Barcelona Day Four

Piccadilly Circus in London

Barcelona Day Four- Easter- Sunday, April 4^th 2010

Today I woke up around 9:30 so I could get ready for Easter mass at 10:30 at the Barcelona Cathedral. I decided to go by myself, because Melanie decided to go to La Sagria Familia for mass and Justen was sleeping. I grabbed a quick, three euro breakfast from the kitchen downstairs. I took a metro to the downtown area and got to the Cathedral just in time for mass.

Cathedral of Santa Eulalia

The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, also known as the Barcelona Cathedral, is the gothic cathedral and the seat of the Archbishop of Barcelona, Spain. The cathedral was constructed throughout the 13^th to 15^th centuries, and the ne0-gothic façade was constructed over the nondescript exterior that is common to Catalan churches in the 19^th century. The church, dedicated to Saint James, is a hall church, vaulted over five aisles, the out two divided into chapels. I found the church to be typical of most gothic churches I’ve seen, so I wasn’t too impressed. I didn’t get a good view of the main altar, cause I sat in the back left part of the church, but I did get to experience an easter mass in a cathedral that is over 700 years old. Not many people can say that!

I used the first part of Easter to walk around by myself, trying to experience Barcelona in a different way. I walked around and saw a different side of the city that I havent been to before. I found a relatively cheap clothing store, where I bought a shirt for 7 euros. I also bought a couple post cards as souvenirs. It was a pretty crummy day in the morning… it was raining and kind of windy outside. After walking around for a little, I headed back on the metro and to the apartment where I met up with Justen.

Parc Guell

Parc Guell is a garden complex with architectural elements situated in the hill of el Carmel in the Gracia district of Barcelona. It was designed by Gaudi and built in the years 1900 to 1914. It was originally part of a commercially unsuccessful housing site and has since been converted into a municipal garden. It can be reached by an underground railway- which we took for part of the way. The other part of the way (which was mostly uphill) we took a series of escalators built outside, on an enormous hill surrounded by housing. We found ourselves taking escalator after escalator to the top- it was really cool!

Parc Guell is skillfully designed and composed to bring the peace and calm that one would expect from a park. The buildings flanking the entrance, though very original and remarkable with fantastically shaped roofs with unusual pinnacles, fit in well with the use of the park as pleasure gardens. The focal point of the park is the main terrace, surrounded by a long bench in the form of a sea serpent. To design the curvature of the bench surface Gaudi used the shape of buttocks left by a naked woman sitting in wet clay- its stuff like this that makes Gaudi so unique! The curves of the serpent bench form a number of enclaves, creating a more social atmosphere. Gaudi incorporated many motifs of Catalan nationalism, and elements from religious mysticism and ancient poetry, into the park. If there is one thing I would like to elaborate on- besides the unique design that Gaudi successfully accomplished, it would be the terraces. The design was very sectional- meaning you could look up and see terrace after terrace of landscape design and careful structural design. The park was my favorite part of Barcelona- not only was it my favorite work by Gaudi, but it was unique for its landscape design and urban structure. It functioned very well in my opinion, and the infrastructure was my favorite part. The style was very cool especially, and every corner you turned it seemed that you encountered a new series of architectural elements or landscape features. I was very impressed! Plus it was such a relief to walk around aimlessly with Justen- we had no map, no time, we just walked… and that’s how a vacation should be.

Justen and I ventured out of the tourist part of Parc Guell.. to a rather enormous hill.. actually you could call it a mountain, that overlooked the whole park and beyond even Barcelona. When we got to the top we were literally overlooking the outskirts of Spain. It was a sight ill never forget. It was then we realized just how huge Barcelona really was… I mean we could barely see to the end of it and we were pretty high up.

This moment… was probably my favorite moment in the entire trip. Here I was, on one of the highest mountains in Barcelona, overlooking the sea and Spain, on Easter… away from all the tourists and commotion. It was really quite an experience… we felt the wind blowing pretty hard over the mountain peak… and the wind was all we could really hear. Besides that, it was dead quiet. It really was turning out to be a pretty nice Easter… I mean, of course I didn’t get a basket full of chocolate, let alone a ‘Happy Easter’ from anyone… but maybe Melanie. They don’t celebrate Easter like we do in the States… all I think they really do is go to church. Even so, most of the people at church were tourists… Easter is really a holiday that we Americans take to the extreme. No chocolate bunnys, no candy, nothing.

We walked back down to Parc Guell after taking a few moments to capture the moment… and walked all the way to La Sagrada Familia. We waited in line for a good 30-40 minutes before we were able to get inside. After the student discount, we got in for about 12 euros. We walked through the unfinished interior of the church, which wasn’t as impressive as I anticipated… and we walked through the museum of La Sagrada Familia- which was really cool. We saw the workshop of the sculptors for the church, as well as the original designs of the church by Gaudi- pretty much every record and historical document that Gaudi had. It was a nice museum- that happened to be attached to the church. There was a small movie they played- both in Spanish and in English- which I fell asleep right when I sat down. It started pouring down rain when we were in the museum so we stayed inside a little longer to wait for it to pass. When we left, it was only sprinkling, and we took the metro back to our hostel.

