31 May 06 Barcelona photo album
Yes, the album is uploaded and overflowing with photos of Barcelona’s greatest attraction, the architectural genius of Gaudi!
21 May 06 Barcelona
Last week I returned from a quick four-day trip to Barcelona to meet up with my Vancouver (now Prince George) friend Jen Hawke and her mom. They spent nearly three weeks on their travels, spending most time in Barcelona and Paris. Both were kind enough to share with me their lovely, comfy room at Hostal Palacios in the city center.
Unfortunately before I arrived, Jen had her purse stolen while eating at a restaurant. Barcelona is apparently notorious for this kind of theft and of course tourists make perfect targets, no matter how careful you are (and she was). By the time I arrived her spirit was up though, and she got on marvelously with enjoying the trip.
At the outset, aside from the language, Barcelona didn’t seem so different from Paris. I did my best to speak the bits of Spanish I practiced on the flight over and I’m keen to get on with learning it for my next visit to Spain!
The afternoon I arrived Jen and I sat on a patio on the Rambla (a busy tourist street) and sipped the most enormous Sangrias you could imagine - 2 litres of watered-down fruit punch with an inch of sugar settled at the bottom of the glass. We did feel a little tipsy afterward, but that was likely just a king-sized sugar high! The street we were on is lined with market stalls selling unusual wares: rabbits, ferrets, mice, birds, turkeys… caged critters up for grabs to anyone with euros in hand. Strange indeed.
By far the top highlight in Barcelona that we encountered is touring the architectural design works of Antoni Gaudi. All in one day we visited Casa Batllo, Parc Guell, and Sagrada Familia, which is still under construction after more than 120 years! It was a fascinating, fantastic experience to wander through the world of such an incredibly unique artist, and entirely on its own worth the trip to Barcelona.
The gothic quarter is made up of a maze of narrow streets now gaping with trendy shops. We wandered often through that area, we dined on some delicious Catalonian home-style cooking and tapas and did some shopping (which for me was entirely window). I continued my ‘foreign city haircut effort’ and let the hipster stylist at La Pelu have his way, resulting in a tamer version of what Jen and I termed the “Barcelona Mullet”. It’s working out quite well :)
One morning we wall ventured by train to Figueres to visit the Salvador Dali museum, which presented the opportunity to soak in some ‘country’ landscape and experience a smaller town. We were glad to make the trip, but I think many paintings I wished to see are actually located in Florida of all places.
Since returning I had to photograph a theme project for my Street Photography workshop at Tate Modern, which finished yesterday. The theme I chose was “Lunch” and you can view the photos in this slideshow (on flickr). The consensus of others in the workshop was that I’ve got plenty of nerve taking close shots of strangers in public. Some days that’s true…
4 May 06 Today’s headlines
“TUBE WILTS IN HEATWAVE”
Well 26 degrees Celsius, the first ‘warm’ day of the year, is called a heatwave here! For those in the US, that’s 77 degrees Fahrenheit.. This brings back memories of last summer in Ithaca NY where we had regular temperatures over 85 degrees F. In NYC I remember the temp hit 105F/40C. Now that is a heatwave! The thing with the tube is, though, there is absolutely no air conditioning and it is close to unbearable at this temperature, so ‘wilting’ is an accurate assessment. Before today I fully believed it would never get this warm in London, but I’m glad I’m wrong. It’s the first day I ventured out without a jacket… HEATWAVE!
The other news today is it’s local election day. Surprisingly enough since Matt and I are Commonwealth citizens and residents here, we are entitled to vote - we even registered and have polling cards. Unfortunately we haven’t done much research on candidates and the only issues affecting us thus far are recycling (non-existent) and health care (bureaucracy). This means we might not exercise our vote, but polls are open until 10PM so you never know. Over the past week we’ve been exposed to some old-school neighbourhood campaigning. Two different nights a double-decker party bus drove by our flat with a guy talking/rapping political schtuff over a PA, then last night on Brick lane there was a procession of cars with Liberal Democrat signs in their windows and the first car played some abrasive propoganda through a loudspeaker… in Bengali. Needless to say we couldn’t understand, but the Brick Lane locals didn’t seem to pay much attention. The voting power rippling off that street is immense in this district, I’m guessing.
3 May 06 Some fun events coming up
This week the Sultan’s Elephant is coming to town! Over four days the show travels through central London “in the area around Horse Guards Parade in St James’s Park, St James’s, Piccadilly, Haymarket and Trafalgar Square.” Thousands of people will be chasing this enormous elephant around, which should make for some fun photo opportunities. Surely Saturday at Trafalgar Square in particular will be mayhem. Here’s the timetable for the show’s whereabouts.
Coming up on Sunday the 14th is the Bangla New Year celebration “Baishakhi Mela” on Brick Lane. “Brick Lane itself will be pedestrianised throughout the day and transformed into a bustling market place with over 45 curry houses spilling out on to the pavement offering curry alfresco alongside 100’s of stalls giving a taste of Bangladesh through the wide range of Merchandise such as handicrafts and traditional Bangladeshi fashion wears.” All that goodness plus music, art and juggling clowns!
GET FED: