Yesterday: climbing
Day before: shopping
Day previous: pier & snorkling
Alright here's a quick catch up of what's been going on the past few days :)
Sunday all of the stores were closed so we decided to spend the day going to Xavier's secret swimming spot at the coast. He hadn't been there in a couple of years since they were building a hotel close to the pier where he used to go swimming & fishing so it was different than what he had expected. There were a few difficult parts where we had to climb over the wave breaker blocks. They were covered in the coolest graffitti that I've seen (pictures to come). Unfortunately I didn't think it would have been far to get to the swimming spot and was planning on putting on the sun block once we got there so I ended up getting a little pink (not too bad though). Once we got there & lathered on the sunscreen we jumped in. The water didn't seem as salty at the beach and was a lot deeper (15 meters, a few meters out though went down to 25 meters).
We had a mini lunch while watching the boats go by and then went snorkling! It was my first time since going at Tobermory with Stef & Dad on the blow up mattress looking at sunken ships. Only this time had tropical fish! It was so exciting but took a little bit to get used to. I have a bit of a fear of heights and even though there's water I'm still a little afraid of it. There were two main schools of fish that were swimming around us, ___ & ___. We also saw little sea urchins, which were so cute - they looked like mini sea porcupines.
By the end of the day we were exhausted, grabbed some gelato along the walk way & caught the subway home. Oh the gelato was the best I've ever had! mainly because it was passion fruit and walnut.
Monday we spent walking around through the shops. There were a lot of the same shops around. Many of them reminded me of green earth (or red earth in Thunder Bay)there were about 6 of them like that. We also came across two antique shops one of books which were beautiful and another of clothes & accessories. I got really excited about the hats but unforutnately after trying on the best one I got told off in Catalan by the store owner. There were alos lots of funky little shops so I'm coming back with some more crafty ideas :)
Tuesday was spent climbing again! It was a lot different than the last mountain. This one was set up to be like a high ropes course only everything was made out of metal & set right into the rocks instead of trees. It was very long & gave me a few caluses on my hands. (pictures to come of that too). The whole thing was mainly climbing up ladders or the rocks themselves. There was also a huge tight rope to walk across with two other ropes to clip yourself into and one to hold onto that's above your head. The whole time going across it you look at a little town just beyond the trees so I was singing them camp songs at the top of my lungs. I also found out that I enjoy practising french when I get really scared. It was all very safe but terrifying, I'd do it again though.
Once we got off of the mountain we ended up running off of the path thinking we were still following it & came across a herd of cows and a small farm and eventually a dirt road that brought us back to the car.
Now we're leaving Barcelona off to Xavier's parent's cottage for the next few days.
Plans there:
Snorkling, postcard writing, reading, knitting, festivals (people towers & fire devils), visiting small coastal towns, maybe learning how to paint from his mom
Good Bye Barcelona! I'll probably come back :)
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
I'm completely exhausted so I'll just write down a few memory joggers...
Yesterday I tried making a cooked egg in a tomato (cook for longer next time & use cheddar). The rest of the day was spent climbing a mountain with some of the best views I have ever seen! We also met a little mountain goat who seemed terrified of us as much as I was of the hieght we were at. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a5/Chamois_R_R_Carpatica.JPG) We were only about 20 feet away and he nearly climbed down the steep cliff (nearly straight down).
At the very top it was a little terrifying and I needed to crawl to the box but after having our lunch was able to get up and do the Charleston with Xavier (xavier wants me to say that it was my idea but I think you probably know that already). As we were walking down began singing a u2 song then ran into an insane man who almost knocked me out with a rock. After this we let him pass us and continued hearing him talk to himself for a while.
Once we reached the bottom there was a romanic monastery built around the 11th century having faded crusade crosses along the wall! (http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cec%C3%ADlia_de_Montserrat)
Around the other corner was the montserrat monastery which is the main tourist attraction. They apparently make a very good cheese thing and have a black virgin mary & jesus that people were lined up around the church to go & see.
