Episode 21, 6/16/2009 – The hill of stairs…and other stories.

The thing about Madrid is: besides art museums and nerdy stuff, there really isn’t that much to do. We found this out on our last day. We woke up and went back to the Prado to see the remaining things we hadn’t seen. Mostly Goya, actually, so reference by blog entry in Episode 20 for all about Goya. Other than that, we were officially done with nerdy things.

We went from there to a gigantic flea market kinda thing that is famous for being the largest flea market in Spain. Quite honestly, it was the largest junk market in Spain. Every stall had the exact same stuff…and it got old. VERY old. We wandered around the gigantic expanse for quite some time. I did find one interesting thing though: a stall selling old vinyl records. I found a few I didn’t have, but cost and transportation issues persuaded me to let it be. David, independently, found a record store that had some pretty cool stuff. After lunch (I ate a loin bocadillo, which was terrific!), we went back to the record store so David could buy a vinyl for his brother, all of the while, we were under the assumption that we had time to get back to the bus station on time.

And here’s where our adventure begins. We left our bags at the hostel, so we had to take the metro back to the hostel to go pick them up before taking the metro to the bus station to catch our 15:00 bus to go back to Sevilla. 13:45…we have plenty of time, right? Suddenly after the hostel, 14:00. Allright, we have an hour. Not bad, right? No one was concerned except for Rachel, perhaps foreseeing that this could be a problem. The metro was moving reallllyyyy slowly that day and we had a long way to go. Suddenly, it was 14:30 and we were less than halfway there. Oh snap. Katie, David and I officially started freaking out. This would be BAD. The tickets, 17 euros apiece, are nonrefundable, plus we had no idea if there were later busses, PLUS to make it worse, we had class in the morning. No WAY we could miss this bus! Time continued to pass, quickly, quickly. It was 14:45 and we were two stops away from station. They were probably already boarding now…We would have to run like hell in order to make it. 1 stop to go…we have 8 minutes to get there… Oh god. We started to get really depressed, knowing that we would inevitably lose the bus and end up shelling out more euros for another ticket. Our stop finally! We have hope! We have four minutes to get there! We grabbed our things, including Rachel’s rollybag and RUSHED. David and I fled like we were being chased, dodging through rude/indifferent Spanish people who could care less if you are in a hurry. I checked my cell phone. 2 minutes! We MIGHT MAKE IT! We turned another corner in the metro, looking for the exit and LO! It’s a GIGANTIC WALL OF STAIRS! Over 4 flights of stairs, maybe over 150-200 feet in the air. There were escalators, but they were too slow. I heard Katie behind me shout “HELL no!”. I didn’t look back. David burst up those stairs with his backpack and I followed, gasping heavily. We got to the station, went out to the platforms and searched frantically for our bus. THERE IT WAS! The bus driver was talking to another person on the side. David checked to make sure it was the bus to Sevilla and then he and I boarded the bus. You’ve got to understand the image here, to fully appreciate this. We had made it from the metro stop to the bus station in under 4 minutes, carrying all our luggage and mounting a gigantic flight of stairs. Here we were, two guys with backpacks, absolutely drenched in sweat, sombering through the aisles, panting like rabid dogs. We got seats together and we laughed, intermixed with relief gasping and panting. We shared a moment of celebration and gasped collectively for air. Katie and Rachel had now boarded and we were set. About a minute later, the bus pulled out of the station at approximately 15:01.

Whew… That was our story. The rest of the bus ride was filled with naps, David and I watching “Airplane!” and me gasping for breath, still. It was an epic ending.

Episode 20, 6/14/09 – The Rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain…or not.

We woke up early to start our first uninterrupted day in Madrid. I must explain episode title first and foremost: up to this point in my trip, it hadn’t rained a single day. Not a drop. Later in the episode, this detail will change…to ghastly effects.

Our first objective was a little bit of touristy thisandthat. We went to the centre of Spain, literally. The zero-kilometer marker, the exact center of all of Spain. It was not all that interesting, really. The statue of Carlos III and the famous statue of the Bear eating a strawberry tree were kind of cool, though. Oh well, moving on. A more interesting photo opp was at the Plaza Mayor which is one of the most Baroque of Madrid buildings and also one of the most famous. We took lots of pictures, then went to lunch at this excellent place called Casa Rua, which makes these KILLER fried calamari sandwiches for only 2.25 euros. Ideal for starving/cheap American travelers. It was definitely a food highlight of the trip.

Okay, now that we got all THAT out of the way, time for the REAL meat of the trip: nerd museums! We planned both our Barcelona trip and our Madrid trip VERY well so that pretty much every museum we went into was free, or discounted. El Prado offers 2 free hours on weekends, so we went there twice to take advantage of its epic size.

Our first stop was El Prado, which is Spain’s version of the National Gallery or the Louive. It was (until I went to the Reina Sofia) the most incredible art museum I had ever seen in my life. It houses permanent collection of Spanish art from the Roman period all the way to the 18^th century. Needless to say, it’s the authority on all things nerdy. Pictures weren’t allowed (see a pattern here?) so I’ll describe to you some of my favorites. Taking that Spanish art and architecture class turned out to be the best thing in the world for my personal understanding of art (Spanish and otherwise) AND for my enjoyment of all the things I saw. A major highlight of the museum is its collection of the works of Diego Velazquez, probably the best Spanish painter of all time. His work “Las Meninas” is a staggeringly realistic and enigmatic portrayal of the court life of Felipe IV. We had studied it for quite some time, so it was mind-blowing to see it in person. Another of my favorites, “Los Borrachos (aka El Triunfo de Baccus),” was on display. Essentially, every major Spanish artist of the renaissance to the modern era is there. Also a notable highlight is the Pradi’s extremely impressive Goya collection, the highlight being the uber-famous “Saturn devouring his children,” a work that I’m sure you’ve seen in an art history textbook somewhere. It’s a delicious depiction of the Greek god Chronus devouring one of his sons so he cannot usurp him. It’s great cannibalistic stuff! Plus, it’s the most mysterious and blatantly disturbing of Goya’s “black paintings”. A definite must-see for Madrid. The Prado also is huge, so we spent two hours there and decided to return later for a second attempt.

After the Prado, we went to the OTHER famous museum in Madrid, called the “Reina Sofia”. What the Prado lacks, the Reina Sofia has. Meaning, that as the Prado covers Spain from infancy to Siglo XIX, the Reina Sofia covers the rest of the “Modern Stuff”. I’m not much for the middle ages…this Reina Sofia was especially a nerdfest for me. It’s a bit smaller than the Prado, so we were thankfully able to cover it effectively in one day. As a lot of my close friends know, Surrealism is my marmalade jam, and the Reina Sofia just so happens to have the largest permanent collection of Spanish Surrealism in the world. From the early conceptions of Dada (a few works here and there by Hoch and others) to full-fledged Dali, the museum had it all. And what made it even better was that I had taken that art class and learned better to appreciate some of these works. Highlights for me included viewing rooms with Surrealist films (aka “Un Chie Andalou”), and lots of works by Dali and Miro. The Reina Sofia also houses another powerhouse of Spanish painting: Pablo Picasso, including his piece de résistance: Guernica. Guernica is a terrifying piece depicting the German bombing of the town Guernica. I’m sure you’ve seen it somewhere; it’s too famous for you not to have at least seen a glimpse of it. It is extremely impressive in person. I think I like the Reina Sofia better than El Prado, simply because it contains more pieces from genres I like.

Oh ho, HOWEVER, being that Reina Sofia is the 19^th century till the modern day, it indeed is haunted by the hideous spectre called “Contemporary Art”. The kind of contemporary art that consists of a painter painting a canvas one shade of solid blue…Brilliant! Add a few stripes here and there, a masterpiece. It’s not my marmalade jam, so say the least. The fourth floor of Reina Sofia is dedicated to this…contemporary art…Katie, David and I explored the 4^th floor and just laughed at half of the art there. I mean, seriously though. It doesn’t take much skill to paint a canvas a single color… David and I had some fun with this though. We donned our New Zealand art critic accents and started conversing in mock-seriousness about the thematic depth of all artwork there. It was hilarious. We came upon one such masterpiece, a canvas sloppily colored in blue with some red and black lines. There was another girl there, who was sitting watching us explain all these deep themes that we were finding lol. She actually believed us for a little bit, and then we caught her giggling like a schoolchild when our accents just got a little too silly for her. Haha, it was a fun time.

David and I went to Retiro park for a bit afterwards. It was pretty, but we really didn’t get to see the cool parts of it at all. Mostly because our schedule was so tight. We walked home, past the Arco de Carlos III, another one of Madrid’s famous landmarks, and then went to go buy dinner. Madrid isn’t quite as expensive as Barcelona, but we were getting to the point were we really couldn’t afford going out to dinner and the 10+ euro entrees accompanying. We grabbed some sandwich material, frozen pizza, salads, and of course Fanta and wine to make tinto de verano and we dined in the hostel. I remember that meal being particularly fun, as we touched on topics everywhere from old relationships to favorite vegetables to favorite 90’s TV shows. Fun times.

Here is where the night took a strange turn. Rachel and I wanted to go to a techno discoteca while we were in Madrid, and we selected an 8-story extravaganza called Kapital as our first choice. However, upon learning that the entrance fee was 10 euros, we declined, and spent the next hour and a half searching the internet for cheaper alternatives. We found none. It was disappointing. Meanwhile during Rachel and my search for alternative discotecas, David and Katie were chatting with our hostel roommates who were from northern Spain. They were going out to a small local bar and invited us along. Rachel and I had given up so we agreed.

The bar was bizarre. That’s the best way I can describe it. It seems to me like all Spanish bars either try too hard to be hipster, or are just inferior copies of “The Cave” back home. The bar was guilty of the former. It had cool colored lights and lots of obscure/funky pop culture material, music alternating between The Cure and Juanes, and television sets playing “Evil Dead 2” and hideous 70’s Japanese horror movies. Funky, and everything I should love. But the problem was that it was just too much, adding to the fact that rude Spanish men and about 90% of the bar was smoking in our faces. Plus, the drinks were DAMN expensive. I ended up getting a coke, sitting like a wallflower with Katie and David while Rachel attempted to converse with these bizarre Spaniards. I quizzed Katie about her favorite things, and then when that was over, we got bored and went home. Not our best night. We wanted ice cream, but the damn place was already closed. Oh, you were wondering how the rain came into the story? Well, as we were walking to and from the bar, it was RAINING! Not even hard, just this depressing drizzly rain, just hard enough that you wish you brought an umbrella, but not hard enough to necessitate waiting the storm out. Since we hadn’t seen rain up to this point, it was hilariously ironic. Overall: a mixed day.

