Gaudi's Village!

Before Gaudi started work on his Sagrada Familia, he tested out his ideas about uses slanted arches and tiles in his new park/ private closed in neighborhood! This neighborhood, park, and self sustainable city all in one was supposed to be the home of Gaudi, his employer, and 80 other noble families! The plan flopped and the only people who stayed in the neighborhood were Gaudi, and his employer. The whole park has everything a person could need, fountains, a food market, which is in the picture, a water cistern, a play ground, strolling parks and a guard house to make sure your house was not broken into! Here is the playground above the market! Each of the columns was hollow, which caught the rain water from the playground and brought it into a cistern for the families to drink! The benches on the perimeter of the playground are ergonomic, which means that it conforms to your back, and makes it comfortable for you to sit in!

Picasso Museum

Im not sure if this museum was in Barcelona or not, but my roomy Reilly is saying that it is, so I will put it up anyways! So, the museum which contains a large majority of all the paintings that Picasso had painted during his life is shown in a newly restored noble carmen/palace in the center of the old area of Barcelona! In there are some great pieces of artwork, including many variations on the famous painting Las Meninas by Velazquez, which I could not take a picture of :( That theme has come up so many times during this trip its getting to be a real pain, since Im trying to do a photo documentary of the whole spain trip. Anyways, some of these paintings included come from the blue and rose period during Picasso's life, when one of Picasso's greatest friends killed himself one night in Paris, and also during the time before that or after, I can't remember :) called the Rose period. Each of these periods is proven by the types of paints Picasso used, for the blue period, many dark colors, and for the rose period, using many colorful shades of colors, with heavy accents on reds, oranges,and yellows! Here is the only picture that I could sneak of this museum, and that was the waiting room, which used to be a sort of stable a brea for the horses during that time!

Pooping Man!

Ok, this is not a joke, but the Pooping man is actually really important in Spain during our Christmas time and New Years! In Spain, the spanish don't really think much of Santa Claus and instead they celebrate the coming of a couple of really different people! They associate the 3 Wise Men and the Pooping man as the ones who bring the presents to the little kids! Ok, so the story goes that the Pooping man poops out the presents that the little kids want for christmas, then the 3 wise men go and bring the presents to your house  when you are asleep! So basically they kicked out old Santa Claus and replaced him with the Pooping man and the 3 Wise Men! And by the way, the pooping man is the symbol of the city of Barcelona if I didn't say that already :) Oh and if you cannot see her, the Queen of England is also a popular figurine for the pooping "woman."

Cool Harpist

I know this is another sweet performer, but this one actually was the only one that I saw that actually looked sort of happy to be playing in the street for us! He looked really nice, but I was mad at myself for taking a picture of him without giving him a tip, since I forgot my money at the hotel :( Oh well! He was really good! Here is a picture of him!

Barcino (Guess what this is?)

Barcelona was once a huge and very prosperous roman colony that was the foundation for the modern city we know today. Barcino, the roman name for the colony was at the center of trade in the iberian peninsula and in Spain at the time of the Romans. Even the roman stones front the former city have been used to make buildings that you can see in modern architecture today. The colony of Barcino was a major sea trade port, like it is today, and a major center for the transport of olive oil in amphora, which were then broken near the site of the center of Barcino today, making a artificial hill, if I may, completely out of amphora shards! At the center of the colony was the temple of Augustus, the emperor that founded the colony back when the Roman empire, if I'm right, was just getting into the age of Pax Romana, or the 200 years of peace in the empire. Here is the monument to the colony in one of the many plazas in Barcelona today!

Mr. Suber, your caricature is ready!

I thought this really looked like you if you were bald, or shaved off your beard! See y'all soon! Say hi to everyone for me!

For one its Art for another its Trash!

I am not rally sure were I took this picture in Barcelona, maybe an alley somewhere while walking to lunch? I just thought it looked pretty cool, since it almost looks like my name! Hopefully its not something really bad!! Anyways, there is a ton of art in Barcelona, and things like this are a really common sight, and like I said before, it could add to a building, or make it look like trash! Lets hope its on the good side!

Cars in Europe

The cars in europe are the smallest things in the world! They are so tiny! I mean if someone drove a european type car in the us, like this smart car, which basically protects you as much as a tin can, you would get destroyed! These things are sort of funny, because the public busses, the trash trucks, and the taxis are all super tiny! I mean the biggest thing that we have seen in europe is our own tour bus, which is a goliath when it goes down the street!

Trees of Stone (very mystical)

This is the secret of how Antoni Gaudi figured out how to support his huge basilica, currently the tallest church in the world, and growing taller every day, with 14 more spires to be completed in the next couple of years! The secret of the support system, while keeping a sort of airiness and openness to the space is all in the columns! They are like trees! Branching out from a singe trunk, of which, none are actually perfectly straight, but all are leaning inwards and outwards, supporting the church were needed! From the "mother trunk" comes out shoots of more stone pillars that branch out, and support both the ceiling for the naive and the super massive dome in the center of the church! This church is the second most visited tourist attracting in the world, don't quote me on this, but I vaguely remember that the Alhambra is the first. Anyways, the columns stone varies because of the location of the column in the church and the amount of weight that it needs to support. In the center, we have 4 super massive column "tree trunks" made from basalt, a type of igneous rock. (trying to remember back to 6th grade on this one) What is even more impressive, the dome of the building, which is basically at the height that the whole church is now, without the last 14 spires, is only at half its height, and is still the tallest church in the world! the dome is only half the height of the planned building, and the top 14 spires alone are planned to double the height of the church, taking it up to a breathtaking height! Here is the inside for y'all!

The Sagrada Familia!

Ok Mom! I got to the one that you were desperately waiting for! This is just a snibbit of the whole story so that it will sort of fit into the blog, since we stayed at the basilica for more than 2 hours :) And yes, it is a basilica, which is much more important than the cathedral of Barcelona, which is where the bishop practices. The Sagrada Familia was designed by Antoni Guadi, a very out of the box architect for his time. He was a complete and utter genius, figuring out how to support the current tallest cathedral in the world with no buttresses at all, and with enough space inside to make your head spin! The whole basilica, and I bet that you will not believe me on this, was designed upside down! Yes, you heard me right! The church makes use of parabolic arches, which are self supporting, and in practicality do not need any exterior or interior support! Ill go more into depth on the interior architecture of the basilica in a new post! See yah! Ray

Street Performers!

In Barcelona and all over Spain, there are a ton of street performers! I even sort of mistook a famous statue for a street performer and tapped it on the head with my book thinking it was an actual person! There are some pretty eccentric street performers, including a lady that covered herself with spa mud and sat in a square in front of the cathedral of Barcelona and asked for money with ragged clothes and a half eaten piece of bread! Don't worry, I don't think she was eating that bread, I think it was for just getting into the character! Also, there was a guy that was dressed up like an alien from the alien movies and a guy that was covered in a green paint and was riding a big wheel bicycle from the 20th century and a skeleton puppet of a women riding another bicycle riding with him! They were very cool, and I wish we had some in Houston!

Cathedral of Barcelona

Ok, this is already on the blog, but I wanted to go more into depth on the subject here :) So, cathedrals... anybody want to guess what makes them tick?? Rhetorical question! The cathedral of Barcelona is located in the historical district of Barcelona and is the building were the bishop of Barcelona practices in Spain. The word "cathedral" literally means the seat of the bishop, and there can only be one cathedral in each city, since there cannot be 2 different bishops representing the same city. Inside this one, and usually in every cathedral, you sort of get a sense of awe, and thats really what the architects wanted to portray when they first started designing the building. Ill get those pictures out when we get back, since they are buried in a huge photo pile of over 7,000 photos of Spain! Hah! I know its a photo bomb, and I know that  I have sort of a problem! Not really, I just like taking photos! Shooting for 10,000 and counting! Here is the inside of the cathedral!

Memorial Torch

This memorial is a little vague, since it is in spanish, and I have absolutely no idea how to read spanish :) Just kidding, I can take a little at a time! Its says "All the deaths in the defense of the liberties in the constitution of Catalunya in the siege of Barcelona 1713-1714."Im guessing from my limited knowledge of this memorial, it was during the medieval times when the european states or the kingdoms of Spain were infighting with each other and the medieval city of Barcelona was under siege. Its hard to imagine a monument that was dedicated to an event that happened so long ago, since most of the medieval walls of Barcelona have been knocked down during its expansion later on in history. At the top of the monument, there is a gas fed flame that stays lit through the night, every night. Its really cool and touching :) Reminds me of the olympics!

The Temple of Augustus

In most of the cities in Spain, the soil under it is full of archeaological remains. This includes old roman cities, colonies and trading outposts made out of rubble, marble and brick. In most cities, roman ruins are right at the feet of the old parts of the city. For instance in the city of Barcelona, there are multiple layers of Roman remains lying around, including part of the old roman walls that used to surround the old colony which I will talk about later. Anyways, the most important find that the people of Barcelona had found was the Temple of Augustus, which if you know the layout of any roman colony, is at the heart of the roman colonies, at the intersection between the main 2 roads that traveled east and west and north and south. With this find, we are able to approximate the location and placement of other buildings of the old roman colony and make a map for ourselves of what it looked like those many years ago.

Picasso in Barcelona

During our travels of Barcelona, we passed a building with a art design by Pablo Picasso, the super famous, one of times best artists on impressionism and cubism. He always said that it takes an older man to learn how to paint like a child. On the front of this building was a drawing that Pablo Picasso previously made on plaster with stones inlaid into a design. Doesn't it remind you of a childs drawing?? Here it is!!

Homeless and Gypsies

In any big city, there is a small amount of people that have the unfortunate position of living in the streets and sleeping out in the cold. These people can be either people who have stumbled on hard times, or are gypsies. Even though the homeless look like they are homeless, some are not, and just want to take your money and play with your conscience. Even though this happens, its a really sad sight to bear. You can walk along a street, and find multiple homeless begging for spare change. Its hard to fathom all the adversity they had to face to become in the position that they are now. Some like gypsies, have a horrible reputation of being master pickpockets and conniving thieves. Some are trying to push through this barrier put up by society and break trough to show the better side of what gypsies really are. People thought that they came from Egypt, hence the name Gypsies, but actually traces of sanscrit have been found in their language, placing them more towards india than other places. They are a migratory people, who have moved because of constant persecution and no cultural tolerance. Its hard to see both groups like this in such a beautiful country, but life is what it is, and education is the only gift that I have to take advantage of, and it is the key to my future. Thats the difference. Taking advantage of your gifts and counting your blessings :)

Artsy :)

In all the cities in Spain, and especially in the city of Barcelona, there is a huge artistic community! They have tons of art at their home and around in the form of sculptures and graffiti! Yes, graffiti is a valid art form! If you want, go to the art quarter in Sante Fe and go to all the modernist museums! There will be a huge warehouse with teen graffiti! its sort of sketchy on the outside, but has some pretty cool art on the inside. Same with Spain! There are some really good graffiti artists that the art actually enhances a building, and there are those that ruin the building! Here is some of the art that I found!

Spanish Houses VS. Spanish Carmens

Ok, so traditionally, spanish houses for the ordinary folk are usually not that big, since they are out of the house hitting the town most of the time! Take Pablo for example, our super guide! He lives in a small to medium sized apartment for SPANISH STANDARDS  :) in the capital city of Madrid, and he has told me that he rarely comes back to his house, unless for a siesta, which contrary to belief, only really happens to medium cities like Grenada, to small villages! So he has a really col job working for a guiding company that makes customizable tours! What a cool job!! Sorry, I'm diverging! So, for ordinary folk, apartments are the way to go, but if you are born with a silver spoon in your hand, you might consider buying a palace or a carmen! The only difference between a palace and an apartment is that a palace is basically buying the entire apartment and covering it with marble, stuccos, and expensive tapestries, art, and furniture! These things are usually pretty rare if they still belong to people privately, and most of them were converted to hotels! But the real jackpot is the carmen, which is based on Moorish palaces that were built in Spain, before the unification of spain, and the reconquista. These careens are based on 3 main things, water, nature, and architecture. They are designed to be your own private oasis! Ill get more into that in a bit! Bye Guys!

The carmen that we visited was in the Muslim Quarter of Albaicin

Spaniard Natives

Spanish people have got to be some of the most fit people on the fcae of the planet, since they walk everywhere! I mean come on, I would love to walk everywhere in Houston if everything was not so spaced out :) I mean look at our guide, Pablo, he probably averages walking at 6 to 7 miles per hour, which is pretty fast by my standards, and I half to struggle to keep up!

Up above is a narrow alley way, something that you get really familiar walking through in spain, as we go to our next objective! Hint hint, somewhere in spain, there is a place that was filmed in the movie Vantage Point! Can you tell me what place that is?? Ill give you a hint, its in the south of spain! Happy buscando-ing! (i know its a double gerund :) )

Public Transport :( (angry face)

Ok, so this one really reminded me of when my mom and I spent a good 1 and a half hours trying to figure out how to get the bikes in a park in the center of London to release from their locks so that we could ride them! We had a rough time, and even made us a little jealous when the Mizes rode by on the bikes we had tried and failed to get! Anyways, the bikes in the city of Barcelona are exactly the same thing. you can only rent them for 2 hours at a time, with about 35 stations to rent and park the bikes around the city. The stinky and unfair part is, is that only the citizens could use them, since they have a special public transport card, like the oyster card in london, for the subways, and also the buses and bikes! Oh well, that just means I will have to try it next time!