When we got back to the hostel, I took a nice 2 hour nap before just relaxing in the hostel for a couple hours. I got a shower, packed my one bookbag. I had to toss a couple things… my brothers pair of black shoes- which now had holes in it from walking so much, a towel that I had been using, and an old pair of flipflops. We left around 4:30 AM and spent the last couple of hours in the hostel saying goodbye to the german girls we met, Marie, the American group we met, the Spaniards, and Raphael. We started to watch a movie in the basement- Slumdog Millionaire- but it started skipping about halfway through, so instead I went on the internet and chilled in the kitchen before leaving the hostel.

Okay… so now begins the long and overwhelming trip back to Florence. Because I don’t want to discuss yet another venture of trains, buses, and planes… ill keep this minimal. We walked for nearly two hours before we found the bus station… my bag killed on my back… not to mention of was pretty tired from not sleeping. We took the 6 AM bus to the airport, then boarded a plane from Barcelona to Pisa, where we then took a train back to Florence. The trip was long and tiring… but I was relieved to get back to Florence. It seemed as if whenever I got on a train, bus, or plane, I would instantly fall asleep… I tried reading my book, but that wasn’t happening. So I guess I got a good couple hours of uncomfortable sleep before I got back to Florence, but that was not enough. Further thoughts will be discussed in the next couple of days about Spring Break… but for now I need sleep.. of course, this travelling thing is starting to become a regular thing.

Barcelona Day Three

London

Park in London

Barcelona Day Three- Saturday, April 3^rd 2010

Today we slept in for a little, which is always good. We got on the metro first thing and headed out to Montjuic Hill, which required a special metro that went uphill- which was kinda cool. We stopped by the Jardi de les Escultures and the Jardin de Laribol- which are an arrangement of outdoor, public spaces, with a waterfall feature and a small pond, statues and plants. It was all overlooking an amazing view of the city. The first place we stopped at was the Museu Olimpic I de l’Esport de Barcelona- which was an Olympic museum, mostly dedicated to the Barcelona Olympics that took place in 1992. This was by far my most favorite part of Barcelona thus far, possibly all of spring break. I found the track and field section to be very interesting- but some of my favorite displays were the Olympic torches from every season, and the hands-on training room. I found out I could jump a vertical height of 52 inches and I also found out how tall a bicycle seat had to be for my height and cycling style- it was really cool.

Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys

The Olympic Stadium in Barcelona was originally built in 1927 for the 1929 International Exposition in the city. It was renovated in 1989 to be the main stadium for the 1992 Summer Olympics. The stadium has a capacity of 55,926 people (70,000 during the Olympics) and is located in the Anella Olimpica in Montjuic, a large hill to the southwest of the city which overlooks the harbor. It was quite a sight from the stadium. It overlooked the city, and again, the public space was awesome. I spent some time relaxing there, just trying to take everything in. It was quite overwhelming for me… mostly because I am obsessed with the Summer Olympics, and being that I was at an Olympic stadium… I was loving it. In fact, my ultimate goal oneday as a designer is to design an Olympic stadium. Once I’ve done that, my life would be complete.

Just outside of the Olympic stadium is the public space I was talking about… the Palau Sant Jordi, the Torre Telefonica, and the Olimpic Placa. The Torre Telefonica is a telecommunication tower in the Montjuic neighborhood of Barcelona. Designed by Santiago Calatrava, construction on the tower began in 1989 and was completed in 1992. The white tower was built for Telefonica to transmit television coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona. It is 143m tall and is located in the Olympic park.

Barcelona Pavilion

The Barcelona Pavilion, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is an important building in the history of modern architecture. I mean very important. I mean… in history of Architecture III Prof. Strand drilled this Pavailion and concept into our brains forever. If you ever want to be an architect, you have to know about the Barcelona Pavilion. Known for its simple form and extravagant materials, such as marble and travertine. The design was predicted on an absolute distinction between structure and enclosure-a regular grid of cruciform steel columns interspersed by freely spaced planes. The entire building rests on a plinth of travertine. The whole concept was to blur the inside with the outside. He did this in a number of ways- by projecting the floor slabs out over a pool. Every single aspect of the building is important- from the extraordinary materials to the simple design and concept- it can all be relayed into modern architecture.

After we left the Barcelona Pavilion we went to Las Ramblas where we watched a pillow fight. That’s right, a pillow fight! We heard about it through the grapevine so we made sure to check it out. Right in the middle of the plaza we witnessed the first annual Barcelona Pillow Fight! And we saw the whole thing! At first, only a couple people showed up- mostly young people, with pillows just kind of standing around waiting for something to happen. Then, eventually more and more people started showing up and all of a sudden someone blew off a horn and the braw began. It lasted a good 20 minutes and it good pretty intense! Feathers were flying everywhere and people were yelling and screaming and having nothing but a good time! I only wish I would have brought a pillow so I could’ve joined in on the fun! I thought about using the hostels pillow… but then I quickly realized it would have ripped open and it probably wasn’t a good idea to ruin a pillow from the best hostel in all of Barcelona.

Parc Ciutadella

The last place we stopped today was Parc Ciutadella. The park is the most central park in all of Barcelona, and one of the first ones considered only for public delectation. After its establishment during the mid 19^th century, it was for decades the only green area in the city, and hitherto of the most popular. It is located at the northeastern edge of the old town, and hosts within its 70 acres the city’s substantial zoo, the Parliament of Catalonia, a lake, some museums, and a fountain of considerable size designed by Gaudi. It is characterized by being a very busy place, crowded with tourists, and locals, who are usually going for a walk or partaking in sporting events or running. I spent my little time in this park walking around and sipping on a slushy I bought for 2 euros. Haha!