Episode 19, 6/13/06 – El Greco was a straight up gangsta.

Our excursion to Madrid for the 4 day weekend started on the night after Corpus Cristi (that Thursday night). I had scheduled our bus route to Madrid overnight so that way we’d have more time to spend (considering we missed a day due to Corpus). It was a brilliant idea in theory, but not so much in practice. Our group consisted of Katie, Rachel, David and myself. Everyone except Katie attempted to fall asleep and basically failed miserably. Sleeping on a bus in uncomfortable bus seats with no working air conditioning…it just doesn’t happen. We arrived at the Madrid bus station a little groggy, quickly downed our prepacked bocadillos, and then took the metro to our hostel.

Our hostel was nice, but more like a hotel, lacking the intimacy and funkyness that we loved so much when we went to Barcelona. Add to that a general sense of anesthetic unfriendliness…and well, that’s that. We left our bags and went via Metro to Plaza Eliptica to go see Toledo.

Doing Toledo earlier on was a great decision, especially in part because the weather was so excellent. Toledo is kind of like the idyllic image of a shining city on a hill. It’s this gorgeous town (definitely not city) situated on some of the prettiest hills I’ve ever seen in my entire life and covered with quaint little houses. It really hasn’t changed all too much design-wise from when El Greco was painting it in the Middle Ages. Speaking of El Greco, sort of like how our Barcelona trip was a tour of Barcelona through Gaudi, Toledo was a tour of Toledo through El Greco, one of the best painters in the history of Spanish art.

Gotta explain a little about El Greco before I continue. Literal translation of his name is “the Greek.” This is because he was Greek. No, really. How apt. His real name, Doménikos Theotokópoulos, is far too complicated for the history books apparently, so they gave him this catchy nickname that sounds like a delicious Mediterranean entree. El Greco was also the original inventor of West-Side gangsta rap hand gestures. Also a “no, really” moment. El Greco paints in a style unlike any other. His figures are extremely elongated (think “The Scream” esque) and handsomely electric figures. They also have an interesting habit of flashing unnatural hand positions that look exactly like gang signs. My art history professor calls them “gestos no naturales.” I call it straight-up gangsta.

Our first stop on the Greek parade was El Museo de Santa Cruz, which houses a good majority of El Greco’s work, including his famous portraits of the 12 disciples. The museum was free entrance also, which made us poor college students quite happy. Next on the Greek parade was lunch. I had a deliciously cheap bocadillo of loin…loin. I actually just like saying the word loin. And after that, we traversed to the incredible Catedral de Toledo, which goes down as one of the absolute coolest sights in Spain I have seen thus far. The cathedral is hidden a little bit behind equally tall buildings, so it’s a bit hard to see “en entero.” However, the inside of the Cathedral is the proverbial “cream filling.”

No pictures were allowed inside (Katie found this out first hand…NOOOOPIICHAAASSS), so I’ll just have to describe it as best as I can. La Catredral de Toledo is the gothiest of all gothic cathedrals in Spain, and easily the most beautiful. The naves are dark, but illuminated by gorgeous stained glass “rosetones”. The ceiling is robust, still high and beautiful with pointed arches and impressive fan vaulting and an assortment of columns. Near the altar is the spectacular retablo (retable) that is made of solid gold, depicting the lives of Mary and Jesus. Note that all of this is considered the pinnacle of the gothic style, right? Well, the coolest part yet to come is from the Renaissance. Story goes: in the 16^th century, homies decided that the Cathedral was a little too dark (as in, there wasn’t enough lights). So what do they do? They chop off a big part of the cathedral and put in what is called “El Transparante” a GORGEOUS sistene-chapel esque painted hole in the roof to let in more light. I’ve lifted gently (aka STOLEN) a picture from Wikipedia to illustrate this, cause I think it’s impossible to describe it without a picture. It’s quite simply breathtaking.

Oh, and that’s not all, folks. Housed within the Cathedral in its “tersoro” vault are more coveted El Greco pieces, including some of his most famous paintings of the crucified Christ. Highly recommended to anyone traveling in Europe. The Cathedral became easily my favorite cathedral in Spain after our tour.

