Magic Fountain

Every Friday and Saturday evening, there are shows here at the Magic Fountain.  This fountain was constructed for the 1929 World Exposition.  During the shows, the fountain is coordinated with lights and music, so it dances around.

The fountain is located at the base of Montjuic and there were a lot of people there to see the show.  At first, the show was a little disappointing.  There was music and water but there weren't any lights.  After the music stopped, we decided to leave but as we were walking down the stairs, closer to the fountain, the music started again, the water began dancing and there were lights!  So we stayed and watched for a little while longer.

This is it?

A little better...

Whoa!

One more picture for the road until next Sunday or Monday when I get back from Italy:

Those are EMU eggs!  

Have a great week everyone (including a good Passover and/or Easter!).

Futbol

Last night, I went to my first Barcelona futbol (soccer) game.  They were playing Osasuna and won 2-0.

Walking  to the stadium reminded me a little bit of Penn State because there was a huge mass of people walking in the same direction (the stadium here holds about 90,000 compared to Penn State's 108,000 which is a lot of people either way).  Except that 1) here you have to look out for pickpockets and 2) it wasn't a sea of blue and white clothed people.

Futbol is a huge thing here.  My host parents watch every game and they cheer very loudly for Barca.  They have Barca plates, bowls, and a water pitcher (this is just that I know of).  So it's a big deal. 

I'd never been to a professional soccer game before so it was a cool experience.  I'm not really good at watching sports, besides tennis, so I really just wound up watching people.  Still very interesting.

Walking to the stadium (L-R, my friend Katrina, me, Sarah)

El Raval

Somehow, for two and a half months, I was missing out on an amazing part of this city.  I had gotten caught up in a daily routine (class--lunch from a bakery or La Boqueria market-- walk around the Gothic quarter or the port-- return to class-- go home and do work).  Of course this would vary somewhat as I'd wander around other neighborhoods on the weekends.  Yet, I was missing a very cool neighborhood right behind La Boqueria.  (I am in the process of rectifying this situation.)

This is the neighborhood called El Raval.  It's a fairly long area stretching from Plaza Catalunya (very close to my school) down to the port, on the western side of La Rambla.  As a matter of fact, La Boqueria is located on the edge of El Raval.  For much of Barcelona's history, this area was countryside and gardens.  The Boqueria was built on its edge as a place to slaughter animals to feed the city without bringing any of the diseases associated with animals into the city. 

During the Industrial Revolution, housing was built up quickly.  Port workers lived in the southern section of El Raval near the port and industrial workers and immigrants also moved into the area.  It was a densely populated area with tenement housing--essentially a slum-- and soon became known for prostitution and crime.

When Barcelona was selected to have the 1992 Olympics, the city government began a rejuvenation process in the area.  They replaced many of the most drug-infested areas with open plazas, built new University of Barcelona buildings, put in museums (including MNAC-- the museum of contemporary art), updated some of the housing and generally tried to make the area more welcoming for both tourists and people from other areas within the city.

This provides for an interesting area.  There are many artsy shops and bars while there is also a large immigrant population (almost 50% of the population in the area is foreign-born).  The buildings there reflect this mixture.

Old and new.

A reflection of the city (both old and new) in new construction.

Keeping the facade of an older building, nestled amongst church buildings, but building something new behind it.  The whole concept of keeping a facade for a new building fascinates me.  It is strange to see what is essentially a wall remain standing after it has lost its body.  And then that facade becomes even more of a facade because it's hiding something so new behind it.  It's deep.

Public housing for elderly whose old houses had been torn down.

El Rambla del Raval

Attention All:

Time for a brief update before some serious blogging!

I apologize for my hiatus to all those living vicariously through me.  I will try not to let it happen again.  Briefly, here's what I've been up to: eating gelato, people watching, sitting in the sun (don't worry, I'm wearing sunscreen), devouring books, eating in general, shopping, practicing some Spanish... it's a rough life.  In all seriousness though, I did get some bug bites on my face which just won't go away.  And I did have some exams and papers to write.

Sarah and I leave on Tuesday for Italy.  Here's the schedule:
Tuesday: arrive in Pisa and take a train directly to Florence.  Spend the afternoon in Florence.
Wednesday: go on a bike tour through the Tuscan countryside
Thursday: explore Florence
Friday: morning-- Florence, afternoon-- Pisa
Saturday: day trip to Sienna (most likely)
Sunday: morning in Pisa and then return to Barcelona.

