Blogs from Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Europe - page 28

I met someone. A Catalan lawyer. He plays for me Leonard Cohen on his guitar on the balcony of his apartment. A chance meeting, Olga tried the door a level below where we are staying with a lovely gay couple (one Japanese, the other from Idaho). She found Adrias attractive, we ran into him again and one bottle of wine led things into strange occurrences. My thoughts conflict. We depart in two days to meet with J in Amsterdam.... read more

I cannot believe I've successfully made it to the end of the course. The last two weeks have been exhausting. I have been swamped with lesson plans and essays to do and have generally worked solidly from 7am until midnight. I've managed the odd lunch break visit to Parc de la Cuitadella which turned out to be a 5 minute walk from International House and has become my sancturary from all the stress at the school. Anyway, the course is over and those of us who made it to the end all passed successfully. There are 6 of us left who made it all the way to the end. We had our unassessed teaching practice this morning which involved various messy activities including making chocolate spider biscuits, oragami flowers, and pasta shape pictures. This was followed ... read more

Despite it being my 'day off' I had an early start. I raced to International House to make use of the internet, met up with one of the girls from the course, did my shopping at the supermarket and took the metro back home in time to meet Ivan by 11. We set off for Casa Battlo which I think has instantly become one of my highlights in Barcelona. The building was just amazing. Casa Batllo was designed by Gaudi for Josep Batllo i Casanovas as his fmaily home and was completed in 1907. The outside of the building is designed to represent the story of St George and the dragon. The rooftop is arched like a dragon's back and the cross shaped turret portrays the sword plunged into the dragon's back. The front facade is ... read more

Well I finally got to do some sightseeing!! I've been in Barcelona a week already and while I know my route from my flat to the school like the back of my hand this is the first time I've been to see anything more interesting than the nearest metro stop! Ivan was waiting for me outside my building when I bounced out of the front door, guide book and metro map in hand and camera swinging round my neck. Ok so maybe the weren't the most attractive accessories to put with my outfit but they definitely made me feel like I was on holiday for a change! We started our sightseeing tour with Sagrada Familia and I was amazed just how close to my house it is. I could walk there in a couple of minutes ... read more

I had a very early start today. Dad and I left for London in the early hours of the morning and reached Gatwick in good time. I had a lot of time to kill at the airport so we had a leisurely breakfast and I bought a Spanish phrase book and an alarm clock (I can´t believe I left my clock behind - it´s probably the most vital thing when I have early starts for college each morning!!) The flight was great. It was remarkably clear and as I had a window seat I had a great view of England as we left. There was very little cloud cover in general and I was able to see the ground below most of the time. I had beautiful views of the pyrenees as we flew over and ... read more