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Wednesday 01/09/2010 88
So today was a nothing much really day, I only stayed out of the hostel for just a bit longer than the lock out for cleaning between 11 and 1. In that time I went to the station and organised my ticket to Valencia tomorrow and went for a longer walk around Port Vell. About the only thing slightly interesting was a Starbucks and the 'Steve Irwin' was moored in the harbour, which I found odd because shouldn't they be further south getting ready to attack Japanese whaling ships?
Back at the hostel I spent some time working on my travel journal (I have now completed about until the beginning of August-wow only a month behind!) And that was it really, a boring quiet day.
Tuesday 31/08/2010 89
First thing today, craving some familiarity, I hauled myself to the outskirts of the city...so far it was technically Badalona not Barcelona, to go to Ikea. Tragic I know, but I love the place and apart from the signs being in Spanish, it was pretty much the same as at home.
I then headed back into town to visit La Pedrera, but first I got sidetracked, succumbed to temptation and shopped. Now I have to figure out what to get rid of and I can't even wear the dress I buyed cos I don't have any shoes that will go.
La Pedrera (which means quarry as the place looks like it was carved from stone) was built as an apartment block but now houses the city's cultural offices. Once again it is a very curvy building with a large light well, and once again the attics and roof are the stars. The attics are once again a series of arches. This time however the bricks are visible. And the roof terrace is an undulating area full of sculptural chimneys and stairwells. Fewer mosaics than at the Casa Batllo, but the ones that feature are all white with only a contrast between matte and shiny textures to distinguish different surfaces. This roof has been my favourite area of any of the Gaudi building visited in the last week, it's monochromatic colour scheme and shifts in height create an area that you would never grow tired of...or at least I wouldn't!
Monday 30/08/2010 90
Ok so here's a fact about Barcelona you probably didn't know-it's population is roughly the same as Perth. However I doubt Perth gets as many tourists (in fact I know it doesn't) and this morning all of them had chosen to go to La Rambla, Barcelona's most famous street. It has a wide pedestrian area running down the middle but even this was not enough as there were what seems to qualify in Europe as 'street performers' basically all manner of living sculptures you could pay to have your photo with. Now I'm sorry, I'm from Australia we expect a lot from our street performers-sword swallowing pirates, chainsaw juggling blindfolded tightrope walkers... an angel with cardboard wings and a cheap wig just aint cutting it in my humble opinion! Anyway I wove my way amongst these so called 'performers' and into the main shopping area of Barcelona. High street chains and massive department stores and I happily window shopped for a while. I then hit the Placa de Catalunya, which then led onto the Passeig de Gracia.
This is the street where the bourgeoisies of the 19th began building their houses, and is now home to many proper designers labels and also 2 of Gaudi's most famous buildings, the Casa Batllo and La Pedrera (Casa Mila). Casa Batllo is the first of the 2 you reach. A townhouse (albeit a massive one) it is nicknamed the 'Skeleton House' owing to it's bone shaped columns and skulls inspired balconies, but it is also a riot of purples, greens and blues.
I paid the somewhat hefty entrance fee (it's a privately owned building so I guess they have to pay for it's upkeep somehow) and went in. Gaudi was commissioned to renovate the house and he basically tore it apart. He added a new lightwell, a new storey and completely rebuilt the roof. There are no straight lines anywhere in the building and Gaudi designed every aspect from the doorframes, to the paint job and the furniture. The most remarkable aspects are the lightwell which is tiled in blue but as you move up the building the tiles get darker and the windows smaller, to ensure that all floors get the same amount of light. The brightly coloured roof which is a representation of the story of St George (patron of Catalonia) and features a roofline that looks like the spine of a dragon and tiles which could be it's scales. The attics are a series of catanary arches with an ingenious ventilation system to ensure air can get it but water cannot. The arches are all plastered and the whole area is very calm and cocoon like.
I was planning on visiting La Pedrera today but after Casa Batllo, my camera battery was almost flat so instead I headed back down the same road, stopping for a paella, to the port area. Much like every other port that has tried to spruce itself up it was all floating walkways, public art and showy shopping centres but still pleasant enough.