Should be an amazing trip!

Now I am sufficiently prepared to write the blog entries I've been saving for all of you (my pictures have loaded).

One More Dali Photo

I forgot to include this in my post from yesterday.

Dali and the other Surrealists had a fascination with Mae West because of her sensuality.  You may have seen Dali's Mae West lip sofa.  In the museum, he has a sofa and the rest of Mae West's face but you have to look through this lens to see it.

Complete with boogers and everything!

Oh, Just Another Weekend

While I have traveled to other countries while studying abroad (Ireland, Italy), I had my most exotic day this past Friday-- I awoke in Barcelona, ate lunch in France, and had dinner in Girona (Spain).  How crazy!  I went on a trip this weekend with a group from school.  We went up to northeastern Spain, into southern France, and then back to northeastern Spain.

On Friday, we went into France.  We were supposed to go to this town on the water but the power has been out in parts of the area since Monday because of the snow so we had to go to another town called Perpignon.  This was a regular city (so spoiled... just a "regular" European city!) with a canal and a castle.

  We were staying in town called Girona so after the castle, we checked into our hotel.  On Saturday, we went to the Dali Museum and then to the coast to a small town called Cadaques.

The Dali Museum was incredible.  He designed and created the entire thing.  It is in the town where he grew up and used to be a theater where he actually had his first exhibit.  The town offered him the theater for a museum so he created an homage to himself.  The center of the museum has his first Cadillac in it with a figure meant to represent himself standing on top of it attached to an old boat.  The combination of the car "car" and boat "naval" makes "carnival" so it's celebrating Dali's life as a carnival.  But there are gold figures like the Oscars awards cheering on Dali's life.  I couldn't get a good picture of this but here's the outside of the museum.

Now, here's one of my favorite paintings in the museum.  This is Abraham Lincoln and Dali's wife, Gala, mixed together.  There's a Freudian idea behind it... when Dali decided to marry Gala, his family wasn't happy (Gala was a married woman) so Dali had to choose between Gala and his family.  He chose Gala and became estranged from his family.  Freud said that for a man to truly be a man, he had to disown his family so Gala was Dali's emancipating force, like Lincoln was in the U.S. for the slaves.

In the afternoon, we went to the coast.  The mountains were snowy but it was a warm day.

Cadaques.

 Street-turned-river (from the snow).

Port Iligat (where Dali had a summer house)

Pals.

That night, we went out to a little bar/restaurant.  This region of Spain (Catalunya) has its own version of champagne called Cava and we decided to try pink Cava.  It was quite delicious. 

Today, we walked around Girona.  This is an old city known for it's Jewish quarter and importance in the Roman Empire.  It was built in 200 B.C. to control the passageway through the Pyrenees (there is one spot that's significantly lower than the rest of the mountain range and that's how people cross them-- even today).

Then we walked around on top of the city walls where we saw a Medieval toilet:

Better watch where you're standing!  (The ground-- about 50 feet away-- is the only bottom!)

After that, we went to a Medieval town called Besalu where I took quite a picturesque photo.

Cool, right?

Snow. In March. In Barcelona!

Just two days ago, it was warm outside: a lovely 60 degrees with sun.  Today, I took out my gloves again and went out into the 40 degree, windy, rainy day.  Two hours later, sitting in Spanish class, my teacher went over to the window and announced that it was snowing. 

Sure enough, it was.

Well, by the time I left my last class to come home for the day (around 4:30), the snow was really coming down.  I know this is hard to believe because it is March and I am in Barcelona, not back home (where, incidentally, it is 51 degrees and sunny) but it is true.  I have pictures to prove it.  But first, I got on the bus and was completely amused by the spectacle of snow in a city that never, ever gets snow. 

About 70% of the people we passed had their cameras out and were snapping pictures.  The city looks GORGEOUS in the snow.  All the people working in the stores were by the windows looking out and people were out on the balconies.  Of course the only thing I was thinking was: I cannot believe that this is the one day I left my camera at home... I need to capture this for all my faithful blog followers!!!

