kelly in barcelona

Aisling speaks fluent "Vale," gets a dancing lesson from slutty Spaniards, takes a plane ride over Barcelona (not in that order)

2008-04-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Alright, I've got approximately 48 more hours of internet access so I'm going to have to make my posts about Aisling's trip to BCN and my weekend in Munich real quick and dirty. And ... mostly pictures.

Vale!

Met Aisling in Placa Catalunya between classes and then took her to my Mediterranean Environment class where she got to learn all about Barcelona's Agenda 21. Which I'm sure was fascinating. Afterwards, we headed back to my place and bid a fond farewell to my roommates who all took a cruise to Mallorca for the weekend, leaving Aisling and I free reign to trash the place and drink all their cava. Great. Had a few drinks and talked on the balcony before heading out to this supercute Art Nouveau tapas bar near BB+. We got: patatas bravas, ham croquets, cabbage-and-mayo-on-bread, and red-pepper-stuffed-with-fish-in-creamy-pepper-sauce. It was all very delicious.

Stuffed, we headed to BB+ for liters of Estrella. After accidentally spilling all over a Spanish girl who was sitting next to us, I thought I was in for a rumble. Quite the opposite. The girl and her friend (Estefania and ... I forget the other one's name) started chatting us up. Slash making us drink their liquor. Eventually they invited us to go to a club with them, where they spent the night trying to teach Aisling and I how to dance like strippers. We humored them, but when they tried to convince us to pull up our shirts and show our stomachs, we had to draw the line. Jajaja. They were so funny and so, so much shorter than Aisling and I. Baby-sized, really. After an hour or so of intense dancing to techno, Aisling and I bailed. At home, I whipped up spicy spaghetti and then we tucked ourselves into sleep.

I don't have any pictures of Thursday. Lo siento.

Friday we were awoken by Lisa at the door. It was pretty late in the day already. We went out to the Snack Bar on Sarria for bocadillos with her and then walked around a cute park by my house. Then Aisling and I tried to get to the top of Tibidabo Mountain to go to the 20's-era theme park on top ... but it was too late and the funicular had stopped running. Still, we were really high up on the mountain and it was a really clear day, so we stopped at a restaurant and had coffees overlooking all of Barcelona. (Aisling, you'd better post those pictures because I want to d/l them.) We walked through a crazy park to get down the mountain and then through a beautiful neighborhood with huge, sweet houses.

Metro'ed back to Placa Catalunya and hit up the Top Shop (que expensive) before going to the Boquería to browse/pick up supplies for dinnerz. We made fantastic burritos w/ superfresh chicken, onions, peppers, and mushrooms from the Boquería AND a great sangria with fresh strawberries, oranges, and apples. Maybe the best dinner of my life. We watched Freaks & Geeks on le internet during dinner and it was just great.

Afterwards, met up with Kerry and Lauren in their neck of the woods. Went to this neat lounge called Maumau (spelling?) where you have to pretend to be an idiot tourist to get in for free (it's members-only). It's a really relaxed place with non-rowdy young people and a bunch of couches and tables. The beers were kind of expensive, but I think if we were members it would've been a different story. After Maumau, Aisling wanted to see the Mellon District, the crazy apartments where Kerry & Lauren live. Since it's a maximum-security facility (seriously), we had to wait for K&L to throw their ID cards from their bedroom windows down to us on the street (via weighted plastic bags, claro). Watched some classic OC clips, called it a night. Long walk home.

Fruit and sugar. Sangria preparation.

Adding rum and wine.

The most beautiful thing I've ever consumed.

Veggies, chicken, seasoned rice. Can you tell I was really impressed by our cooking skills?

Saturday we got up significantly earlier so we could make it to the Parque de Atraciones, which we did. The park was so much bigger than I thought it would be, because I guess it has been expanded quite a bit since the 20's. We didn't want to pay the 25 euro entrance fee to get into the whole park, so we just rode the plane and the ferris wheel, both of which had great views overlooking the (smoggy) city. Also we had a delicious picnic! Great. Next, we went to Gaudí's Casa Mila, where it was really hard to get cute pictures of us on the roof because apparently all of geriatric France was at this house on Saturday (??). THEN we hit up the Champagnería. I think it was my 3rd or 4th attempt to drink at this establishment. Finally: Success! The place is just so tiny and so jam-packed that it's nearly impossible to get your cava and sandwiches. Anyway, we secured one bottle of pink cava and two cheese sandwiches. Then we decided to go for another bottle. And an order of chorizo with mustard. And a fois-gras sandwich.

La la, talked to some weird Germans then departed for the Magic Fountain light show! I love the Magic Fountain and I have 85 pictures of it to prove it.

Went back to my house and had some cava and wine and Skyped Stephen and Marjorie (for hours). Talked and were nerds all night and got too drunk to leave the apartment, so we watched Freaks and Geeks and called it a night.

The funicular to the Parque de Atraciones @ the top of Tibidabo.

A view from the funicular.

These clowns on Tibidabo that kept demanding that I take their picture.

Panoramic.

This thing (a) looks like it's tipping over and (b) goes really fast.

Carousel and the plane ride.

A ride we didn't go on. All these rides are from the really old section of the park.

Rollacostaaa.

Yes.

Recreation of the first plane to ever fly. The ride swings you over a cliff!

View from the plane.

My friend and yours, Aisling.

The old area of the park, from the plane.

On the Panoramic ferris wheel.

On the Panoramic, with Tibidabo mountain and the Collserola Tower in the background.

Panoramiccc, again.

Failing at taking cute pictures of us on the Funicular ride down to the bus.

Cute but blurry one of Aisling, though.

Giant church on top of Tibidabo.

On the roof of Casa Mila.

Again.

From the kids room inside of Casa Mila.

@ the Champagnería.

Magic Fountain!

Sunday, we slept in a bit and then headed to the beach where we took baby naps and I got a foot tan. Afterwards, we went to Cafe L'Opera on Las Ramblas so Aisling could try churros con chocolate. Then, to Maoz for falafel and french fries. THEN to my apartment for naps and Freaks and Geeks. Dinner, bedtime, Aisling departed early Monday morning. Voila.

Registered for my last fall semester of classes today!

2008-04-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

My schedule on ScheduleMan.org <-- Click that to see my schedule.

I'll be done with my professional writing major after next semester and will only have one class left to take for creative writing.

Besos.

Cuando Justín me visitó en Barcelona (23 marzo - 31 marzo)

2008-04-20T13:17:00.001-07:00

Finally! I'll start from Sunday, March 23rd, when got back to Barcelona from our weekend w/ Steev and Aisling in Amsterdam.

Uh, Sunday I think we pretty much just hung out around the apartment and watched movies or TV because we were tired.

Monday, however, was a really full day. I gave Justin a tour of Passeig de Gracia -- Gaudí's La Pedrera (Casa Milà) and Casa Batlló, La Manzana de la Discordia, the Hermès store, the Louis Vuitton store, the Chanel store -- you know, all the important things. After that we headed down the absolutely /packed/ Las Ramblas (probably best to avoid the Rambla on bank holidays) where Justin was impressed with the array of live poultry and I was in love with baby bunnies and chicks. We tried to buy a rabbit at La Boquería market for Justin to skin and, uh, prepare, but it was closed for the Holiday. Onwards and upwards to Plaça Reial in the Barri Gotic and a general tour of that area. (I am very practiced at tour-giving because it seems to be a course requirement for /literally/ every class offered by my retresado program.)

We lunched at a busy half-Catalán, half-international restaurant in the Borne district. I had chicken and ratatouille and Justin had sliders (sans roll -- we are still in Euroland, after all). Then, since it was such a beautiful day and we had been stuck in shitty northern European weather for over a week, we hit the beach @ Barceloneta. And then, as most of you already know, we got engaged! Pictures of vom-inducing cuteness to follow! (I said yes. That was clear, wasn't it?)

After the beach we headed back to the apartment and hung out for a bit before going to a celebratory dinner at Splendido, an Italian restaurant across the street from my apt. building. It was so cheap and so delicious. We got a bottle of cava and spilt a cream of asparagus soup (with shrimpzz) to start. Then Justin got some weird pizza thing and I had some weird pesto thing. A cortado for dessert. Anyway, it was real classy and fantastic.

At night we went to Bebopaloobo(SP??) w/ Lisa, her Spanish RA (Rodrigo), and three of Rodrigo's friends. Not that they don't always buy rounds of tequila shots for Lisa/sometimes me/sometimes Luke, but the Spaniards really outdid themselves that night in the spirit of our compromiso. Which was great. Once Bebopaloobop closed down, we went to La Mandarina, which is owned by Rodrigo's friend Carlas. Carlas is constantly opening his bar for just his friends and giving away tons of free alcohol. It is pretty great for the state of my life/finances, but pretty bad for Carlas's life/finances because, uh, he barely ever opens the bar for paying customers. At any rate, Rodrigo played songs on guitar for us and we sung along and generally made merry. I'm glad Justin got to go to the Mandarina with me because it is consistently the greatest part of any night.

(Most of these pictures are stolen from Justin's website.)

Casa Batlló on La Manzana de la Discordia.

Casa Amatller.

Casa Amatller.

Tile in Casa Amatller.

The third house on La Manzana that I always forget the name of.

Las Ramblas.

I LOVE BABY BUNNIES and my parents would never let me have one.

I want to put them in my mouth. In a loving way.

Here I will quote Justin's captions to show you how weirdly excited he was about the birds for sale: "You could also buy larger birds like roosters and chickens."

"...not to mention grouse, cornish hens, and pheasant!" HAAHAH what a nerd.

Carrer Ferran in El Barri Gotic.

Barri Gotic.

omgzz

Freaking out.

Otra vez.

Rumblepack guitar.

On Tuesday we saw Gaudí's Sagrada Familia and picnicked at Domenech i Montaner's Hospital San Pau (Justin's future employer?). Then we tried to go to El Parc del Laberinto d'Horta (aka, The Labyrinth), but it turns out one of my roommates had given me iffy directions. After getting off at a metro that was no where close to the Labyrinth, we caught a bus whose driver said that he was going relatively close to the park. After driving a half an hour towards what looked like one of the mountains bordering the city, the driver dropped us off on the side of a highway (not a bus stop at all, mind you) with some vague instructions to "walk up a hill, then down a hill." We wandered around a really poor, run-down village until we came to a PRISON where were were HARASSED BY INMATES who were outside cleaning. As I was trying to run away in terror (where the hell were we?), I noticed some distinctly labyrinthine bushes across from the prison. We circumvented the bushes and somehow ended up at the Labyrinth, which was cheap and beautiful. The park has the oldest preserved gardens in Barcelona (dating back to the 18th century) and a ton of neo-classical sculptures and architecture. There is also a CANAL OF LOVE which is home to a SWAN OF LOVE (pretty cute) and and ISLAND OF LOVE (where there is a doghouse??).

Hit up a sweet, sweet playground on the way out of the Parc del Laberinto. America really needs to get some more dangerous play equipment in their parks. Like, way more dangerous than Fox Hill (even though those swirly things @ Fox Hill can be somewhat terrifying). We also watched some bike racers practicing at the velodrome (built for the BCN Olympics in '92) before heading back home. Made dinner, went to Bebopaloobop with Luke, Lisa, and Rodrigo.

La Sagrada Familia.

Hospital San Pau.

An ambulance, to prove it's really a hospital.

Inside the hospital.

Preciosa!

HI!

Labyrinth, finally.

I am seriously so glad that we are the biggest dorks ever invented.

This is blurry, but I love it.

In the center, which may or may not have been the end of the maze.

You wouldn't believe how long it took me to get this shot. Some middle-aged man kept getting this German couple to take pictures of him cheesily perching on the railing overlooking the labyrinth.

Another garden in the park.

Estatua.

Classic/hilarious. I hope they pay this swan.

Close to death on the playground.

Looks like he's at a rodeo.

My favorite.

Velodrome!

One-legged, one-armed man who was kind of beating everyone's asses.

Some other guys.