We went back to the hostel, and again stayed in and talked to the travelers who stayed their. There was a group of American students who were studying in London- who happened to be on Spring Break just like us. They got really drunk in the kitchen and danced. They embarrassed themselves pretty bad. Typical Americans.

Barcelona Day Two

Inside the Science Museum in London

Barcelona Day Two- April 2^nd 2010

Last night was a bad start to the Barcelona trip. It seems like going out was a bad idea. I went to the club that I read about in a small travelers Barcelona book I bought when I was stranded at the London stansted airport that recommended this place. So I went there.. and first they asked for an invitation which I didn’t have… then I found an Italian guy who had to help me get an invitation by going to a bar down the street and buying a drink. Then we found out the invitation needed stamped on the back.. it was a hassel just to get in. Anyways, when we got it, it wasn’t even that great. It felt too crammed inside. Even though there were two floors, it was quite small- the dance floor/bar area was long and narrow, like it was crammed between two buildings.

So the unfortunate events from last night wore off into today.. and ultimately, the rest of the trip. This was the first time I was beginning to start feeling homesickness. I felt unsafe in Barcelona. I didn’t like the atmosphere. People didn’t feel friendly unless you were buying something from them. I just wanted to go home back in the states… make money and not always spend it, communicate with people in the same language again, order lots of food for cheap, cook a barbeque, go to the rec, everything… I was beginning to miss it all. I wasn’t used to this place and their customs. All I wanted to do today was go to the beach and relax, and hopefully I would be back in Florence… and then finally back home.

So, after getting a shower and sleeping in until about 11, we took the metro to Las Ramblas and headed to the beach for a couple hours. We stopped by a kebab shop and got food for the beach beforehand. It was supposed to be the nicest day of the week in Spain at least, so we figured we might as well go to the beach today. The beach was very nice- by far the nicest beach ive been to this semester in Europe, but everyone was wearing clothes and there weren’t that many people to tell you the truth. I mean, the weather was nice, nice enough to wear a bathing suit, but not nice enough to go into the water. We just enjoyed relaxing and soaking in the sun. The only thing that was annoying about being on the beach were the Asians who came around every couple of minutes asking you if you wanted a massage for 5 euros. They would say “Massah-hey!?” and eventually I was like “NOO!!!!” It got SO annoying!

After we left the beach we stopped by a really cool building called ‘Mare Nostrum’ or ‘Gas Natural’ where we took pictures and admired the architecture for a bit. Again, I can’t emphasize enough how many cool public spaces the city had. The way they incorporated vegetation, infrastructure, and architecture into their spaces was very well thought out and effective I thought. That is the one thing about Barcelona I made sure to take note of.

MACBA by Richard Meier

The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art is situated in the Placa dels Angels, in El Raval. Designed by Richard Meier, the buildings architectural style has strong references to Modernism. This large white building has much of its southern elevation glazed, providing the visitor with views across the plaza, and allowing natural light into the interior. It includes a central library, specialized in art books and publications. It may sound like a pleasing space, but my experience was not pleasing at all. When walking to the building, we noticed we were walking through a run-down neighborhood. For heavens sake, it felt like it was night time when it was only late afternoon. The streets were really sketchy and we were catching dirty looks from Spaniards. Anyways, when we approached the site we were quite surprised. The open plaza was littered with teenage kids, all on skateboards or sitting around, doing skateboard tricks and riding around on their skateboard. There must have been 50 of them, all with skateboards. They were using the building to do wall grinds off of. Then, to make matters worse, there were homeless people sleeping next to it. One woman was throwing a fit, grabbing the blanket of a drunk homeless man who had to be her husband or something. They were yelling at each other and making a scene, but no one seemed to take notice except for us. On the other side of the building, in the othe plaza, there were bikers doing tricks and messing around. Talk about an unappreciated use of one of the best examples of modern architecture by one of the most famous contemporary architects. I was constantly watching my back, making sure I didn’t get in anyones way. I barely had time to even notice the building that was in front of me.

Torre Agbar

After walking to Torre Agbar for almost 2 hours, we finally got to the building just as it was getting dark and the building lit up, which was a spectacular array of colors, covering the façade of the entire building in a neat design.

The Torre Agbar is a 33 story tower at Placa de les Glories Catalanes. It was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel in association with the Spanish firm b720 Arquitectos and built by Dragados. It opened in June 2005 and was inaugurated officially by the King of Spain on September 16^th 2005. According to Jean Nouvel, the shape of the building was inspired by Montserrat, a mountain near Barcelona, and by the shape of a geyser rising into the air. Jean Nouvel, in an interview, described it as having a phallic character. Its design combines a number of different architectural concepts, resulting in a striking structure built with reinforced concrete, covered with a façade of glass, and over 4500 window openings cut out of structural concrete. The building stands out in Barcelona; it is the third tallest building in Barcelona, only after the Arts Hotel and the Mapfre Tower, both 154 meters. A defining feature of the building is its nocturnal illumination. It has 3400 LED luminous devices that allow generation of luminous images in the façade. In addition, it has temperature sensors in the outside of the tower that regulate the opening and closing of the window blinds of the façade of the building, reducing the consumption of energy for air conditioning. What an awesome feature! After we visited the Torre Agbar, we got on the metro and headed back to the hostel for the night.

