Advertisement
Published: February 14th 2009
Wakey Wakey Charlie
Charlie fell asleep on the busride. The good friends we are we decided it was our responsibility to put something in his gaping mouth... a wad of snickers bar would do just fine
I apologize to anyone who was hoping for more, particularly my momma. I regret not getting more done and my strategy of "doing it all when I get back" doesnt seem to have worked. First Blog = only partial success. Yet, I didnt stress about completing it on my trip which I am thankful for.
Anyways.... Enjoy Barcelona... Another Silly Busride
Our second long bus ride found us in slightly better spirits; an absence of homeless urine stained men and a breathable living
The moment he woke
this is the exact moment of his eyes opening in astonished confusion. His eyes are still red from sleep. He clearly isnt yet back to earth and has no idea where he is temperature allowed for some tranquility. Not to mention the insertion of small items into each others' gaping mouths. The best one was when we put a chunk of Snickers candy bar in Charlie's mouth as he slept as if he was opening wide for the dentist. The pics demonstrate this sequence and the delirium that followed. I somehow was able to capture him the second he opened his eyes... You can see the shock and confusion in his sleep-worn eyes. This was an awesome moment that had us all dying on our seats
Our Hostel
At the advance reservation of sir Aaron McCreary, we were fortunate enough to stay at a happening hostel by the name of "Hello BCN." Along with its huge common room, was a ping-pong table. Needless to say, wars were fought and won on this table on numerous occasions and it was not uncommon for money to change hands. The instant after we put our bags in our room, the games began. By the last day, the following ranking became evident: First Best, Danny; 2nd, Me; 3rd, Seth; 4th, Charlie; 5th Aaron; and 6th Raffi. Danny was the unanimous Grand Champion and felled many
foes.
Sean and Zander?
We found out the first night that Sean Massih and Zander Bice were actually going to be in barcelona while we were there. Zander, who also went to Berkeley high with all of us, has been spending a year in Barcelona. He was supposed to be in Amsterdam while we were in Barca but his plans faded somehow and we spent some good time with them. On the first night, after stopping for a quick dinner at a bar that has serve-yourself taps for beer withdrawal at each individual table (We came up with a business idea for this which we will discuss later), we went out and downed a solid number of pitchers of sangria at one of Zander's favorite Bodegas.
It was awesome uniting with these young gentlemen. I specifically hadn't seen Zander in over a year. They were both accompanied by their brothers as well. It was cool having someone with us that knew a thing or two about the city. we ended up going to Razzmatazz a few nights later with these other boys; we tried our best to take a 2,000 person, 7 dance floor club by storm.
more picasso
notice some of his pottery in the studio across the atrium The Plague Strikes
By our third day, two of our members had met a gruesome fate: The indian men that roam the streets in hordes after dark selling single beer cans, had sold us some tainted samosas. Danny and Aaron woke up on the 28th with goodies coming out of both ends... This would be some gastrointestinal malady that would pass on to Raffi and Charlie in Amsterdam, leaving only Seth and I out of its wake.
This sickness kept Aaron and Danny in bed for a day and a half as the rest of us made it out on our "Tour de Gaudi"
Gaudi
About 80%!o(MISSING)f our time on the streets of Barcelona during the day spent either exploring Gaudi's architectural wonders, or on the way to another. We first encountered the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's flamboyant magnum opus. he began this work early in the 1900s and its not slated to be completed until 2020 or so. Numerous construction halts due to war, occupation, and Gaudi's death, have led to a foggy finale in construction.
I found that Gaudi's architecture was absolutely astonishing - a brilliance in organic composition and symbolism. The
columns in the nave of the Sagrada familia seemed to be metaphors for the tall trunk sof trees. The columns branched into structural support as it reached the roof, engaging in an engineering feat directly borrowed from nature itself. I felt as though their sinewy stalks could have been confused with the world's most giant celery branches... pretty incredible
Continuing on to the Parc Guell found us discovering a sort of organic architecture candy land. No detail left unattended and no architectural moment spared. The tilework was clearly the most prominently used unique feature of the park. Banisters, walls, ceilings all covered in elaborate tile patterns.
I Couldn't help but think how important Gaudi's contribution to modern architecture is to this day. For an architect of his time to be doing his sort of surreal post-modernist is really a strong anachronism. I also wonder how much of a hermit the guy must have been. I don't know if i've ever seen such a commitment to anyone craft; even his drawings when he was 18 that were displayed in the museum in the basement of the Sagrada Familia, must have taken him hundreds of hours. His drawings reminded me
of some of the drawings i've seen of some of the earliest architectural giants - Palladio, Vitruvius etc...
Picasso Museum
The Picasso museum was a real treat as well. Although it contains none of Picasso's truly famed works -whatever that worth- this museum aptly described the life of the great and chronologically demonstrated his work. After having previously told Danny, "Van Gogh shits on Picasso," I was forced to bite my tongue.
