Pictures from Spain

So I think this should work, but I'm not sure. Let me know if it doesn't. Here are the links to my albums on Facebook from Barcelona and Madrid; copy and paste, and enjoy!

Barcelona: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2658842&id=7921292&l=26ac0eb8e9

Madrid: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2658874&id=7921292&l=d024d1f8c1

Madrid Day 3

Today was not a great day. Nothing majorly bad happened, so don't be concerned, but it was just full of mishaps and bad luck. I'm not going to write about it because I don't particularly want to focus on it or remember it later. Stuff happens.

Tomorrow is a new day. I get to see Mom and Dad in Paris, so yaaaaaayyyyy!!!

Madrid Days 1 & 2

Hola! Buenos Dias! Gracias!

That's all the Spanish I've learned in nearly a week in Spain...and everyone seems to say valle (sp?) a lot, which I think means 'okay'...

So anyway, I arrived in Madrid yesterday. The weather hasn't been as good as in Barcelona, but it's only actually rained for a couple of hours and (thank god for my acclimatization in Switzerland) I haven't found it that cold, even though the locals are bundled up like Christmas is next week. On day one, I had the afternoon to kill, so I made my way over to Paseo del Prado to the Museo del Prado--one of the largest exhibitions of Spanish, as well as European, art. Lots of Goya and Velasquez here. It was a lovely museum, but to be honest I quickly get tired of looking at picture after picture of Jesus at various points in his life, or the Virgin Mary, or, for a little variety, some saints I know nothing about. I think maybe if I knew more about it all--what the imagery means, how the styles evolved, I might enjoy it more. As it is, it all looks the same to me. So after that I headed over to the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia--Madrid's modern art museum. I enjoyed this one a lot, though modern art does tend to be touch and go with me. Often it appears to me that it's people with no talent who have let their wild imaginings run away and called anything that pops into their head art. There was an exhibition involving recordings of everyday conversations coming from inside bottles of cleaning supplies. It was in Spanish, so the effect was really lost on me. Going back a few days, in Barcelona I went to a really great modern art museum--one of the first that I've really enjoyed and been drawn to a good portion of the works. It was mostly stuff done between the late 1940s and late 1970s, and the artists seemed to actually have well-developed artistic talent. That said, the Reina Sofia was really nice, and I want to go back because I wasn't able to see a big piece by Picasso that they have.

So that was it for yesterday. This morning, I got up and did a tour of all of the major attractions of Madrid. The Palacio Real was beautiful, as was the Catedral de la Almudena next to it--the cathedral had some really interesting stained glass windows, almost modernist, as if Picasso designed them. Then I moved on to the Plaza Mayor, and over to the Parque de El Retiro. The park was gorgeous; it's enormous, with tons of fountains and kind of lanes running through it with overgrown trees that make you feel like you're in a forest alone rather than a public park in the middle of a capital city. Oddly enough, there is also the only statue of Satan in a public space--it's beautifully done, and kind of sad. So I wandered through the park a bit--I was unimporessed by the 2 ¨palaces¨in it, which were more like small conservatories built for one of the past kings for when he wanted to wander through the park too. Then I moved on to the Puerta de Alcala--one of the historical gates to the city--and on to Plaza de Santa Ana, which is apparently where all of the people would hang out post-bullfight to discuss the days events. Earnest Hemingway also liked to get drunk there...awesome...

And thus ended my second day in Madrid. I'm going to go out shortly for some tapas and a drink, then maybe try to see a flamenco show tonight. Probably early to bed, though--all this adventuring is exhausting!

Barcelona Day 3 - Gaudi is a Genius

So I've had my final day in Barcelona, and in the morning I'm off to Madrid.

I started today with a trip up to Tibidabo--I took a bus, another bus, and the funicular up to the top of the mountain for a look at the church and amusement park. The church is really nice; kind of small and quant, with some really lovely stained glass windows. The view from up there would normally be great, but unfortunately it was cloudy this morning so I couldn't see much. Luckily, I saw plenty of panoramic views of the city from Montjuic yesterday, so I wasn't too disappointed. After the church, I checked out the little amusement park up there. I don't know why, but there were very few people there today, so the place was deserted and a little bit creepy--something about an empty amusement park makes my skin crawl. So, I caught the funicular back down and continued on my way.

