Barcelona Interlude

This has taken some time, but I’ve been pretty busy since I got back from Barcelona late Sunday night. Now I have to think about how I could ever possibly manage to narrow Barcelona down into a blog post.

First, I guess I should mention our field trip to the Ochre Quarry in Rousillon, which was the Monday before we left for Barcelona. It was interesting to see the way they collected and processed ochre in the area before the industry died. I particularly liked seeing inside the processing area and all the old equipment that was used there. Our trip to the quarry was followed by a short visit to the town of Rousillon itself, whose main point of interest is that all the buildings are red-orange-ish since they are made of ochre-enriched stones. The views of the ochre canyon from the town were also very cool. Unfortunately, the weather for the trip was horrible, and I was sick, so I didn’t quite get the experience out of it that I might have otherwise.

Now, time to completely overshadow Rousillon with BARCELONA, which I intend to go back to as soon as possible. We got on the bus at 8am Wednesday morning and rode for about 5 and a half hours with stops every two hours. We saw a not so pretty area of France…that is until we got to the Pyrenees. It started when I could see the Mediterannean outside my window, which made me pay a little more attention. I then looked out the front of the bus and saw a huge snow-covered mountain that just looked absolutely spectacular. Then on the opposite side of the bus, I saw the wind turbines up against the mountain range. Everyone kept trying to take photographs, but it was just too hard from the bus. Fortunately, we soon stopped at a rest stop, and in spite of the unappetizing and overpriced food, we were able to get some good pictures.

About an hour after we left the rest stop, we pulled up to our hotel right in downtown Barcelona. Driving into Barcelona was overwhelming- in terms of area, it’s much much bigger than I imagined. It also definitely has a gritty side to it, but I kind of expected that. We arrived at our hotel, which was extremely nice and conveniently located. After getting settled in, we wandered around for a bit and explored the immediate area, which included a number of restaurants and stores. We were quick to notice how inexpensive most of the clothing stores were and definitely started keeping some in mind for later. One of the architecture professors, who used to live in Paris, told us later that Spain is the best place in Europe to buy clothes because it’s so cheap. Following about 45 minutes of exploring, we returned to the hotel to meet up with the professors and go on the first of many school-organized trips. This one was to the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The walk to the museum was very short, and when we got there, we were surprised to see that the courtyard in front of the museum had become a sort of make-shift skate park. Not only was this not punished by the museum, it was encouraged! I thought that was a neat idea. The building itself was very modernist with whitewashed walls and a lot of steel. It had nice flow and was overall pretty effective as a gallery space. The art itself, however, was not my favorite. At least not on the first floor in the permanent collection. It was all very disturbing, and a lot of it was videos that were aimed at making the viewer uncomfortable. I guess I just really didn’t get a lot of it. The second floor, on the other hand, featured an exhibition by Joan Rabascall. His art is from the 60’s-80’s and is all about the criticism of mass-media, objectification, and consumerism. His pieces spoke to me, particularly his video montage about the Munich Olympics projected onto a massive billowing Olympic flag. I got a lot out of this exhibition and will definitely pursue my interest in Rabascall in the future.

After the museum, we had the afternoon and evening to ourselves. We spent this time getting oriented to the area around our hotel. Jamie, Miles, and I also scoped out a restaurant to try. It was this first night we discovered that Spaniards don’t start dinner until 8:30 at night.  We went to a reasonably-priced tapas restaurant and tried a number of things, most of which I still can’t identify. It was all good though. Not outstanding, but good. After dinner, we hung out for a little bit before going to bed. I almost forgot to mention that the main language in Barcelona is not Spanish. It’s Catalan, which is quite a bit different. Not many people spoke English, which didn’t give us too much difficulty, but it was definitely a little bit alienating. Luckily, most people did speak Spanish, so Jamie was able to help us in most situations.

Thursday morning, we got up, enjoyed the free continental breakfast, and left for the (school-organized trip to) Sagrada Familia. This is the IMMENSE cathedral that Gaudi began building in the late 1800’s. Gaudi died in 1926, but the cathedral isn’t slated to be complete until 2036. The scope of this thing is unbelievable, and the detail is mind boggling. It’s truly impossible to describe. I took dozens of photos just of this one building. We got to explore the inside and even scale the spires, which took us high above the city. To get down from the spires, we had to walk a down nerve-wrackingly narrow spiral staircase that seemed never-ending. Inside and outside the building, there are workers constantly working to continue the building’s construction. It reminded me a lot of a modern day Pillars of the Earth.

After the Sagrada Familia, we ate lunch at the park near the cathedral’s front facade. At this point, the rain sta

rted, and basically didn’t stop for our entire trip. We then walked to another Gaudi building (and another school-organized trip), the Casa Mila. It took us awhile to find it because we didn’t have a very good map yet, but we finally arrived (albeit 15 minutes late). This building was much more museum-like, featuring period furniture from the late 19th/early 20th century. A museum about Gaudi’s work was located in the attic, which was somewhat creepy to me. It is composed almost entirely of parabolic arches and it’s dark and eerily lit, making it seem almost nightmarish. The museum was interesting, however, and I enjoyed looking at models of Gaudi’s projects. The highlight of this building, though, was definitely the roof. With its weird sculptural chimneys and undulating surface, it reminded me of being in a Dr. Seuss novel.