I was incredibly impressed with Picasso's breadth and pure talent. I have always been a bit skeptical/critical of his cubism, as although I believe it can be beautiful, I tend to respect Van Gogh, Monet, and the classics like Velasquez, Goya, and Dali for their preciseness and detail. Sometimes i think some of Picasso's work could have been done by a sleepy 2nd grader right before nap time.
I was completely wrong. The exhibit showed Picasso's work as a 16 year old in art school and beyond. He could do anything! His figure drawings border on the beauty of Leonardo and his landscape and portrait paintings were equally as astounding. He worked in printing and pottery extensively as well. I was very impressed with his
A spirit sculpture on the facada
this sculptured character was one of my favorite parts of the cathedral. i thought he was so funny looking. linoleum print process he developed for making color prints, the one-block technique.
In the end, I realized that Picasso was not some quack who couldn't paint anything other than incredibly abstract cubism, but rather was an immaculate polymath who loved to experiment with mediums and styles and simply found a passion in cubism. I now have trouble deciding betweein him or Van Gogh.
Los Caracoles restaurant
With the sponsorship of Barbara Hunt, the boys and I were able to attend a banquet of our own creation at the legendary Los Caracoles (snails) restaurant. The restaurant is somewhere around 200 years old. In fact my mother was there in the 60's when she was 12 so you know its pretty damn old.
The most bizarre part of this restaurant was its location. Everything surrounding the place seemed very grimy with the indigant and drug dealing posted all around. I hadn't seen so many derelicts anywhere in Barca, save outside this great restaurant.
The most memorable part of the restaurant for me, was the walk to our table. A very tight entrance and threshold is not an accurate portrayal of the rest of the interior; a generous
network of dining rooms opens up past the kitchen. And the kitchen is amazing. You must walk past the kitchen on your way to your table. You walk past the Spanish men as the toss the Paella, Grill the lamb, and mix the sauces. After about 10 paces through the kitchen one can barely stand the inferno that is this kitchen that does a great job of representing the old proverb, "if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen." I certainly couldn't and I couldnt imagine how the chefs could for long periods of time.
We all decided to eat family style by each ordering a different dish and sharing accordingly. I felt like I was pulling a meal out of an old renaissance painting depicting a medieval feast; we shared partridge, a rabbit, a half chicken, suckling pork, and some Arroz Negro (paella blackend with squid ink). And ofcourse I mustn't forget our snails we had for starters. An amazing feast!
La Rambla
La Rambla is the main capillary street through Barcelona. It bisects the city, ultimately colliding with the Medditerranean sea as it goes. This was a very interesting street with plenty
of life and a certain mystery to it. We had heard initially that this was the most pick-pocketing of streets and kept our belts a bit tighter in preparation. It turns out its the tourist walkway and pantomime mecca of the city. The mimes on this street had a seriousness and a professionalism you would expect of a city like Paris. It turns out some of the best and brightest find their mimery haven over in Barca.
we came across gargoyles, golden princesses, an incredibly spot-on Edward ScissorHands, demons, dragons, and misfits, and my all-time favorite, Recycling man. He was covered in a sort of plastic bottle chain mail with a sword made of the same. I wanted to invite him to Berkeley and put him on Telegraph. Speaking of telegraph, La rambla reminded me very much of my favorite street in berkeley with all of its eccentricity and artistic energy.
Our Bar Idea
After spending time at this serve-yourself cervezeria, we felt empowered by the uniqueness of the business idea. The bar not only has serve-yourself taps at each table that records how many liters your table has drank - to the nearest centiliter- but
it also displays the results of each table on monitors hung from the ceiling on two sides of the bar. This allows you to understand how much you have been drinking, but also the amount of others - dare I say an element of competition?
Aaron and Seth divulged their idea of opening a similar style bar in Berkeley someday. At that point, Charlie and I could not stop thinking about how awesome the idea would be and we pretty much drew up mental business plans as we sat there and shared bocadillos. We decided that we will try and unroll this idea at some point after we all graduate from college. We would all go in as business partners and open one up as an experiment and a good time. There would definitely need to be some clever engineering methods devised to be able to get these taps to the tables and maybe even have more than one beer available per tap. I could not stop thinking about this as the trip continued, as I continued to brainstorm locations, bar names, and menus.
by the way, if you are reading this, you agree not to steal our
idea or you shall be punished by all extents of the law! 😊
Calendar of Events
Dec 26th:
- arrived early evening from bus
- ping pong
- Dinner @ bar with taps on the table
- ping pong
- met zander & Sean @ a local watering hole
Dec 27th:
- Ping pong
- Rain kept us from doing too much
- Went out to Razzmatazz with Zander, Sean & the team
Dec 28th:
-Sickness begins for Danny & Aaron
- Rest of us head to Sagrada Familia
- Met some Polish Girls at the hostel
Dec 29th:
-Gondola to Montjuic
- Parc Guell
- Casa Batlo, Casa Pedrera
- Out to the clubs for the last night
Dec 30th:
- early flight out to amsterdam
Advertisement
Tot: 0.119s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 12; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0288s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