At this point I gave up on public transport for basically the whole day, and I'm pretty sure I walked all of Barcelona. My feet really really hurt. I wandered around for probably an hour or more looking for Parc Guell--a development masterminded by the incomparable Gaudi and turned into a public park. My great sense of direction took me in a couple of circles, then, when I thought I was definitely going the wrong direction but walking forward anyway (looking for a bus stop) I found the street I was looking for. It had a sign pointing toward Parc Guell, so I followed along, but the signs stopped and I was lost again. Anyway, I wandered a while longer and eventually found the back entrance to the Parc. That was another mistake, as all of the paths leading to the monuments area--which is really the only thing anyone goes to Parc Guell for--were blocked off with fences. So I wandered about, following path after path that each invariably led to a locked gate and a sign saying ¨Monuments Gaudi¨that I could not follow, for probably another hour. I felt like I was in a nightmarish fun house designed to drive me slowly insane. Finally, I ran into a lovely Chillean girl who was in the same predicament (it wasn't just me going crazy, thank God), and together we found our way around to the front entrance and the desired monuments. Those were amazing. I cannot emphasize enough how incredible Gaudi's work is. A lot of the work there--benches and fountains and houses--were done in large part in mosaic tiles, which must have taken ages. But more than that, there's just a shape to Gaudi's work that I have never seen and whih is incredibly appealing. I'll put pictures up when I can; it's really fantastic.

So then the Chillean girl (her name escapes me now) and I walked over to the Sagrada Familia--a much further walk than I had anticipated, but again, totally worth it. And it was handy to have a Spanish speaker around to ask directions. The Sagrada Familia is now my favorite church in Europe. As I was explaining to a very nice Catalan guy in a park yesterday, all of the churches in Europe are done in pretty much the same style--big archways, stained glass windows, carvings of various saints in various numbers, Jesus on the cross, etc. They are beautiful and moving, but after seeing so many in so many cities over the last few years, they're a little boring. The Sagrada Familia follows the blueprint of these--the archways and windows and carvings--but Gaudi makes it so much more interesting with his modernist shapes. The carvings were much more emotional than the normal ones of dead saints--they depicted actual scenes from the Bible, with very human expressions of abject sadness and faith and determination. Most churches have a much more staid feeling to them; something about the Sagrada Familia is much more accessable. And again, the shapes that his buildings take are so abnormal but beautiful. You wonder what was going on in his mind to have been able to create these things. It's really been my favorite part of Spain so far.

Leaving there, I made one last trek accross the city for a final walk down La Rambla, then stopped for some fantastic Paella--whoever came up with that is a genius too--and made my way back to the hostel. Now it's time for bed, and more Spanish adventures tomorrow.

Barcelona Day 2

I feel like I've walked miles and miles and miles; my feet definitely hurt. BUT, it's worth it.

Yesterday (Day 2) started off with a wonderful little breakfast at a cafe just up the street from my hostel called Buenas Migas; I had a pastry of some kind--it had raisins, and oatmeal, and I think every drop of sugar in Spain. It was very rich, but absolutely delicious. Then I walked (a long, long way) over to Plaça de Espanya. It's a huge square with a fountain in the middle and the grand entrance to Montjuic--a big hill/mountain with the olympic stadium, several gardens, a few museums and an old castle. It would take too long to describe all of those here--I'll put up pictures in a couple of weeks when I get home--but suffice to say it was all very grand and impresive; and I got a nice hill workout. The views from the cable car up to the castle, looking out over all of Barcelona, were amazing.

The weather continued to be gorgeous, so after walking around Montjuic all day I returned to the hostel to change shoes (so different parts of my feet could get a chance to blister) and then walked all around the port and Batti Gottic. I was looking for some good guitar music, but there was none to be found, so I just kept walking. There was a choir doing some singing outside of the Catedral--oddly enough, they weren't doing much gospel; more show-tunes. Have you ever heard ¨Summer Lovin'¨in Spanish (possibly Catalan)? I have...So I strolled a little longer, back throught the Born district with all it's fabulous little shops that I very industriously resisted going into (you should appreciate that that is like an alcoholic walking down a street full of bars and resisting going in them, even when all the drinks are 50% off...). Then I strolled back to the metro (lazy, I know, but I just couldn't walk anymore) and went back to the hostel.

It looks from this post like I didn't do much, but really I did a lot--too much to write about in fact. You'll see pictures soon. Today, my final day in Barcelona, I'm going to figure out how to get up to Tibidabo for some more great views of the city, then finish everything off by exploring Gaudi at Guell Park and the Sagrada Familia. I leave in the morning for Madrid!