Directly from there we went to a village (monistrol) for a quick walk around and water break.
Then we went home to get ready for the concert at Palau de la Musica where we heard Xavier Coll play a variety of music from 16th c. -modern.
Today went on a tour of Gaudi seeing his hospital, park and cathedral (which we're not sure is a cathedral or not). We also discovered the camera on Xavier's cell phone and are now taking pictures :) problem is we're unsure of how to get them off of the cell phone... at least they're around though.
Yesterday I tried making a cooked egg in a tomato (cook for longer next time & use cheddar). The rest of the day was spent climbing a mountain with some of the best views I have ever seen! We also met a little mountain goat who seemed terrified of us as much as I was of the hieght we were at. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a5/Chamois_R_R_Carpatica.JPG) We were only about 20 feet away and he nearly climbed down the steep cliff (nearly straight down).
At the very top it was a little terrifying and I needed to crawl to the box but after having our lunch was able to get up and do the Charleston with Xavier (xavier wants me to say that it was my idea but I think you probably know that already). As we were walking down began singing a u2 song then ran into an insane man who almost knocked me out with a rock. After this we let him pass us and continued hearing him talk to himself for a while.
Once we reached the bottom there was a romanic monastery built around the 11th century having faded crusade crosses along the wall! (http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cec%C3%ADlia_de_Montserrat)
Around the other corner was the montserrat monastery which is the main tourist attraction. They apparently make a very good cheese thing and have a black virgin mary & jesus that people were lined up around the church to go & see.
Directly from there we went to a village (monistrol) for a quick walk around and water break.
Then we went home to get ready for the concert at Palau de la Musica where we heard Xavier Coll play a variety of music from 16th c. -modern.
Today went on a tour of Gaudi seeing his hospital, park and cathedral (which we're not sure is a cathedral or not). We also discovered the camera on Xavier's cell phone and are now taking pictures :) problem is we're unsure of how to get them off of the cell phone... at least they're around though.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Touring the City
My camera broke!!! :'(
We went to see the most beautiful architecture & culture that I have ever seen!
It was supposed to start around 8am but since we had a late night the night before with the street festival & dancing (got home around 12:30) we slept in and didn't leave until 10.
After our breakfast of toast, chocolate & tea we set out to the subway. There's an old man who sits beside the station we get on playing music from an crank organ. We jump around a few stops to a main street, Passeig de Gracia which was very beautiful. It was full of apartment buildings that, Xavier says, were created during their renaissance revolution in the 19th & early 20th century. With such places as, Casa Batlló and Casa Milà.
At that point we entered the Gothic area of the city! The first memorable thing that I saw, it took my breath away (Stef remember when I teared up at the cathedral in Holland? this one was even older & larger so you can imagine my reaction). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona_Cathedral (pictures are there) They had dedications & tombs for certain people,(mainly Jesus & Mary...) so I made a game out of guessing which century they were from. Everything ranged from the 12th century the 19th. The church itself was made between the 13th and 15th. We unfortunately were kicked out after looking down the first half of it. After 1pm they begin charging 6 euros for guided tours, which had a long line for.
Right outside of the church was a recreation of the Roman aquiducts and we went on an adventure to look for the old Roman walls. Accidentally we came across three large columns in the building of an alpine club. It was overwhelming how large they were and how something so old was able to survive. They had pictures of how the columns had been transformed into apartments during the years and there were still people living directly beside it still however the columns were no longer in their living rooms as they were before. As Xavier & I were sitting there a guided tour came in where the man said that the alpine club was a 1000 years old but the columns were 2000 years old, just to put things into perspective. (as a previous history major I was in complete awe and bliss of the whole afternoon)
As we continued walking around the area we came across older churches like Santa Maria del mar (saint maria of the sea) and Santa Maria del Pi (saint maria of the pines). We came across a market place in the area and decided to have lunch there (meatballs & skuttle fish and a rice dish with the best shrimp I have ever had on top as well as some shellfish) another moment of bliss. Eating there everyone seemed to know eachother, even though they didn't - just a very friendly atmosphere.
