Trip to Igualada

Barcelona map
Other trips I've taken

So after review on Friday, we had to wake up early saturday morning to hope on what seemed like it should have been a short train ride to Igualada. It ended up being about 1.5 hours because of all the stops in the small Spanish towns that the train made.

By the time we got to Igualada, it was 11:45. We took a bus to the cemetary, which as I'd previously mentioned, was done by Spanish architect Enric Miralles. It was really an amazing space. It lies at the end of a small road, surrounded by mountains, laying in a valley. As the path winds down, it's tough to even tell the solemn events that occur there. The curved concrete structures that come out of the ground are actually where the coffins slide into. Standing at the bottom of the valley, looking back towards the enterance, you're faced with a wall of these small square holes, with markers on them, for the first time making it a reality that you're in a cemetary. It's beautiful and erie all at the same time. From the top, you see nothing but the beautiful scenery that surrounds the area, full of greenery and the imagery of life. From the bottom, you're looking at cold concrete, harsh, surrounded by memories of those past.

After we left the cemetary, we headed off to meet a friend of Adrian's who has just finished a new house that overlooks the cliffs in suberban Igualada. We walked around the outside of the hosue as well as on the roof. A very interesting project, that was unique and inspiring. From there, we headed back to the train station, where we split for lunch. After lunch, we met back up to take a quick tour of the hotel right across from the train station that was also done by the same architect of the previous house. Following that tour, we headed back to Barcelona and another 1.5 hour train ride.

Interestingly, on my flight over Igualada I took photos of the large windmills that stretched along the mountain ridges. It wasn't until this trip that I even knew where those windmills were.

When we returned, we watched the end of Spain's EuroCup match, celebrating the goal in the last few minutes with everyone else in the city it seemed. Following this, we got ready to meet up with Adrian in Barcelonetta to watch the second game. At the end of that game, he showed us a very nice restaurant, and we enjoyed ourselves, telling jokes, drinking cava, and enjoying a great meal...the 8 boys of the trip.

Studio update

Just wanted to post some pictures to show you what studio's like. Also added some pictures of Placa Real. About a block from studio...on my way home. Will post more later. Haven't been able to upload too many pictures as of late. Stupid wireless!

Post review update

So review went...well it went, could have been better, could have been worse. But as Leah says, I always say that. I have uploaded all of my pictures from Barcelona adventures on facebook (since it uploads much quicker there) I have linked all of these on under the "links" tab to the right. Please check them out to see what i've been up to!

Off to go relax, have a pint and watch some soccer!

June 12 Update

So here's the finish of the wallet and debit card story...Tuesday I finally call FedEx here in Spain who has to locate my package and THEN needs to figure out if the truckers have blocked that road. A few hours later, they call me and give me the name and address to the warehouse where my package is...just outside Barcelona. After much ado, I figure that after my lecture class that goes from 3-5pm, I'll hitch a cab with my buddy Bloom and head out there to pick this thing up. Unfortunately, because it's 17KM each way, it's going to be a heafty cab fare. But it's a price to pay for the ability to access my money. We hail a cab, just on Las Ramblas, outside Placa Reial and in broken spanish tell him where we want to go and that he's going to take us there and back.

On the way out there, we get to see a lot of beautiful sights that we hadn't a chance to see yet. We headed on the freeway past the airport towards the mountains. Finally, we find the warehouse after many weird twists, turns, and driving through the parking lots. I tell the guy that I'm going to run in really quickly. I head to the door, but it's locked. At this point I start to freak cause I was told that they were open til 7. I check to see if there's another door. I head to the left and start to take a jog around this rather large warehouse. AND I keep running around it. After I return run around 3 sides of the building, I turn the corner to the original side, but see a new door. I ring the buzzer. A lady comes to the door. After 5 minutes of saying "Fed EX" she directs me back in the direction of the original door. however in the middle of that wall is ANOTHER door that I enter and tell the girl at the desk I need to pick up a FedEx package with my tracking number. She types it in her computer and says she can't find that number. GREAT! She tries again...Nothing. I call Fed EX in a panic again. They give me another tracking number that the girl behind the desk says "perfect" to. A few minutes later, a guy comes aroudn the corner with my package. I head back to the cab, who by this time has been sitting there for atleast 15 minutes. We head back to the city!

I'm not sure if it was the releif of having my wallet, the beautiful sight of being trapped between a mountain on my left, and the sea on my right, or the cd that the cabbie was blasting, but I just took a step back and found myself enjoying the trip. Stuck in traffic, nestled between Montjuic and the port, i found myself starting to smile, thinking about how weird this story has become. But alas, it was finally over. I could start relaxing again.