We were pretty tired from walking after Casa Mila, but Jamie, Miles, and I decided to stop by Casa Batllo (Gaudi’s dragon building), which was on the way back to the hotel. As much as we wanted to go inside, the price of admission was pretty expensive, even for students. Nevertheless, we spent quite awhile admiring the outside, which is made to look like the scales and skeleton of a blue dragon/serpent. That night, we ate dinner with about 15 other students at another tapas place. This place was more expensive, but less tasty than the other place. Although some of the architecture students decided to find a club to go to, a lot of us decided to go to back to the hotel and relax.

The next morning, we went to the Contemporary Center of Catalonian Culture (school-organized). None of the exhibits had anything to do with Catalonian culture. They had a really overwhelming exhibit about urbanism in China, but it was a bit much for me. I find China interesting, but the way the exhibit was laid out and the things that were shown really didn’t do it for me at all. We did a bit of shopping before going on another school-organized trip to the Pavillion Mies Van Der Rhoe. This was a LONG WALK. As for the Pavillion, I freely admit that I just didn’t get it. I probably needed to have known more about Mies Van Der Rhoe to really appreciate it. Anyway, I didn’t regret the trip, because it took us to a very cool area of the city which we broke off from the group and explored. We got to see the Placa d’Espanya, which is a square with an awesome fountain in the middle of it. We also got to walk up to the Palau Barcelona (Barcelona Palace) which is yet another amazingly detailed and beautiful building surrounded by sculptures. We thought about going into the Palau, but did not want to pay the admission since we planned to go to the Joan Miro museum.

After taking photographs of the Palau and views of the city from the Palau (which is elevated enough that you can get a really nice overview of Barcelona), we took a short, rather pretty walk to the Fundacion Joan Miro (essentially a Joan Miro museum). I’ve recently discovered that Miro is one of my favorite artists, and this museum was probably one of the things I enjoyed most in Barcelona. His work is so unique and original…as Andre Breton said, “He’s the most surrealist of us all.” Seeing his paintings and sculptures in person was just an incredibly powerful and moving experience for me.

After the Miro museum, Jamie and I took the metro back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner. We also did a little bit of shopping near the hotel. Miles wanted to find a Basque restaurant, but we had some trouble locating one due to the language barrier, so we ended up at the Chinese restaurant across the street. It was surprisingly delicious! And for four people, the total ended up being about $30. They also gave us bracelets and free shots of…something…(I have no idea what it was) at the end. Once again, we turned in early.

Saturday morning, we had a school-organized trip to the Palau de la Musica Catalana. This is an amazing building constructed in the early 20th century during a time of Catalan revival. The outside and inside were both incredibly ornate and overwhelmingly beautiful. I particularly enjoyed the sculpture inside the music hall itself, but unfortunately we were only allowed to photograph the outside of the building. I bought a postcard of the inside, but it disappeared and I am really unhappy about it. After the Palau, we went shopping for awhile and enjoyed exploring all the European fashion. Personally, so far, I have been much more impressed by Spanish fashion than by that of the French.

When we finished shopping, we found we were pretty near to Barcelona’s Triumphal Arch, so we decided to go check it out. It was very cool, in a complex with the hall of justice (no idea what its actual name is) and a neat park. Upon exploring the park, we discovered an awesome fountain called the Cascades. It was definitely my favorite fountain in Barcelona. From there, we took the metro to the Gothic District, which is probably one of Barcelona’s most famous areas. It’s all confused narrow streets and (surprise) Gothic architecture. We attempted to go to the Barcelona Cathedral, but it was crowded and overpriced. Instead, we went to the Roman history museum, which allows visitors to go underground and explore the Roman city that Barcelona was built on top of. This was INCREDIBLE. I never thought I would see part of Ancient Rome in such a humanizing and well-preserved manner. Once again, no photos allowed, and none of the postcards really did it justice. So, if you have any reason to be in Barcelona, GO TO THIS MUSEUM. After that, we took the metro back to the hotel, and after a nap, Jamie and I went to dinner at what appeared to be a Spanish chain restaurant. It was a little pricey, but the paella and Catalan sausage were delicious. The beers were also double-sized, which I appreciated.

That night, we attempted to go out, but it was rainy and no one could decide on a place to go. This ended with one of the students (whose name I won’t mention) breaking the stairs in a super-chic bar. The others stayed out, but at that point, Jamie and I decided to buy a six-pack and some candy at one of the convenience stores and go back to the hotel to watch weird Spanish music videos.

Sunday morning, we went on a school-organized trip to the Picasso Museum in the Gothic District. It did not contain any of his best works, it was extremely crowded, and there were people there to force you to travel through the museum in a certain way. I HATED it and could not have been happier to leave. We had the rest of the day free, so we found another Gothic cathedral that was free to go in, the Eglesia St. Maria del Mar. We wanted to do some more shopping, but most of the stores were closed. We ended up at the “Book and Coin” market, which is a crazy open-air market in a really weird non-foreign-friendly part of town. There were a surprising number of comic stands in the market, and overall, it was a lot of fun to explore. I wanted to find souvenirs, but ended up just getting an old book to transfer my Treasures of Provence journal into. After the Book and Coin market, we only had about an hour before the bus left, so we just hung out in the immediate area of the hotel.

The ride home was uneventful, and we got back to Lacoste at about 11pm, where we were greeted by the Mistral. It blew all week, stopped yesterday, and started again today. It’s just as piercing and cold and irritating as the books described it. My week has been uneventful, besides hanging out with Claire, Dalton, and Jamie night before last and a short visit to the De Sade last night. Tomorrow morning, we leave for Lyon, so I will try to make that update a little more prompt than this one was.

For more photos, I recommend going to my Facebook albums. There are a bunch from all of my travels thus far, so go have a look.

Barcelona 1

Barcelona 2

Barcelona 3