We stayed in the hostel tonight. Unfortunately, the guy from London was gone, but we did meet a group of guys from Mexico who we talked to. They were really funny and they knew how to have a good time. We relaxed on the roof terrace and talked to the girls from Germany and Marie from Argentina. Raphael evened joined us and had a couple smokes before he closed the roof terrace for the night.

Barcelona Day One

More of London!

Barcelona Day One- April 1^st 2010

I don’t want to start off today on a bad note.. like yesterday, but real quick.. we spent the entire morning looking for our hostel. After spending the entire morning on a bus, getting lost in the city for two hours, and walking around until we finally found a metro that took us somewhere close to our hostel, and finally checked in.

Our hostel in Barcelona, Hostel One, was by far the best hostel ive ever been in. My very first impression of the hostel was that it was very clean and chill. We were immediately greeted by a tall, black dude who looked kinda like Bob Marley. He was real chill, and he was your typical reggae-listening, layed-back, beach dude with dread locks and worn, shaggy clothes. He fit with the environment very well. The hostel was very laid back. There was a main lobby/reception area, followed by a kitchen and dining room on the first floor. In the basement there was a pool table and a couple of couches and a TV (with american movies!) and on the second floor there was a couple computers with the internet! There was also a roof terrace with a table and chairs and a place to lay down and watch the stars! It was by far the perfect place to hang out and meet new people. Everyone who stayed at this hostel was quite young… in their 20s and 30s, and everyone was real chill. That’s the word of the day: chill.

After we got a little tour and paid for our hostel- which was relatively cheap (about 20 euros a night), we decided to walk around the city for a bit; even though we were dead tired from the little amount of sleep the night before.

The main street in Barcelona, La Rambla, is quite possibly the most effective use of public space I have seen as a traveller. The street is arranged on either side of a main strip running down the center, with buildings along the side. It is the ultimate tourist spot. Along the middle, you will find vendors and small marketplaces for people to shop. We were finding everything from pet stores to marketplaces for food and produce, souvenirs, and clothes. It was quite an experience- the strip leads you all the way to the beach. Barcelona, by far, imposes the best example of public space in all of Europe in my opinion. The city plan is very efficient- and trust me when I say this. I was finding myself embarking some of the most welcoming and comforting spaces, as well as some of the most unwelcoming spaces- cause as soon as you venture off the main touristy streets- like La Rambla and the streets along the beach- you hit the neighborhood streets, and find yourself in run-down, old neighborhoods, full of mainly poor locals. Are they all poor? No. In fact, I think most of them are better off- but I certainly didn’t feel welcome.

Casa Mila by Antoni Gaudi

Barcelona is famous for its architecture by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. Built during the years 1906-1910, and officially completed in 1912, Casa Mila is located in the Eixample district of Barcelona. Casa Mila was revolutionary; it was the predecessor of some buildings with a similar biomorphic appearance- such as buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, and Le Corbusier.

Do I like Antoni Gaudi? For the emotion and style he was tryin to evoke- yes. But for his work in an aesthetic sense- no. Gaudi’s first works were designed in the style of gothic architecture and traditional Catalan architectural modes, but he soon developed his own distinct sculptural style. Probably his most famous work- the ‘La Sagrada Familia’- which I will discuss in a bit, is the best example of his style. I like his architectural style for only two reasons- one, every single room and component of his architecture is designed to accommodate the person, the function, or to perform a certain action. Every chair, window, even accessory- was designed by Gaudi. Two- he was able to successfully develop his own unique style. Only a couple contemporary architects are able to accomplish that today- Gehry being a good example with his curving, titanium facades.

While walking around today, we also passed some other works by Gaudi- including Casa Batllo, Casa Amatller, and Casa Lleo Morera. I will talk about his most famous of the three- Casa Baltlo, which was an extemely irregular looking building.

Casa Batllo

The building looks very remarkable- like everything Gaudi designed, only identifiable as Modernisme or Art Nouveau in the broadest sense. The ground floor, in particular, is rather astonishing with tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work. It seems that the goal of the designer was to avoid straight lines completely. Much of the façade is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles called trencadis that starts in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur. A common theory about the building is that the rounded feature to the left of the centre, terminating at the top in the turret and cross, represents the sword of Saint George (patron saint of Catalonia), which has been plunged into the back of the dragon.

Placa Catalunya

Placa Catalunya is a large square in central Barcelona that is generally considered to be both its city centre and the place where the old city and the 19^th century-built Eixample meet. When we reached the end of La Rambla, before you get to the beach, this is the square you encounter. The plaza occupies an area of about 50,000 square meters. It is especially known for its fountains and statues, its proximity to some of Barcelona’s most popular attractions, and for the flocks of pigeons that gather in the centre- according to wiki.

When we were walking down Las Ramblas, we stopped by Boqueria or St. Joseph’s Market. The market was much different that San Lorenzo in Florence in my opinion- the range of meat, produce, fruits and vegtables, lets be honest- food in general, was extreme. Everything from cow and lamb heads to bread and water- the market was insamely huge. It smelled pretty bad in areas, but it was still a cool experience for an American to walk through it- who’s used to big warehouse Giant Eagles.

