Dec 2006

The two lovely photos above are from the bonus stop we had between Valencia and Madrid. I forget the name of the town but it was very cute pictuesque place and the church we visited was absolutly amazing.

And there is a amazing thing in there. Im not sure excatly what to call it but there is a statue of Jesus in there and apparently it is growing real hair?? Im not sure if its true or a myth but it certainly gave me the eeby jeebies.

Then onto Madrid. Madrid didnt really impress me much. Our hostel was on the main prostitute drag and these girls really didnt seem very friendly and I've even heard sometimes they gang up and mug the odd passer by. So in general Madrid was the only city on my travels that I didnt really feel confortable in.

The up side tho was that I went to a couple of amazing art galleries while I was here and they are very big and famous.

Me In Madrid

Velazquez CU

Grass Wall

Another thing I enjoyed was I got to have a free Flamenco lesson at the hostel. It was soooo difficul but alot of fun. And then the next night the same lady who taught me was back with her band and they did a preformance for us. It was really neat, but to my unexpected horror she pulled me up onto the dance floor at the end of the preformance to join in!!! eeek I was totally un prepared, plus I looked so shabby, I was waring a daggy Tshirt and my flip flop sandles and then had to try and remember anything from the night before which was freaky. I remembered one or two moves and did my best. There was heaps of people
I was very nervous but it was still fun. And got some positive feedback from my mates so that good. Even if I did look silly.

Next Stop San Sebastian..

DALI MUSEUM and Getting Lost

Me in Dali Museum

The photo above is of Me in the Dali Musuem. There is a bit of a small story behind this as it was my silliest event on my trip.
It could have all been avoided, if I asked a few questions.

Sp anyway..
The Dali musuem is in a small town about 2 hours outside of Barcelona. I really wanted to see it so I didnt think 2 hours was too much for a nice say trip across the Spanish country.

It ended up taking me 5 hours just trying to get there.

First I had to wait about 35mins for the train and then stupidly I jumped on the wrong train. After some moments in the train I asked someone next to me where this train was going and learnt to my horror it wasn't even going anywhere near where I needed to be.

I should have jumped on the next train leaving from the same platform only 3mins later.

So I thought I better get off before I really end up somewhere strange. It turned out I was almost off my map and also very LOST!

Thank goodness I found someone in this little deserted station, in the middle of no where, who could speak a little English and he wrote on the back of my ticket which train I needed.

So I had a wait of 45mins where I ate my lunch and looked around the derserted trainstation in the middle of what felt like nowhere. Especially coming from the busy Barcelona.

I finally got on the right train after trying to ask a few people who couldnt speak any English anyway.

And then after 2 or so hours I arrived in Figueres.

Some freaky guy on the train asked me for my phone number and then tried to sell me Illegal DVD's but it was ok he didnt bother me too much.

It took me quite a while to actually find the Musuem in this town as i didnt have a map.

Finally I found it and was very very relieved. Had I been half an hour-an hour later the musuem would have been closed.

The moral of the story, A. It's not for nothing that almost all the tourist who venture out to the Dali Musueum do it with a guided tour. All inclusive.

B. Ask, ask, ask people before jumping onto a train which you think may be going in the direction you want cause if you're 3mins too early you will end up 3 hours late. :-)

This is one of my favourite Dali works

Its so cleaver.

BARCELONA continued..

• New feature!!

The Map! You can zoom in and out on this map too and move from left to right etc.
ENJOY! Gives a more visual picture to my travels.

Here are a couple more days worth of Barcelona for you to enjoy.

Firstly here are a couple of photos of the fomous tourist street Las Ramblas. It was really interesting I wish I had more time to take photos there and a better camera but here is a couple of examples of the street performers. There were heaps of them.

Bicilettos

Las Ramblas Prince

The Angel of Las Ramblas

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Dali's Bike

I think you need to know Dali's work to appreciate this photo. If you like check out this link to Gaudi on WikiPedia

These next two photos I really like.

Barcelona Graffiti

Tourist Season?

This Tourist Season house I found on my way up through Park Guell. But I was walking up the wrong side of Park Guell but Im glad I did cause this was a pretty striking sight. On the sign you can't really see very well it says
"They call it Tourist Season so why can't we shoot them?"

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But once I found the touristy part of Park Guell...

Park Guell Lizard

Guell Bench

The Mosaics here are amazing. And this bench stretched right round a huge area about 50-70 meters squared.

