Barcelona, Part 2!

Okay, days 4 and 5...

Day 4 - Went to the National Catalonian Musuem of Art. Which is in a palace. The

National Palace, actually. There's a lot of famous artists who were either Catalonian or from the area. But, due to renovations, the Renaissance and Baroque sections were closed. These were the sections I was most excited about, too. Boo. Major boo. But still, looking at the oodles of apses of churches took up a large part of my day. The rest was taken up by making sure I found nearly all of Gaudi's houses in the area. I thought about going in one, but turns out the wait was two hours AND it was 18 euros. So it didn't happen. I then returned to the hostel for a chocolate making session and another fabulous dinner with fabulous sangria. Paella this time.

I also met Extremely Negative Man. ENM was a European who absolutely despised Americans. Granted, everything he sited was pretty true: we dress badly, don't try to learn the local languages, and tend to unthinkingly assume that everyone will have the same manners we will (American's like to talk, even to strangers, and sometimes about things that other people consider offensively personal). But he was so negative about every culture he mentioned, I just couldn't take him

seriously. According to ENM, Russians are drinkers, the Spanish can't speak English, and the Portuguese refer to everyone who's not from Portugal as a foreigner. Which offended him so badly that he eventually moved away from Portugal (he's not Portuguese; they wouldn't accept him as a local). There's my first run in with an extreme anti-American.

Day 5 - Day 5 was spent at the Picasso Museum and back at Park Guell enjoying the last few hours of sunshine and going to the Gaudi Museum. The Picasso Museum was awesome except that I'm not really a huge fan of Picasso. I love his early, Impressionist work and some of the Blue Period. The man was an artistic genius. But then he became cubist and surrealist and he loses me. I just don't like him. This actually seems to be the opinion of a lot of people I met - so a poll - anyone like Picasso? The majority of the museum is his early work though, so that was neat, and it was also set up in chronological order with explanations of what happened in his life and in the world at the time of each of his major movements. It was neat. But chronologically, the early stuff he did is better, IMHO (heh, "I liked Picasso before he was popular."). The Gaudi Museum was neat, but after looking at his architecture, his chairs were a little less exciting...

Final thoughts -

I have pity on anyone I try to speak a foreign language with. Thanks to eighth grade Spanish, I can sort of get through a minor conversation. I at least know "hola" and "por favor." The difficulty is that, in my brain, there are two pathways. They are "maternal language" and "other language." No matter how long I stand in line thinking "Speak Spanish, speak Spanish" it would come out as French/Spanish. "Hola, je prenne uno mas? Por favor... Merci!" It was truly a disaster.

Anyway, at 11:45 PM I hopped on the bus back to Aix. After a surreal ride of being woken up several times and informed we needed to get off the bus (for the required breaks), I ended up at my apartment and crashed for the rest of the day.

Until my conversation exchange - my exchange family bought me peanut butter!

Barcelona!

So last Thursday, all of seven days ago, I decided I should go somewhere for spring break. Turns out Zurich, Lyon, and Geneva were all extremely expensive and usually out of hostel rooms anyway. Boo on that. So instead I took some advice from the Newsies - "Go West Young Man!" - and went to Barcelona. (I know it's Horace Greeley, but I learned it from the Newsies.)

The end result?

I like Barcelona a lot. It's an absolutely beautiful city.

And a major part of that is Antonio Gaudi, an architect who lived around the turn of the century and made really really wild buildings.

This is the Sagrada Familia, which, on my first day in Barcelona I made the mistake of walking to. I happen to hate metros if there are other ways to travel, and I like to walk in new cities anyway. In Greece I was a master walker. I

always knew where I was within a few days of arriving and I was never daunted by the walk from our hostel to the Parth

enon or other sites. Barcelona defeated me - I walked from my hostel to the Sagrada Familia that first day. It took an hour and a half, and it wasn't even halfway across the city; I may have walked a third of the way across the city. It was a beautiful walk, but I took the train back.

Anyway, the Sagrada Familia. It's a cathedral that's doing it's best to prove that all our ideas of having faster building methods today than we did in the Middle Ages are ridiculous. The first stone for this building was laid in 1882. All those cranes you see in that picture? They're there because this building isn't even closed to finished yet. The estimated finished date is 2030.

But it's beautiful already.