Wednesday: Woke up late. Went to the the Arc de Triompf and then were overcome by hunger. We went to the Champagnería but were overwhelmed by the chaos and instead opted for a salad and pizza buffet that didn't turn out to be very good. Oh, well. At least you got a glass of beer or wine for free. Plus there was a soft-serve ice cream machine and fresh fruit for dessert. And I got to make my own cortado with the espresso machine! So. Not /that/ bad, overall.

After lunch we went to the Parc de la Ciutadella, where we were denied entrance into the zoological museum because we weren't trying to pay. No bother. We found a giant fountain named "Cascada" (lolz) that was under contstruxn. I was a big nerd in a gazebo. Justin took lots of pictures for his Cascada-obsessed housemates. We observed the rather aggressive mating habits of mallard ducks at the pond and found some neat tropical birds. Too bad that giant albino gorilla from the BCN Zoo died, because that would've been a sight.

I may or may not have taken Justin to BB+ for the first time on Wednesday night. I can't remember.

Arc de Triompf.

#11.

CASCADA

Being a bird, maybe? I don't remember.

Tropical birdies.

BB+.

Thursday we met Luke for lunch at Plaça Urquinaona. Justin got to try authentic Spanish paella mixta. Then we went to see the UNBELIEVABLE Palau de la Musica Catalana (Domenech i Montaner). We didn't go in because it was closed for the day AND because it's kind of expensive (so I'm waiting until Mother Dearest comes to see the inside). Afterwards, we searched the Boquería for a rabbit (Justin was obsessed), but couldn't find any with the skin still on them (he REALLY wanted to skin it [?!]), so we abandoned that plan. I don't think he was /too/ disappointed, because he did get to see lots of gross animal products. Onwards to the Barri Gotic to show Justin the Happy Pills store. We ended up stumbling on a really fantastic (but expensive) traveling antique market. The coolest thing I found were several books of dress patterns from the 1920's and '30's. (And Marjorie, believe me, I would have bought them in a second if they weren't 15 euros, which, as I think you are aware, is 1.5x my weekly budget.) Oh, well. I'm sure I can find them somewhere in the states. OR MAYBE ON THE INTERNETS!

Nnnnext, we went to hang out at the (skate?) park on Paral.lel (Catalán is so funny), where Justin got really stoked about the graffiti that was being done. At night time we went for tea and hookah at the really cute tea house by Kerry & Lauren's apt buliding/sanatorium.

Can't remember what happened the rest of the night.

Carving on the side of the Palau de la Musica Catalana.

Palau.

Inside of the Palau as captured through the window by Justin's camera, which, although it weighs ten pounds, is significantly better than mine.

Another corner of the Palau.

The verticals on the railings are all made of glass. My favorite column is on the left.

Tile on the Palau.

Still on my toes.

Antiquesss

Mmmmm soon I will return to my baby blue one and collaborative storytelling! Esp. if Marjorie is in PGH this summer.

From a distance. (Justin, where are the rest of the pictures from the antique fair? Not on your website?)

Boquería.

Candies.

Grody animal parts.

Vom-city.

Spain loves cured meats. I hate cured meats.

Totes my future wedding dress.

Oh, right. We also ended up walking by Palacio Guell. By Gaudí.

La graffiti. I totally stole this picture for a presentation I had to give in my Spanish class. Thanks, Justin. (By the way, it had been painted over with shitty tags a week later.)

Somewhat less impressive than the first.

On Friday we hung out in the apartment basically all day. We made a big lunch of spaghetti with chicken sausage and baguette and didn't go out until night time. We were supposed to meet Lisa and Rodrigo at a Flamenco show/bar, but it was sold out. Instead, we met up with them on Las Ramblas and went to a bar called "El Bosc de les Fades," or "The Forest of the Fairies," that is right by the wax museum. I had been dying to go to this bar forrrrrrrrever! It was un poquito expensive and kind of more for an older crowd, but really cool. I think I'll take my mom there when she comes. It's pretty cute. After the fairy forest bar we headed to Gracia for another bar where the owner was Cuban. He said I looked Catalán (what?). I told him I was American, but that I had a Cuban uncle, which he said meant that I could dance well. Touché, my Cuban friend.

Anyway, that's the end of Friday. No pictures because we were lazy.

Lisa came with us to Parc Guell on Saturday, which was relatively uneventful. I think it was pretty smoggy in Barcelona that day, so the views weren't that great. Later that night we met up with Luke and Lisa again to watch the light show at the Magic Fountain of Montjuic. We got chicken doner kebabs in the Raval and then went to BB+ for the night.

At Parc Guell.

Lisa + I.

Barcelona, kind of.

World's longest bench. Literally.

Gingerbread house.

Gaudí's beloved trencadís.

Magic Fountain.

Luke and Lisa @ BB+.

On Sunday we chilled out. Went to a beautiful park near my house that Lisa told us about and just read and listened to music. Made a big spaghetti dinner again and then took Justin to the airport in the morning.

@ the park. Mushy!

THE END.

itty bitty update

2008-04-17T04:09:00.001-07:00

Living on 10 euros a week for the past three weeks has been, above all else, really, really funny. (And of course when I say 'past three weeks,' I'm excluding the weekend that Aisling was here as well as last weekend in Munich, for which I budgeted accordingly.) For one thing, my total at the grocery store is never over one euro. I buy 33 cent pasta and 47 cent tomate frito, which is just a watered-down tomato paste, sans any kind of spice or chunky vegetable. Sometimes I buy milk, but only the kind without the screw-on top, because the screw-on top is 10 euro cents more. Being poor also makes me a really bad apartment-mate, because I can't afford to buy olive oil or black pepper or toilet paper. Last week we ran out of toilet paper and instead of buying a new pack, I stole an industrial-sized roll from my study abroad center.

This week has been way better, though, because I did some minor splurging: Instant coffee and olives that were SUPERDUPER on sale @ DisGor. The coffee is 'de mierda,' but in the past two days I've had to write three papers, make two Power Point presentations, and study for two finals. So. Also, scratch the 'study for two finals,' because I didn't, and I'm not going to. And ... we'll see how that goes. So far no studying has meant a surefire A-, and since we don't abide by the +/- system at CMU, no pasa nada.

Barcelona is supposed to be rainy for the next week which is the biggest lastima of all TIME because all I wanted to do was lay on the beach.

Right. Time to turn in papers, give boring presentations, and get an A- on my Spanish final. VALE!

EDIT: Sike, I'm not done here. Other things I need to get off my chest:
-H&M mascara is the world's best. Buy it now.
-Lee, my roommate, is such a good sleeper and I'm always so jealous.
-I miss Luke and Lisa, but I can't wait to have a super weekend w/ them.
-I feel guilty always for being excited about going home, but I am. I will miss speaking Spanish so much.

One of the cleaning ladies who works in our building just rang the doorbell, like she does every Thursday afternoon, and asked "Is my companion here?" She meant Juanita, our cleaning lady, who has already left. Point being: This is how I want to knock on doors. "Are my companions here?"

munchen

2008-04-11T01:00:00.001-07:00

My flight to Munich leaves in four hours. I couldn't sleep all last night because I kept having really lucid dreams about Schnitzel-a-go-go-land. I also had dreams about how all the Co-Op-ers that I emailed about subletting from this summer were having an electronic bidding war over who could give me the lowest rent. THAT WOULD BE SO SWEET.

I will have so much blogging and so much work to do next week.

On the blog docket:
1. Justin's week in BCN
2. Aisling's weekend in BCN
3. Múnich, ALEMANIA yum yum

Well, I have a 40 euro budget for this weekend, so here's to great hostel breakfasts and free walking tours. But girl, you know I'm going to splurge on the entrance fee to that palace that inspired Disney World. (Unless it's my whole budget???!!)

Biergartens, here I come.

I AMsterdam

2008-04-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

I'm getting really behind on my posting. Justin was here for a week after spring break and then Aisling was here this past weekend, and I want to tell you all about it, but I have to write about Amsterdam first. It'll be short and sweet because the weather was so horrible that we didn't get to do very much.

When Justin and I arrived in Amsterdam around 7:30 p.m.ish on Thursday, March 20th it was cold and raining very hard. We managed to figure out which tram to take to our hotel AND got our trip for free because the tramdriver was not trying to deal with my ignorance. Our hotel was nice enough. Nothing special, save great American television programming with which I quickly became obsessed. When Stephen and Aisling arrived, we wandered into Leidseplein Square (two-second walk from our hotel) and ate at a pancake bakery/all-you-care-to-eat rib place. And of course by 'pancake' the Dutch mean 'crepe with tons of delicious stuff on it.' I got a spicy Thai chicken pancake that was hot-hot-hot. And great-great-great. Justin of course got all-you-can-eat ribs. Also good. AWalked around the Leidseplein area and then called it a night.

Leidseplein Square during the daytime.

Leidseplein.

Pancake/Rib dinner.

Friday morning we set off to find a bike rental shop and stumbled upon Bloenmarkt, a big flower market, along the Singel canal. It was all tulips and painted clogs until it started raining /again/, which then turned into snow. We kind of ended up hopping from coffee shop to coffee shop just to avoid the awful weather. One of the coffee shops, Tularia (I think is the name?), was really neat and served a bunch of delicious food. They also had games but we didn't play them. At some point on Friday (while it was still light out), we walked through the Red Light District, which was ... a sight, albeit far less frightening than the Parisian one. There are girls in lingerie that stand in store front windows looking extremely bored. A lot of them were pretty haggard. That's a no-sir. We never made it back to the RLD at night because it was very far from where we were staying and, I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but the weather was freezing and awful. So at night we went to a coffee shop called The Dolphin instead, which apparently Nick Wolff also visited during his spring break in Amsterdam. It was a pretty cool place with, you know, an underwater theme and nice couches.

Pretty houses along a canal.

Bloenmarkt tulips.

More Bloenmarkt.

Some statues.

First coffee shop on Friday.

Map-gazing in Dam Square.

Dam Square again.

Canal.

Tram!

The roads function as tram rails, bike paths, pedestrian walkways, and roadways all at the same time, and with no division whatsoever.

Saturday morning I went out for a little adventure on my own because no one would wake up. Just walked around Leidseplein and back to Bloenmarkt. Upon my return to the hotel everyone was awake and waiting for me (oops), and so we made our way out to Albert Cuypmarkt, a big flea market. On the way we saw Vondelpark and Rijksmuseum. I got a sweet kercheif for 1 euro at Cuypmarkt! Soon after we left the market, the weather turned awful again and we ducked into a dessert & coffee place decorated, as Aisling pointed out, exactly how you'd image Madame Puddifoot's tea salon would be. (I just had the most intense pang of saddness for Harry Potter 7 having come out and it all being over. !! Oh, well.) We fortified ourselves against the crap weather with sweets and coffee. I had a salmon quiche that was GREAT. (I just had the most intense pang of hunger for salmon.) At some point later in the day, we ended up back at the Dolphin again, and that night we went to a huge dinner at what is called an Indonesian rice bar. The four of us basically split something like 12 portions of beautifully-prepared meats and vegetables. So, so good. So, so filling. Thought I was going to burst. Afterwards, went to a really big coffee shop called Rookies, after which we were sleepy and cold and went back to the hotel.

In my solo adventures on Saturday morning, I found this sweet hammock store.

Cute Dutch things.

Cacti.

Otra vez.

Yes.

Typical.

Reminded me of dearest Marjorie. Paper dolls and funny masks.

Yes.

Big Bananas Nightshop! Best store ever. Open all night and so clean and full of produce and snacks and wine.

I mean, of course you always hear about there being SO MANY bikes in Amsterdam, but it really is more that you would ever think. And I'm obsessed with it.

Albert Cuypmarkt flea market.

Coffee house.

I was a little in love with this coffee house.

This cat was a little in love with Justin.

Sike, a lot in love. Aisling looks like she's allergic.

Madame Puddifoot's.

Again.

Feathers!

Service counter.

Nerds.

Sunday morning Justin and I woke up early to fly back to Barcelona, y eso es!

Light coat of snow on the docks outside of Centraal Station.

Seriously astounding numbers of bikes.

Love affair in the airport.

You are here.

Thiiiiiis far from home.

There are so many things that I can't place chronologically about our trip: At one point Stephen, Aisling and Justin were introduced to the glory that is Maoz falafel places; there was street food (like stroopwaffels [sic] and goffres) and a few other sights. But I can't remember it clearly. I wish we would've seen more, but the weather was just such shit.

Still, I think we were exposed to the culture enough. Amsterdammers are basically the cutest, most progressive people on the face of the earth. They are world-champion bike riders (they can ride bikes while holding hands! and with multiple children precariously balanced on the handlebars and cargo rack! and so close to each other without hitting! and all in the midst of such, such awful weather!), they are blonde and tall, and they don't like it when you talk on your cellphone in restaurants and coffee shops.

I want to go back some time in the summer and rent bikes. It was the greatest lastima of all time that Justin and I didn't ever get to ride bikes in Amsterdam! (Stephen and Aisling biked on Sunday after we'd already left.) Plus I have yet to learn all the Dutch bike riding secrets to success.

PARIS, JE T'AIME (... kind of)

2008-04-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'm going to break my spring break posts up into three parts: Paris, Amsterdam, and Barcelona. They're all going to be really image-heavy.

On with it:

Justin got into Barcelona at 6 a.m. on Saturday, March 15th. I brought him back to my apartment and fed him baguette and ham&cheese pizza. He napped while I packed and ... updated my blog. That afternoon we took an hour-/hour.5-long bus ride to Girona (on the Costa Brava) to get to the baby-sized airport that we were flying out of. Flight to Paris was uneventful until we had a super-rocky landing and I gasped so loudly that everyone around me started laughing. Took another hour-long bus into Paris because we had landed at an even more baby-sized airport. The Tour Eiffel was doing the sparkly thing as we drove into the city and even though I didn't think Tour Eiffel was going to be very exciting, it was a pretty great sight after a long day of traveling. We got to our ho(s)tel at 11 p.m.ish and passed out because Justin was jetlagged and I was tired.

Sunday morning we went to the grocery store for champagne, oranges, lunch meat, and butter and then to a bakery for baguette. (This quickly became a daily pilgrimage.) After a breakfast of croissant and pan chocolat, we packed sandwiches and headed towards Musée D'Orsay. On the way to the museum we stopped by Notre Dame (such long lines!) and walked along the Seine. Looked at the mammoth that is the Louvre and decided not to go.

The Musée D'Orsay (on which I had to do an oral report during my one semester of French) is built in an old train station. It's pretty and not unmanageably large. Really big collection of Impressionists & Post-Impressionists and has a cool exhibit of art nouveau furniture. There was one room in D'Orsay that was ridiculously beautiful -- crazy gold-leaf moldings and giant chandeliers. My PIECE camera couldn't really capture the intensity of it, but it was great.

On the way home from D'Orsay, we walked by the Pompidou Centre (a modern art museum that looks CRAZY, see pictures) and through Le Marais, which is a really cute neighborhood that Luke's friend Vaune told me is one of the few Parisian arrondissements that hasn't been ruined by tourists. There were a ton of restaurants and cafés and specialty stores in Le Marais. All the outdoor seating at cafés was arranged so that customers fully faced the street -- as though the cafe-goers were an audience. Back at the hotel, we took a nap before going out to a pizza dinner and having a few drinks at the restaurant bar next to our hotel.

Toast to our first morning in Paris. Can't remember if these were mimosas or just Sunny Delight.

So many carousels and no one to ride them with me. Where are Marjorie and Aisling when you need them?

Rainy, but pretty.

The Seine.

Petit.

Notre Dame.

Notre Dame again. There /is/ a picture of Justin and I in front of it, but it looks pretty re-re. Fellow tourists often have pretty weak photo skillz.

Moi et petit. Le Seine.

Musée D'Orsay, aerial view.

I liked this one.

A lot.

Justin atop and underground city.

The room too beautiful for my camera to capture.

A statue too beautiful for my camera to capture. The point was that it's made of two different colors of marble. Que preciosa.

Really very obsessed with this room. Am going to move in immediately.

Part of the big, giant Louvre.

Art Nouveau metro station designed by Hector Guimard. My art history teacher is going to be /SO PLEASED/ that I saw it.

French version of Barcelona's "Bicing" system, except that you don't have to be a resident to use it. Barcelona should really get with the Frenchies on this one. Also, I was only impressed by these bikes until we went to Amsterdam.

Pompidou Center. Modern art. Don't you wish that was a slide? It's just stairs, I think.

On Monday morning we ate breakfast and packed a lunch before taking the Metro to the Coulaigncourt flea market (another recommendation by Vaune), where I got a sweet teal purse for 5 euro. It was a really giant flea market -- the biggest I've ever seen -- so there was a lot of different kinds of merchandise on sale. A lot of really poor-quality knitwear and heinous knockoff D&G belts, but also a lot of really great thrifted boots and fifties-era sundresses. Couliagncourt was originally an antique flea market, but we only saw a few really neat antique stands. Before leaving Coulaigncourt, Justin and I got street crepes. The crepe man really put on a show for us. He used all sorts of finesse to put the batter on the crepe maker, etc., etc., and was wearing a silly hat that was some weird chef hat/beret combo. Too funny.

After lunch we walked to the top of Montmartre to the Sacré-Cœur, a Catholic basilica that alleges to be dedicated to the sacred heart of Jesus Christ while charging TEN EUROS to light a candle. Catholics. Honestly. Anyway, it is white and beautiful and the dome at the top is preciosa, as the Spaniards would say. I tried to get a picture of the dome despite the no-photography rule, but it turned out substandard. The view from the top of the hill on which the Sacré-Cœur is built has a great view of the city.

Afterwards we walked down the hill into Montmartre to a pretty park and then into the Red Light District, which was far skeezier than Amsterdam's Red Light District. Saw the Moulin Rouge. My main complaint about the RLD is that the prostitution is euphemized, so that 'sex shops' are not really sex shops, etc., which I didn't realize until a man-woman prossie was all up in my face. Guh.

Long walk back from Montmartre to the hostel where we took another nap before dinner in Le Marais at a Chinese restaurant (there are some things Justin and I cannot escape, and our love for Chinese food is certainly one of them).

Coulaigncourt flea market>

One of the antique places at the flea market. The colored containers were filled with such random knick-knacks.

Lamps in the same antique stand>

Pup on a car>

Stairs to the Sacré-Cœur.

Sacré-Cœur from halfway up the stairs.

Climbing.

View from the top of the hill.

Tour Eiffel from the Sacré-Cœur.

Dome inside the Sacré-Cœur.

Roof-ish thing.

From the hill of the Sacré-Cœur.

I don't know which is more beautiful! (But I'm leaning towards the double-decker carousel.

Montmartre!

Handstands in a park. Montmartre.

Park.

Smelling the fleurs.

Moulin Rouge.

My guidebook promised me a view of a windmill from one of the streets in Montmartre and all I got was THIS. A poor substitute for the real thing, but I suppose it will suffice.

Moulin Rouge again.

Can-Can.

Cans.

Red Light District.

Sexodrome?

Tuesday morning we ran into a huge open-air food and clothing market on our way to the train station. It was a little cooler than La Boquería in Barcelona because it had really sweet sweaters on sale in addition to all the produce. Plus a lot more cheese was being sold. I bought a basket of kumquats for 2 euro and couldn't stop eating it until my tongue hurt. After the market, we took a double-decker train to Versailles, where we waited in one line for 40 minutes to get our entrance tickets before waiting in a second line for over an hour to actually get into the palace, AND THEN WAITING IN A THIRD LINE FOR TWENTY MINUTES TO USE THE BATHROOM. (Big, fat side note: Why did we have to wait in two separate lines to enter? It took HOURS to get into Versailles on a bitterly cold day. Paris was honestly the least efficiently-run city I've visited so far, which is saying a lot because I'm studying in the European capital of laziness/siesta-taking. Sure, the Parisian metro system is really extensive, but in several metro stations you have to go to a real live person to buy your ticket instead of using a machine and some of the stations had no place at all where you could buy tickets! You had to ALREADY HAVE A TICKET before getting to the metro station! Nonsense.)

Anyway, I suppose Versailles was worth the wait. It was giant and beautiful and just like Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette made me believe it would be. Pastel colors and gold. Just perfect. The beds were tiny and hilarious. The Hall of Mirrors was my favorite room inside the main palace. The gardens outside were just as beautiful as the palace, although it's a shame we didn't see them in spring or summer when things were in bloom. Still, everything was very green and there was something lovely about the grey sky and the bare gardens. La la, I love palaces. We took a long walk down a straight, tree-lined road to Marie Antoinette's chateau (or whatever it's called), which was kind of pink and pretty. They wouldn't let us into the building for some reason (probably that the Frenchies are kind of silly), but we got to look at the outsides of the buildings and the gardens.

After our long, cold day at Versailles we had a chicken and beer dinner back at the hotel in Paris. We bought a small rotisserie chicken, a baguette, and some (stinky) French cheese from the shops down the street and ate them with our hands and some Biere Blond. After dinner we took a few more Biere Blonds with us to the Tour Eiffel to see it sparkle, but it was so cold that after the 10-minute shimmer and pounding our beers, we metroed back home.

We refrigerated things by keeping them outside the window. This is our fine selection of beverages: Sunny D and Biere Blonde.

Morning ritual of baguette and butter and jam and honey for breakfast and then packing a lunch of a sandwich baguette and an orange. Our life was unbelievably cute.

Brekky.

Flowers at the open-air market.

Produce.

Our double-decker train to Versailles.

Versailles from far away.

Inside Versailles.

I want this.

Funny tiny bed.

Bonjour.

Hall of Mirrors.

Mirrors!

Lovely.

Pretty.

I like this room, too. It makes studying seem beautiful.

Yum.

Awk. Versailles pic. I am always on my tiptoes next to Justin to make myself seem comparable in height.

Gardens.

Nice.

My camera sewed this one together. Can you tell?

Yessss.

!

Road to Marie Antoinette's chateau.

@ Marie Antoinette's. Get ready for a sweet animated gif 3-picture thingy.

END!

Marie Antoinette's.

Je t'aime le chateau de Marie Antoinette.

Another part of Marie Antoinette's chateau.

The Tour Eiffel sparkling.

Oberkampf: <3 Our metro station.

Wednesday we went back to the Tour Eiffel to see it during the day and to take the lift to the top. It was freezing again and there were long lines, but I /do/ love seeing cities from high up, so it was worth it. It was interesting to see how white Paris is! So many of the buildings are white! Justin didn't bring a coat on his EuroVacation, and I don't know how he didn't shrivel up and die because it was unbelieveably cold at the top. We were going to go to have a look at the Champs-Elysée and the Louvre despite how many times I had read that they were both somewhat- to incredibly overrated, but going to the top of the Tower made us cold down to our bones so we decided to pack it up and head back to the hotel for a lazy day watching some crazy German show subtitled in French.

At night we had Chinese again (OMG WHO ARE WE?) from a place on our street and then had champs and Biere Blonde until we ran out of it. Went to the restaurant bar next to our hotel for a beer before they kicked us out and then found another restaurant bar down the street. It looked like it was about to close, but we went in anyway and got big glasses of beer. A man named Jerome who worked at the bar was doing all of this ridiculous slap-stick comedy for a big table of Spaniards -- the only other customers in the bar -- and then for Justin and I. He also did some neat (?) magic tricks. This man was a total mess. Sloppy drunk. At one point, the woman behind the bar re-filled our beer glasses for free and told us that she just really wanted to get home. I guess she was giving us free beer in exchange for us leaving as soon as possible? At any rate, her hopes were quickly dashed when Jerome and his other barmate friend started popping champagne bottles and pouring glasses for Justin and I and themselves. And the free champagne and beer went on for another hour or so. Just bottle after bottle. After every glass Justin and I had, the woman bartender would briskly remove our champagne flutes, wash them, and put them away, but Jerome or his fat fellow barman would give us a new glass of champagne just as quickly. Eventually we left and stumbled back to our hotel. We WOULD find this magic champagne palace only on our last night in Paris.