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FAT TIRE BIKE TOUR

18th October, Day 12 of my travels.
I did a bike tour round Barcelona today.

The weather was a little iffy looking in the morning but only one or twice did I have to take out my rain coat.

FAT TIRE bike tours is a company run by a group of Americans.
The Tour guide, Ivan, was really cool. Very friendly, informative etc.
A neat free living sort of guy. The real traveling sort. Down to earth.

It was a neat tour we got to hear all sorts of strange information about certain buildings such as the executions etc that occurred in or around the churches etc. This church behind is Saint Agatha, and she was executed, believe it or not by being tied to a post in the centre of this square I am standing in and then having her breasts cut off.
Apparently there's a portrait in the church which is of her holding a platter of a pair of jelly type deserts. You guessed it they are not actually jelly but really symbolizing her breasts.

And other such gruesome stories.

Church named after my Mum... Although my mum didnt have her breasts cut off, like this Saint Agatha did.

We headed through the park to a fountain that Gaudi designed in University which saved his career, as he was failing in his grades and was on the brink of being expelled. And rode past the Arc Du Triomph of Barcelona. (see photo)

[/i]Fat Tire Group infront of Bareclona's Arc Du Triomph

And also....

The mighty tower of Agbar, hehehehe

This is one of the best buildings of my trip. Can you imagine the meeting of the town planners when they proposed to build this building and then how they actually got away with building it?

It looks super pretty at night when its all lit up. Hehehehe.

And of course...

[i]The Sagrada Familia

This is actually one of the most famous of Gaudi's works. It was the last building he was working on before his death.
And its totally not finished and will not be finished for ages.
I didn't find it as exciting as Cassa Batllo, but it is pretty impressive. I guess.
What I found most interesting is that the back side of it is architected in a completely different style. Have a look at the next photos, And look at the very distinct cubist style to the sculptures.

Our last stop was a little cafe on the boulevard of the Barcelona Beach. Which is actually man made.

Man Made Beach of Barcelona

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On the evening after the bike tour I wondered around the streets a little and found this amazing musician in the street. (see photo below)
He was playing something which looked like a round, metal stone but had a beautiful sound.

Barri Gothic

The Incredible musician of Barri Gothic

The Dutch singers in Barcelona

There's a bit of a story behind this photo. I did a tour of the Barcelona Opera House, which is absolutly stunning, amazing, beautiful and very cleaverly designed.
Amazingly I was with a big group of dutchies. They were a musical group and as we were about to move onto the next stage of the tour they broke out in song. It was nice. They secretely recorded it too, which is totally something the dutchies would do. You know going against the rules. :-) It was awesome. This photo is of them singing outside after the tour also.

~~~

This next photo is the details on the side of a building I walked past. There are so many beautiful buildings here in Barcelona and Europa.

And The tribute to Gaudi. Because Gaudi is so famous here there are many tributes to him and his work, I wish I had my camera with me when I was in Mc Donald's because there was a great advertisement with his mosaic style used. And this photo below is another example.

Gauidi styled Ice Block Stand

Coming Next...

19th October
DALI MUSEUM AND GETTING LOST..

On our way to barcelona we stoped for half an hour at Avignon.
Its a beautiful fortified town. The whole main city is completely surrounded by a huge wall. The bridge that now only goes part the way across the water is well known and you can read more about it if you're interested at WikiPedia - Pont d Avignon

....

BARCELONA

Barcelona is an amazing city. Its so rich in history, culture and arts. Especially The ARTS! The most incredible architect of all times was based here in Barcelona and he is known as GAUDI.

I could go on and on about Gaudi but I think its probably best to let my few photos I have from some of his works speak for them selves. Also if you're iterested you can check out this webpage with info about him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudi

And for a bonus treat this photo below is 'clickable I've put it in as a large format so you can see closer up the brilliance of Gaudi..

And here is me listening to the audio commentary inside Casa Batllo looking out the window.

Casa Batllo rooftop

And now for some of my favourite photos of my whole trip. Being inside this building was unlike anything I've ever seen before. Plus it is practical and people actually lived in here!

Detail in Gaudi Celing

Gaudi Staircase

It really was incredible. I took a bunch more photos but I can't put them all up cause they would take too much space. But Believe me it was beautiful, awesome, amazing, incredible. Actaully really there aren't enough words to describe its wonder.

The building on the right is next Casa Batllo its by another architect nb, you can not see Casa Batllo on this photo.

Comming next.....

Park Guell

Another GAUDI WONDER!! So stay tuned.