I was really contemplating running up to my apartment, grabbing my camera, getting back on the bus and going into the old part of the city to take more pictures.  But the bus sounded like it wasn't even going to make it to the next stop and the roads were getting messy (right now, there is a huge traffic jam on the street by my building) so you'll have to make do with pictures from my balcony.  I was looking for pictures from one of the local newspapers' websites to show you but there aren't good ones up yet.  I did learn that they shut down the buses though!

One more thing before the photos... not only is there a snow storm but there is also a thunder storm going on!!  Complete with lightening!  Barcelona sure knows how to do storms!!!

Street view.

The park across the street.

Schoolyard.

Volcanoes!

Yesterday we went to La Garrotxa Natural Park, home to the biggest volcano in all of the Iberian Peninsula, called Croscat.  The whole area is a volcanic zone and is classified as active.  They're expecting the volcano to erupt next in about 7,000 years.  It is a cool place since it's a beech forest.  There aren't many forests around here and beech forests grow in cool, humid places so there are almost no beech forests near here.  But there is a microclimate in La Garrotxa area so there is a beech forest.

We also went to a dairy farm called La Fageda.  It is a cooperative that was founded as a place where people with learning disabilities could work.  There are now 500 cows and about 300 workers, 150 who have learning disabilities.  They make about 150,000 containers of yogurt a day!  They can only sell their yogurt in Catalunya since the dairy farm is located in the natural park and there are limits to what you can do there.

Here are some pictures.  I do have one of me and Sarah but my eyes are shut... as always.

This is the sign for the dairy farm.  We had chocolate yogurt... delicious!!

Pregnant dairy cows.

Very picturesque.  There's a little wooden train going by in the center-left of the picture and the snow-capped mountains in the background.

A cross-section of the volcano.

Looks like Mars! (With trees, of course!)

That big rock is actually a volcanic bomb.  They're bits of rock from the volcanic explosion.

Spring Break... Decided!

Spring break starts three weeks from today and we have (finally!) made our plans!!  We were originally going to go to Greece but time slipped away from us and the ticket prices skyrocketed.  So, we are venturing to.... Florence and Pisa instead!!! 

(I am so lucky!  Hooked on Italy and I get to go back!)

We're going to spend three days in Florence and two days in Pisa.  I will take some fantastic picture but in the mean time:

Riding to School in Style!

That's right... I take a Benz to school!

Tomorrow Sarah and I are going to La Garrotxa (an inactive volcano) and a dairy farm on a trip through school.  It's supposed to rain but it still should be a fun day. 

El Born (Field Trip)

Last week, I took a field trip to the Born neighborhood of Barcelona.  This neighborhood has originally been home to many of the guilds in the city.  This can be seen through the architecture and the signage in the area.

The buildings on these streets have a large storefront on the first floor and each floor has progressively smaller windows.  The first floor houses the workshop.  The shop owner and his family lived in the next storey and all the workers lived on the floors above that.  The houses had very narrow, steep staircases so it was a disadvantage having to live on the upper floors.  In spite of this, there was a sense of equality between the proprietors and the workers because they worked together, ate together, used the same bathroom (there was a room with latrines in it at the back of the house), and slept in the same house.  People lived most of their lives outside and really only used their apartments for sleeping.

There wasn't access to water in these buildings so people would have to walk to public fountains to bathe, wash their clothes, and so on.  Because of this, it was a big advantage to live close by to these fountains.  When people would do laundry, they had to haul the laundry from the top floors of the buildings, down the street to the public fountain, then back to the house, up the (narrow) stairs, to the roof.  They would then hang the laundry to dry on the rooftops where there were the best breezes and cleanest air.

Since these streets were constructed when there were horses and carriages, the corners of buildings were cut away to make way for the carriages.  These signs of the medieval ages are located throughout this area and could easily be passed by unnoticed.  Other cool artifacts of sorts are the plaques by doorways which indicate the guilds to which the shops belong.

The people of the guilds decided that they wanted to have a church built by themselves with their own money so they constructed Santa Maria del Mar.  Construction began in 1329.  The church provides a contrast to the church of Barcelona which has affiliations with the monarchy.  Santa Maria del Mar is an unassuming building because it is a Catalan value to have wealth without showing it.  The beauty of the building is in its construction, not its decoration.  The sculptures incorporated into the facade show men with stones strapped to their backs because the church was made by laborers for laborers.  Craftsmen and their families were buried in the church and their tombstones have carvings etched into them.

