Barcelona and Beyond

Trey Productivity Level

2008-04-16T20:05:00.003+02:00

Today was the last normal day of classes, since exams start tomorrow. Trey and I are doing some HW, and he asked me to make a graph for him...

More coming your way...

2008-02-08T23:55:00.000+01:00

Alright, I've gotten hints from multiple people that I need to write more in my blogs... you're right... so, here we go:

First of all, I'm sorry that I have not posted in awhile, I have been more busy with school projects during the week, and we (the entire Study Abroad group) traveled to Valencia for three days last weekend.

Two weekends ago I was able to travel to Tarragona, a small town south of Barcelona along the coast where the Carthaginians first conquered (from the natives of the time), then the Romans (in their conquest of Carthage), and was finally developed by the Christian and then Muslim (and then Christian) settlers.

One of the main sites to see in Tarragona is the Roman amphitheatre which served many entertainment purposes in this ancient Roman city, including the execution of many Christian martyrs:

In the center of the amphitheatre are the remains of the basilica of a Christian early church. It was built over the amphitheatre as a memorial to those who were executed here for their devotion to Christ.

This popular Cathedral is well-known in Spain:

These are statues of the apostles of Christ, and they, as well as the rest of the Cathedral, were not torn down when this Cathedral was used as a Mosque during the Muslim reign of Spain. This respect was common practice in Spain, and both sides (Muslim and Christian) would generally not destroy the opposing religious sites in respect of the beauty and craftsmanship of the buildings.

Coincidentally, I was in this Cathedral when mass began, and I stayed for most of the ceremony:

This month in Spain holds several celebrations (I don't entirely know the history), and one was being carried out in Tarragona while I was there. I'm not sure what was going on in this plaza, but it appears Elvis came out to sing...

I had the entire day to hang out in this relatively small town, so I took time to do some homework and take a good nap out on some rocks by the beach on the Mediterranean:

My train did not leave Tarragona until after 9:00 pm, so I was able to see the beauty of Tarragona at night. Here is an old chapel on the port side of the city:

I decided to wander through the city, given that I had almost three hours to spend before my train arrived. I thought I had seen all the important sites in the city far earlier in the day, but this was just the first of many times I was reminded that there is always more to see in Spanish cities.

Tarragona is the site of the Catalan Human Tower competition, and they have a rather large life-size statue commemorating the celebration in the middle of one of their main plazas:

Spain is beautiful with its wonderfully restored buildings that remain in use even as they retain the original style of each area of the city. Even with energy-efficiency a high priority in Spain, as it is anywhere in Europe, the people are willing to sacrifice a great amount of light at night to illuminate the beauty of historic places:

Ok, ok... so you're wondering why I really didn't write more than usual. I promise, I will make another post to really describe MY experiences here... but first, let's travel back home to Barcelona.

La Sagrada Familia – Antoni Gaudí

2008-01-22T20:26:00.001+01:00

Gaudí's Cathedral:

Still under construction...

Notice the classic style of smooth, rounded figures...

The New is very different from the Old...

The New, block-style of the sculptures is very unique...

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Our evening trip to Montjuic:

Rear of the Museum...

The Barcelona Olympic 1992 Soccer Field... oh, I mean Fútbol...

Más de Barcelona

2008-01-19T16:59:00.000+01:00

l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, which contains the section of UAB where we attend classes.

Front gates of l'Hospital

Shots of the Hospital along one of the streets.

Inside the UAB building in the Hospital complex. This is the International Campus, where they teach classes in English.

Shwetha, she is in my Spanish Art and Culture and Spanish language classes.

Trey in our room... I'll post more pictures of our apartment soon...

Most cabs are new Mercedes or Skodas... but this guy doesn't care...

l'Hospital

UAB Main Campus, about 45 minutes outside Barcelona past the bordering mountains.

Smart

Near the mountain, the west side of Barcelona. There are some very nice neighborhoods up here.

A more middle-class neighborhood.

Another cathedral. There are many of these in Barcelona since it was one of the last southern major cities before Moorish Muslim territory from the 700s to 1492.

and another...

and another...

and another...

and another...

A Monastery on Tibidabo mountain.

The tram station we used to get to the top of Tibidabo... unfortunately I did not have my camera that day. Maybe I can get some photos from Trey...

Some large house near the tram station.

One of a few houses on the mountain.

An intersection in a neighborhood in the north section of Barcelona.

A major roadway on the north side.

Another Cathedral in mid-east area of the city, about a mile from the beach.

More Coming Soon!

2008-01-15T00:51:00.000+01:00

Sorry ya'll I haven't been able to post more recently, I will add some pictures very soon... Classes just started today and I already have homework! AAAAAA!

La Ciudad y El Mar

2008-01-11T11:48:00.000+01:00

From the modern era (late 1800s – early 1900s), very gaudy, of which you will see more...

All sidewalks have a special pattern / design, much of which is stone (marble)

Gaudí, designed by the man himself (Casa Battló)

Another Gaudí

Designed with absolutely no straight lines.

Inside the Gaudí building

The Gaudí ceiling

A Cathedral… too bad it is being restored this year

We sure look like tourists…

Harbor

The Mediterranean

Very course sand

The small, sea side of town. Some API students are living in apartments in this neighborhood.

A very small bar/sandwich shop for lunch…

Placa España, about 400m from our apartment, up Paral.lel street

MontJuic, up the street from La Placa España

Primeros Días en Barcelona

2008-01-11T01:26:00.000+01:00

The left flag is Catalá, which is actually the primary language. Important information is written in Catalá, Castellano (Spanish), and sometimes English.

Las montañas pequeñas

Yup…

La Plaza de Catalunya

Banco Español de Credito en la Plaza de Catalunya

The Barcelona Hotel (its name). Beds in Spain are more like cots.

Several of these guys in Las Ramblas

You know the curly head…

I like to say that…

(Self-narrated picture)

Motocicletas here are like bikes on U.S. campuses

From the hotel room window

Green = Go through the intersection, do not slow down, do not stop for stupid Americans who cannot read the pedestrian signal.

+7 Hours

2008-01-11T00:51:00.000+01:00

Hola muchachos! Estoy aquí in Barcelona en mi apartamento solamente dos kilómetros de la playa. Hoy tomamos una examen de espanol para la Universidad… fue bien, más o menos.

Aquí estan los photos de los primeros días en la ciudad y el viaje aquí:

Our Airbus 340-600 - Houston to Frankfurt, Germany

Trey calling Katy before takeoff

Somewhere in North America

Good thing we brought ski coats… ;-P

Coast of the Netherlands…

A foggy day in… Frankfurt town?

I was in the aisle seat on the Mediterranean side flying into Barcelona, and Trey couldn’t get to his camera, so no pictures, sorry…

Barcelona! A little groggy on the bus…

It's after 0100 hrs Friday morning here... I'll post more tomorrow...

Webcam

2007-12-27T21:46:00.000+01:00

Webcam up and working... Veneratio2020 for all you Skype users out there... and those of you with Macs can use Skype also, just download the MAC version from their site:

http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/

See ya'll in Barcelona...

Initiation...

2007-12-22T19:00:00.000+01:00

Howdy Everyone!

I should be posting all of my entries from Barcelona on this blog.

My Skype username is Veneratio2020, but my webcam is not yet set up...