Wednesday morning, I woke up and came into studio to get some work done. The boys and I took the usual break at about 12:00 to head to the beach for an hour. Just laying there, feeling the sun tan (burn) my skin, and listening to the waves breaking, crashing into the sandy beaches, I was able to get my mind off of studio, the wallet debacle, and almost everything else.

On my way back into studio, I was talking to Neil, when I realized that we had review Thursday and Friday...OH BOY! Of course I start working throughout studio on a new model, and meet with Adrian, who again throws me for another loop...and on top of it, I was picked to present Thursday (less than 24 hours). Dinner came, I went to the market, and cooked up some pasta, while watching th Switzerland and Turkey's first half Eurocup 08 match. I came back to studio and started on another model. Justin was just getting home from work, so we chatted on skype for a few minutes, using the video chat. I finally cranked out that model by 2:30 or 3 AM. We all decided to leave and come back to finish it up in the morning.

I arrived in studio this morning, finished the lat touches on the last model and threw together a power point presentation for this review. Now, i'm just writing and uploading pictures of Mark and my apartment. Enjoy!

View from foyer into living room
Living room
Kitchen

Living room from the kitchen

View out the sliding door to our patio

Just when you think things are working out

So the saga of the credit and debit card situation continues...The package that Leah sent me today was suppose to arrive this morning. Little did I know that at midnight all the truckers went on strike to protest the fuel prices throught the entire country of Spain. Talk about all the bad luck in the world! Well, after much thought and deliberation, I think that we've put enough heads together to come up with a plan that may (or maynot) work. I know for a fact that the package is in a warehouse in Barcelona. I'm going to have someone call them and see if I can come pick it up from them. If so, then I'll bum some money and take a train or cab out and pick it up. If it doesn't work...can someone ship me Rahman noodles to live on? You could...but they wouldn't get here! They'd be in the same warehouse as my debit card! Anyways...thought that would brighten someone's day.

More updates as the debacles unfold!

Studio update

Feel free to check out our studio Flikr website. http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcnss08 I'm also added a link to the links on this Blog...but for those who are too lazy or uninterested, here are a few photos of my studio project. But first a breif introduction into the project itself:

Our site is located about 5 minute walk from studio in a place called Placa del Peixos. It's located about a hundred meters from the center of the old Roman City, which is still the center of Barcelona. We will be creating a Cultural and Research Activities Centre related to Ciutat Vella (the old city). For the first two weeks we will work almost exclussively in model form. We were also given a jumping off point at which our project should being. I was given the idea of "Voids and Fills" I'm not really sure where that's going to take me yet, but it'll progress.

Photos to be uploaded soon! Check out the studio website until then!

Photo update

Over the river!

Looking towards the mountains Badalona Beach
Badalona Beach
The Forum by Herzog & de Meuron

The last week

Well, school has started and things have kinda ramped up into full gear fairly quickly. Lots of work to be done, but we're still finding some time to get out and explore the city, the surrounding area, and participate in the local culture. Friday we have studio in the mornings, so as soon as it was over, Cerny and I ran to the market to get some supplies for the dish we were going to cook for the pot-luck happy hour. As soon as we dropped that off, we went down to the beach, which was my first time to actually sit on the beach and relax. We stayed at the beach til about 5 or so when it started to feel like it was about to rain. Since we had a 15 minute walk back to our place, I figured it was time to go. It was a good thing too because about 2 minutes after we got back, the downpour began!

That evening we went to Happy Hour at Katie, Christina, Christina, and Andrea's place. It was nice to just be able to sit outsite on their porch and relax after the week. After that, I went to meet up with Sam and Neil, Bloom, and Leslie to continue relaxing outside. We grabbed a fishbowl beer and just sat in the plaza.

Woke up Saturday morning not exactly looking forward to the bike tour of the area that we were going to take. We all met at 10AM and were going to bike the day away...and bike we did! For a kid who hasn't been on a bike since I have been able to drive, I did alright. My legs don't hurt except for the sunburn! I did a good job on burning though! We rode from Barcelona's old city center up the beach through the Olympic village and up to a small town called Badalona. From here we looked at a project that one of our professors here did with her partner. It was a library renovation and expansion. It was interesting, but nothing too impressive. Before we headed back, we stopped and got lunch on the beach. A handful of us tried a small place on the beach where we were able to get some real spanish food. seafood, noodles...it was really good! On the way back, we stopped at a few places such as FOA's new building "Forum" which is like their convention center. It had a really cool 1:1000 scale of the entire city of Barcelona that went along with a video and light show that explanded the history of the city and it's expansion. From there we went to a park done by famous spanish architect Enric Miralles. Next Saturday, we'll be heading off to Igualada to see another one of his projects, a Cemetery in that area which is about 30 miles north east of the Barcelona. Should be interesting.

Anyways, that's been my week. Thanks for all the comments, emails, and messages. I'll upload some more pictures when I head back to my apartment and get my camera that I took on the trip yesterday.

Enjoy!

May 30th - June 3rd

Sunset over the ocean

Sunset over the Atlantic

Sunrise over the Atlantic

Mountains outside Barcelona

First view of Barcelona

Day 1: - May 30th
Welcome to my trip to Barcelona summer of 2008 travel experience. I arrived in Barcelona on Friday morning the 30th at about 9:15AM. At the airport, I met another one of my classmates, Jesse whose flight arrived 20 minutes before mine. He and I then took a cab to the rental agency, SH Barcelona. He signed his paperwork and soon we got a key to his place. I had to wait until Monday to get my own place, so until then I'd be a guest on the floor of his living room.

A few horus later, my roommate Mark who is also from Northeast Ohio arrived. He and I were on the same flight from Cleveland to Newark, but he took a later flight from Newark to BCN. After Mark arrived, Jesse, Mark, and I headed off to look around the city. We found the city center, a fresh market, similar to the west side market in Cleveland or the Soulard market in St. Louis. It's got an amazing roof, colorful and really interesting. At some point later, I'll take some pictures and post them.

A few hours later, Katie arrived from Minnesota. Lots of "Oh"s and "yaaa"s were to follow. She wouldn't have her place available til Monday also, so she was also going to crash with Jesse and Sam. And a few hours later, just as we'd finished cooking dinner, Sam arrived to the place via cab. We all sat around a while and drank some nice, but CHEAP (1 euro per bottle) wine. Soon, the four bottles were gone and with that, so was everyone's desire to stay awake.

Day 2: - May 31st
With the bit of jet lag, the wine, and the general lack of sleep from the overnight flight, we all slept in fairly late. Katie had to go to the airport to meet T-bone, who would also be staying until her and Katie got their place on Monday. A bit later, T-bone arrived. Sam, Jesse, Mark, and I were again headed out to wonder the city, try to get cell phones, and wander. We headed all the way to the market, through one of the larger parks in el Born discrict and down to the Olympic village. By this time, we'd been walking for about 4 hours and decided it was time to eat. We stopped at a nice little place close to the beach and ate. When we got back it was time for more wine. Neil, Bloom, and Jav called to meet up, so we did. Neil, Jav, and I went into a bar while everyone else went back because some people didn't have the right foot wear on. At some point in the bar, i reached down to get money out of my wallet when I realized that my wallet was gone. Well, 2 days into the trip and I've already got pickpocketed. After that, Neil, Jav, and I went back to Bloom's place because that's where the two of them were staying until Monday when they got their place. After that, I went back to Sam and Jesse's and hit the floor again!

Day 3: - June 1st
Again, we woke up...this time a bit earlier...and decided to really see some of the sights of Barcelona. We walked out to the Arc de Triomf, which is just on the other side of the large park we'd seen the previous day (Parc de la Ciutadella). From there, we walked all the way to on of Gaudi's most famous pieces of architecture...Sagrada Familia. From there, we decided to walk back toward Las Rambles (the main street of the Old City) which was near where Sam and Jesse lived. On our way however we decided to stop and see a few more of Gaudi's works. A couple of apartments that he did. The first was Casa Mila and then further down the street to Casa Batllo. After that we wondered back to Jesse and Sam's for some more dinner and then get an early night's sleep.


Arc de Triomf

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Casa Mila

Casa Batllo

Day 4: - June 2nd
We woke up about 9am, Mark, Katie, T-bone, and I decided that we'd had enough of Hotel Sam and Jesse and so we left to walk to SH Barcelona to sign the paperwork and take care of getting our own places. We arrived there, filled out the required paperwork and then got back on our way to check our our new places to stay for the next 2 months!

Ours is a nice little place, located fairly close to school in a neighborhood that is highly visited by the tourist, very close to Las Rambles. We didn't have enough time to get all our bags from Sam and Jesse's before our noon studio meeting, so we just went to studio and then decided to move out. After studio and getting the rest of our bags we made the trek rolling our luggage down to our new place. then we settled in, went to the market, cooked dinner and watched a few spanish game shows. We were in bed by about midnight or 1 AM.

Day 5: - June 3rd
Today, I woke up about 10:45, went to take a shower only to find out that we had no hot water. Then I went to studio to start our first assignment. Our studio is also hosting a flickr page where you can see all of our work. After studio, Neil, Jav, Mark, Sam, and I went to go try to find some more US/European adapters. Unfortunately we came up emptyhanded. Mark and I then went home, ate some leftover pasta and then I came back up to school to use the internet and write this update.