Las Ramblas

Ok, pop quiz for y'all! What was once a stream, but then was filled in to make one of the most famous promenades in the whole of the country of Spain? You guessed it, its Las Ramblas, which is known for its flower vendors and the hotspot for novice pickpocketers. I even saw a guy surrounded by 10 different Policia because he was bought trying to pick pocket a vicious looking women with a scowl in her face yelling in rapid fire catalan spanish at the guy suspected! It was great! I even got a Pooping Man! Don't laugh :) Its only the main symbol of the City of Barcelona!

Check out this guy!

Hey guys! Look at this extreme dresser! He looks like a neon sign! I wonder If they only dress like this in Europe! :) Not to be mean, and all in good fun! Ive seen some pretty weird street performers so far, so he wasn't really that weird, but for regular dress, thats a little conspicuous!

Old and New Barcelona

Hi everyone! Here is another lesson on the layout of most of the Spanish cities. Ok, so at the heart of most of the modern or sort of modern cities in spain, there is the historical center, where all the shops, ruins, cathedrals and churches are! In fact, probably the coolest place to go in every city in spain is the oldest part of it! These parts can be a little bit scary, since they do not have the set up of the Grid in the more modern parts of the city, and therefore is like a sort of labyrinth :) This is especially so in the neighborhood of Albaicin, which is the native Muslim quarter (sorry, thats Granada, got all the cities mixed up!) Here is the Cathedral of Barcelona! Sorry for the crane blocking half of it, but the building was under construction, since they are still building the main spire! Pop quiz! Guess how many cathedrals can be in a city at one time?

the answer is:1 the only exception is if you have a basilica, like the Segrada Familia, which is more important than the cathedral in my opinion, and is the second most tourist visited places in the spain, next to the Alhambra! Also if the old cathedral has been stripped of its title and a new one is being built, then technically you could have 2 :)

The Grid!

I know what y'all are thinking when I say something about the Grid! Guess?? Its Tron! No, just kidding, but the Grid is real, but not in some computer generated world ruled by a dictator, this is a real place in the world, once ruled by a dictator :) Ill talk a little but about the dictatorship thingy later, but right now we are talking about the Grid. The Grid is a system of expanding the old cities of spain beyond their medieval borders and walls. An example is in Merida, were the whole medieval community was kept in tact because of the lessoning of the amount of commerce in that area. Anyways, the point is that to expand, cities adopted the Grid method for their newest pars of their cities. Their would be many blocks in the Grid, and each block would have a series of circles arranged in a sort of hollow square, which inside was supposed to have a central garden in it, but realistically many used this for parking :) In that certain square there would be many houses built in, each about 3 or 4 stories high with windows looking both towards the street, and also towards the interior gardens! Here are some of the many pictures that I have from the Grid network in Barcelona and all over spain! Enjoy :)
The top one is the regular interior garden of a christian style apartment complex on the Grid
the bottom is a carmen, or mansio, of a wealthy jewish family in spain before the expulsion of the jews and the start of the inquisition in the 1400's

Group Pic Outside Hotel!

Here we all are outside the Gran Via Hotel in the grand city of Barcelona, Spain! Here are most of the girls in front of the hotel door with Will! He is a ladies man :)

First American Buffet in Spain

We finally found one of the only americanized buffets in Spain! With pizza :) I mean I was fine with the foreign food, but some of the others were praying for any food that they knew what it tasted like! Its almost like the China Trip all over again, people living of the one thing that they knew what it was going to taste like! Rice and soy sauce for everyday on the trip! Oh well, some people just are not adventuresome. This buffet had pizza, pasta, and my favorite a cool type of seafood dish, I think its called paieya or something like that!

1888/1992 Worlds Fair in Barcelona

During our tour, we saw the sight of either the 1888 or the 1921 worlds fair held in Barcelona! It was really cool because it was stretched over a huge area of parks, streets and gardens. For the entrance tot eh fair, a huge castle like Arc de Triumph like gate was made to be the formal entry point for the parades and the floats that they paraded during the Fair! It was unfair because my phone died before this so I could not get pictures of this, so I had to borrow my roommates camera to get the shot! Here it is!

Check out this building!

Check this out! What does it remind you of? I think I know what y'all will answer! Y'all are thinking that this building belongs in Dubai, but it is the Torre Al Agbar, or in englsih terms, is the Water Company of Barcelona! It uses the same technique of making a self supporting structure that Antoni Gaudi used on his all known cathedral, the Sagrada Familia! Its the building in the background there! This building is sort of shaped like a weather vane or a sail boat sail, and is supported on the inside by 2 columns going the whole height of the building!

