Barcelona Novel Continued haha
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2007
1
21
23
Trip End
Dec 16, 2007
Barcelona,
Spain
Monday, October 1, 2007
Today we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off again today! But it's okay! It was worth it! I have so many more pictures! I know, a lot huh? We packed everything up and stored it in our lockers so we could swing by before we leave tonight. It was raining when we got up this morning...luckily by the time we were ready to head out it stopped and started to clear up. So we decided to head over to Starbucks and grab something to eat on the go and map out our course again.
We set out to find Parc Guell, the park Gaudi designed everything in, they even had another museum there as well
Mercado di Santa Caterina!
. Except Gaudi actually lived in this house for a period of time, so you could see his own personal furnishings he surrounded himself with. The gardens surrounding it were beautiful. But upon arriving at Par Guell, we looked up a HUGE hill and noticed that they actually had escalators going all the way up the hill, of course Kara and I opted for the stairs as always...what a work out! I felt like I was in the movie Sweetest Thing, this hill was massive! Walking around the paths following signs that read "Parc Guell" with arrows we passed some amazing sculpted rock formations lined with palm trees. I felt like I was in some tropical place! Then breaking the green and brown we saw Gaudi's swerving mosaic seating around the piazza, soo many colors, such intricate work! Someone had a LOT of patience! I walked down the stairs to a "natural" loggia that was pretty neat...to the left of it down another set of stairs there were large columns holding up half of the piazza, they looked like huge concrete tree trunks! Walking into them made me feel sooo incredibly small! When I finally looked up at the top of them the entire ceiling was decorated with white mosaics with large vibrantly colored circle designs, they even had mosaic squids reaching down from the ceiling. It was kind of peaceful in a way, to feel so small surrounded by simple things that represented natural elements of structure.Walking back up the stairs to the piazza there were vendors scattered everywhere, I managed to haggle down the price for a necklace and a bracelet...I only had a two 10s and (it was 13 euro) but the lady didn't have change enough for it so she gave them to me for 8 total!!
struct MSC
! How great is that! Haha you know me, always the bargain shopper! I also bought a black and white panorama of one of the rock formations...I know, the avid Panorama Girl buying one? Well people were everywhere and I didn't want them in my Panorama! Yes! I was being selfish! So, I bought a beautiful one instead :)In case you didn't know, in order to go to Barcelona we had to leave studio early on Thursday, so our professor Carlo let us leave early as long as we agreed to document a large market called Mercado di Santa Caterina designed by Tagliabue, a woman architect from Milan. The market was pre-existing, but Tagliabue had to modify the design because the residents and offices didn't want to look at a market in the piazza below them. Walking up to this market was verrryyy interesting. Walking down the street we just keep seeing normal building after normal building, an existing Roman fortress, and more normal buildings...then the perspective is broken by colorful waves made into a canopy with exposed structure twisting up to meet the waves. Walking into the market and looking up you could see all the wood and steel structure mixed it was insane! Walking past all of the stands you could smell everything! Both pleasant and not so pleasant! The fish stands were so funny to look at, I have a few pictures of them, there were places with pasta hanging next to garlic and other spices, the fruit stands were exploding with vibrant colors, meat stands had started packing away their products. To close the stands a lot of them would pull down a steel cover from the top of the stand, they cleaned up the entire market in about an hour. The back facade had wood planks made into panels, this was to mimic the crates that all the food would come in. We sat down at one of the bars and sketched the structure and grabbed a bite to eat.
wood meets steet MSC
Down the street we could see the water, we set out to find Frank Ghery's fish that was to be out on the coast. Erin, Kara, and I walked on to find the fish while the others browsed the vendor stands. We finally got to sand! So we all took off our shoes and walked on the sand down the beach to the fish! You couldn't miss it once you got on the beach...it was a HUGE copper and gold mesh looking fish. As you got closer, you can see that a "fabric" of crisscrossing copper strips created the fish, in two bends of the fabric the fish was shaped. Below the fish there were restaurants and cafes...and a wood island in a shallow pool, it looked so serene Erin and I had to go check it out. When on the same level of it, you could see the natural appearance of the wood and its planters, but behind it you could see the steel structure of the corresponding bridge past it. And once my last picture was taken since I have a small memory card (for now...luckily I'm getting a new one...THANKS Aunt Deb!)...we set back to grab our things from the hostel and head home.
Once we got to the airport we found out that our plane was delayed 2 hours, the flight was supposed to be at 10:10 or something...so once we got in the terminal we all took shifts going to the bathroom and changing into comfortable clothes to lounge in. Ashley, Kelly, and I were the first ones out and we had been bonding and decided to write down Kelly's "How tos" for dating...which we were all laughing hysterically. Ashley wrote them down and a man sat down right next to her with his wife and brother in law (I'm guessing) and started peeking over her shoulder and making jokes (though he couldn't understand it)...it was kind of weird...we waited it out and decided to go get some food. So we had an hour before the flight and thought we had enough time to sit down at the small snack bar, Kara bought us all a bottle of bubbly and we sat down to drink it
peeping window MSC
. No sooner did we sit down and fill our glasses a man came on the intercom, "Flight to Florence is now boarding" so we all chugged our large cups of bubbly and packed our food in our bags and ran to the terminal. Luckily, we had "priority" seating so we got to go in front! Always a plus!On the way back from Pisa airport we took a bus back to SMN train station. The train we were supposed to take wasn't supposed to run until 4:00 in the morning but we managed to catch a bus instead and we were able to get back into Florence at 2:00 in the morning, compared to 5:30. Which was so great :) More sleep! So on the bus everyone was able to get their own seat and laydown...I had finally gotten situated with my ipod and had JUST fallen asleep...and this is what happens:
scenario: 1:00am on a bus from Pisa airport going to SMN Bus station in Florence, everyone is passed out, I have finally fell asleep
...suddenly the bus comes to an abrupt stop where everyone is jerked forward
...I jump up and say "holy shit!"...apparently a little loud since I had my music still playing in my ears...
next morning on the way to studio:
erin: "so yeah, can we talk about how when the bus came to an abrupt stop you yelled 'holy shit!' and then gave the bus driver a death stare?"
me: "yes, we can talk about it...when she slammed on the brakes while I was alseep on my side, I got LODGED between my seat and the one in front of me, face down suspended over the floor....that is why"
erin: "no shit! really?! OMG that is hilarious!"
...erin continues laughing hysterically all the way to studio, un able to walk across the arno as she was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe
