02 January 2010

Being a Pendón

Off to Valencia...Spain's 3rd-largest city and 4 hours southeast by bus. Wish me good weather!!

01 January 2010

Sunday: El Fin

A trip to Barcelona wouldn’t be complete without seeing Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia cathedral. Construction began in 1882. The first architect was replaced with Gaudí in 1883, who ended up devoting the rest of his life to the cathedral. Thanks to a generous donation, Gaudí was able to completely change the original plans for the cathedral and leave his indelible mark on its plans. The building is still incomplete; the pamphlet says that the interior will be done in 2010, but the amount of work to still be completed left us dubious – to date there is no floor and only a few windows have stained glass installed. The end date of 2030 for the exterior is perhaps a bit more feasible, but another façade and 10 additional towers haven’t even been started yet.

Despite the scaffolding, the cathedral is an impressive and beautiful place – and definitely Gaudí.

The façade facing the entrance depicts the Passion of Christ.

Waiting in line for an hour was worth the view at the top of the cathedral.

The other façade depicts the birth of Christ – fitting for Christmastime!

What an impressive end to a wonderful trip! I don’t think I can ever fully express my gratitude to Heather and her parents for inviting me.

31 December 2009

St. Stephen's Day: that's right, another Christmas holiday

Another day without much of anything open. However, we called a few museums and found out that the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona would indeed be open in the morning. Although Heather and I doubted the art status of many of the exhibits, a few pieces were good, and we ran into another SYA girl and her family to laugh over the ludicrous “art” with.

Heather’s parents had gone to see Barcelona’s oldest church, and we met back up on La Rambla. Heather’s mother had found a few Gaudí houses nearby, but before walking over, they mentioned that wandering around near the church they’d found the Arabic quarter, including some great-looking bakeries. Seeing as we all loved Arabic desserts, we walked back over and bought a few. I had a delicious little square of shredded phyllo dough, pistachios, and chocolate, and another diamond of phyllo dough and cashews.

The Gaudí houses were located on what came to be known as “La Manzana de Discordia”, the block of discord. However, it is also a pun on the Spanish word “manzana”, which means “apple” as well as “city block”, giving the name a double meaning due to the Greek myth of the judgement of Paris and the apple of discord.

However, rather than leading to the Trojan War, Gaudí’s houses are more likely to lead to the exhaustion of camera batteries. I haven’t ever seen buildings like his!

One block over is the “Casa de Pedrera”, another Gaudí building, inspired by the sea.

We decided to wind our way back to the center, killing time until our dinner reservation. George had made it for us at another recommended restaurant, this one serving typical Catalonian fare. Since one of Heather’s and my friend was in Barcelona with his family, we decided to invite the six of them, augmenting our reservation to a table for 10. The restaurant had no problem, since our reservation was at 8, rather early by Spanish standards. However, it was only about 5:30, so we had a multitude of time to pass.

We spied a church with its doors open, a nice-looking refuge from the drizzly outdoors.

What luck that we had stumbled upon such a lovely building!

We also found the “Palau”, Barcelona’s main concert hall. The exterior was incredibly gorgeous, and the lobby was lovely as well – perhaps I’ll try to go see something when I go back to Barcelona.

Walking down windy streets and taking gut-instinct turns to lead us back to La Rambla, I had the idea to go to Les Cuatre Gats, the café frequented by Picasso and other “bohemian” artists in the early 20th century. As we pulled out the guide book to see if the café was listed, we looked to our right and there it was! We were quite literally standing on its doorstep. Very excited, we decided to go in for a pre-dinner coffee.

The name of the café means “The Four Cats”, playing on a Spanish idiom. If you were to ask me about a concert I played in and I said that there were four cats there, it means that no one showed up or that hardly anyone came.

We arrived to the restaurant right on time and just before the Bowens. Unable to pass up what I knew would be a great dish, I ordered espinacas a la catalana again, and decided to be brave and try the traditional calçots, spring onions roasted on coals and eaten with a cream sauce. They were served in a long wooden platter, and the waitress demonstrated how to eat them: firmly hold the bottom, pull the tender center out of the charred outside, dip into the sauce, and try to eat the spring onion without causing too much of a mess. A fun and very Catalonian dinner!

We headed to a bar to continue our conversation after dinner, and once again didn’t arrive home until after midnight. Our last night in Barcelona didn’t start until our last day!

30 December 2009

Christmas Day: Gargoyles and Parc Güell

As soon as I woke up and showered, I headed to the kitchen to check on my pancake batter. It looked great; I stirred in the remaining two eggs and salt and found a cast-iron skillet. Due to our lack of maple syrup but an abundance of bananas, I put some bananas in a saucepan with cinnamon to make a bit of a fruit topping for the pancakes. I think everyone liked them – at least I did, and there weren’t any left over!
Flipping through George’s “BarcelonaWalks” book, we decided to head back to La Rambla and the Gothic Quarter, first to see if anything was open, and if not, to explore the area in daylight.
Walking through the Barrio Gótico, we came across the Cathedral of Barcelona.

The mascots of the Cathedral de Barcelona.
The courtyard had a nativity scene, a pond, and geese – just make sure you are appropriately dressed!

No sleeveless shirts! No hats! No short skirts!
We walked around the perimeter of the cathedral, discovering little bridges, elaborate carvings, and oodles of gargoyles!

The carvings on the overhangs, the ironwork on the bridge...everything so intricate and beautiful!

St. George killing the dragon

Definitely the creepiest unicorn I have ever seen. Ever.