Gran Via Hotel in Barcelona

The first hotel that we are staying at is the Gran Via Hotel, which was converted a long time ago from a noble palace to a hotel. If my spanish is right, then the hotel translates into english as "Great Life." I wonder why they would call a hotel that :) Anyways, the interior of the hotel is like a museum filled with tons of antiques from spain's past. This includes my favorite think of all. Its a really cool pull out writers dresser thing, that when you push a part of the wood down, a wood pane attached to a hinge flaps down, and you can pull out the desk. Its really cool, because the desk is covered with the old style leather that they use to write on! I think we had one back at home, but I never really thought about it until now! Anyways, again, the architecture in the hotel was really old, with really cool stained glass skylights and a marble staircase that would take the breath out of anyone that dared to challenge it!

Earlier on the First Day

So, after we got there on the first day, our guide set up a little scavenger hunt for us at the local open air market :) It wasn't that open air, since it was wedged in an alley between 2 different buildings! We were supposed to find a certain part of a certain animal that is not really found anywhere in the US. Its what Carlos, and Pablo call the bull fighters special if you have ever heard the joke! We had to find a pair of them in the market to get a pooping man, a good lick charm native to the city of Barcelona! Here is a picture of the market and what we had to find! Young kids look away :)

Dinner for the first day!

Ok, so dinner on the first day you get some where always gives you the overall impression of how that countries food is over your stay, and whether you like it, or if you need to get down to the nearest convenience tienda and buy some snacks! For our first day, we ate at a tapas restaurant called whatever the picture says! It's way to hard to type on this :) the food was fantastic and my highlight was the salmon and the chocolate cake! Yumm :)

Review for the first day 2 :)

Ok, so after we took some photo op opportunities next to the monument of columbus, we made our way off of Las Ramblas to the left of the monument and down the spanish coastline. By the way, inside of the monument there is an elevator that can lift people up to the top of the monument where there is a sort of observation platform that the tourists can go to to see the stretch of Las Ramblas and the water directly behind the monument. Guess what this is similar to in the US... the empire states building! Its basically the same principle but on a much smaller scale! Another fun fact for you is that the promenade of Las Ramblas 200 years ago or maybe earlier than that was  a kind of canal that went from the Plaza Catalunia, at one end of the Ramblas, to the other end, which dumps into the see. They had to fill in the canal due to needed roads and the major expansion during that time. As we walked down the coast, we walked by the old spanish port, which was at the main spanish port during that time. This old port has now turned into a prime yaht (if that is how you spell it) club! as we walked down the coastline, we walked past out door discotecas, which until a few years ago, were lively night clubs for raving and the night lifers :) We also walked by a couple of giant sculptures, one was a lobster, which was the mascot for the 1992 olympic games that were held here in Barcelona, and a more modernist sculpture using the same tiles that were frequently used by Antony Gaudi, the renowned architect during that time. After all this walking, we went to dinner! And thats were the next post comes in!

Review of the first day!

Ok,
So the first day everyone was a little tired, but in the overall picture, we all had a good time! We went through security, met up with pablo first, then we headed for our new home for our first stay in barcelona, the Hotel Granvia! It's a really cool hotel, and kind of reminds me of the hotels in New Orleans! This hotel has tons of character, since it had been converted from a late turn of the century palace! Once we got situated, our local guide,
Carlos, arrived and we got to business! We made our way over to one of the most famous streets in Spain! This prominad, called Las Ramblas, divides the architecture of the city in 2! On one side is the old city, gothic type architecture, and on the other is the new expansion architecture, when the old Roman city expanded and turned into the city we know today! We walked down Las Ramblas and ended
at the monument to Christopher Columbus. Ok, you might be confused here, but Columbus was italian, and was employed by the spanish crown to explore in their name. To be continued...

Here are our guides

Once we passed security, we met up with our guide for the entire trip! His name is Pablo, and so far he has been great! He knows Barcelona like the back of his hand! He is in the red coat next to the other guide! The others name is Carlos, and he is really funny, even with his heavy spanish Catalan accent!

We are in Spain!

We have completed our long and adventurous exodus to the magical world of Spain! We flew through the night and basically pulled an all nighter to get to the airport at around 6 in morning, or some time around there :) the weather once we got off the plane was really nice, not too cold, but definetely coat and sweater weather! When we got off the plane. I was sort of shocked to see how modern the whole airport was! There was chrome and glass everywhere! I wonder of it was for the Olympics in 1994?? Oh well! In these 2 pics, Katy is getting into her inner photographer and snapping off a few early pics and the other the whole troop is making there way, slowly, to the customs and baggage claim! P.S anyone who was on the china trip last year would say that this airport looks a lot like the airport that we landed in on our first flight to china!!