Honestly, I could try to give you the background and reasons he made the building like this, but I keep getting lost for words. It's so pretty! I will say - the columns are supposed to res

emble trees (they even have knots before they branch out! Look!) and that Gaudi was pretty much always

inspired by nature in hi

s shapes and his colors.

But I'll try to give a quick recount of my trip. I'm no travel writer though. Here goes -

Day 1 - Saturday - Bike tour of Barcelona. The most exceptional thing about this was careening around tiny streets packed with people. It was one of the scariest things I've done in a while. Barcelona is beautiful, but don't believe the packet that says "travel the way natives do - by bike!" because it's a lie. Barcelona was not built for bikes. But then I went on my fateful walk to the Sagrada Familia, which completely took me out of commission for the rest of the afternoon. That night I joined up with a girl I met on the bike tour and we went to the Magic

Fountain (cheesy, but fun; how often do you get to see a fountain dance to "I want to break free" and "Every breath you take" in the same night?) and then to a bar to watch the Madrid/Barcelona soccer game.

Day 2 - Sunday - The Madrid/Barcelona soccer game might not have just ended with the end of the game. So I slept in. That afternoon I switched hostels and then went to explore Park Guell. Which is simply amazing. (And was design

ed by Gaudi, in our theme for the post.)

After spending hours there, I went back to the hostel, where I was instantly invited to join a wicked game of Spoons. It got competitive. There was bleeding. Also felt bad because I realized at one point I was the only non-German speaker in the group, therefore they were all s

peaking English because of me. But German? Awesome language. And, FYI, "spooning" is "spooning" in German (translated directly I mean, as in word-for-spoon+some form of verb ending) (and in Dutch it's "little spoon little spoon"). At least I hope these things are true. I'm repeating what I've heard. But so few things translate like that, it always makes me happy when they do.

Day 3 - Monday - Warning, this day started off like many of my days in Barcelona - Lost as hell. I don't know why I had such a difficult time finding my way around, but I

did. Searched for the tour group visiting Gaudi's buildings, couldn't find it in time. Searched for the National Museum, but when I did find it I realized they weren't open on Mondays. So instead spent the day exploring the Gothic Neighborhood which is also wicked. And ended the day by going here -

The Cathedral!

This place is really cool. Inside you walk from alcove to alcove where they have beautiful beautiful art from all the different eras of religious art. And they have GEESE!

Also made it to the Dali Museum, which was set up really strangely (appropriately enough, it's Dali). There were several places that you just walked through curtains to get into tiny, ill-lit rooms to look at his art. And a couple that didn't even look like other rooms, they looked like wall hangings, but you'd realize somebody had disappeared through them... Wildly cool.

That night at the hostel, the in-house nutritionist (yeah, that's right) made us a traditional Spanish meal of goat cheese and olives, gazpacho, fish noodles, and fabulous chocolate. And a bucket of sangria. He also told us the "national secret" for making sangria. Fanta. Half orange, half lemon fanta. Classy.

Two more days to describe, but the office is closing and I have things to clean before my family dinner tonight.

I’ve now eaten escargot. They are, as anyone who has eaten them can attest, rather chewy. And that’s about all there is to say about them. They’re not very flavorful, just a little chewy eraser in a fabulous garlic sauce.

Some French phrases to look out for...

J’ai chaud – I’m hot!

Je suis chaud – I’m really turned on.

J’ai fini. – I’m done

Je suis fini – I’m dead! (“I’m finished.”)

Je suis pleine (lit. “I’m full”) – I’m a pregnant animal. (Go with “Je n’ai plus faim”)

Un baiser (noun) – a kiss (and an innocent one at that, your grandma could ask for a baiser)

Baiser (verb) – to screw

*This one’s my favorite. In French and in English it’s usually a safe bet that you can turn nouns into verbs and vice versa, “google” pretty easily became “to google” (“googliser” in French), “text” became “to text” (“texter”). Somewhere in the history of the French language, “a kiss” became “to screw.” It gives me no end of joy. And confusion. I’m never really sure what people want to do to me in the streets…

Je suis bien. - I'm good!

Je suis bon. - I'm good in bed.