Next we stopped by the coast- Port Vell and the beach. Port Vell is actually quite an interesting place. Built as part of an urban renewal program prior to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics- which before was a rundown area of empty warehouses, railroad yards, and factories. It is the focal point of the city, containing the Maremagnum- a mall containing shops, a multiplex cinema, bars and restaurants, IMAX Port Vell and Europes largest aquarium containing 8000 fish and 11 sharks contained in 22 basins filled with 6 million liters of sea water. We walked across a swing bridge to the Maremagnum, where we walked passed the many shops and plazas. There were many restaurants- including a McDonalds and a Burger King, and the amount of sea ports and sailing boats was incredible. We sat on a bench alongside the port for a good hour, just taking in the atmosphere and the moment, not to mention we were pretty exhausted from the night before. For our last stop of the day, we headed to La Sagrada Familia, which is the most famous building in Barcelona, and possibly all of Spain. A portion of the buildings interior is scheduled to open for public worship and tours by September 2010.

La Sagrada Familia

The ‘La Sagrada Familia’ meaning ‘Church of the Holy Family’ is a massive, privately-funded Roman Catholic church that has been under construction in Barcelona since 1882 and is not expected to be complete until at least 2026. Every part of the design of La Sagrada Familia is replete with Christian symbolism, as Gaudi intended the church to be the “last great sanctuary of Christendom”. Its most striking aspect is its spindle-shaped towers. A total of 18 tall towers are called for, representing in ascending order of height the Twelve Apostles, the Four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and, the tallest of all, Jesus Christ. The church will have three grand facades: the Nativity façade to the East, the Glory façade to the South (yet to be completed) and the Passion façade to the West. Th church plan is that of a latin cross with five aisles. The towers on the Nativity façade are crowned with geometrically shaped tops that are reminiscent of Cubism and the intricate decoration is contemporary to the style of Art Nouveau, but Gaudi’s unique style drew primarily from nature, not other artists or architects, and resists categorization.

By the La Sagrada Familia there is a McDonalds, a Burger King, a Subway, and a KFC by the way, but they are all way too expensive. I thought was funny that you could find some popular fast food chains by one of the most famous Art Nouveau structures in the world! haha

After we stopped by a grocery store on the way back to the hostel, I took a shower- which was quite annoying because the water would shut off after a couple of seconds, so you had to keep pressing the knob on the wall. We were greeted by one of the staff members, Raphael, who actually lived in a tiki hut on the roof terrace and had to be one of the sweetest dudes ive ever met. He was a really down to earth guy. He reminded me of Johnny Depp from Pirates of the Carribean. He wore shaggy clothes- even a sack around his waist that resembled something like a tool belt. He wore a cowboy hat and he had long, shaggy hair and he smoked all the time. We also found out later that he was very smart- he read almost every book about Gaudi’s architecture, and he knew a lot about ‘green’ design. He even built a shading device (built out of fabric) on the roof terrace that would provide shade in an exact spot during the afternoon hours in the summer.

That night we met a lot of interesting people. Justen and I hung out on the roof terrace with some people from the hostel. We met a girl named Marie who was from Argentina who had been pretty much living at the hostel for a month. We also met 2 girls from Germany, who spoke to each other in German, but also knew English fluently. They were very interesting and fun to talk to. Perhaps the coolest guy I met on the first night, besides Raphael of course, was a guy from London who we talked to for most of the night. We talked about everything- most the differences between our cultures in America and England, but also the small stuff- like little British slang words that the British people would always say. Words like ‘Bloody’ and such. It was a very interesting night. I went out later- which wasn’t a good idea considering the fact that I couldn’t find 100 euros that I had in my wallet. Did I get pick-pocketed? Im not sure… but regardless, I quickly learned that Barcelona isn’t the safest place to be.

London and Madrid Day Four

Westminister Abbey

Inside Westminister Abbey

London and Madrid Day Four- Wednesday March 31^st 2010

Ohh what a day today was… We woke up quite early.. around 7 AM, so we could get on a bus to the bus station to take a bus to the London Stansted Airport where we would fly out at 11. Not too hard right? Well soon after we got off the bus at the bus station we immediately started encountering problems…

You would think that after travelling across Europe every weekend for 3 months, we would know how to get around practically anywhere. Well London is a different story. Not only couldn’t we find a bus to get us to the airport, but we couldn’t even find a bus station when the bus dropped us off at where he proclaimed was the right place. We spent entirely too long looking for the bus station.. and when we found it, after asking a couple people, the bus driver wouldn’t let us on the bus. A huge group of us, with our bags and everything, were standing outside of an empty bus for nearly a half an hour before he let us on. The bus ride, which I slept on, cramped next to an italian girl, was almost 2 hours to London Stansted.

When we got to the airport finally, we had nearly two hours to spare, so I grabbed a nice lunch/breakfast because I had pounds left over. I got a nice plate of pasta and a desert served to me. It was then when I decided to check my boarding pass… and realized that the departure time on my boarding pass was entirely different than the time we got in the confirmation e-mail, which Melanie checked the night before. I wasn’t too worried about it, in fact at the time I thought it was just a typo. Regardless, I asked Melanie and Justen about it. They were surprised to see it, and thought the same thing as I. But once they checked their boardling passes they realized it said the same time as well. Out of concern, Justen and Melanie went to go check to see what time our plane did leave… 7:40 AM or 11AM.

