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!