Tour Eiffel during the day.

View from the second level of the Tour.

View from the tippy-top.

Hilarious/awk pic on the top of the Tour Eiffel in which I look like an angry boy who likes to do relevées.

So, so cold at the top.

Far from Spain.

Very far from our respective homes.

Another animated gif series of 3.

lolz

Thursday morning was rough because of all the previous night's champagne, but somehow we managed to eat breakfast, make lunch sandwiches and buttered baguettes for the train, and get packed before check out. Although it was a struggle, we managed to get in one last sight that I'd been dying to see ever since I saw Paris, Je T'Aime this summer -- Cimetière du Père Lachaise. It was beautiful and crowded and although Justin wanted to go look at the famous graves, I was having a hard enough time trying not to disrespect the dead by throwing up all over the place to go in search of Jim Morrison's resting place. I would've gone to Oscar Wilde's if it wasn't so far away from where we were in the cemetary. It's so, so gigantic. The graves are so neat looking and packed so close together. I was surprised to see that there had been a lot of recent burials -- I would've thought they would've run out of space a long time ago. Families from old money still have spaces reserved, I guess. Anyway, the pictures can speak for themselves.

That afternoon we took a train to Amsterdam that went through Belgium. The train experience was fun, especially because of our delicious baguettes and mandarin oranges. It was so much more comfortable than flying, especially for two long-limbed people. The Belgian and Dutch countryside was beautiful, and not even Conrad, my 2-year-old archenemy on the train, spoiled it.

Cemetary.

This grave collapsed in on itself.

It was really hard to walk through the graves. Such steep, narrow, broken sidewalks.

Creepy to put a picture on a headstone.

Far creepier to put a picture of the deceased playing the harp on a headstone.

Train station in Brussels.

Overall, Paris was pretty and there were lots of fun things to do all the time, but the weather was awful and it was so heartbreakingly expensive that I don't think I'll ever go back unless I have tons of cash to blow. It's also the polar opposite of Lisbon in that it is just so completely saturated with tourists that it kind of makes you want to cry. Still, it seems to me to be the European city that seems to have integrated its past most seamlessly into its present. And another great thing about Paris was that there were more baguettes and bakeries than I knew what to do with. And GOD was there butter. There was even one store in Le Marais called "Tout Au Buerre," or "Everything Butter."

Words Justin and I are now obsessed with using: poulet, poisson, and merde. Which translate to: chicken, fish, and shit. Also petite (small) and avec (with). My one semester of French didn't do me too well, except for really, really basic stuff. I remembered something of the numbers, which was probably the most helpful thing.

give me a week

2008-03-26T17:32:00.001-07:00

Allo. Tons and tons of pictures from spring break and Justin's week in Barcelona, but as Justin is still here through Monday, I don't really have the time to devote to posting. But I promise I'll get on it as soon as he leaves.

Cork forest, Jef & Pat's visit, and my new haircut

2008-03-15T06:43:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I went on a field trip to a cork forest in Palafrugell with my Mediterranean environment class. A forest engineer led us through the area, translating the Catalan of an old man named Jaume who harvests 40 hectares of cork every year. By hand. Jaume has a dog named Moscatell, which is kind of funny because Moscatell is a sweet wine in Catalunya. Anyway, Jaume and Moscatell were a real pair. There's so much more to say, but I have to leave to catch my flight to Paris in an hour, so...

We had to walk over these crazy aqueduct bridges a few times.

Aqueducts.

Moscatell, Mini-Horse, Horse-Horse.

Unicorn?

Forest.

The seven people from the two sections of Mediterranean environment who woke up to go on this field trip.

Water brought by the aqueducts.

Cork and Jaume's house. Cork is really, really profitable.

Palafrugell!

Costa Brava.

Jef and Pat got into Barcelona Saturday afternoon and stayed until Monday evening.

@ Casa Mila. Photographers photographing.

Apartment in Casa Mila.

Jef skating.

Jumping.

Yesterday I got a new hairdo. I didn't do it myself. Fabio did it, and now we're BFFs. No big deal.

Sassy.

Alright, gotta jet to gay Paris avec le petit ami, Justin. Meeting Aisling and Steev in Amsterdam on Thursday. Everything is going to be amazing.

Of Palaces and the Highest Heights: Obrigado, Lisboa

2008-03-08T04:59:00.000-08:00

Hahaha my title is supergay.

Onwards: Luke, Lisa and I got really drunk last Wednesday night before our 9 a.m. flight on Thursday morning. Not particularly sure why we thought that was a good idea. Luke slept over, I woke the troops up at 5.30 a.m. to take the train to the airport, etc. etc.

Made it into Lisbon by 11ish and found the AMAZING hostel easily. Fleur, the Portuguese girl who seemed to be mostly in charge of the place, was beautiful and friendly and gave us maps and good directions. We dropped off our stuff and the hostel and started walking southeast towards Alfama, the oldest neighborhood in Lisbon. (It was the only area of the city to survive the earthquake, and subsequent fires, of 1755.) I really wanted to see the Castle of St. George (Castelo de São Jorge), a giant stone castle that dates back to the 6th century and which, after passing through the hands of the Romans, Visigoths and Moors, was eventually home to the first King of Portugal. But we were also really hungry and wanted to just walk around Alfama, which is known for its very narrow, confusing streets and the canaries that are always singing from balconies (we didn't see any of them).

On the way to Alfama we ended up walking down Via Augusta, which is basically Las Ramblas of Lisbon: a pedestrian street w/ lots of eateries and tacky gift shops and drug dealers.

Eventually we found a tiny eatery where we made the waitress teach us how to say 'thank you' in Portuguese and tried to get her to explain the menu a bit. The problem with Portuguese is that the Portuguese can really easily understand Spanish, but we couldn't understand their Portuguese at all. It's kind of like Catalan in that it's much easier to read than to understand aurally. (I mean, if you already know Spanish.) I had some kind of really weird sausage and an undercooked egg. Heather, Lee, Mariel and I got Super Bock, the cheap/famous/infamous Portuguese beer and Lisa and Luke split a bottle of vino tinto (that spilled all over the table when Lisa PUNCHEDD IT hahahaaha). Afterwards, we kept trying to find the castle by choosing whichever road seemed to be the most steep, since all we knew about it's location is that it was basically at the top of the city.

Eventually we stumbled on this balcony which at first I just thought was a scenic point of interest. You could see so much of the city and the water and the big bridge that spans the straight between Lisbon and the city across from it. THEN we realized the balcony was really an outdoor patio bar, with tables and couches and beds to lounge on. So, we had a few more glasses of Super Bock overlooking Lisbon and eventually snagged the prime real estate: a bed (that was admittedly very damp) across from a sofa. Beautiful. We were probably there for at least two hours.

Eventually we made it up to the castle, which has a nearly 360 degree view of the city. Breathtaking. There was a troubador singing in one of the courtyards. Luke bought his CD for 8 euro. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves here.

By the time we finished with the castle, the sun was setting and we were exhausted, so we walked back to the hostel and took a nap until dinner time. We went really big for dinner. Bread in molten brie, a white fish with buttered potatoes and broccoli, red wine and a huge slice of chocolate cake. So great. Back to the hostel and then to sleep.

The first thing we saw in Lisbon. Marcus do Pombal Circle. (Or something like that.)

Via Augusta.

Did we go to high school with this boy? He looks so familiar.

I paid a euro to pet this little puppycito. It was akward/great.

Archclock at the end of Via Augusta. The sea is behind that statue.

Pretty.

Big square next to a motorway and the sea.

Lisbon is obsessed with yellow buildings, and so am I.

Weird poopsausage/egg/fries/salad comboplate. It was decent. The poopsausage was pretty good, anyway.

Stencils.

View from the balcony. It got cloudy for awhile?

Another view from the balcony. Red roofs like Prague.

Balcony bar.

Heather, Lisa, Super Bock.

Mariel, Lee.

Luke.

Tra-la-la.

I could live my whole life on this balcony.

Luke / Your Grandmother.

Lisa / A Contortionist.

From the castle.

Balcony bar down below!

If this was a print, I would dodge Luke's face a little and this would be the BEST.

Favorites.

Wild peacock!

And his uncute ladyfriend.

Tram tracks.

Friday we had fantastic breakfast and our fantastic Black & White Lisbon Hostel. Then Fleur told us how to take the train to Sintra, a town an hour outside of Lisbon with about 85 amazing palaces. The train ride was pretty. We ended up taking a hike that lasted well over an hour and basically climbing a mountain to get to Pena Palace. It was a really great walk. Everyone was so sweaty and gross by the time we finally got to the top. Again, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Took a bus back down to the bottom of the mountain and got some traditional Portuguese cheese pastries (I didn't like them, probably because I expected them to be more like the savory one Aisling bought for me in Prague, which was GREAT) before taking the train back to Lisbon.

Back at our hostel, André made 8:30 reservations for us at a Fado place in Alfama. Fado is a Portuguese style of music/singing that is supposed to be able to make grown men cry. It's performed at restaurants. Kind of a dinner and a show thing. We decided to get a few drinks at the hostel bar / mingle with the crowd of people playing Wonderwall and Jack Johnson covers in the lounge area. Met a man named David from Liverpool who asked us if we were British. (British people are constantly asking us if we are British. I don't get it.) Guess what David does for a living? Oh, he's just a graphic designer for THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES! He's on leave for awhile because they don't need him for a few months while they start shooting the 7th movie. Before he went on leave, he was working on the Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes for the 6th movie. AHH. Great.

Anyway, we left late to get to the Fado place and since it was in Alfama, which I've already mentioned is really hard to navigate, we got horribly lost and showed up an hour late for our reservation. I had to really, really sweet talk the owner's wife into letting us stay and eat. Great meal again: olives marinated in garlic and bread with cheese to start, then fried cod with 'cocktail sauce' (it was more live brava sauce) and rice, red wine. The Fado was great. There were so many different singers. The best part was when two men would sing together and get so, so loud at the end.

Good morning.

Fleur, our hostel.

I couldn't get a picture of Fleur standing still.

Free itnernets.

On the train to Sintra.

Transfer station.

Train.

In Sintra, before we started scaling the mountain.

Beginning the long trek.

Mountain climbing.

Finally, Pena Palace.

http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/22514/2377121620096242728S600x600Q85.jpg

You could see all the way to the sea. And we were an hour away by train! So high.

Easter egg-colored.

Ballroom. The only picture of the inside, because we weren't allowed to take pictures.

@ Fado.

Saturday we wandered aimlessly and found a great outdoor market where I bought three treasures (I don't have pictures, so you'll just have to see them later) that are stunning and weren't expensive. I also bought a jar of rosemary honey from a father-daughter vendor team that were adorable and gave Luke and I a shot of fig liquor (at 11 a.m.). We eventually found a place where we could sit by the water and I got a burn/tan while writing postcards. Wandered more and stopped at a bar for Super Bocks. Hunted for postcards. Got a really good pastry on Via Augusta. Bought a big loaf of bread from a bakery that we all shared and dipped in the rosemary honey. Went back to the hostel for a 20 minute nap and then to the airport for our flight back to Barcelona.

When we got back to Barcelona, my awful roommate Hana was having some jerk over for an awkward/lame first date at our apartment and I proceeded to be a bitch about it because she is /so/ ridiculous. Went to sleep early.

Outdoor market.

Road to the sea.

Lisa, Luke.

Sunday, Lisa and I went to the beach for a picnic of herbed cheeses, milk chocolate, and Estrellas. Went to a bar near Sagrada Familia for patatas bravas. Later that night we went to see Rodrigo (Lisa's RA) play with his 'band' (aka one other dude) at a small bar near where we live. There were 9 people there including the bartender (named Carlas, a childhood friend of Rodrigo's). It was adorable. Rodrigo is a good whistler and whistled through a lot of songs instead of singing them. It sounded really sweet. Eventually Rodrigo made Lisa and I sing American songs (Greenday, The Beatles, The Strokes) while he and his friend played guitar. HILARIOUS. We spoke in Spanish with Rodrigo's friends and got a free shot before leaving.