Just as we finished lunch they began closing and sent us on our way to roam around the tiny streets again. We stopped by a souviner shop for some postcards (they're on their way soonish if you gave me your address! If you'd like one email it to me & I'll happily send one to you). Then we went to try to find an art museum for the rest of the afternoon as well as the Barcelona University. Once we found the museum we were too tired to go in so we sat & watched a group of skatboarders go around (they weren't any better than the ones in KW but still entertaining). The university was closed once we got there so we bused back home, went grocery shopping and am now about to go to sleep.
Plans for tomorrow:
~Mt. Montserrat! Xavier's saying that anyone who can climb a tree can climb it - should be lots of fun. The guy I was sitting beside on the plane pointed it out to me as we were going overtop and it seemed unreal how big it was so I'm extreemly excited to see it in person. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montserrat_(mountain)
~Swimming in a tame river
~We found the Palau de la Musica which was closed unless you wanted a paid tour. (the postcards of it took my breath away) We might go see a concert there around 9pm or there's also a Charleston lesson at 10pm in the street fair we went to yesterday.
here's the person we might see playing in the same place two years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfSklg8BHog
Good night :)
Thursday, August 18, 2011
I´m Here
Hi everyone I´m alive and in Barcelona having an amazing time so far.
I barely slept at all on the way here maybe 2 hours & then had another 2 hour nap once here.
I´ve already gone swing dancing (it was the most incredible experience) unfortunately there´s no pictures since it was a festival (Gràcia, street decorating) and large crowds were expected & we didn´t want to risk getting pick pocketed.
We also went to a castle that used to bomb Barcelona but had beautiful views of the entire city. (I´ll put up pictures later) Oh and there was a really cool rock climbing area that used to be a rarely used bridge that people transformed.
Plan for the day:
fix car, and other things :)
love you all!
I barely slept at all on the way here maybe 2 hours & then had another 2 hour nap once here.
I´ve already gone swing dancing (it was the most incredible experience) unfortunately there´s no pictures since it was a festival (Gràcia, street decorating) and large crowds were expected & we didn´t want to risk getting pick pocketed.
We also went to a castle that used to bomb Barcelona but had beautiful views of the entire city. (I´ll put up pictures later) Oh and there was a really cool rock climbing area that used to be a rarely used bridge that people transformed.
Plan for the day:
fix car, and other things :)
love you all!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Up up & away
After a thrilling evening of being too excited to sleep I hit the road at 5:30am. It brought back lots of memories of waiting with mom & Stef for the bus to Toronto boiling in the summers & freezing in the winters. This morning was perfect weather and with a surprising amount of people (a full bus of commuters!).
For the first 3/4 of the bus ride I couldn't help having the biggest smile on my face. If faces could explode from smiling so much mine would probably be gone now. That lasted until I began trying to take pictures of the beautiful sunrise which is when my camera died.
I had dropped it in the sand at the beach a few weeks earlier and it has never worked the same since. The lens opens & closes without me wanting it to, sometimes staying open, sometimes not opening... it's very frustrating. This time it froze and wouldn't open which I thought was the end of all pictures for the entire trip. To say the least I was a little upset over this. It wasn't until the next bus that I tried to clean it and it is now opening & taking pictures (just with no zoom).
As soon as I arrived in Toronto I lined up quickly and once I was sure it was the correct line I began knitting away to pass the time. The next bus was almost as great at the ones Germany had. There were nice leather seats, Internet, outlets for the computers & flat screen tvs. The seats I discovered weren't as comfortable as they looked but it was still a nice ride.
The entire ride I spent trying to not fall asleep & drool on the-person-next-to-me's shoulder. I think I was fairly successful (at least he never complained). Once we reached the boarder we began loosing time because of a foreign exchange student who was cleared by the universities for a work term but wasn't with the government. The crossing was down to a single guard who was paying most of his attention to the situation that was being blown way out of proportion. Because of that we didn't end up leaving until 11:30am, which is when we were to be at the airport!