Here are pictures:

The storefronts.  You can see the differently sized windows in this picture.

The cutoff street corners.

A blacksmiths' guild sign.

This was formerly a fountain.

The front of Santa Maria del Mar.

A tombstone.  The skull and bones sign wasn't viewed as a sign of pirates back then, just as a sign of death.

By the way, I apologize if my English was terrible in this blog post... it seems that as my Spanish improves, my English declines!

This is Living

I'm baaaaaaack!!!  Sorry about the hiatus. 

Sarah and I went to Cagliari, Sardinia (an Italian island off the western coast of the mainland) for the weekend.  This was a fantastic weekend.  We flew RyanAir for the first time.  For those of you who haven't heard of RyanAir, here's what it is: a bargain airline where your ticket includes a seat (non-reclining), one carry-on bag, and that's it.  The plane (on the inside!) is blue and yellow.  And, if you want to go somewhere from the Barcelona area, you have to fly out of a non-Barcelona airport (there are two, each about an hour away).  There aren't safety pamphlets because there aren't pockets on the back of the seats.  Instead, there are these nice diagrams.  Note that you must remove dentures in case of an emergency evacuation of the plane!

We arrived in Cagliari and hopped in a taxi.  Luckily, some other student who had stayed in our homestay left a little Italian dictionary which Sarah studied for our voyage.  That said, we could not understand a word the cab driver was saying.  This was really strange because I have never been anywhere where I don't speak the language and actually have to understand it.  But we got to our hostel.  The people working there were really friendly and helpful.  They pointed us to a fantastic restaurant called Su Cumbido.  Sarah's Italian got us VERY far.  With the simple word for "two," we were seated and served the works.

This is the restaurant.  First, there was water, wine, and bread on the table.  (So nice because 1) you have to pay for water everywhere in Spain 2) same goes for bread... and we paid for it but we didn't have to ask!!)  The first course was: escargot (I really enjoy this), grilled vegetables, some splendid unidentified seafood in a tomato-y sauce (I will dream of this), and a plate of sliced meats and cheeses.  The second course: ravioli in a light tomato sauce and "gnocchi" (not what we think of as gnocchi) with a tomato/sausage sauce.  The third course: crudite (celery, radishes, and such fresh tomatoes), veal, lamb, and pork.  The fourth course: fresh pastries, a fresh fruit plate, and a shot of moscat (a liquor from their cellar).  Oh!  This meal was so delicious, I cannot even tell you.

Back in our hostel, we had a roommate who had been in Cagliari just the weekend before.  So she was able to tell us all the ins and outs of the city which was really helpful.  Here is a picture of the hostel (There was a loft too, with two more beds):

On Saturday, we wandered around the city.  There weren't museums there or very many touristy sights (most people just go during the summer for the beach) but it was cool to wander around.  It's a very pretty city!

And, what would this blog be without a bit of history?
We went into the Crypt of St. Restituta.  During the 5th century, African refugees were housed here.  They signed their names on the wall.

Then, the Spanish occupied Sardinia from the 14th to 17th centuries.  When they occupied the territory, they used the Elephant Tower (which had formerly been a lookout point) as a torture chamber.  They would put the skulls of people they had killed in cages and let them rot there.  They let one rot for 17 years!!!

After visiting that lovely place, we had some scrumptious Sardinian ravioli for lunch.  They were stuffed with potato and in the nicest, fresh tomato sauce.  Delicioso!  We also stopped by a lovely little Sardinian bakery where we spoke Spanish to learn about the cookies.  It was so cool to be able to converse not in English but in an entirely different language... and Spanish in Italy to top it off!  We bought cookies for our homestay family and we are planning on serving them for dessert tonight!

On Sunday, we visited Poeto Beach.  It was beautiful, if a bit foggy.  And you can't beat going to the beach in February!!

After that, we went back to the city for lunch, delicious gelato (maybe the best gelato I've ever had) and then we laid down on some benches by the port, completely satisfied with our lives.  This may be a really terrible picture (I look like a man) but you get the point, right?  Beautiful day!!!