Probably the most anatomicaly incorrect elephant I've ever seen...as well as the creepiest.
Heading back to La Rambla, we stopped to grab a bite to eat in a small bakery. Spinach seems to be a mainstay in Catalonian cuisine, so I had to get the tortilla de espinacas sandwich.
Our next stop was the Parque Güell, a park designed by Gaudí on the outskirts of Barcelona. The park is famous for its bench, undoubtedly Gaudí – a winding structure decorated with shards of ceramic and tile. However, the other aspects of the park are just as unique and wonderful: the entrance gate, the two buildings next to it, a lizard sculpture, a column-filled porch…
(photos to come, I promise!)
With a couple of hours of daylight left, we decided to go down to the beach. Although the rain from the day before had stopped, it certainly wasn’t swimming weather; but we enjoyed the sand sculptures, sound of the waves, and Gehry’s fish.
Back at the apartment, we added noodles to the carrot and cheddar soup we’d bought, and finished up the leftovers from our lunch the day before, with Christmas cookies for dessert. Since neither Heather and I had ever seen Casablanca, we decided to watch it after dinner.
My first Christmas away from home, but it couldn’t have gone any better. I love Heather and her parents, we ate wonderful food, and although I didn’t get to hunt for a stocking with my genius sister, exploring Gaudí’s park and seeing a creepy unicorn gargoyle were pretty fun in their own rights, if not typical Christmas fare.

29 December 2009

Christmas Eve: Encantada de la Vida




The view from the organist's balcony.


The ceiling of the cathedral.



A "merry Christmas" message - and the typical noodles - projected onto an Ayuntament building.


That Spanish expression, which literally means “enchanted of life” or “charmed by life”, is pretty much the only way to describe my emotion upon entering George’s apartment. Heather’s parents had managed to end up staying there due to a correspondence started through Mr. Morse and ending in his friend’s offer of his apartment. The author of Fodor’s Spain and Barcelona titles, he had left us a stack of travel guides (the majority written by him or his wife), a hand-drawn map of the neighborhood, and various notes and tips about the ins and outs of the apartment. The house was incredible: the rooms all decorated with lovely wooden furniture, bookcases and shelves filled with books and movies in Spanish, English, and Catalan, and charming aspects that kept popping up as time went by. Our first mission was to stock up on some foodstuffs, so I went for bread while Heather and her parents found the vegetable shop and the deli. We also bought some Catalonian noodles, shaped like short macaroni with one end closed. The larger sizes are stuffed, but all sizes are popular.
George had marked a place that sold prepared food, so we decided to check it out for lunch. We ordered some delicious “espinacas a la catalana” – spinach with pine nuts and raisins, “paella de verduras” – in this case, rice with caramelized onions and artichokes, and pesto tortellini.
Tired from travel, we decided to rest a bit after our epic meal – a perfect opportunity for me to make the batter for the sourdough pancake recipe I’d found, which needed an hour’s rest and then another rest overnight.
George (or Mr. Barcelona, as I took to calling him) had made us dinner reservations at a recommended restaurant, Sagardi, renowned for its Basque food and atmosphere. Seeing as all the food in the País Vasco had been so great, Heather and I were excited. We left with plenty of time to find the restaurant so that we could walk down La Rambla and through the Barrio Gótico on the way. The restaurant was located in the heart of the Gothic Quarter, and about 50 yards from the church where we’d be going to a concert/midnight mass afterwards – another of George’s recommendations.
Since it was Christmas Eve, which is probably a bigger holiday than Christmas here in Spain, just about everything was closed – but the lights and buildings on our walk were gorgeous.
For our dinner, I ordered “alubias de Tolosa”, dark kidney beans prepared in the northern Basque style. Absolutely delicious!
After such a wonderful dining experience, we walked over to the church, or cathedral, as I should say: it was the famous Santa Maria del Mar. Since George was good friends with the organist (who happened to be from Texas), he had arranged for us to sit in the organist’s balcony with him. !!!!!!!!!!!! However, when the church came into view, the line to get in was winding around the block. Since we were supposed to meet the organist early, we decided to check for other doors. We found one in the back, and Heather knocked. The woman who opened the door was about to turn us away, but Heather convinced her that we actually were supposed to meet the organist and we were admitted.
What an incredible cathedral!
The programs were in Catalan, but between our Spanish skills and Heather’s family’s Italian, we could understand all of it. The program opened with an homage of sorts to birds, with a traditional Catalonian Christmas carol, an organ song imitating a cuckoo, a Vivaldi piece, and another by William Williams. The next piece was the “Cant de la Sibilla” – song of the Sybil.
The Sybil was a traditional Catalonian Christmas character, similar to an oracle, who would warn people of their duties and threaten them should they stray off the good path. However, the Church didn’t approve of the Sybil, and prohibited its representation in churches. Now the Sybil has been reclaimed and is an absolutely beautiful song of bagpipes, drums, a chorus, and a female soloist – the Sybil.
After the Cant de la Sibilla, the organ burst out with “Joy to the World”, or “Joia en el món” in Catalan.
The mass flew by with all the music, and since we were up in the balcony we didn’t exactly have to maintain perfect silence. I learned that the organ was built around 1710 to 1730, and later moved to its current place in the Santa Maria del Mar. It was one of the few organs to survive the Spanish Civil War, and since it was constructed in Spain in the 18th century, it is tuned to a different key than most and only sounds really good playing Spanish 18th century music.The service ended around 1:30, and since the metro had closed, we had to take a taxi back to our apartment. Once again, the days bled together, and it was Christmas Eve and Christmas at the same time…however, although we had just been to a Christmas Eve mass and listened to organ Christmas carols, since it was actually a “missa de mitja nit” and “nadala popular”, it didn’t really feel like either.

28 December 2009

Back in Zaragoza

Barcelona was absolutely incredible.
More later!