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…
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Hi Tiffany
Glad you enjoyed Barcelona! I knew you would - can’t wait to see your pictures. I really enjoyed your “Lunch” pictures. You certainly captured a broad spectrum of munchers! Lynda
Comment by Lynda — May 21, 2006 #
Personally, I find Barcelona to be far too full of Spanish people.
Yours,
Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells
Comment by Conor — May 29, 2006 #
Con, si us plau, I’m sure the Catalonians would agree ;)
Lynda, thank you, thank you! Barcelona album is alive now…
Comment by Tiffany — May 31, 2006 #