After the magnificent Cathedral, we went to the last El Greco stop: Santo Tome, which in itself is a puny little church that is dwarfed by the magnificence of the Cathedral. So what makes it special? Ay, there’s the rub. One of El Greco’s most famous paintings (in my opinion, his magnum opus) hangs there. It is called “El entierro del conde de Orgaz,” after the count of Orgaz who is 6 feet under in a grave inside the church. Legend has it (or Catholic mythology, you choose) that the count was visited by a heavenly host at the time of his death who took his soul into heaven and buried the body in the church. El Greco magnificently painted the scene and it hangs above the tomb to this day. I decided two things. A) It’s pretty much the best painting ever, possibly better than his inimitable “Caballero con la mano en el pecho”. B) I want to draw myself as a stick figure into the painting and then have my body buried in the crypt along with the count. Yep. It is THAT cool. Again, no pictures, sadly, so you’ll have to get on Wikipedia. Also in the church was the most bizarre portrait of the Virgin Mary I have ever seen (her nose is about the size of her forehead). And of course, a lifesized sculpture of Jesus carrying the cross…but with the statute dressed up in real clothes and real hair…Hmmm…

After our tour Santo Tome, we went out for helado (stracciatela for me. Delicious!), then back to the bus, nap on the bus, back to Madrid, dinner at this overrated vegetarian all-you-can-eat place which had snobby waitresses, and then finally, BED. Overall, we felt like we had adequate time to see Toledo and El Greco proved to be a great tour guide.

Episode 18, 6/07/09 – More Gaudi, Leezards, and the beach

For our last day in Barcelona, we decided to finish our unintentional tour of Gaudi (following el plan that Rachel prepared for us) and see the last few remaining sights. A long metro ride later, and we were at Park Guell, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Spain. Park Guell, similarly to Casa Mila, was a park that Gaudi redesigned in all modernist flair, creating depth-perception-defying illusions and some very famous sculptures.

First, the hike from the metro to the Park was epic. Guell is located over, by my estimate, 300 feet above the rest of the city. In 105 degree heat, we trekked up stairs and a series of steep escalators to climb the mount. With luggage, mind you, as we had checked out of the hostel by this point. Once getting there, one is immediately greeted with impressive vistas of the city and the ability to see all the major landmarks (especially Sagrada familia).

The park itself is a ways back down the hill, split off to the side. What makes it interesting is the modernist design. Gaudi constructed platforms, alcove seating, and fountains that look like a surrealist interpretation of melting ice cream and neoclassical forums. It’s fantastic. The highlight of the entire park is the famous fountain, exhibiting the unofficial mascot of Barcelona, the dragon. But this thing doesn’t look like a dragon at all, so I have dubbed it “the leezard”. The leezard is a very colorful creature, with water pouring out of its mouth instead of fire. It’s quite impressive and attracts lots of Japanese tourists with cameras…and then it eats them. Not really. One can see the leezard on a number of other Barcelona paraphernalia including t-shirts, stamps, and keychains. Very famous, very cool. The rest of the park is just as impressive as said leezard, and after saying goodbye to said leezard, we left said park.

We had another super long hike to a metro station to get to the beach, but along the way I was struck by what appeared to be “real” Barcelona. Being a city, it’s often easy to get caught up in the touristy/commercial aspect of it. Park Guell is quite a bit removed from the center of the city, and is next to really cool/seemingly affordable neighborhoods that gleamed in the sunlight. I took some photographs and promised that I’d buy one of those apartments when I get rich and famous.

Next stop on the fun bus was the Picasso museum of Barcelona. Though not containing some of his best known works (eg. almost nothing of cubism), it wielded an impressive number of his early works, namely some of my favorites from the Blue Period. It was cool to see in person, certainly, but nothing earth-shattering. I am sad, though, that I can’t show you any photographs of these places. Oh well, if I had tried to take a picture, I’m sure one of those burly bad-attitude wielding Spanish security guards wouldn’t have appreciated it too much.

That was the last of our nerdy museum expeditions and we all could sense that we were getting a little tired. Thankfully, we’d scheduled the rest of the day for the beach. After a long walk there, we were assaulted by the Barcelona beach experience.

And yes, I do mean assaulted. Let me explain. Remember that cool/sparely populated beach we went to previously called Matalascanas? Well, this isn’t it folks. Barcelona beach is SO CROWDED! Think of an L.A. beach, but add twice as many people. We thankfully found an open spot (stalking some people who were leaving) and set up shop. Unfortunately, there were these ANNOYING merchant vendors who were trying to shop on us a little by offering a variety of novelty trash while screaming at the top of their lungs. “Aguacervezabeer! Aguacervezabeer!” the damn cry is like death-knoll! And then the Asians with attitudes asking us if we wanted a massage! We first politely thanked them…but then they returned…the same ones! I’ve dramatized the resulting effects for your pleasure.

Vendor: Quieres masaje? Doyouwanna massaasagggee?

Justin: Go away…

Vendor: Very nice, yes?

Colin: No. It’s not.

Vendor (grabbing Nick’s arm): Massage?

Nick: NO! Please no.

*wait for three minutes*

Vendor: Doyouwanna masssaaaggeee?

As you can imagine, it made the experience a little frustrating. As always, the experience was assuaged greatly by the presence of friends and companionship. I’ve been so glad to be able to get closer to some of these amazing people. These truly must be the friendships that I will never lose.

Back to the blog: We left the beach feeling rested and prepared for the trip home. Little did we know of the adventures that still awaited us. Coming “home” to Sevilla was a little bit like the last 1/3 of the movie Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Everything that could POSSIBLY prevent Frodo from throwing that damn ring in prevents him from throwing that damn ring in. We went to the train station to catch a train that would lead us straight to the airport (and we could use our metro passes). As we looked for the train to take us there, we couldn’t find it on the map. We individually asked some attendants who had never heard of this line before. Uh-oh. Challenge: you have 30 minutes to find an alternate route to the airport since the train line you were going to take doesn’t exist at all. Through some studying of maps and asking more attendants, we managed to find a route, though it put everyone on thin ice in terms of sanity. Thankfully though, we DID find a route that would take us to the airport and we managed to make it there with a little time to spare. We were absolutely exhausted and one long plane ride later, we finished up our epic weekend in Barcelona.