Great weekend.

Yesterday I went to a town on the Costa Brava (the coast north of Barcelona, really close to France) to see a cork forest with my Mediterranean Environment class, which was really cool. Pictures later.

Jeff's flight gets in in 20 minutes and I'm still in pajamas, so I'm going to get a move on.

Can't wait for Justin and Steev to come to Euroland.

leesh-bo-ah

2008-03-03T04:04:00.001-08:00

Flawless weekend. Palaces and castles and performing American songs with a Spanish band.

Unfortunately, I have 2 midterms and an outline due this week (in addition to the work I missed from skipping out on Thursday) and won´t have time to update the blog on Lisbon/Barcelona adventures until later in the week.

el fin de semana

2008-02-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful for being here. Life is so good, it's everything I want. The city is beautiful and I get upset when anyone thinks it isn't. I guess it /is/ a major metropolitan city and there are things about that that aren't great: high prices, lots of tourists, resentful Spaniards. I can think of a lot of reasons why I could have studied in Seville or Grenada or a smaller, more traditionally Spanish city, but why bother thinking those types of things? Hopefully I'll get to visit those places and otherwise, I'm really content. Plus I think Barcelona has a lot of advantages in terms of traveling to other parts of Europe. As in, I can basically fly any place I would want to go relatively cheaply. At any rate, I appreciate the pace of life here and how much time I get to spend doing what I want. I'm making a point to never be upset with myself for doing one thing instead of another or for not reading as much as I would've liked, because the point of this semester is that I get to be as nonacademic as I please and I have enough time to see everything I want to at my own pace. That's all. Just everything as it comes.

Ok, weekend update.

Great, great weekend. Best Barcelona weekend by far. Thursday after class I had Luke and Lisa over for beers (and forgot to take my online Spanish quiz) and then we went out to Bar Paris for tapas and Estrellas. Called it a night pretty early.

Friday I got up relatively early and rallied the troops for a day of sightseeing. I've been dyingggg to get to the art nouveau masterpiece La Palau de la Musica Catalana since we've been studying it (more specifically its architect, Domenech i Montaner) in my Barcelona art history class. Unfortunately, Luke ending up taking for/ever/ to get to the Palau and it had closed for visits by the time we all arrived. Still, we got to see the outside, which is beautiful and intricate, if a bit difficult to take in because of the narrowness of the streets. We walked around the Barri Gotic and El Borne for awhile before finding a place for lunch. It was a fantastically warm day so we had our beers and tapas outside. (All I do is eat patatas bravas.)

Onwards and upwards to Casa Mila, or "La Pedrera," yet another astounding Gaudí masterpiece. The roof is probably the coolest thing I've seen in Euroland so far. We spent a couple hours at Casa Mila and then metroed to Plaza España for the free light show at the fountain. There were so many people at the fountain! We got cafés con leche and beers and sat on the stairs forever for the show to start, but they were experiencing technical difficulties. After an hour and a half of listening to what my guidebook describes as "pop and opera hits" (the duet 'Barcelona' by Freddie Mercury and a famous Spanish soprano is not to be missed) we had to leave because the cheap liquor store (read: the grocery store next to my apt) closes at 9.

Gin-tonics back at mine and then we went out with a few of my roommates and their friends who were visiting to Pippermint, a bar where they serve gigannnntic glasses of mixed drinks. You know, like the fishbowl places in the States, only the glasses weren't shaped like fishbowls. We all came back to our apartment afterwards, where our RA was called on us at one point because Luke stole Hana's guitar from her room (she was in Paris for the weekend) and played a moving rendition of "Hallelujah." Probably wasn't in bed until 7.

Palau de al Musica Catalana.

Lisa. Lunch outside, right by the Cathedral of Barcelona which you can kind of see on the right.

Facade of Casa Mila/"La pedrera."

Closey-uppy.

The courtyard.

A model, so you can get the idea of what the whole facade looks like.

A hanging model. Gaudí invented the concept. If you look at this model in a mirror it looks like a building. He used it to design and it had a lot of advantages for figuring out structural calculations (that end up being mathematically exact) really easily -- but I'm not sure exactly how it works.

Bad picture of the mirrored version.

The roof!

'Lisa' means soft in Spanish.

Luke listening to the audio tour.

Another roof shot.

And another. It would've been so much more awesome if less people were there (and the lame chain link fences hadn't been erected). Hopefully when I go with my mom we'll find a less touristy time.

I like these guys.

A lot.

My favorite picture.

Another one of my BFFs.

One day all of this will be yours, Simba.

Chicos.

Just hanging out in some Gaudí-designed chairs.

These pictures are from one apartment in Casa Mila that is still open to the public. All the furniture and accouterments are Gaudí-designed because the whole deal with Art Nouveau (which goes by "modernisme" in Spanish) was that everything was a complete work of art.

I want this.

Dining room.

Bedroom.

Salon.

If this were a Facebook album (and MJV was still on Fbook), I would tag this 'Marjorie Vujnovich."

The outside of La Pedrera, which they referred to as "undulating" every 5 - 10 seconds on the audio tour.

Not the main fountain of the light show, but the part that /didn't/ experience technical difficulties.

Still not the main fountain, still pretty.

Laugh central.

Saturday I woke Luke up and made him get patatas bravas with me from Pans & Company, which is basically the Spanish version of McDonald's (think: lots of tuna and ham sandwiches, with the occasional olive here and there). Then he went home. Hung out all day reading with the balcony door open and generally being a layabout. At night, tried to find the Champagnería with Luke and Lisa but it was already closed by the time we actually got to Carrer de la Reina Christina. Oops. Found another sweet bar on that street, got more tapas (patatas bravas for me, OF COURSE) and a few beers. They tried to overcharge us on the check, but I totally caught them! Whatever, I'll totally go back there again. The food was great and the beers were cheap. After that we headed to Razzmataz (sp?) to see Yeasayer, this Baltimore/Brooklyn band that is on the label that Zach's interning for. The club was inSANE. It's this industrial warehouse-ish space with God knows how many floors and gigantic rooms filled with hundreds of people everywhere you looked. I guess all the rooms have different types of music. The place was so big that when we finally wanted to leave (again, it ended up being 6 in the morning before anyone realized they were tired) no one could really tell us where the exit was. Took 20 minutes of wandering around the place to get out. Yeasayer was reallllllly awesome. Very fun. I'm going back to Razzmataz again on Saturday night to see the Mars Volta.

Sunday was lazy, as always. I read a lot about Lisbon and started reading this really huge and really extensive Barcelona history book. Found out that Monday classes were canceled because some girl in my program has bacterial meningitis. It was like having a snow day when its 65 degrees outside! Went for coffee with Lisa and later she came over to start planning activities for our trippytrip to Portugal.

So excited for Lisbon on Thursday!

No te preocupes.

2008-02-26T03:22:00.001-08:00

Big, fat picture post about last weekend later tonight. And that's a promise.

my mom is freaking out because i haven't posted in 10 days

2008-02-20T14:26:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated in awhile because life has gotten a little bit crazier here. Midterms started last week and continue for ... the next 4 weeks. My study abroad program is the stupidest, most asinine thing I can think of. And so it makes perfect sense that it would be the Carnegie Mellon-sponsored program. The point is, I've had lots of boring, meaningless work to do.

Now I will show you pictures!

These are from awhile ago -- Carnival Weekend:

Carnival is all about cross-dressing. Those are my Barcelona BFFs Lisa and Luke.

My moustache! Don't worry, I wasn't really drinking straight from the bottle -- it was already empty.

Lisa posed me for this picture. Isn't my 'stache cute?

I like to dance. Like a maniac.

Lisa and Luke finding something hilarious. There is a ninety percent chance that it was something I said.

Same verse as the first.

Self-portrait 1. (I didn't take any of these, so don't blame the cut off faces on me.)

Self-portrait 2.

Self-portrait 3 (in which my moustache is highly visible).

Self-portrait 4 (in which I am smiling, for a change).

Roman ruins in Barcelona. As I said on my tour in Spanish class today, "La más extensa red de ruinas romanas subteraneas EN EUROPA está en El Museu de la Ciutat [<-- CATALAN!]." Or: The most extensive network of underground Roman ruins is in the Museum of the City (in El Barri Gotic in Barcelona).
The Bridge of Sighs. (These pictures are all in El Barri Gotic until further notice.) Not a replica of the one in Venice, but of the same name.

In one of the plazas. Damage from the Spanish civil war (La Guerra Civil).

The narrow, winding, pedestrian streets of El Barri Gotic.

And one of the non-pedestrian streets.

This reads: "A typical restaurant. My burrito and me." Then it really turned out to be a Catalan restaurant and anything but typical.

Plaza Real.

THE cathedral. A billion years old and highly siced.

Placa Catalunya, where I go to school.

Creepy shot of my apt. building. It's not creepy at all, though!

Ok, this is Barceloneta, a beach/metro stop/area/neighborhood? in Barce.

Some cute Scandinavian kids I creeped on.

'Fish' by Frank Ghery, some tall buildings, and a club I went to once.

BEACH! Guarding my possessions from carteristas and wearing a sweater.

Feet are gross.

More children I creeped on. Only these ones were Spanish.

My unnaturally long femurs (thanks, Mom!) and the horizon.

BARCELONETA!

Sweet.

PRAHA

2008-02-10T14:19:00.000-08:00

What a week(end?). Caught an early flight to Prague on Wednesday. I was a little dissapointed at first because I allowed myself to somewhat scheistered by a scheisty cabbie. He overcharged me by about 150 crows, but that's only like $7 or $8. At least he taught me some Czech! (Which I promptly forgot.) I guess we're /kind of/ friends.

At any rate, after my midday arrival, Aisling packed us a picnic lunch that we ate at a pretty park that overlooked Prague and then caught the tram(!!) to the National Gallery of Art (... of Prague?), which was giving free admission between 3 - 7 p.m. Ais and I proceeded to spend hours and hours working our way through the museum, which started with stiff landscapes and moved on to crazy conceptual art. It was pretty sweet.

We headed back to the dorm and met up with Roxana and Sophie for dinner and drinks at BarBar, which serves some kind of delicious lemon beer that I forget the name of. I had a delicious crepe (recommended by Aisling) that consisted of mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, and bacon/ham topped with a little bit of pesto sauce. After a long dinner & dessert, we went back to Aisling's dorm for some good old fashioned season 1 of the OC. (Season 1 of the OC was really a big part of my time in Prague -- I both want to kiss Roxana on the cheek and punch her in the face for having it. It was SO GREAT to watch, but now I've got the fever and am going to be searching for all 4 seasons online. I MAY NEVER READ OR WRITE AGAIN!)

Eating our picnic @ the park.

View from the park.

View of the river and bridges from the park, partly obstructed by my stupid camera lens.

Aisling, riding in the elevator up to the top floor in the National Gallery of Art. The elevator was sort of in the middle of the museum and had all-glass walls so you could see everything outside of it. They must be fond of novel elevators in Czechland.

Old man in a cute jacket looking at some of the more traditional art @ the museum.

A diorama.

Like a record baby, right round, right round.

Made me miss my baby blue.

Another diorama/model thing. Doesn't it look like a real building, though?

Reminds me of Kundera, of course.

Records!

See Alice, through the looking glass.

Ok. Thursday morning when I woke up, Aisling was already at her Czech class and so Roxana and I took a tram and walked around Praha 1 (I think) for a little bit. We (she) found a cute garden and then she showed me the David Cerny (there should be a weird accent or two in his last name, but I do Spanish, not Czech) piece where two wooden turquoise men delicately holding their members will spell out text messages in "pee." ... Into a pool the shape of the Czech Republic. Then we went to a coffee place to wait for Aisling and Sophie to get out of class. They have more American-esque coffee in Prague. Or, at least, they have a spectrum of coffee drinks that bridge the gap between espresso and café con leche, which can not really be said for Barcelona.

Aisling brought me a delicious cheese treat from the bakery and then we visited the Old Town Square while sipping on delicious glugenwine (sp?), which is hot spiced wine (of the gods). I saw the Astronomical Clock change hours and then from the top of the clock tower we got to see a really pretty Prague vista.

