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Published: September 21st 2011
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This past weekend I attended the IES study journey to Costa Brava. I really enjoyed this vacation because IES did a very good job of planning this trip. Costa Brava is the northern coastal region of Spain, located north of Barcelona. The cities we visited in Costa Brava were: Figueres, Cadaques, Girona, La Jonquera, and Collioure. I really enjoyed the weekend because the sites we visited were fascinating and rich with history. I also got to visit France for the first time when we went to Cadaques!
The weekend started on Friday morning at 7:30 A.M. in Plaza Catalunya. All of us IES students met outside of the Hard Rock Cafe to board our buses for Costa Brava. As soon as I got settled in my seat I could tell that I would have a great experience that weekend because my tour guide was Matt. Matt is an art history professor at IES and is very knowledgeable with history, art, and culture. He organized a Modernisme tour in Barcelona during the first few days of orientation which was absolutely astonishing.
Our bus departed north for Figueres and arrived at the Dali Museum that morning. The Dali Museum contains a
lot of the artwork of the artist Salvador Dali. I must admit, I didn't know much about Salvador Dali prior to that weekend but his artwork was nonetheless interesting to see. My favorite work of his was the Abraham Lincoln painting. The painting was interesting because it looks like a pixelated painting with the naked eye, but when seen from a camera it becomes a picture of Abraham Lincoln. There were also many other captivating pieces of art including the "face" room. The room featured pieces of furniture in a room that composed a human face. The best part of this work was the "lips couch" which essentially was a giant lip made to look like a couch. Dali's other painting were interesting because there were hidden images in the paintings. It was fun to search for the hidden images in some of his paintings.
After visiting the museum, I walked around the town of Figueres with some friends to explore the surrounding area of the museum. We stumbled upon a few pieces of graffiti that looked cool, for graffiti. One of the graffiti works was a wall that read "Catalonia is not Spain" with the Catalonia flag. This
speaks to the Catalonian attitude that Catalonia is distinct from the rest of Spain. The Catalonian language, being different from the Spanish national language, affirms this mentality. I will write more about Catalonians and their views on Catalonia in the coming months when I have a better grasp of what it means to be a Catalonian.
After we finished looking at art in Figueres, we headed east to the coastline for Cadaques. We ate lunch there and explored the city for a while. There were a lot of stray cats in this town that didn't seem to mind people too much. We went to the beach too since it was a sunny day. The beach was very different from the beaches that I usually visit because there were rocks on the beach instead of sand. There is a lovely picture of my tower of rocks that I constructed on the beach that day. I felt inspired from the art I saw in the Dali Museum earlier that day. After our afternoon in Cadaques, we returned to the bus to drive to Girona, our final destination of the day.
The road from Cadaques to Girona was quite nerve-wracking. The
narrow and windy road traveled over a mountain in Spain. I'm shocked that we didn't run into any oncoming cars because of narrowness of the road and the sharp turns on that highway. Luckily, we made it to Girona without any difficulties that night.
The next day we went to La Jonquera to see the Exile Museum. I learned about the Spanish civil war in the 1930s and the events surrounding the war. During this time, 200,000 Catalonians fled Catalonia for France. The war was between the Fascist troops and the Republican militia in Catalonia. The Fascist troops gained control of the region and a Fascist regime was in power for 40 years until 1975 with the death of Francisco Franco.
Later that day, we drove to Collioure, France to visit the grave of Antonio Machado. Antonio Machado was a well-known Spanish poet and a leader of the Spanish literature movement, Generation of '98. Matt, our IES group leader, shone as he listed off facts about Machado and read two of his poems to us as we gathered around his grave. The rest of the day in Collioure was more interesting than the gravesite. A few of us
went to lunch at a restaurant in town. The waitress spoke French but we could only speak English and a little Spanish. Communicating with her was a challenge but we were able to order what we wanted to eat. The rest of our trip to Collioure was spent wandering around the shoreline, exploring the castle of the town, and walking onto the jetty. Afterwards, we returned to Girona. I went on a run with the IES running club around the city that evening. We ran along the river that weaves through the town. We also ran through the city park and were awed by the gorgeous trees. The trees in that park were so tall that they made my neck hurt from looking up so high. I really enjoyed the city of Girona that evening because it stood out to me as a very quaint and impressive town because of its rivers and city park.
Our final day of the study journey was spent on a tour of the city of Girona. Once again, we were guided by our leader, Matt. Matt led us around the older part of the city which contains the city walls, cathedral, and Arab
baths. When we entered the old part of the city, he presented a statue of a lion to us. According to him, it is good luck to touch the butt of this lion because it will bring the person good luck and a trip back to the city of Girona in the future. Of course, I touched that butt.
The old walls of the city were very impressive because they were extremely tall. They were built by the Romans to keep foreigners out. The cathedral gave us a good understanding of the power of the Catholic church in this town. The Cathedral was a very grandiose building that contained ornate statues of saints around the building. We also visited a museum in a church near the Cathedral. There were many pieces of religious art and a tapestry on display there. Once again, Matt shone as he explained to us the meaning behind the pictures on the tapestry. The tapestry illustrated the Genesis story of the creation of Earth and of Adam and Eve. He later walked us through the Arab baths in the city. Apparently, the Arabs smelled much cleaner than the Christians because they bathed more often.
The weekend was filled with fascinating trips and amazing views of the Spanish countryside and coastline. As we travelled back to Barcelona on Sunday afternoon I realized that I was looking forward to going "home" to my host family. That was an odd thought that crossed my head because that weekend was my first time away from my host family. I realized that I'm adapting to living in Spain because I'm referring to Barcelona as my home.
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