After waiting in line to talk to a flight assistant for almost 45 minutes… our day was unfortunately ruined when she told us our flight in fact left at 7:40 AM, and the next flight for 3 people wasn’t until Friday evening, and would cost 100 pounds. Apparently, our flight was rescheduled.. and even though our confirmation e-mail, which only Melanie and I got, said our flight was at 11, we also got another rescheduling e-mail for 7 that morning… which was sent to us all the way back in January. I guess the reason I forgot about it was ive been on 10+ trips since then and its hard to keep track of them.. I only checked my confirmation e-mail. You would think they would send you an e-mail closer to the flight day to remind you right? Ohh well… it’s our fault and we had to pay for it… 100 pounds. But I refused to wait around at the airport for two and a half days. We started asking her about other flights to areas along the coast of Spain… and unfortunately, there weren’t any departing soon. Then I mentioned Madrid, and she said, luckily, that there was a flight leaving that evening at 7 for Madrid, and there were only 3 seats left. Perfect. So after paying 100 pounds for a boarding pass, we waited around the airport for nearly 10 hours. During that time we bought an all-day internet pass so we could cancel our hostel for the night, research a bus to get on- from Madrid to Barcelona, buy tickets, check our bank accounts, skype our parents, and possibly look into places to stay in Madrid. Let me tell you doing all of that was a hassel. Under the pressures of being stuck at an airport with little money and little sleep, we quickly realized how much this mistake was going to cost us. On top of the flight we missed, which we couldn’t be reimbursed for, we had to pay for a new flight, a bus from Madrid to Barcelona- which we found out later required a bus to get to the bus to take you Barecelona. Then once we got to Barcelona, we would have to take the metro to our hostel, then walk for an hour before we would finally get to our hostel. The whole process… in the end, was over a day and a half of travelling… trains, metros, buses, and planes, and a whole lot of money in tickets for them.

So lets back up… even though it kills to think about. At the airport, I slept a little, read a little, ate a little, and pretty much did a little of everything. I was SO bored. When going through customs, I got my face wash confiscated because it was more than 3 oz. As if my day wasn’t already bad. The plane ride wasn’t that bad… I mean, ive been on a plane with Ryan Air before, and it was pretty much the same as the rest. I was just glad to get out of that god forsaken airport… not that I wanted to deperately leave London or anything… but I was sick of sitting around waiting. But that was only the beginning…

When we arrived to Madrid.. quite possibly the biggest airport ive ever been in in my life. In My Life. We had trouble, of course, finding the bus to take us to Barcelona. When we asked the staff for a bus to Barcelona, which was about 8 hours away, they almost laughed at us. Due to the fact that we were the only ones around and it was 11 at night.. they thought we were crazy. There was one lady, however, that would help us out. She directed us to both a metro and a bus line that we could get on to take us to a bus station that would get us to Barcelona… so we followed her directions.. and after walking through the Madrid airport for nearly 20 minutes we tried to get on the metro, which closed 7 minutes prior, of course. Then, when we went back to get on a bus.. we missed it by 5 minutes, no lie. So we had to sit around and wait for the next bus to get on. At this point, I don’t remember how long we waited… ive been on so many buses and trains I cant tell you how we managed to get tickets and even get on the right bus… but we eventually did, and we eventually got to the bus station. Okay.

So the long bus ride from Madrid to Barcelona was of course the most uncomfortable bus ride you could imagine… we were stuck on a bus with foreigners, and we stopped every 2-3 hours I don’t know. I think we were the only ones who spoke english. The plus side to the trip to Barcelona was that I got a seat to myself… and so I managed to sleep most of the time. Long story short, the bus ride cost 28 euors. 28 euros we didn’t have to pay if we would have double checked our boarding passes. As you can tell, im still not over this mistake. Ohh well… everyone makes mistakes.

London Day Three

Fish and Chips!

The London Eye at Night

Big Ben

Westminister Abbey

London Day Three- Tuesday March 30^th 2010

Today was a very long day, but perhaps my favorite thing that we did today was visit the Tate Modern Art Museum. After we had breakfast and all that jazz, we went to Tate first, which I enjoyed very much.

Tate Modern

Tate Modern is the national gallery of international modern and contemporary art from 1900. The free galleries, which we went to, were on two levels. The first level was all about ‘Material Gestures’- a wing featuring post-war European and American painting and sculpture. Some of the artwork included: Claude Monet and Expressionism, Cy Twombly, Victor Pasmore, Gerhard Richter, Viennese Actionism, Expressionism, Material Gestures Exhibition, and Francis Bacon and Anish Kapoor. The next level, titled ‘Energy and Process’, explored the radical 1970s art movement Arte Povera. Works by Richard Serra, Kasimir Malevich, Ana Medieta, Marisa Merz, Anselm Kiefer, Yvonne Rainer, Jannis Kounellis, Peter Fischli, and David Weiss were featured here, focusing on themes such as fabric and fabrication and landscape and action. All of the art was very modern- and anyone studying modern art can tell you that some of the topics can be quite radical or quite extreme. Everything from a simple brush stoke on a canvas to splashes of different colors of paint on an entire canvas to videos of naked women covering themselves in blood and rolling around in feathers. I found this museum to be very similar to the Pompidou museum in Paris. Both of which are modern art museums exploring the same themes. The main exhibition going on until May was ‘Van Doesburg and the International Avant-Garde: Constructing a New World’, a theme and artist I am very interested in. Piet Mondrian is my favorite contemporary artist, famous for his depiction of the three primary colors in a simple geometric sequence. Tommy and I even made our own Mondrian painting last semester for our apartment. I would have loved to pay the 10 pounds to see the exhibition but we didn’t have enough time in the day. I did however buy an architecture book called ‘Making Public Buildings’- a book about the design process and how 10 projects developed from initial thought and site to final concept and design, and then eventually construction and final result. The book even goes into detail by including interviews with the architect and some of his/her first sketches. I thought the book would help me a lot with the design process… so after spending almost an hour in the bookstore and going through almost every architecture book there, I bought it!

St. Paul’s Cathedral

We stopped by St. Paul’s Cathedral after going to Tate Modern, but we didn’t go inside because it was something around 15 pounds to get in. As Melanie and Justen rested, I decided to walk around the Cathedral and explore a business district along the side streets of the Cathedral. It was a really cool experience because I happened to be there during the lunch break, so it seems like every British businessman was outside eating or talking in the plaza, or in a restaurant eating with their fellow employees. They were all dressed up, suit and tie, and looked very professional. The architecture is what caught my eye- the buildings were all contemporary, with every intention to satisfy a hard-working business. The facades were mostly glass, and the public spaces were spaced out very efficiently. It was at this moment that I pictured myself being one of them- with a suitcase and a suit on, in the midst of an architectural project, talking to colleagues and employers, eating a sandwich in the middle of the day. It could happen, and I could live in London for the rest of my life.

St. Paul’s Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the city, and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17^th century and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is generally reckoned to be London’s fifth St. Paul’s Cathedral, all having built on the same site since 604 AD. The cathedral is one of London’s most famous and most recognizable sights. At 365 feet high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also amongst the highest in the world, St. Peters Basilica in Rome being higher.

London Tower Bridge

So Justen and I decided to pay the 5 pound student fee to go up the London Tower Bridge, which was well worth it. We skipped out on going into the Tower of London because the line was too long and it was way too expensive. Plus, by this point, it was quite miserable outside- it had been rainy and windy all day. Honestly, every once and a while I felt the need to just go back to the hostel and kick it- which is a feeling I usually never get on trips.

The Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, England, over the River Thames. It is quite close to the Tower of London, which gives it its name. It has become an iconic symbol of London. The bridge consists of two towers which are tied together at the upper level by means of two horizontal walkways which are designed to withstand the horizontal forces blah blah blah. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower- which we got the chance to go down and see. We saw all the operating equipment and machinery below, which was really cool. The bridge used to be powered by steam, and we got to see all the furnaces and stuff below that they used to use.

After we left the Tower Bridge Justen and I walked around for a little bit, and of course we lost Melanie, so we hopped on a metro and headed back to the hostel. On our last night in London, on what I would consider to be one of the greatest places in the world, Justen and I went out to Piccadilly Circus again. We got lost in the city for about 3 hours, but it was fine with us, because we saw a lot of places we haven’t been to yet. We saw a lot of cool modern Architecture and skyscrapers. In admiration of the city, we got lost in its streets and found ourselves at the cities edge by the time we wanted to go back to the hostel. So we turned around and headed back in the other direction. We were walking around for a while before we finally got back.

London Day Two

The London Eye

London Day Two- Monday March 29^th 2010

London!!!

Today I woke up relatively early, ate breakfast, which again let me emphasize is a typical European breakfast… cereal and milk, juice, nutella and bread. Period. Always. We got ready and walked to Westminister Abbey. We had to wait in a long line to get inside, and it was relatively expensive to get in… about 12 pounds to get in for students. We spent about 2-3 hours in the church. We got an audioguide in English and took pictures, which we had to sneak in because pictures weren’t allowed.

The Houses of Parliament

The Palace of Westminister is the meeting place of the two houses of Parliament of the UK- the House of the Lords and the House of the Commons. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminister. The name may refer to either of two structures: The Old Palace, a medieval building complex most of which was destroyed in 1834, and its replacement New Palace that stands there today. It has retained its original style and status as a royal residence for ceremonial purposes.

Melanie was our navigator for the trip. She did a lot of planning beforehand and kept a small notebook with her that included details and and iternary she wanted to follow. So when she was on her way taking us to the globe theatre we found a science museum that was free to get in… so of course we how to stop in. Which was probably the best idea we had all day, the museum was enormous and bigger than any science museum ive ever been in by far. With six floors of exhibition space and artifacts, the museum was like nothing ive ever seen. The size of the museum just stunned me. I mean, it didn’t look THAT big from the street. The ground floor featured an energy hall, a theater, an ‘exploring space’, an imax movie theater, a modern exhibition, and a ‘force field’ room, just on the first floor! On the second floor up they had a plasticity section with plastic matt hanging from the wall that you had to walk through, and a mathematics section, and an agriculture, cosmetics, cosmos, time, 1001 inventions, and a telecommunications section just on that floor! The museum was so huge it was overwhelming- and we had no intentions to stop by until we found out it was free. We ended up spending over three hours in the museum. They had an entire room, about the size of two football fields, dedicated to just models and designs of ships. Ive never seen so many models in one place in my entire life. The third floor included science in the 18^th century, a launchpad, a health section, which I thought my mom would love, a motionride simulator, and a flight simulator. All of the information I acquired just by walking through this museum was more information than anyone could retain in an entire semester of a science class. I was having trouble processing everything… I even saw a model for the London Stansted airport, the first X-ray machine, and the first design for an airplane… to name a few.

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch. Located in the city of Westminister, the palace is the setting for state occasions and royal hospitality. It has been a rallying point for British people at times of national rejoicing and crisis. Originally known as Buckingham House, the building which forms the core of today’s palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site which had been of private ownership for over 150 years. During the nineteenth century it was enlarged principally by architect John Nash after being a private residence for the Queen of England, known as the “Queens House”. Dah. The Buckingham Palace garden is the largest private garden in London. The state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of the summer months.