Next: Onwards and upwards to Café Louvre, which easily could have been a set from Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (which is probably why Aisling is obsessed with it.) (Not that the previous parenthetical was meant to suggest that I am not also obsessed with it.) High ceilings, big windows, Parisian decor, sharply dressed waiters. We spent so long there with our Pilsner-Urquell half liters. Café Louvre also has the cutest matchboxes, one of which I kept as a souvenir.

At night, Aisling and I went out by ourselves to some dumb German place that overcharged us for Pilsners. So we screwed that noise and RAGED at Uvjed (sp?), a three-story bar with cheap Budvar beer. "Budvar" is Budweiser, which Czechs have been eager to point out (to Aisling and Roxana) is not the same as American Budweiser. Apparently it is a girly beer in Prague, but we just thought it was delicious.

Later the bartender came by and delivered shots on the house. When we suspiciously asked what was in the shots, he said, "Oh, an apple." Yyyyikes. No thanks, Captain Roofie. At the end of the night, we tried to take the night tram home, but ended up walking through a death park and several death alleys for ... oh, upwards of two or more hours before finally navigating our way back to Aisling's hostel. It was both a terrifying and a hilarious experience. At some point in the night, I got to speak to Spanish tourists in ... Spanish, which felt good.

Dave Cerny. Men peeing your text messages on Prague.

A close up, for your viewing pleasure.

Prague: EuroPittsburgh. Tons of bridges, similar weather.

Astronomical Clock.

Coffee shop.

Elevator up to the top of the Astronomical Clock tower.

Aisling in the clock tower.

HI HI IT'S US! YOUR FAVORITES!

Look at all those red roofs.

Castle in the distance.

Czech qt.

Old Town Square.

'W' Square. I don't know how to spell the name well enough for Google to even recognize what I mean.

Friday Aisling got out of her last class pretty early, so she met me back at her dorm. We went back to her Czech class to get her final grade from her language class (which was an A because, as her Czech teacher said, "AISLING IS THE BEST STUDENT!!") and then got delicious, cheap sandwiches from a cute bakery and headed to David Cerny's "Babies." We made a pit stop at the building where Aisling's study abroad program has offices because there are crazy elevators that were like some kind of amazing carnival ride. Then, to "Babies." So, "Babies" is a radio tower (or a TV tower maybe) that has giant metal babies with coin slots for eyes crawling all over it. This guy is nuts. And funny.

After that adventure, we headed back to the dorm for some Project Runway/a light nap on Aisling's bed. Roxana and Sophia left on their program's trip to Moravia and Aisling and I had the joint to ourselves for Friday and Saturday night. We got Asian food for dinner (my Thai-style noodles were not Pad Thai as I had expected, but were still delicious) and went back to Aisling's place for dessert (wine and chocolate) and a show (The OC, of course). At night we tried to go to Aloha Wave Café but it was full of old people and expensive drinks, so we went to The Chateau instead, which was equally crowded, but multifloored and somewhat more reasonable. After a beer or two, we decided to really get classy and had mojitos and cosmos. Met a British guy who was @ The Chateau on business -- running a pub crawl. He tried to "pound it"(which is when you pound your fist on another person's fist) with Aisling at one point, and when I asked if they really did that in the UK he said, "Only when we're being GAY." HAHAHA. Later we "danced" with some tall Czech man. Mainly Aisling and I just were dancing like crazy people and kind of avoding him. I don't think he knew what to make of us. I tried to make him twirl but he said that was for girls and that's basically when I knew that he and I wouldn't be friends. The Czech club music is techno-ish and lame, and probably to blame for all the really boring Czech dancers. We had a few more beers and met an Italian before successfully taking the night tram home. Made tons of delicious food back @ Aisling's dorm. Probably watched The OC.

Aisling about to get on to this crazy elevator. There elevator consists of several compartments that are constantly moving upwards on the 'up' side and constantly moving downwards on the 'down' side. You just have to time it right to step onto one of the compartments when it's at your level.

She got into the compartment.

And the compartment goes down! If you ride the elevator all the way to the bottom, then it moves horizontally to the left and starts going upwards, and vice versa if you ride the elevator all the way to the top. I was so amazed by this!

Ah, Cerny.

See 'em?

Evil.

Creep city.

Look at how gleefully Aisling is about Cerny!

Not the biggest Jewish cemetery in Prague, but a neat one that Kafka is buried in.

Pretty with the houses in the background.

Another David Cerny installation? Nope, just a discoball head at The Chateau bar/club. Also, my mojito glass. I kept the pink tennis racket as a souvenir.

Supercute picture of Aisling.

We are, like, the cutest girls in Prague.

Yesterday we woke up appropriately late, had a nice brekky and then went for a stroll around Mala Stranka. Went into some antique shops, which had the coolest pins and teacups and enameled mirrors, but they were all a bit out of my price range. The one marionette store we stopped in was so cool. So many different wooden puppets hanging from the ceiling. I bought a sweet wooden box at a small store for roughtly $2.50 USD. It's pretty and I'm going to keep my necklaces in it.

Eventually we ran into some kind of street parade in Mala Stranka where all these children were dressed up in costumes and piled into the back of horse-drawn carriages. Tons of grown ups were dressed in costume, too. We had no idea what was going on but popped into a pub-type place for a Pilsner-Urquell to get ourselves into the festive spirit. After fruitless attempts to go to two different secondhand stores, we decided to have our romantic walk across the Charles Bridge when we ran into ANOTHER street fair! There were itty bitty stands serving all manner of food and beverage, including the elusive churros con chocolate which I haven't even successfully found in SPAINLAND yet! Golly. Music, costumes, etc.

We made it over Charles Bridge with all of its statues and vendors and wandered around the shops a bit more before taking the tram to our AUTHENTIC ROMANTIC CZECH DINNER at a restaurant three seconds away from Aisling's dorm. Aisling had some fried pork cutlets with potato salad and, duh, a Pilsner Urquell. I got Old Bohemian pork w/ some cabbage dish (kind of like a sweet sauerkraut) and dumplings (which are really bread! or ... something with an extremely bread-like consistency!). And, duh, a Pilsner Urquell. We both had garlic soup for starters (so good) and split hot apple strudel for dessert. After dinner we decided to have a quiet night in because we had to wake up early for my flight, so we watched so much OC!

Marionettes. These ones remind me of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

Aisling + marionettes.

Neat.

Hey, qt.

Kiddies in a carriage.

Hey, qt.

Carriage driver.

Away they go.

IDK, our BFFs the police? And a prisoner? Dispensing beer from their own metal thing?

Disturbing statues near BarBar and Uvjed (sp?).

Again.

Cute canal.

The second street fair we found.

Picture a vendor on Charles Bridge peddling his wares. HAHA YOU DIDN'T IMAGINE THIS, DID YOU? I should've bought one.

Some BA statues on Charles Bridge.

Finally got a decent shot using the "Night Scene" feature on my camera, which is basically just a really, really long exposure. Too bad the railing is so much in the picture, but I couldn't hold my heads steady for, like, the 30 seconds of exposure time. Anyway, a view from the Charles Bridge.

Aisling "I really believe in luck" McDonough, rubbing a statue for good luck.

Sweet building, pretty sky.

This morning we had the delicious, filling, FREE breakfast offered by Aisling's long-term hostel and Aisling assisted me in taking the tram, metro, and bus to the airport. I bought some small souvenirs with the rest of my korunas, although I sadly didn't purchase a CZECH ME OUT t-shirt because they were supa-overpriced.

Here are the things I can sort of say in Czech:
-Hello.
-Goodbye.
-Please.
-Thank you.
-Two beers.
-Push.
-Gay.

Anyway, one of the most amazing weekends I've ever had. It struck the perfect balance between sightseeing and relaxing and between experiencing new things and relishing comfortable things. GOSH! I can't wait until Justin and Stephen come to Euroland and we all reunite in Amsterdam! Just a month or so.

Pretty cute metro in Prague, right?

LISBON

2008-02-04T15:35:00.001-08:00

I just booked a trip to Lisboa! Three nights, two days. Lisa, Luke, Mariel and I are sharing a room at an amazing hostel. Lee and Heather (two of my apartmentmates) are going to be in another room. We're leaving super early on Thursday morning, Feb. 28th. Whhhat an exciting month.

Some pictures of the Black & White Hostel Lisboa:

I'm so excited. Additionally, here are some pictures of Lisbon (courtesy of Google image search):

Vasco de Gama Bridge.

I'm getting myself so siced up.

carnival weekend

2008-02-03T11:42:00.000-08:00

Whirlwind week, but they all are.

I finally started doing laundry some time last week. The washing machine is small, which is unfortunate because I like to do laundry en masse, but I made it work. My apartmentmates hate drying clothes on the clotheslines off of the balcony, but I think not having a drying machine is pretty sweet. You just pin your clothes up and go about your day. Set it and forget it. No being tied down to your laundry for two and a half hours.

Luke says he saw Bob Dylan on the metro this week. I didn't believe him, but then on Wednesday I definitely saw Voldemort on the L3! So.

Luke, Lisa and I went to BB+ on Wednesday night. I love that place, and I love the old couple that runs it. They are so weirdly hip.

Thursday Luke and I went to a itty bitty bar and watched the soccer match. Barce vs. the team from Villaroel. It was a pretty good time even though my donut cost over 2 euros and the icing tasted like earwax. I am just attracted to small dark places where old men like to hang out. No big. Old men are a good time when you're watching a soccer match. Also, I had no idea how ugly Rohnaldino was! Messi is my favorite because he didn't make any mistakes.

Friday morning I went to the Barcelona Botanical Gardens on Montjuic with my Mediterranean environment class. Ughhh I can't wait to do everything on Montjuic. It's a smallish mountain with tons of museums and parks on it, and a castle-esque building at the top (I think). Actually, I think I want to go to Tibidabo Mountain more, because there's a really old amusement park near the top and another huge church/castle looking thing.

Anyway, the BCN Botanical Gardens were pretty cool -- they represent all the biomes w/ Mediterranean climates (Medit. basin, South Africa, southern California, parts of Australia, and one other place). I took lots of pictures of huge aloe plants for my nutter of a mother (love you, Mom!). AND I FINALLY SAW AN OLIVE TREE. Without olives, sadly. After the gardens we took a series of escalators (!!) down Montjuic and got to see Poble España and stuff. I spent the rest of Friday obsessing over bunnies on Las Ramblas and accompanying my apartmentmates on their search for Carnival costumes. I bought a bright yellow Zoro mask for .95 euro.

Saturday I slept late, which felt so good. Luke came over and we wandered L'Exiample (my neighborhood) for awhile looking for this bookstore where he had to buy his books for his Universitat Pompeu Fabra class. Had dinner at the old men's chess bar and then donuts from Moli Vell, a chain (but delicious) bakery on my block. Invited Lisa over for a carnival party. (My roommates took a train to Sitges for the night to get rowdy @ Carnival parties. It was so great to have the apartment to myself.) My Carnival costume consisted of my yellow mask and a moustache that I drew on with eyeliner, and my carnival party consisted of trying to convince Luke to love Modest Mouse and Lisa and I sliding on our knees down the long hallway in my apartment, Battle-Royale style. Later we decided we wanted to go to a big, fat, sloppy dance club but we got distracted by this sweet bar run by the best Polish woman. The Pole directed us to a kebab place across the street. Kebabs are not kebabs here. They're pitas. Weird. But delicious and cheap. We all got mesmerized by a televised Shakira concert at the kebab place and then decided to go home.

Pictures tomorrow or Tuesday.

Today was productive. On Friday Justin and I booked our spring break flights/trains to Paris and Amsterdam (after an arduous 3 hour Skype session), and today I took care of the hostels. Amsterdam hostels are all completely full for the weekend that we're going. Kind of a bummer because I would've really liked to stay in the Bulldog or the Flying Pig, but I'm sure it'll be perfect and fun no matter what.

SPRING BREAK PLANS!