Fabulous Foods

There are, naturally, all the delicious foods in France you’d expect. Those foods are great. But this list isn’t for those foods. This is a list of the foods I eat often, and is, in a way, what I’d ask for if I wanted a care package from France (are you listening Sarkozy? You’re not doing so hot in France, maybe you should start greasing the wheels with the Americans… Namely me…). This is how France does Mac and Cheese. If France were okay with the whole powdered cheese sauce.

Baguettes – Obviously. But did you know how many things you can put on a baguette? Nutella, honey, and cheese are obvious. You can also stick hot dogs in them, which is currently how I’m manging my baguettes. I suggest it. But very rarely do I even make it home with a full baguette, usually I end up ripping off the end and digging in on my way home. Ashamedly, I’ve eaten entire baguettes this way while out running errands. So a piece of advice – buy your baguette last.

Crepes – Specifically from Crepes-a-go-go (Kristie just got a craving somewhere in the greater NY area – sorry!). This stand has been around since like the 70s, and they know how to do crepes right. Fabulously right, since they have everything from coconut to whipped cream to nutella to jams to fruits… Since most stands have just nutella and sugar, this rocks my world. It’s awesome. There’s also a “OH SO BRITISH” Crepe (that’s how the sign says it) that I want to try with steak hache and ketchup… Maybe for lunch tomorrow…

Beignets – These are probably right under crepes as far as “well known French food” goes, but they’re awesome. They’re super fluffy donuts filled with chocolate or caramel. The ones at Paul are by far the best, although they go fast, and I have no idea how many times I’ve walked in, looked at the empty beignet tray, and walked right back out.

Lavender Honey – A guy at the market sold this to me by yelling “Goutez! Goutez!” And naturally I’m not going to turn down a free taste of something. Lavender honey is white in color and has the texture of clover honey that’s gotten slightly crystallized. Not all the way, crunchy, needs to be put in the microwave crystallized, juuuuust enough to feel even better than normal honey on the tongue. And it goes wonderfully in tea. Wonderfully.

Chevre Aux Herbes de Provence – Goat cheese covered in herbes de Provence (I absolutely ADORE that “goat cheese” is just “goat” in French); this is my favorite type by far, although the salempempa is good, just spicy for a cheese.

Espresso – I do like espresso, although I much prefer my morning coffee (solely because you can’t sip an espresso and stare straight ahead while you slowly wake up; you have to like… DRINK IT AND WAKE UP; far too intense for 7 AM); but the espresso I’m referring to here is the espresso and other espresso drinks sold from the vending machines at the Fac. Café vanille is the voted-on favorite, although I personally go classic espresso. All of this deliciousness for 50 centimes, and it’s close enough to your four-hour class to make it during your smoke break (which is admittedly longer than any American class would even consider breaking for; even better is how angry the students get if deprived of their breaks. Or rather, almost deprived. If a professor forgets, students will always, politely, but with a tinge of warning, remind him. They’d go on strike if you took away their break, but then again, half-way through a four-hour class, so would I).

Pizza Capri pizza – 1.80 for a fourth of a pizza keeps me coming back; but Pizza Capri is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted. Thinner crust, like a Memphis Pizza Café pizza except not overly crunchy (which is my major beef with thin-crusted pizza; it’s like eating a cracker), but as greasy as any Papa John’s you’ve had. It’s SO GOOD. And if you splurge the extra sixty cents and get chorizo (it’s pepperoni!) it gets even more greasy and fabulous. Oh man.

Steak Hache – hash-e like café I just can’t find the accent aigu without my computer automatically doing it – This is basically a baguette with ketchup, hamburger meat, and French fries on top. It’s delicious. Like, for real, beyond acceptably delicious.

Kebabs – Kebab stands need to come to the US ASAP. As does the tradition of putting fries on sandwiches.

Hot Toddies (French style, or, without the tea) – Yeah, these both exist in the States and aren’t particularly French, since I always thought of them as British. But since they seem to be the required French prescription for any throat ailment, one of which I’ve been stuck with for the last month and a half, and since I started drinking them here, I’m going to count them. Also, I want to evangelize a little – they’re awesome. Apparently, you're supposed to mix in tea, but you don't really need to - hot water, the juice of an entire lemon, a shot of rum, and a whole lot of (lavender) honey. I don't even know if it's got all the delicious, bacteria-killing properties it's reported to, but it does soothe the throat and put you right to sleep.

And MAN those steak haches are good.