With this happening a few of us became a bit closer to each other since we were all about to miss our flights. I was looking up flight schedules on Xavier's laptop then looking at the terminal map so we could figure out where exactly we needed to run once we got off of the bus. Thankfully we got there with 10 minutes to spare plus time for a bathroom break.
Once the plane was in the air the pilot said that he had time to waste and that we would be going on a mini tour around Niagara Falls! It was very beautiful from up there. The lady sitting beside me (who was in her mid40's I would guess) had never seen them before and was very excited about the whole tour.
That was most of the excitement of the day so far. From now on I'll be sitting waiting, reading the Kite Runner I picked up from the book store & hopefully sleeping on the plane to get my schedule in tuned with Barcelona's time.
For the first 3/4 of the bus ride I couldn't help having the biggest smile on my face. If faces could explode from smiling so much mine would probably be gone now. That lasted until I began trying to take pictures of the beautiful sunrise which is when my camera died.
I had dropped it in the sand at the beach a few weeks earlier and it has never worked the same since. The lens opens & closes without me wanting it to, sometimes staying open, sometimes not opening... it's very frustrating. This time it froze and wouldn't open which I thought was the end of all pictures for the entire trip. To say the least I was a little upset over this. It wasn't until the next bus that I tried to clean it and it is now opening & taking pictures (just with no zoom).
As soon as I arrived in Toronto I lined up quickly and once I was sure it was the correct line I began knitting away to pass the time. The next bus was almost as great at the ones Germany had. There were nice leather seats, Internet, outlets for the computers & flat screen tvs. The seats I discovered weren't as comfortable as they looked but it was still a nice ride.
The entire ride I spent trying to not fall asleep & drool on the-person-next-to-me's shoulder. I think I was fairly successful (at least he never complained). Once we reached the boarder we began loosing time because of a foreign exchange student who was cleared by the universities for a work term but wasn't with the government. The crossing was down to a single guard who was paying most of his attention to the situation that was being blown way out of proportion. Because of that we didn't end up leaving until 11:30am, which is when we were to be at the airport!
With this happening a few of us became a bit closer to each other since we were all about to miss our flights. I was looking up flight schedules on Xavier's laptop then looking at the terminal map so we could figure out where exactly we needed to run once we got off of the bus. Thankfully we got there with 10 minutes to spare plus time for a bathroom break.
Once the plane was in the air the pilot said that he had time to waste and that we would be going on a mini tour around Niagara Falls! It was very beautiful from up there. The lady sitting beside me (who was in her mid40's I would guess) had never seen them before and was very excited about the whole tour.
That was most of the excitement of the day so far. From now on I'll be sitting waiting, reading the Kite Runner I picked up from the book store & hopefully sleeping on the plane to get my schedule in tuned with Barcelona's time.
Monday, August 15, 2011
The Night Before
It is now 1:45am and everything is finally packed! Even though I had everything laid out a week before and a list of everything that needed to be done it still came down to the crunch. I'll be waking up in two hours to hop in the shower, grab my things and head down to the bus depot. Here's the plan:
Kitchener to Toronto (greyhound bus) 5:25am-7am
Toronto to Buffalo airport (bus) 8:00am-11:30am
Buffalo to Philadelphia (plane) 1:45pm-3pm
Philadelphia to BARCELONA! (plane) 6:25pm-8:25am
There seems to be lots of time in between everything which gives me a plethora amount of knitting/writing/terminal finding/music listening/exploring time.
No pictures yet but there will be...
Off to the land of dreams :)
Kitchener to Toronto (greyhound bus) 5:25am-7am
Toronto to Buffalo airport (bus) 8:00am-11:30am
Buffalo to Philadelphia (plane) 1:45pm-3pm
Philadelphia to BARCELONA! (plane) 6:25pm-8:25am
There seems to be lots of time in between everything which gives me a plethora amount of knitting/writing/terminal finding/music listening/exploring time.
No pictures yet but there will be...
Off to the land of dreams :)
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