Saturday, March 15: Justin and I leave Barcelona @ 7:55 p.m., arrive in Paris @ 9:40 p.m.; stay at Luna Park Ho(s)tel for five nights.
Thursday, March 20: We take the train from Paris's Gare du Nord at 3:25 p.m. and arrive in Amsterdam's Centraal Station at 7:36 p.m.; meet up with Aisling and Steev; stay at Hotel de Lataerne for three (ridiculous) nights.
Sunday, March 23: Justin and I leave Amsterdam @ 12:15 p.m. and arrive back in Barcelona at 4 p.m.

So excited! Also so excited for Prague in a few days, although I'm positive I'm going to freeze. No matter. I know Ais is really prepared for the cold weather and will have plenty of scarves and mittens to lend me. Also, I plan on drinking a lot of the hot spiced wine drink that they sell on the streets! I hope to feel a little bit rich in Prague because it'll at the very least be somewhat less costly than the INSANE city of Barcelona. I can't wait. I am so nervous about going to a country where I don't know the language. I'm just sure something silly is going to happen on the cab from the airport to Aisling and Roxana's dorm. Oh, well. All in the spirit of euroadventure.

barcelona is as trippy as i would've hoped and I'M GOING TO PRAGUE NEXT WEEK

2008-01-28T13:32:00.001-08:00

This Friday I went to Parc Guell with my apartmentmates. It was designed by Gaudí. IT IS AWESOME.

Cat.

The entrance to Parc Guell. Pay attention to the roof of the columned building. There are more pictures of that part later.

Ginger bread-esque house that Courtney plans to own one day.

I like Gaudí's texture the best.

Courtney.

Without Courtney.

THE BIGGEST ALOE PLANTS EVER??!

Arbols.

Barcelona! ...And smog.

Uggo picture of me.

Possibly the house of the guy that paid Gaudí to make Parc Guell?

Some vendors and some couples.

Don't call these benches "mosaics." Gaudí would be offended. Mosaics are made with regularly sized pieces (squares). Gaudí used irregularly-sized pieces. (These are on the top of that balcony that you could see from the entrance.)

Exit of Parc Guell as pictured from the balcony.

PROJECT RUNWAY. ya heardd???

Mmn columns.

Y más.

Notmosaics.

More notmosaics.

Me and the lizard.

Exit building.

Luke crying about how he only has 2 euros left.

Lee et Luke.

BB+, mi favorito.

Lee, Meganpurpletongue, y Luke.

Dragonfaces.

I'M GOING TO VISIT AISLING IN PRAGUE NEXT WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY! I couldn't be more excited.

Keep Marjorie close to your heart, as always.

poorly-organized thoughts

2008-01-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

Classes started on Monday. Two of them are going to be fun and two of them are going to be lame. I'm really excited about my Mediterranean environment class because my professor is awesome and chill and is taking us on a trip to Girona! Excellent. Plus there is an interesting character w/ a mustache in that class who is friends w/ my friend Lisa and seems pretty sweet. We have to write a term paper w/ a partner and I hope to partner with him because (a) he is an environmental science major and (b) HE HAS A MUSTACHE.

The other class that I really like is my billion-hour-a-week Spanish class. My professor is nice and gives us interesting things to do in class. We speak a lot, which is exactly what I want to be doing. I am surprised that I'm one of the better students. No one here can speak. It's just Spanish, guys. It's pretty much the easiest language to learn. Anyway, that class is teensy bit of a bummer because I have homework every night and my first quiz tomorrow, but I think I'm going to get a lot out of it.

My art history class (with a focus on Barcelona) should be awesome, but my professor has thus far completely failed to make it at all interesting. And my literature class ("The Spanish Picaresque") sucks because it's full of English majors (read: faux-intellectual blowha). The professor is nice enough but asks really stupid questions like "What /is/ 'normal,' anyway?" Gag me.

In other news, all my apartmentmates decided to take classes at 8:30 in the morning (WHAT? THIS IS /STUDY ABROAD/. HONESTLY.), and on Monday they woke me up 2 hours before I needed to start getting ready. Luckily, Megan has a bag of the most amazing ear plugs ever and I've been sleeping well for the past couple nights.

(I am so excited for Aisling and Marjorie to get to Euroland. I cannot WAIT.)

Here is my tentative travel itinerary for my time "studying" abroad:
-January: Valencia, Spain (check); Terragona, Spain (check)
-February: Budapest, Hungary (if Marjorie is down)
-March: Girona, Spain; Paris, France; Amsterdam, Netherlands
-April: Prague, Czech Republic (if Aisling is down); then the cheapest flight I can find to anywhere -- probably to Rome, Italy or Dublin, Ireland

Some observations about Barcelona/Espana:
-All the Spaniards think it's freezing here. It's usually 55-60 degrees F.
-The street signs are on the sides of buildings. ¡Que dificil!
-The street corners aren't squared. I don't know how to explain it.
-"Vale, vale, vale, vale, vale, vale!"
-Spaniards <3 ham. They call ham and cheese sandwiches 'biquinis' or 'bikinis.' (<-- Only in Barcelona.) And their cheese (manchego, I think) is way better than ours.
-There are bars in the metro stations.
-I've only encountered one person who didn't speak any Castillian Spanish, and it was an 80-year-old man in a chess bar. But most of the signs on the street are in Catalan and so are a lot of the menus.
-The ladies wear boots a LOT (you know, because they think it's freezing), and they're really into wearing the same color boots as their tights or the same color boots as their pants. A monochromatic leg. I'm kind of into it.
-Rebajas/Rebaixes (Boxing Day sales) are about to end, so I bought an excellent shirt, some short boots, and a school bag (how did I forget to bring a bag big enough for books/notebooks?).
-H&Ms here have a lot more shoes, and they're pretty cheap (except for the boots).
-BB+ is the best bar in town.
-The bakeries are so, so, so, so appetizing.
-Tapas are kind of expensive.
-Everything is kind of expensive, except groceries and BB+.
-Women wear wedding rings on their right hand, men wear them on the left.
-Everyone has a balcony. There really aren't any houses at all in the city. Maybe, like, two.
-The average Spaniard dresses about 20x better than Americans do.
-Where I live is really, really sweet.

Every night for dinner, I eat diced tomatoes and zucchini simmered in white wine, garlic, and black pepper. Sometimes I add chick peas. It's delicious.

I can't think of anything more to say.

weekend trip to valencia and terragona

2008-01-20T14:16:00.000-08:00

Bonjour! The weekend was pretty sweet, even though IES made us wake up at 8 a.m. or earlier everyday. And walk for miles and miles and miles. But everything was beautiful!

Friday we set out for Valencia at 8 a.m. and arrived around 1 p.m. We were randomly assigned roommates for our hotel rooms. My roommate was a girl from BC who talked constantly about her hair straightener and had a best friend who thinks "America is great, Spain sucks." No big deal because all I did in my room was take naps from 7-9 and sleep from 3 a.m.-7:30 a.m. After a teensy nap, we got split up into our bus groups again for a bus tour and then a walking tour of the city. I reconnected with a boy I met the first day of orientation. His name's Luke and I guess we're pretty good friends now. Anyway, Luke and I become obsessed with our tour guide, Jorge, for whom we created an entire tragic back story. The love was completely requited. At night I went to Calle de los Caballeros with two of my roommates and another girl that lives on Avenida de Sarria in Barcelona. It was a little bit of a bust because the street is famous for bars and clubs, so naturally, it's pretty expensive. We found a bar that was reasonable and then I met up with Luke and three of his friends who took me to a cheaper bar. So I kind of ditched my roommates, but I wasn't really down for another night of going to a club and watching them make out with Eurotrash. And Luke and his friends are awesome and more my kind of people.

Anyway, pictures from the city tour of Valencia:

Just a beautiful apartment building I saw.

The bullfighting stadium. I'm really into those sunflare thingys in pictures, can you tell?

Bullfighting stadium, again.

Another pretty apartment building.

I believe this is a Valencian Generalitat (government) building.

I don't remember what this building is, but it's amazing against the sky.

Valencian oranges -- kind of. According to Jorge, the oranges that grow wild are bitter and bad. I wanted to try them for myself, but chickened out on picking one.

This giant gold thing is inside of the Catedral de Valencia. It was a gift from some other government. Pretty sweet regalo, no?

Also inside the Catedral.

Outside of the Catedral.

Inside of an ancient merchant's market.

The sky was so pretty, all day and all night.

I guess I was a bad student in Valencia -- I don't remember what this building is at all.

On Saturday we went to L'Oceanographic, which is an aquarium. It's a part of La Ciudad del Arte y Ciencia, a huge complex of art and science museums. Then we went to the science museum, which was kind of a bust. Luke and I slept on chairs in the science museum because we were so completely exhausted. After our 9 hour day of tours, I caught a quick nap at the hotel before getting pizza and with Luke, Lisa, Drew and Anar. Found a dirt cheap bar close to the hotel later in the night where we ran into three of my apartmentmates. Lisa drew portraits of people on napkins. Headed back to the hotel kind of early to go to sleep.

Here are some pictures from L'Oceanographic and the science museum:

Luke and I fell in love with this beautiful seakitten!

I got such sweet pictures of these glowing jellyfish.

Right?

Anar swore this would be a good picture despite the aquarium's no-flash policy. Didn't really end up that way, though.

The Ciudad del Arte y Ciencia complex. I forgot to mention that the complex also includes an opera house.

Inside the science museum.

This exhibit was an optical illusion involving a mirrored view of the DNA double helix that made you feel like you were going to fall to the center of the earth/rise to the sky.

This morning we took a three hour bus ride to Terragona, which was back in the direction of Barcelona. We took a tour of Roman ruins and then had some free time to eat lunch. Terragona was beautiful and much less of a city than Valencia or Barcelona -- in a good way. The people didn't hate us for being American or stare at us. It was a really relaxed seaside town.

Pictures:

Morning flea market outside of a huge church in Terragona.

Part of a Roman amphitheater.

Entrance to the amphitheater. There was a cat rolling around in the dust of the ruins. What a life.

Terragona and the Mediterranean.

Terragona, with the GLADIATOR arena ruins!

Arena.

Inside the arena, where some guy later built a church.

Classes start tomorrow. I'm excited to have more alone time and less of a group schedule with my roommates. I like them and all, but it's annoying having virtually no privacy for two weeks straight.

eek

2008-01-17T17:22:00.000-08:00

I am a little bit homesick for the second time today. I think it's just because I can't fall asleep. It is passing, or it has passed, but either way acknowledging it will make it go away faster.

At any rate, Justin sent me this picture of a retarded tiger, which cheered me up:

Hope it does the same for you!

(Also, I usually treat internet communications pretty casually, hence my neglect to use proper capitalization/punctuation, but I recently noticed that my "casual" style led to an inconsistency in my use of apostrophes/neglect to use apostrophes and decided to institute a new policy of proper written English -- although I can't always promise perfect grammar.)

my tour w/ <3marga<3

2008-01-17T09:48:00.000-08:00

pictures from our walking/metro tour with our spanish language/cultural orientation teacher marga, who might be my new best friend:

the really famous gaudi house on la manzana de la discordia, or the "block of discord." there are 3 famous architects who built beautiful houses on this block and the "discord" is over which house is best.

a more close-up version of the gaudi house. its 13 euros for student passes to get inside. i've heard it's amazing, so i'll have to check it out.

inside another one of the houses in la manzana de la discordia. i think there used to be a chocolatier in this house, but i'm not sure. marga was un poco difficult to understand w/the echoey acoustics.

you can see some of the towers of la sagrada familia (superfamous gaudi church/cathedral) down the avenida.

Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (in catalan). marga is in the green and megan's in the blue. marga said, "en serio, hay enfermos aqui," which, if i may be trusted to translate for you, means "seriously, there /are/ sick people here." it is the most amazing hospital ever! tons of beautiful buildings that are all connected by an underground network of tunnels. so much green space and fountains outside!

a more unobstructed view of the front of the hospital.

'inside' the open-air courtyard of the first hospital building.

another hospital building.

there are a ton of orange trees at the hospital! i wanted to pick one so badly, but i didn't know if it was allowed. the oranges here are THE BEST.

another hospital building. why do i cut everything off? aye.

...and another hospital building. there were so many more that i didn't take pictures of, but all beautiful. i also really wanted to take pictures of all the patients in robes and doctors in coats who were smoking. it's just /funny/ that everyone smokes here.

la sagrada familia, finally! superfamous gaudi church/cathedral that isn't going to be finished until approx. 2050. the most amazing thing about it was the texture, and the detail.

again.

people, to give you an idea of scale.

some of the towers. i think there are 12 total, for the 12 apostles. also, check out that guy that's sitting on the bit of stone that spans the 2 center towers.

the guy furthest the left is meant to be gaudi, according to marga. and she seems to be a pretty big fan of gaudi. here are things marga likes to tell people (as in, i have heard them from her on more than one occasion): 1. when she was looking for apartments to move into w/ her husband after they were (recently) married, she saw one by la sagrada familia and became obsessed with la sagrada familia and subsequently insisted that they move into the apartment so that she could see la sagrada every day; 2. a year ago, she never would have even THOUGHT about getting married (she's 39, but looks damn good.). also she apparently loves americans, which is super, super rare in a spaniard.

i leave you with this. the green stuff is construction, as im sure you can see.

more pictures

2008-01-17T05:15:00.000-08:00

candy @ la boqueria.

again.

i took this picture so that i can get a free pass into 6 of barcelona's best museums. and also for you guys. it's kind of @ port olympic.

port olympic, definitely.

an avenue to the beach. this is what it's like to walk around barce.

otra vez.

I MADE IT TO THE BEACH!

and there were waves! but no sun.

this spanish couple totally ruined my shot of port olympic. it's ok because i love it when old people hold hands.

more palm trees and montjuic in the background. lauren and kerry live at the base of montjuic, i think? but i wouldn't know, because we haven't hung out yet.

plaza catalunya (half in spanish, half in catalan), where i go to school. they park vespas on the sidewalk. it's really confusing if you're a walker.

kkkk lovebye

tuesday update

2008-01-15T07:08:00.000-08:00

my language/cultural orientation classes have been going well so far. mostly we just speak in spanish about how pickpocketers (or carteristas) operate, where they operate, why they operate, etc., etc., etc. ad nauseum. i guess the good thing about there being so much pickpocketing is that there allegedly isn't much violent crime in barcelona ("no hay armas," my teacher keeps repeating). anyway, my mom would be happy that they are beating us all over the head with the 'watch out for pickpocketers' speeches.

so far, i havent seen many of the great sights in barcelona other than touristy places like las ramblas. sometimes i get anxious about it and feel like i should've already seen and done so much, but then i remind myself that i'm here for 4 months and i might as well pace myself. more than anything, i've been trying to acclimate myself to the culture and daily life in barcelona, and i think i've been very successful on that front. i can go grocery shopping, i can buy a metro pass, i can order at restaurants and bars, i can ask for directions, i can cross the street, i can light the stove with a match, i can take 6 minute showers. i haven't done laundry yet, which might be a debacle, but i'll power through it.

i still havent eaten churros or seen the mediterranean, and i plan on accomplishing at least one of those goals tonight.

i ate my first spanish paella on saturday night! paella is basically rice seasoned with saffron (and probably lots of other things) with lots of different seafood and sometimes beef in it. our paella had shrimp, mussels, clams, and beef. it was a bit difficult to eat because you had to constantly take things out of shells or pick bones out of the beef, but my first plate was SO, SO delicious. then my second plate started to make me a little nauseous because the rice tasted overwhelimingly of seafood. so i recommend paella in small portions. really awesome, though. and expensive.

i am kind of annoyed that we have to go to valencia this weekend because it's going to be a lot of waking up early and being herded like sheep. thats ungrateful of me, i know. but traveling is just such a pain and id rather spend the weekend seeing the sights of barcelona. valencia is supposed to be beautiful, though, and we get to go to an aquarium! great. ill sice myself up about it.

FIRST PICTURE POST YAY

2008-01-12T11:51:00.000-08:00

bienvenidos a mi apartamento! 29 la avenida sarria, el segundo piso, numero 1.

hallway. four bedrooms: 2 singles, 2 doubles. hana and megan have the singles, courtney and heather room together and i room with lee.

lee in our kitchen.

cooking rice.

bathroom number 1.

me in bathroom number 2!

...which has a bidet!

our bedroom. lee is on the right and i'm on the left.

desk. i hung my pictures up right after i took these photos, so maybe i'll do a reshoot later.

my half of l'armoire.

sitting room and window. there is a couch that you can't see.

our little balcony.

loud children. acutally, the babies are the really annoying ones, but these guys aren't anything close to quiet, either.

panoramic view from my balcony. my building backs up to the backs of lots of other apartment buildings. there isn't really a courtyard, though.

panorama 2.

panorama 3. some of these are blurry. tsorry.

las ramblas, aka pickpocket central.

the entrance to la boqueria.

la boqueria.

fruta.

meat.

fresh meat.

cute, right?

an alley.

megan and i at la boqueria. she looks different in photographs than in person. she is REALLY FUNNY.

olives at la boqueria!

heaven.

chocolate.

chocolate teacups.

part of the cathedral.

at port olympic. it looked like these men were flying a big kite full of light, but then we realized that there was road construction going on and they used this floating high intensity light to light the road at night time. sweet, though.

lee and megan at BB+.

colleen, heather, and i at BB+.

hopefully better pictures later, but i know that aisling and stephen are growing impatient.

el fin de semana

2008-01-12T11:36:00.000-08:00

my first weekend in barcelona has been pretty packed. thursday after our language class we had lunch with some girls from the program who are living in a CONVENT! they have an 11.30 curfew and are trying to move somewhere else. bummer city for them. after lunch we came back to the apartment for a little siesta (i am obsessed with siestas and have taken one every day) before going to a reception that IES threw for all the students and faculty at a really nice hotel. we used the metro for the first time to get to the hotel! a 10-use metro pass costs 7.20 euros, which i think is a pretty good deal. the metro here is more like the new york subway, where you pay by the trip and not by the distance from point A to point B (like the DC metro). it's really easy to use and my apartmentmate megan thinks it's the cleanest metro she's ever seen. the reception was really nice. they served a ton of really delicious tapas. there was one that was sort of a smoked salmon and cream cheese thing. bread was involved. they all looked really difficult to make and were completely delicious.

thursday night we decided to explore the nightlife a little bit (thanks to no classes on fridays!), and our RA recommended a bar called BB+ (or "Bebe Más," which means "drink more") where you get a liter of beer for 5 euros. we really liked the place and went again last night and will probably stop by at least for a little bit tonight. i think it's great because it's kind of a hole in the wall and there aren't any americans, which means i get to practice my spanish a lot. i've already perfected the barcelona accent! ... or so i think, anyway. i do get a lot of compliments on my spanish, which is reassuring. i thought i would be much more self-conscious and nervous about speaking, but it's really just fun and the more i speak, the better i'll become.

yesterday we all went exploring in barcelona. we walked to las ramblas, which is a famously touristy street with live statues and souvenir shops and BUNNY VENDORS!! and street performers, etc. etc. also there is a food market called la boqueria which is amazing. i bought some fresh strawberry juice for a euro. (pictures on the next post!) after la boqueria we went to port olympic, but it was getting dark so we couldn't see all that much. we also thought there would be sand visible but there was just a dock with big ships. so we haven't seen the beach yet but we're determined to get there tomorrow. we had dinner at a touristy outdoor restaurant on las ramblas where we totally got TAKEN. our bocadillos cost 5 euros and our sodas were SEVEN EUROS! oh, well. lesson learned.

last night, as i said, we went to BB+ after we attempted to go to another bar called pippermint which we decided was way overpriced. that was fun but we were too tired to do anything during the day today -- probably because we've walked at least 15 miles in the last 4 days.

tonight my apartmentmate heather is turning 23 so we're going out for paella and then probably to a club of some kind. i've never been to a club before, and i have a feeling it's not really my scene, but the clubs here are supposed to be BEAUTIFUL. so i'll give it a try.

much love from barce.

2008-01-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

le sigh. i am very tired because i there is a kindergarten on the first floor of my apartment building and the kids really, really love to scream. today also they were moving furniture for hours. and hours. i'm going to have to figure out the spanish words for ear plugs. and then go buy some. or twenty.

anyway, last night my apartmentmates and i went out to dinner at this place that we thought was a restaurant but turned out to be more of a chess bar for old men that happened to serve some tortillas and empanadillas. it was ... a debacle. no one can speak spanish except for me and this girl who has a degree in spanish. the hot girl apartmentmate literally speaks no spanish and was just shouting at this poor barlady and using crude sign language. in the end the barlady ended up giving us a lot of free pan con tomate, so i guess she wasn't THAT insulted. probably she was just happy to see some females under the age of 70. anyway, the tortillas (which are not at all what you would think ... they are more like fritatas [sp?], egg and assorted fillers like potatoes or zucchini) were delicious and cheap and the wine was SUPER cheap, so i'll probably end up back there again.

i had kind of a late night last night in general just because i wasn't tired, and then i woke up at 6am and couldn't sleep. was up til 8.30 and then the kids downstairs started crying and the furniture got moved and i got maybe another 45 minutes of sleep before i had to go to this orientation meeting.

i convinced everybody to walk to the IES center today, which is where we'll be taking our classes. it's a little over 2 miles, but i think i'm going to try to do it everyday unless it's raining. it's a nice walk and there's tons of coffee places etc. to stop at. (and of course, by coffee i mean espresso. apparently the eurofolks do nothing but espresso.)

at any rate, the orientation session was lame and just a bunch of stuff i already knew. my RA took us on a "barrio tour" today and then hung out in our room forever trying to fix the internet so that one of the girls could finally connect to the internet.

tonight everybody's going out to this party/dinner but i'm staying home in the apartment. im going to catch up on american television and hopefully get a full night's sleep.

au revoir, mes amis.

clases!

2008-01-08T10:41:00.001-08:00

I have a pretty sweet class schedule. Here it is.

Monday:
10.15-11.45 am | International Events in Barcelona: An Artistic Approach
1.45-3.30 pm | Intensive Advanced Spanish in Usage I-II

Tuesday:
1.45-3.30 pm | Intensive Advanced Spanish in Usage I-II
3.45-5.15 pm | The Spanish Picaresque
5.30-7.00 pm | Mediterranean Environment

Wednesday:
10.15-11.45 am | International Events in Barcelona: An Artistic Approach
1.45-3.30 pm | Intensive Advanced Spanish in Usage I-II

Thursday:
1.45-3.30 pm | Intensive Advanced Spanish in Usage I-II
3.45-5.15 pm | The Spanish Picaresque
5.30-7.00 pm | Mediterranean Environment

Friday-Sunday:
PLAYTIME

2008-01-08T04:05:00.000-08:00

i'm /finally/ in barcelona, after spending the last 20 hours in
transit.

heathrow airport is incredibly weirdly designed and i don't like it at all. it is,
however, the only place i managed to get any sleep.

my spanish apartment is pretty amazing. i got a double even though there are two
singles (bummer) and i'm sharing a room with a sorority girl (double bummer), but i
like my roommate alright and the apartment has a kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and a baby
itty bitty balcony! it's also right next door to a supermercado and there are a ton
of really narrow, charming restaurants and little bars the size of a bedroom on my
block. plus fresh seafood and produce markets, cafes, una farmacia, bike shops. also
on my block is a store that sells and repairs mopeds, which are INCREDIBLY popular
here. i briefly considered blowing all my savings on a cute moped, but then
remembered that as i was coming into the city by taxi, i witnessed an old lady
basically get run over by a moped.

pictures etc. later! today i have a completely free day and i should probably use it
trying to make friends with the kids in my program, but i really just want to roam
the streets. and so far, i've been really, really disappointed by the overall
quality of these chumps. two spanish girls ruthlessly made fun of these stupid girls
from my program who were siced on their fancy rental cellphones. lame.

the absolute best part about spain so far has been speaking spanish! im not that
great but just trying is fun.