Barcelona Day 1

I finally arrived in Barcelona!!! After having a lovely Easter Brunch in Geneva with some friends, I hopped on a bus, train, then plane headed west to Spain. The traveling was pretty easy, except for teh 18kg extra bag I'm carting around to give to Mom and Dad when I see them next week so they can take it home for me--my hope is that for once when I come home permanently (in July) I won´t have to pay for excess baggage weight. So yeah, my arms are pretty sore from lugging that around the city getting to my hostel, but I'll live. The hostel is nice, as hostels go. It's in what appears to be a very safe area in this great big old building with a winding marble staircase a really old (safe? maybe) elevator running up the middle. It's surrounded by a street of designer shops, which makes me feel safer--Chanel wouldn't set up in a bad part of town, right? The only bad part of the hostel is that somehow my sheets have disappeared. I left them on my bed yesterday, and when I returned in the evening they were gone...I'm still waiting to ask the maid. I mean, who steals sheets???

So anyway, I started my first full day here with an aimless walk down Pasieg de Gracia toward Plaça de Catalunya--a lovely little park at the head of La Rambla, which is the most famous street in Barcelona. The weather was gorgeous all day long for my strolling. So then I wandered down La Rambla with all the other tourists. It's a beautiful tree-lined street with restaurants and street entertainers all along the way. There were some of the most elaborate "statue people" I have ever seen--you know, those people who paint themselves a metalic color and stand really still until they pop out and scare someone? There were some truely amazing ones on La Rambla. As it was Easter Monday, a lot of the shops and such were closed, which helped keep me from shopping. However, I did lose an obscene amount of money at one of the only open Change offices. I had been unable to exchange money in Geneva before leaving because Alice didn't pay me until Friday night, and (again, Easter weekend) everything was closed in Geneva all weekend. So, I needed to exchange money--a lot of it, mostly for use on this 2 weeks of traveling and some to send home with M&D to put in my bank account. Anyway, the sign said ¨no commision¨ which is great. So this is how it went:

Me: I need to change this to Euros.
Guy: Okay.
Me: No commission, right?
Guy: Si, no commision.

I hand over the money, he does his thing, I sign the receipt, he hands me the Euros and my copy of the receipt, and I walk out as I look things over. Then I stop abruptly when I see on the receipt ¨Service Fee: 358Euros¨WHAT?? The ¨No Commision¨place charged me a 358Euro (more than $400) fee to change my money! So I went back in to demand an explanation,

The guy explained: ¨there is no commission when we are buying Euros; when we sell them it's an 18% commission¨
Me: but you said there was no commission when I asked, and obviouly I was buying Euros, not selling them. You lied!

The guy looks confused, his manager comes over, I explain. The manager says there is nothing he can do. I yell a little--money is really tight right now, I can't afford to just let this go. Yelling doesn't work, so I cry a litte (I know it's girly and wrong, but they were real tears of frustration) and he finally relents and gives me back 1/2 of the commission they took--179 Euro, which means it still cost me 179Euro to change the money, but there was no way I was going to get it all back.

So that really really sucked, and I'm still mad about it, and it ruined my day for a little bit, but then I reminded myself that I'm in Barcelona and I can't change what happened and I should just have a good time. So I did (until my sheets were stolen--bad luck that day--but I got over that too).

So, I continued down La Rambla toward the Monument to Christopher Columbus, then walked along Port Vell. The boardwalk along the port is a great place to just stroll--it's somewhere I would go running if I lived here. There are people just sunning themselves, and ice-cream vendors and restaurants (I had a burrito, it was awesome), and the guys sellling illegal handbag and sunglasses knock-offs who have to pack up in 2 seconds everytime the police drive by. It's lots of fun. So I followed the port until I broke off to head toward Santa Maria del Mar--a gorgeous church. It was closed--doesn't that seem like the one place that should be open on Easter Monday? Apparently not. I'm told I have to go back so that I can go inside. From there I walked over to the Catedral in the Barri Gotic district--the Old Town of Barcelona. It has wonderful narrow streets and cobblestones, and in several places there are men sitting outside playing the Spanish guitar. The Catedral was gorgeous, and I was able to go on the rooftop for an amazing view of the city. My favorite part was the Cloister--a wonderfully cool and quite garden with a beautiful and simple fountain, and the afternoon sun was just perfect, and I could faintly hear a street guitarist playing. That was a perfect moment. After leaving there, I watched the street musician play for a bit, and bought one of his CDs as my Barcelona souvenire.

