and I couldn´t quite understand how some of his work (particular the cubist works) are so famous when they look like they were done by a 5 year old child - deserving a fridge magnet rather than a frame! I guess we are just not cultered enough in the subleties of art.......

While in Madrid we had a chance to try tapas - Spanish appetizers which you find everywhere, at all the bars, restaurants and pubs. As we are living on a cheap budget (read: bread and jam has become the main staple of our diet), these were usually way out of our price range. However, we managed to stumble across a pub called ¨The Variety Tavern¨ which from 1pm-6pm had a deal: for 2 euros (about $2.80CDN) you got a half pint of beer and tapas - incredibly delicious and so much food!! We got bread with ham and cheese, pasta salad, spanish tortilla (omellete), mussles, sausage, nacho chips with guacamole......incredible! We thought it was a mirage and couldn´t believe it when we came back the next day and they still had the same deal - YUM!

For those of you that know me well, you are aware that I do not like coffee at all. Well, things may have changed. Tom got me into the habit of drinking cafe con leche (espresso with steamed milk) in the mornings and I have really started to enjoy it. Even after he left last Thursday, I have still been keeping it up. We will see what happens when cafe con leche turns into Tim Hortons.....

This entry is getting long and my time at this internet cafe is getting sparse. I will write more next time on Barcelona, and promise to put up some pictures before I leave here.

Adios!

Round II

Hola!
So apparently the blog lords do not like me, as they deleted my original blog. I hope those of you that were interested were able to catch my first and only post (from Spain) I am in Barcelona right now, but the details will have to wait as my time here is almost up....I will write more as soon as I can!
Adios