Sunday 29/08/2010 91
Today I decided to give myself a Gaudi break and instead headed for the neighbourhood of Montjuic, located next to the port and set atop a hill. It is a longish but not unbearable walk fromwhere I am staying and is most famous for being the home of the 1992 Olympics. It is also a very green area, full of municipal gardens and parks. After approaching the hill by walking towards the Catalan National Museum (Barcelona is very proud of it's Catalan tradition and many signs are first in Catalan, then Spanish, and at the more tourist targeted venues usually English and French aswell. This is a marked difference to France where you rarely saw English. In Spain and Italy you are able to change the language on ticket machines and ATMs, in France you cannot!
Once again there is a series of outdoor escalators to aide in climbing the ascent, a nice touch which i really think should be adopted elsewhere. After skirting the museum and taking s brief stroll to the small historical botanic gardens I arrived at the Olympic site. You are able to wander around a fairly large area including into the main stadium. Although not the architectural wonder of Beijing's 'bird's nest' any stadium is fairly impressive and this one was originally built in the 30s when the Republican government was going to hold an anti-fascist event at the same time as the Berlin Olympics...but the Spanish Civil War started and everything got messy and fascist anyway! Nowadays the stadium holds a cafe and a couple of souvenir stores, but you are able to look over the track. I then continued to wander around some other parts of the site past some of the smaller venues and public areas. Although only 20 years old, and still used (most recently for the European Athletic Championships) the whole area feels neglected and under used. It was the focus of the world's attention for 2 weeks and now has cracked paving stones and drained fountains and while there were a few people around, it all seemed a bit desolate. But I'm sure the Sydney Olypic site feels similar when there is no events taking place.
I then headed to a museum dedicated to Barcelona born artist Joan Miro. He was a Surrealist and the museum is full of work from his entire career spanning painting, sculpture, ceramics, drawing, assemblage and textiles. His work is most well known for coloured grounds overlaid with simple linear forms that are designed not be representative of dreams but to spark the imagination. Having never really focussed on his work before (getting swept up by the more well known and flamboyant Dali) I enjoyed the opportunity to examine his work in more detail. Also included in the gallery is space for contemporary artists to exhibit. The current exhibition is a series of audio visual installations with images projected onto ceilings, walls and hanging fabric. The effect was cocoon like and after nearly falling asleep while lying on a raised platform thoughtfully covered in cushions, I had to move on as the museum was closing (early on Sundays!)
Next was a cable car ride which provided views over Barcelona from the sea to the mountains. At the top of the hill is a walled fortress (Castell) that was originally built in the 17th century and was used right up until WWII and still has the large guns that were placed there during the 1930s. From the high vantage point you could see the port complete with cruise ships and shipping containers. I then headed back down the hill and wandered back to the hostel, stopping on the way to pick up a Spanish Vogue featuring Aussie Miranda Kerr on the cover, and arrived footsore and sleepy.
Saturday 28/08/2010 92
Heading out today to another of Gaudi's creations, Park Guell. Perched on a hill overlooking the city, I arrived by Metro and then took a series of outdoor escalators, punctuated by short steep walks to reach one of the entrances. The park was originally designed to be a self contained neighbourhood...a bit like Ellenbrook, but after Gaudi designed and over saw the construction of some of the public spaces and walkways the whole project fizzled.
The park is a jumble of tilting columns, parabolic arches supporting walkways and brightly coloured mosaic and is simply stunning. Today the park was also full of many buskers, and I swear one of them was playing an upturned wok (it sounded a lot like Caribbean steel drums.) Some of the areas are designed to look like caves but for their twisting, tilting support pillars while a large undercover area is supported by fluted columns supporting a domed, mosaic-ed roof. I also visited the Gaudi House museum where the architect himself live for 25 years. It was a 'display' home of sorts built to try and entice people to live in the planned community. Inside the museum was furniture designed by Gaudi for some of the other buildings he is responsible for around Barcelona and some of Gaudi's own personal effects.
I had another lazy and quiet night...the remains of the cold I have had since Rome, and my lack of sleep as well as my general nana-ness are all catching up with me!!