Episode 17, 6/6/08 – Barcelona is expensive/expansive/Gothic!!

This is a continuation from the last blog post on the same day because the day was so long and epic, that I couldn’t possibly put it in only one post. Continued from our chocolate deliciousness, I will resume my tale of travel.

After the chocolate museum and our foray into Modernism, we made a trip back in time and into the heart of the city, the aptly-named Gothic quarter. You must imagine my excitement going into a place called the “Gothic quarter”. How metal, right? Indeed it was. 50% or more of the buildings have some remnants from the 12^th century, the highlight of which is of course la Catedral de Barcelona. In every city I’ve ever been to in Spain, if it has a cathedral, it’s almost criminal NOT to visit it. Unfortunately in this case, I wish I would have skipped it.

Thankfully la Catedral de Barcelona is free entrance. And I suppose that should say something about the quality of the preservation of the cathedral. Whereas the Catedral de Sevilla and the Catedral de Toledo (forthcoming episode) are preserved excellently and take into consideration the lighting and display of “tersoros” (treasure/artifacts) of the church, Barcelona is clearly in ruin. They’ve actually tried to initiate a “save the cathedral” kind of program by encouraging visitors to donate and “sponsor a stone”. Clearly, this hasn’t been working well for them. Another example of a flawed Spanish business model.

The outside looks nice enough. The facades are quite gothic, lots of pointed arches, all that lovely stuff. It’s a really well-built cathedral, but the problem is that no one is keeping it up… We went inside, but were sorely disappointed to realize that we could only enter about1/4 of the entire cathedral. The stones are dirty, the floors are “original” in the worst sense”, and the lighting doesn’t showcase much of anything besides dirt. We got to listen in a little on a mass that was going on (part of the reason why we couldn’t see very much of the cathedral).

Something else I must mention because I feel like it epitomizes the …how should I say…difficulties that the Catholic Church has been having in adjusting to the modern age. Take a look at the following photo. It’s an offertory with prayer candles. Electric prayer candles. You put in a euro and a small “Lite-Brite”-esque light pops up. I’m not going to parse words; I was quite offended at the sight. Without going into too much detail, there’s something inherently comforting and spiritual at the glimpse of a burning candle and the idea that your prayer will be heard, represented by this flickering tenuous mass in front of you. Don’t tell me that the Barcelona parish, albeit poor, couldn’t afford some daggum votives! This is one instance in which adapting to “modern” ways just isn’t a good idea, guys. It’s not quite the biggest issue that the Catholic church is facing right now, but I just can’t let this go unpunished and uncommented.

The rest of the Cathedral was unimpressive, so we went outside in under 15 minutes to the rest of the Gothic quarter. Uncharacteristically gothic (perhaps), there was a market, called the “Mercat Gotico” that sold a variety of medieval styled antiques (some of them genuine, some of them cleverly disguised neogothic imitations). In any case, the display of goods was impressive, and I couldn’t go without splurging just a teensey bit.

But wait, our day isn’t even finished! One last stop before dinner at the famous Arc de Triunfo de Barcelona which was made in 1888 for the Exposicion Barcelona. It was super-big, super-red, and very photogenic. It’s also located in a particularly cool part of town, so we sat down and chilled for a while before returning to the hostel and dinner.

I should now divulge some insider info that one wouldn’t know unless one has been to Barcelona. It is damn expensive. I’ll turn back the hands of time (like R. Kelly) for a second to Friday night (one day before this blog post). It was that night that we realized that Barcelona is expensive. VERY expensive. Everything costs about double what it would in Sevilla. So when we tried to have “a nice sit-down dinner” that night, we were quite surprised at the menu’s list of prices. Specifically, there are so things that are different in Barcelona besides just meals. The metro is the quickest and easiest way of getting around (avoiding the heat, especially), but at the same time, constant ticket purchases WILL stack up. For our Saturday night dinner, we decided to do things a little differently and cook dinner at the hostel. Stephanie and I prepared Tinto de Verano concoctions in addition to pasta with red sauce while Nick helped and provided excellent cooking music from his laptop. I never thought that Ruff Ryder’s anthem could be considered cooking music. Overall, it was a cheaper endeavor than the Friday night dinner and provided for a lot of fun laughs and memories.

NO, that’s not all, folks. To top off our couldn’t-get-any-better day, we took the metro to Las Fuentes Magicas, again, aptly named, the magical fountains. Magical they were indeed. Las Fuentes Magicas is a light/water show that is put on in a big plaza near the government offices in Barcelona. It’s awesome in the truest sense of the world. Our merry troup merrily alighted on a wall (yes, on top of a wall) and had a terrific view of the spectacle. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, hopefully. Add to that good conversation and a soft fountain spray and it’s a day I’ll never forget.

Episode 16, 06/06/09 – An unintentional tour of Gaudi

Saturday por la manana, we embarked on our excellent tour of Barcelona by first getting breakfast at the local supermarket. Haha, that’s a very necessary thing, you see. I quickly devoured my “donuts” (pronounced “doh-noots”). I should also mention something cool. Hostels are a cool place to make new friends. We met this kid named Nick (not to be confused with our very own golly Caucasian giant, Nick), who had been living in Barcelona for the past 6 weeks. He accompanied our merry troupe and gave directions and suggestions of where to go. First stop, the hospital. (The Hospital? What is it? It’s a big building with patients in it, but that’s not important right now).

We packed up and went to the Hospital de Santa Creu. The hospital was built in the early to mid 1800’s (if my memory serves me) for a purpose that is now defunct. It is now the most pimpingly-awesome real-life working hospital of all time. I’ve enclosed pictures to demonstrate its awesomeness. We saw a few older patients being wheeled around and lots of excellent architecture. Haha, my friends played a cruel/funny trip on me by leading me into the psyche ward and trying to leave me there. Lol. “This is an intervention!” Like that intervention that Michael tried to pull on Meredith in The Office.

After we regained our sanity, we went to the most insanely twisted architecture that exists in Spain. The famous La Sagrada Familia de Barcelona, created by Anton Gaudi. Anton Gaudi was a modernist dude with a imagination like a dark labyrinth. However, his death and lack of funding have halted construction to this day and you can donate funds to keep construction going (estimated completion now is at 2048). I can hardly describe it without getting into complex poetical discoursing. I guess you’ll just have to sit through it for a while.

Sagrada familia is like stepping into a vivid nightmare, combining the sheer awe of the New Testament with things that you don’t like remembering from deep in your subconscious. The inside has elements of neogothic, famous “Gaui arches”, and columns. It’s twisted, warped vision of perspective almost gives it the sense that it defies physics. It’s indescribably fantastic in person and was easily one of my favorite sights of Spain so far. I’ll give just a brief description of my favorite part: the façade of the crucifixion of Christ. Whereas many other facades will contain the standard ole’ Christ crucified with Jesus in somber, almost painless resignation and Mary + others looking on stoically, Gaudi’s designs for the façade show horror in Jesus’ defeated posture and pain that beset Mary and the disciples. The thing I love about the architecture and the sculpture of Sagrada familia is that it depicts emotion without being excessively gaudy. Instead of gaudy, it’s more Gaudi…ha…ha…ha…ha. For example, look at the sculpture of Jesus being betrayed with a kiss by Judas. Note the expressionless look in Judas’ eyes and the silent horror in Jesus’ lips as he knows it will lead to his death. It’s powerful. Never before have I been so emotionally involved with Christ Jesus’ suffering as I have when looking at these magnificent sculptures. I’ve attached pictures so that you can get a better idea of the magnitude of this place.

I could go on for hours about this place, but I think it’s best to move on. We sort of unintentionally did a tour of the greatest hits of Gaudi. He was especially prevalent in Barcelona, so we got to see firsthand his genius while traversing the city. Ironically enough, all of the Gaudi works that we saw in Barcelona we later discussed in detail in our Spanish art class as the paradigm of classic modernism. Cool stuff.

Next was Casa Mila. Another Gaudi classic. It was an apartment building that Gaudi re-designed with his bizarre modernist style and turned it into one of the top attractions in Spain. Now, people don’t live there and it has been converted into a Gaudi museum of sorts. The main attraction of the place is the architecture, obviously, and the incredible terrace. We teleported up to the terrace (no, really) and got to see some of the most excellent views of Barcelona that you can get from the interior city. I’ve again, attached some pictures for reference’s sake.

Next stop, chocolate! The chocolate museum of Barcelona. This tasty museum covered the history of chocolate in Spain, starting from colonization to today. Not only was the museum fun and informative, but also our entrance ticket was made out of chocolate. Needless to say, it didn’t last the entire visit. There was also a lip-smacking amount of chocolate reproductions of famous artwork, the highlight being La Pieta. The only downside to viewing this art was that there were these two annoying kids chasing themselves silly around the museum and screaming. When one of them smacked into a pole, I giggled a little bit and enjoyed the silence. We’re gonna take a bit of a break from blogging at this point because believe it or not, the day is only halfway done. More to come, my chocolaty friends!

Episode 15, 06/05/2009 – BARCELONA BABY!

We got a 3 day weekend from school. And what does one do with a 3 day weekend in Spain but go traveling! The intended destination was Barcelona and we got a group together consisting of Rachael (our tour guide and den mother extraordinaire), Stephanie, Justin, Bobby, and myself. We booked plane tickets and a hostel a couple of weeks before and woke up at 4:00am for our epic journey into Cataluña. I should explain. They don’t speak Castilian Spanish in Barcelona. They speak this bizarre Spanish/French/other hybrid called Catalan. Being in the province of Cataluña, all of the street signs are primarily in Catalan and secondarily in Castilian (aka “normal” Spanish). It makes navigating the streets just THATTT much more confusing…

We got in around 9ish and wandered around to the hostel after taking a bus. The first day consisted primarily of dropping our stuff off at the hostel, checking facebook and etc. and then going to the heart of Barcelona: la plaza de Cataluña and a big long gigantic street called La Rambla (the area called “Las Ramblas”). Oh, first, I should mention we passed the famous “Monumento de Cristobal Colon”, which is one of about a million statues of Christopher Columbus in Spain. They certainly do love Columbus. Anyways, afterwards, we went forthwith to Las Ramblas. Las Ramblas sells anything that a tourist to Barcelona could possibly want to buy. Helado, Gelato, knockoff purses, Barcelona Futbol Jerseys, and prairie dogs…Yes, prairie dogs… It’s a very cool street. Even cooler, we went in to a very famous open-air food market called “La Boqueria” which has a delectable assortment of everything from fresh squeezed juices, fish with the heads still on, still-living snails, fresh bread, marzipan, sweets, and even vegetables! We took some pictures and resolved to come back with more time.