I wandered the old town a bit more, then headed over to the Arc de Triomf--nice, but couldn´t really compare to the Arc de Triomph in Paris. It's courtyard, though, leads to the Parc de la Ciutadella, which is the perfect place to hang out on a perfect afternoon. There were tons of people just laying out, reading, listening to or playing music, playing a bit of soccer, etc. It looked like the city's entire youth population was on the lawns of this park. So I sat for a while, listened to my iPod, and thought of afternoons just like that at Barton Springs in Austin. Then I got up, made my way back to the Port for an ice cream, and wandered my way back to the hostel along La Rambla and Passieg de Gracia.

It was a good first day, other than the couple of mishaps. Today, I think I'm going to head up to Montjuic and Tibidabo--both are supposed to have some great views of the city from hilltops. I'll let y'all know how it goes...

La Fete du Chocolat! and other things lately

So I had a fabulous weekend last weekend. I ate more than should be humanly possible--really good food, too--and, more importantly, had some great company.

Friday night was Sarah's going away dinner at Gabriel's apartment. She has finished her internship at the hospital here and is moving on to an internship in Lucern before returning home to Berlin in a few months, presumably to be a real adult and (more daunting, and terribly adult) to be a real doctor. We had 2 really lovely lasagnas--one beef, one vegetable--plus tiramisu and strawberries with whipped cream, along with several glasses of wine throughout the night. It was one of the best dinner parties we've had, with all the people mixing well and making great conversation. Liz's hilarious cousin Phil was visiting from Italy; he was a great dinner companion. Afterward, Liz, Phil and I went to a very secret underground bar in Geneva--no name on the door, no indication whatsoever that there is something fun going on upstairs. Liz knew of it from others, which is apparently the only way to find it. As luck would have it, it was "German Night", which, obviously, meant lots of drunk guys in lederhosen and polka music banging from the speakers into the one-room "bar". It was great fun, and I finally felt as though I was finding Geneva's (very hidden and under-developed) sub-culture.

Saturday afternoon I dragged myself out of bed for the one thing that could get me out of bed: a chocolate festival. It was in Versoix, celebrating the chocolate makers there in in the surrounding villages. Liz, Phil and I basically went for the free samples. I'm pretty sure I ate at least a pound of chocolate in about 20 minutes, and felt subsequently ill until I had a basket of fries to counteract the sweetness. Healthy day, right? The festival was great fun though, and life doesn't get any better than free Swiss chocolate.

(I apologize for the shoddy camera work--they were taken with my phone)

Saturday night, my recently-made friend Kunal invited me to a dinner party a friend was throwing in Carouge--a very young and trendy part of Geneva, containing one of my favorite jazz bar/clubs, the Chat Noir. Kunal is a pastry chef here--I know, and Indian pastry chef seems a little ridiculous, right? But he's fabulous. It's a good thing I'm reasonably sociable, because when I arrived he was still cooking so he just introduced me to everyone and scurried back to the kitchen, leaving me with a room of 4 strangers. They were all very interesting and nice. One is an environmental lawyer here who gave me some great tips on working in international law. It was a very adult dinner party, which I found so enjoyable because I so often feel like a teenager doing a summer babysitting job. And the food was fabulous--the chocolate cake with strawberry cream finish was particularly amazing.

Sunday morning the eating recommenced with a big American brunch back at Gab's apartment. I made buttermilk blueberry muffins that were, if I do say so myself, fabulous. Actually, it was quite an international brunch, more-so than American. Liz made crepes, Florian made pain perdu (which is what the French call french toast--it's made with baguette instead of slices of toast), and Phil made up what we are now calling the Buffalo Special (potatoes, onion, courgette, l'herbes de Provence--it's fabulous). 

After all of the eating, I basically slipped into a food coma for the remainder of the weekend and commenced work on Monday a little heavier in the waist but lighter in the heart (I am apparently in a poetic mood right now). 

The week has been nothing overly interesting. Leo has been particularly badly behaved when Alice is around--I think he's still punishing her for going out of town 2 weeks ago, and he's just getting older. It's Friday now, which I'm pretty excited about. Particularly because I'm heading toward a 4-day weekend--I leave for Prague Sunday morning (6am flight!! making Daddy proud) to meet Lauren and Erik there. Then I'll work Wednesday through Friday when the family leaves for Australia for 2 weeks and I head off to Spain, Paris and Rome. Life's rough this month...

Isn't my baby boy adorable??