Friday 27/08/2010 93
My main reason for visiting Barcelona is the work of Modernisme (Art Nouveau everywhere else) architect Antoni Gaudi. Today I decided to start at the top of his accomplishments and visit the cathedral which is the city's most famous landmark the Expiatory (meaning paid for by private donations) Temple of Sagrada Familia, to use it's official title. Begun in the 1880s, construction is still continuing on this massive undertaking. Gaudi was a deeply religious man and every section is dripping with symbolism and the work that continues, based on the detailed instructions he left for the design as he was very aware that it would not be completed in his lifetime and would be the work of generations to come. When completed there will be 18 towers (currently there are 8). They represent the 12 apostles, 4 evangelists, the Virgin Mary and the tallest (170m) Jesus. There will also be 3 facades. 2 are completed, one representing the nativity was finished in Gaudi's lifetime, and a second representing the Passion. A third celebrating the resurrected Christ is yet to be completed. It is expected that the interior will be completed this year (in fact the pope is scheduled to dedicated the church later this year) and work is certainly continuing in earnest inside. The exterior is currently scheduled for completion in 2030.
After waiting in a long but fast moving line I managed to get inside the grounds and into the church itself. It is staggering in it's detail and scale. Inside the columns supporting the roof are branched like trees to support a ceiling decorated to look like palm fronds, stained glass, only recently installed but designed and crafted to Gaudi's original plans bathe the interior with coloured light. Large areas are blocked from public entry and behind the barriers workmen were busy polishing the marble floor.
After taking a lift to the top of one of the towers you re able to again marvel at the detail. At the top of the spires (which are impossible to see from the ground in any real detail) are mosaics depicting fruit and spelling religious words...gloria....hallelujah... On the facade of the nativity is my favourite of Gaudi's quirky details. 2 of the columns are supported by Turtles, however the one on the western side (towards the mountains) is a land tortoise, while the one on the eastern side (towards the sea) is a sea turtle.
A museum in the basement contains drawings and models created but Gaudi, other artists who have worked on the building in the last 130 years and the workshop, which is still in use. However the current architects, engineers and craftsmen have the benefits of aviation design software and computer aided equipment for creating moulds.
Also on the site is a small school building, with a wavy roof, that Gaudi designed and had built for the children of the workmen. It is one of Gaudi's few civic buildings.
Tired and a little over whelmed I headed back to the hostel and ventured out only for a brief walk to explore the festival at night.
Thursday 26/08/2010 94
This morning I boarded a train heading for Barcelona. My journey was to be in 2 stages, the first an hour and a half to Narbonne and the second onto Barcelona. After the most comfortable train seat I have ever experienced (reclining, footrest and a leg rest thing that flipped foward from the edge of the seat) I arrived in Narbonne for a 3 hour wait (the other option was 8 minutes between trains and after catching the same train nowhere near as far yesterday and it being 25 minutes late, it was not a risk I was willing to take.) The time went relatively quickly considering I was in a train station, and i was on my way to Barcelona. Another comfy seat...this one nice and wide, and a half empty train made for a pleasant journey as we skirted the coast and crossed into Spain. At the border there was a brief passport check (a quick glance to make sure I matched the photo after it was noticed I was travelling on an Aussie passport, however the girl in front of me from Colombia seemed to have a problem with her visa but was not dragged off the train or anything exciting, and we continued on.
Arriving at Barcelona's second train station, Franca, as there is extension work going on at Sants the major stop, I noticed once again how arriving by train is perhaps the ugliest way of approaching the city. You inevitably pass through industrial areas and walls scrawled in, occasionally interesting but more often terrible, graffiti. A quick train ride took me from Franca -Sants and after a quick golden arches stop (I know but it was there and I was tired and hungry and can report that the Big Macs are better in Italy!) I used my tiny un labelled map in Lonely Planet to guide me to my hostel. The Sants neighbourhood is having it's festival this week so streets are decorated with papier mache sculptures representing movie characters (avatar and wall-e) and streets decked out like video games (Super Mario complete with mushrooms and bricks to be broken!) I managed to find the hostel without too much difficulty. Checked in, showered and attempted to sleep, but with 2 snorers in the room and my ear plugs in the locker it proved difficult.
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