I should mention quickly about how one gets around in Barcelona. The metro is the quickest and easiest way to travel practically anywhere in the city. We bought what is called a “T-10” pass, which is a “cheap” (note the quotation marks) 10-time use card that all 5 of us shared well. It worked great. I can describe the Metro of Barcelona as a hybrid between the New York Metro in terms of busyness and amount of people (minus the cray-crays, thank God), but more structured like the London Underground. Thankfully, it DID have the punctuality and generally user-friendly feel of the London Underground, so I was pretty happy with our (and when I say, “our” lol I mean Rachel’s) ability to find where we were going. Speaking of Rachel, she was terrific! I gotta give a major shout-out to her supreme organizational/directional skills, especially in wake of certain difficult circumstances (stay tuned for THAT episode folks, lol).

In any case, back to Las Ramblas. Being tourists, we were obligated to do all the touristy things and take prodigious amounts of pictures while doing so. For example, we went to a café which served the excellent Spanish dish of Churros con Chocolate. Truly an authentic and delicious experience. We also sampled Gelato and Horbacha (as Rachel describes it, Soy Egg Nogg). We went into some tourist shops, we came, we saw, we conquered.

We followed the Las Ramblas rambling until we came to the centre of Barcelona, called La Plaza de Cataluña. The plaza itself is very big and very impressive, exhibiting of course the 1 block long Corte Ingles amoung other things. Oh, and among other things, remember way back in Episode 10 when I mentioned a little store called FNAC? Well, FNAC is essentially the Spanish version of Borders, but WAAAAYYY bigger and way better. I’ve managed to visit the one in Sevilla twice now, and what should my little eyes spot next to the block-long Corte Ingles but the gigantic FNAC Barcelona. Going in was an absolute must. I didn’t buy anything but it was still an excellent experience. We wrapped up our commercial/materialistic aspect of our Barcelona visit and returned to the hostel.

The hostel itself was excellent. For those of us who haven’t stayed in a hostel before, I’ll give a brief description. It is structured very similarly to a college dorm with the exception that there are 8ish beds to a room rather than 2. Our hostel was VERY nice. Nice beds, A/C, really cool common room (with comfy couches to boot), FAST RELIABLE INTERNET (thank GOD!), and cool people (more on that later). From what my memory allows, I remember that we rested a little bit, went out to dinner (I sadly can’t remember where…) and went to bed. This day was just the appetizer. Tomorrow would be the main course.

Episode 14, 5/30/2009 – La Isla Magica and one big holy dead guy.

Another one of those epic days. To start out with, we heard a couple weeks before about San Fernando (the patron saint of Sevilla) who was going on traveling display and stopping at the Catedral de Sevilla. What makes him important? He was crucial in taking back Spain from the Muslims and for being a perfectly preserved “immaculate” corpse for 800 years without embalming.

Naturally, us history/religion nerds HAD to see this one. We woke up really early and got to the Cathedral to see him. There was a short 30 minute mass that we sat in on that detailed the life and sanctity of San Fernando. It was quite cool because I believe it was given by the Cardinal, who, in his homily, compared San Fernando as a model to all Christians. The Catholic mass was also quite interesting, as it’s the exact same structure as English masses, only of course, the responses are in Spanish.

After the mass, we got a chance to see Fernando in his coffin up close. Indeed, he IS well-preserved. Not perfectly preserved, but definitely well-preserved for never having been embalmed. I can compare him to a really well-preserved Egyptian mummy. Leathery skin, plastered hair, sunken teeth, but with very intact body and facial features. It was creepy and really cool. Just being in the presence of a corpse that was 800 years old was mind blowing enough. But add that to the fact that he is one of the most revered saints of all time and it turned into a memory I will never forget. To top that off, next on our list for the day was a trip to La Isla Magica.

La Isla Magica is a Spanish theme park, and is also the best time of your life. I’m thoroughly convinced. Sarah G. came up with the excellent idea of going there on Saturday and I can say it didn’t disappoint. What makes Isla Magica interesting from a study abroad perspective is that it is about as Spanish as you can get. No, really. It was incredibly interesting. The “gimmick” of the theme park is that it’s all themed around Spanish history and culture. You had different “worlds” like Fuedal Spain, “American conquest” Spain, Pirate Spain, “Future” Spain (ala Epcott in Disneyworld), etc. the park itself is not very big and doesn’t have a very good selection of rides (probably only 3 actual rollercoasters), but it was quite fun, especially the water park aspect of it.