Hyde Park

Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London and one of the royal parks of London, famous for its speakers corner. The park is divided in two by the Serpentine. The park is contiguous with Kensington gardens and is a total of 625 acres. The park is the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851, for which the Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton.

Kensington Palace

We had to walk through Hyde Park to go to Kensington Palace, a historic Royal Palace. The walk there was okay, but on the way back it was raining and we were somewhat miserable. “The Enchanted Palace” was a very cool experience. The spaces and rooms were very mystical. It was a weave of fashion, performance, dreamlike installations, and tales of the palaces’ princesses, all set against the backdrop of the magnificent State Apartments. Today Kensington Palace is the official residence of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, and Princes and Princess Michael of Kent. It was the official residence of Diana, Princess of Whales, until her death in 1997, Princess Margaret, until her death in 2002, and Princess Alice, until her death in 2004. Each room had its own unique experience, which is what I liked most about the palace. There was one room with a magic throne, which you sat in, and the secret was that whatever wish you made would come true. So I sat in the chair and wished for a brownie, then everyone bowed to my wish. I never got a brownie though…. Haha!

On the long, long walk back to our hostel, and after stopping a couple times in the rain, we finally made it back to our hostel. When we got back we found the bar to be really busy, even for a Monday night. We relaxed for a little before we headed out to Piccadilly Circus to walk around, get food, and shop.

Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus is a busy plaza at the junction of five major streets in Central London. It reminds me a lot of Times Square in New York City. The Circus was created by architect John Nash as part of the future King George IV’s plan to connect Carlton House- where the Prince Regent resided- with Regent’s park. We went here when it was dark when the electronic billboards were lighting the streets below. I found a really cheap sports store were I bought two shirts and a pair of speedos for the beach. I also bought a cinnabon which was delicious! There was no seating though so I had to eat on the street… the countless souvenir stores and the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum are what I remember most about the shopping center. Justen and Melanie each bought t-shirts: Justen bought a hoodie and Melanie bought a Jersey. I bought a black and white scarf for only 2 euros! It was a very cool atmosphere. There were people everywhere until the late hours of the night, and almost everything was open, something you don’t see in Florence.

Trafalgar Square

On the way to and back from Piccadilly Circus we stopped at Trafalgar Square, which includes Nelson’s column, guarded by four lion statues at its base. Statues and sculptures are on display at the square, including a fourth plinth displaying changing pieces of contemporary art, and it is a site of political demonstrations. The name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar from 1805 in which the British Naval defeated the Napoleonic army. In the 1820s the Prince Regent commissions the landscape architect John Nash to redevelop the area. Nash cleared the square as part of his Charing Cross Improvement Scheme. The present architecture of the square is due to Sir Charles Barry and was completed in 1845. According to Wikipedia, Trafalgar Square ranks as the fourth most popular place on Earth with more than 15 million visitors a year.

London, I found, has a lot of American restaurants. When we first got here yesterday we found a subway pretty close to the bus station and we just HAD to stop there to get a sub to eat. Little did we know that there were subways everywhere in London. We got subway probably about 3-4 times during our whole stay in London. We also got McDonalds of course… which is everywhere in Europe, and in my opinion, tastes more healthy than the McDonalds in the States.

The Metro in London is called the London Underground, famous for its symbol, which is a red circle with a blue horizontal strip running across with white letters reading ‘Underground”. Its famous for its saying “Mind the Gap” which is what they say over the intercom system when the metro comes to a stop. Its real funny because the gap between the metro car and the concrete slab outside is an inch or less. So everywhere in London you will find shirts reading ‘Mind the Gap’ kinda like in Florence when you find close up shots of Michelangelos David. Anyways, the transportation in London is very confusing. The London Underground could’ve been convenient for us if the ticket machine would’ve taken our money. For some reason, none of the machines at the station would accept our money. So we were only to get on the metro once by sneaking on, and that almost got us in trouble. The only way out of the metro, we found, was to swipe your ticket, and we didn’t have a ticket, so finally Melanie asked the information desk for one and they sold us a day pass.

The other form of transportation, besides the old-fashioned taxi cabs, were the big red buses, another popular feat of London. The problem with the bus system in London is that its not very tourist-friendly. They are mainly used for the locals, or people who travel throughout the city a lot, and have a card they can swipe. But when you don’t have a card and you buy a one-way ticket like we did, apparently all you have to do is show the bus driver your ticket. We didn’t figure this out of course cause nobody bothered to tell us what to do, so we looks like retards trying to feed our ticket into a car-swiping machine. Eventually the bus driver yelled at us and told us to sit down. Little things like this would of course happen to anybody new to the city, but all-in-all, London is a pretty organized and easy to get around city. It very busy all the time, unlike most of the cities in Italy.

After we got back from Piccadilly Circus we stayed in the hostel and talked to a local who happened to be in the lounge on her computer. The two TVs in the lounge didn’t work so instead Justen and I just sat there and talked for a couple of hours. We got a very cheap bottle of wine from the grocery store down the street and I ate candy while we talked our trip thus far. Spring Break is going pretty well do far, I am just upset that I have to leave this place on Wednesday morning to go to Barcelona. London is a lot better than I thought it would be.