We got there and paid a reasonable 25 euros for an all day pass. We had our senoras pack us some “los sandwitches” so we wouldn’t get hungry and have to shell out lots of euros for food. Although, ironically, halfway through we all got thirsty and got granizadas (lemonade icee things).

There were some pretty cool/funny rides that I should share with you. I’m not too much for big/scary rides, but the first one I went on certainly fit the bill. It was shaped like a long curved plank and we rode on a platform which spun along the curved plank. It was truly terrifying lol and I regretted going on it during the initial ascent. Overall, it relieved me of my rollercoaster fears and allowed me to participate in all the other ones quite well.

Easily the most “Spanish” of all the rides was a humorous little attraction called “La Furia de los Dioses” (aka the Fury of the Gods). It was like a haunted house ride, only the monsters were all angry/disenfranchised Mayan gods. The ride was very jerky and did have some legitimate frights, and I was genuinely surprised by its awesomeness. Other than that, the majority of the park consisted of water rides, which was great by me. No gigantic wave pools or slides ala Carowinds, but it certainly had its share of log rides and whitewater rafting type rides. Going with friends was the best part. Everybody likes to get we together. The only disappointing thing was that we waited 30 minutes in line for this 3d movie that we THOUGHT was going to be about aliens on Mars. Nope. Turns out it was a haunted house ride from the vantage point of a cat. It was AWFUL, especially for people (like myself) who don’t like snakes, spiders, and possessed toys too much. And the ending (okay, I’ll spoil it), the cat was a ghost all along. It was incredibly bizarre and left us all wondering why we wasted our time.

Isla Magica is one of those places that is automatically better with friends, and thankfully we had plenty of that. It was terrific, because during the long waiting lines we amused ourselves by looking at goofy t-shirts and reminiscing/planning about our times in Spain. Isla Magica was totally worth it, and despite the blazing heat, we managed to stay cool and have a great time.

Episode 13, 5/28/2009 – Becquer is my homedog/Brownie con Sandy kind of day.

Today was a fun day. Being a major nerd, one of my favorite things to do when visiting a foreign country is hit up the museums of fine art. Sevilla has a very cool Museo de Bellas Artes which I was dying to get the chance to see. Though I have basically no outside education on Spanish art until the 19th century, the art class that I’ve been taking in school has given me a greater appreciation of Renaissance and pre-Renaissance art.

Our group walked to the museum and entered for the ridiculously low price of only 2 payments of $19.95….Or 1.50 euros. The place itself was smaller than I had expected, but in about an hour and a half, we felt like we did the whole museum justice. It had mostly Rennaissance art, which isn’t my #1 bag, but it sure had some great pieces. Mostly cathedral paintings that were brought to the museum, beautifully preserved. Lots of Virgin Mary’s and Catholic paraphernalia. Highlights for me was a famous St. Sebastian portrait, a sculpture of the severed head of John the Baptist, and a cool scene depicting the Last Judgment (can’t remember the artist).

Moving upstairs, we got into some of the more modern stuff, including lots of landscape portraits of Sevilla. It’s amazing how little the city has changed, really. In the 19th century, there was still the Torre de Oro, the Cathedral, the Plaza de Torros…Even the surrounding buildings don’t change very much. A highlight of the museum trip was easily the famous portrait of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, my new favorite Spanish poet of all time.

Our literature class, for being as boring and unproductive as it is, has introduced us to some great literature. I identify strongly with Bécquer’s metric techniques and a lot of his thematic matter, besides the fact that he can rhyme well without seeming corny. He’s like the Spanish version of Byron, kinda. In any case, we got to see THE portrait of him. You know, as in the one that’s featured in all of the history books and literature anthologies? It’s mind-blowing to be so close to something that important and historic. Without breathing, I leaned in to see Bécquer a little closer. You can see the brush strokes that were used to give him his mustache. You can see the flush of his thin cheeks and the swirls that were used to darken his temples. And the fact that it has been preserved so carefully since the 19th century is simply astounding. I silently took a photo, the only thing I could do to possibly capture the feeling.

A faction of our group got separated from us during the walk to the museum, so we got in touch with them again and sought out a bar to watch the Champions League football game between Manchester United and Barcelona. We found this hole-in-the-wall bar next to the museum, which turned out to be one of the more authentic Sevillana experiences I’ve had so far. We ordered a light dinner. I mixed up my order with Stephanie’s and ended up having friend tuna slices, which were thankfully delicious. I ordered a rum n’ coke (which was more rum than coke lol) and we sat back and watched the game. It was cool because we were in a SPANISH bar with real Spanish men and women who were fans and who shouted and screamed and cheered like we do during our basketball games. It was exciting, and the game was a blast, especially with good friends to watch it with.

Afterwards, we went to Burger King (yes, Burger Kings exist in Spain) and tried a dessert that Katie and Sarah had been hyping up to us for the past week or so: un “brownie con sandy”. Yep….It’s supposed to be like a Pecan Sandy, but with a brownie instead…and the fact that it’s pronounced like “browneee con sahnndeee”. It’s quite funny. It didn’t disappoint either. It was quite good. The mix of hot hot brownie and cool cool ice cream. Something delicious that seems American, but still is authentic Spanish.