It's been what, three weeks since I updated? Well, since then I've gone to El Parc del Laberint and Budapest. Not much else is happening here.
This weekend in Carnaval in Catalonia; there are big parties in Barcelona and in Sitges, a city about an hour outside of Barcelona. Unfortunately, so far I've been sick. I've been resting and drinking a lot of tea. I think I have consumed over 6 liters of tea since yesterday morning. This is getting a little ridiculous, but hopefully I'll feel better by Thursday--I'm going to Dublin then.
Because of the big events going on this weekend and this illness, I feel like I'm wasting my time here. While I think it's totally okay for me to try and recover . . . I still feel a little lame for not going out all the time. So once this stupid illness is gone, I'm going to try and do more where that is concerned (i.e., getting out of the apartment to see more new things and have new experiences).
So, yeah. Tea and sleep have basically defined this weekend.
The Parc del Laberint was a lot of fun, and there are pictures up on my Picasa account.
I took some pictures in Budapest, and those will eventually be up online . . . someday.
Yep. Time for some sleep. It's been a long week (I had something due or a test every day this week, so I think being sick is partially a culmination of all the stress).
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
the palau
Yesterday night I went to a concert at the Palau de la Música Catalana. The Sofia Sinfonietta (from Bulgaria) performed three pieces by Beethoven: the Egmont Overture, Piano Concerto No. 5, and Symphony No. 5. Their performance was, in the end, eclipsed by the beauty of the Palau itself. Here are some pictures that I wasn't technically supposed to take:
View of the stage from my seat.
The stained-glass skylight.
Close-up on the skylight. According to Wikipedia, the women make up a choir that surrounds the sun.
Lights and mosaic arches on the second floor, as seen from my seat.
Close-up on the right side of the arch over the stage. The sculpture is meant to represent the ride of the Valkyries in Wagner's The Valkyries.
The Sofia Sinfonietta after concluding their performance of Beethoven's 5th.
View of the stage from my seat.
The stained-glass skylight.
Close-up on the skylight. According to Wikipedia, the women make up a choir that surrounds the sun.
Lights and mosaic arches on the second floor, as seen from my seat.
Close-up on the right side of the arch over the stage. The sculpture is meant to represent the ride of the Valkyries in Wagner's The Valkyries.
The Sofia Sinfonietta after concluding their performance of Beethoven's 5th.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
linguistic interference
I'm developing this thing where I have a somewhat hard time transitioning into English after extended periods of hearing/speaking Spanish. On Tuesday/Thursdays, I have 2 classes in Spanish about history and politics followed by one class in English about research. By the time I get to the research class, I am still wrapped up in a Spanish-language-world and it takes me a minute to get used to English again.
Also, I find that when I'm having a casual conversation with someone in English, I often use Spanish words/phrases, like "vale" or "si" or "por eso . . ." And now that I'm learning Catalan and trying to retain all the stuff we're learning, I have a tendency to walk around, muttering street/Metro stop names to myself to try and get the pronunciation right.
Hurrah for languages?!
Edit: I uploaded my pictures from last weekend, when I went to Girona and then the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. They're even captioned! Excitement!
Also, I find that when I'm having a casual conversation with someone in English, I often use Spanish words/phrases, like "vale" or "si" or "por eso . . ." And now that I'm learning Catalan and trying to retain all the stuff we're learning, I have a tendency to walk around, muttering street/Metro stop names to myself to try and get the pronunciation right.
Hurrah for languages?!
Edit: I uploaded my pictures from last weekend, when I went to Girona and then the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. They're even captioned! Excitement!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
travel plans
I just booked a flight from Barcelona to Budapest for the weekend of the 13th. That should be fun, and a little bit of a relief since my roommate's boyfriend is coming to Barcelona that weekend.
This past weekend I went to Girona (a Catalonian city, just over an hour outside of Barcelona by train) with a friend from class and two of her roommates. Girona has a ton to offer (like Arabic baths, an archaeological museum, a beautiful wall that you can climb and walk on, and multiple beautiful churches), but because the weather was really crappy the day we went it wasn't as good an experience as it would have been on a nicer day. We saw a bunch of cool stuff, but ended up getting soaked in the rain and paid way too much for a kind of crappy lunch. Oh well. I have pictures from that trip which I'll put online eventually.
Just because I have been thinking about travel a lot lately, here are other plans I have for this semester:
Dublin: February 26 - March 2
Vienna: sometime in March...?
Navarre: (study trip with IES) March 5 - 7
Italy: April 3 - 13
London/other historical sites in England: May 1 - May 5ish
Budapest (again): May 5ish - May 11?
Granada: sometime before I leave
I'd also like to take some day-trips to different places in Catalonia, like Sitges, Figueres (birthplace of Salvador Dalí!), and La Costa Brava (there's an amazing beach in a town called Lloret de Mar that has a castle! I know this because I saw a picture of it on a postcard).
I may end up going to Figueres one day this weekend; if not, I'm totally fine with staying in Barcelona and exploring. I'm planning to go to a concert at the Palau de la Música Catalana on Friday--they're playing Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and his Piano Concerto No. 5. Should be pretty amazing.
This past weekend I went to Girona (a Catalonian city, just over an hour outside of Barcelona by train) with a friend from class and two of her roommates. Girona has a ton to offer (like Arabic baths, an archaeological museum, a beautiful wall that you can climb and walk on, and multiple beautiful churches), but because the weather was really crappy the day we went it wasn't as good an experience as it would have been on a nicer day. We saw a bunch of cool stuff, but ended up getting soaked in the rain and paid way too much for a kind of crappy lunch. Oh well. I have pictures from that trip which I'll put online eventually.
Just because I have been thinking about travel a lot lately, here are other plans I have for this semester:
Dublin: February 26 - March 2
Vienna: sometime in March...?
Navarre: (study trip with IES) March 5 - 7
Italy: April 3 - 13
London/other historical sites in England: May 1 - May 5ish
Budapest (again): May 5ish - May 11?
Granada: sometime before I leave
I'd also like to take some day-trips to different places in Catalonia, like Sitges, Figueres (birthplace of Salvador Dalí!), and La Costa Brava (there's an amazing beach in a town called Lloret de Mar that has a castle! I know this because I saw a picture of it on a postcard).
I may end up going to Figueres one day this weekend; if not, I'm totally fine with staying in Barcelona and exploring. I'm planning to go to a concert at the Palau de la Música Catalana on Friday--they're playing Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and his Piano Concerto No. 5. Should be pretty amazing.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Madrid
This past weekend, I went to Madrid with three girls from my program. Despite the cold and occasional rain, it was a good time and we saw pretty much everything we had planned to visit.
We took a bus from Barcelona at midnight on Friday and got to Madrid around 7:30am on Saturday. We went straight to our hostel, checked in, and then went out to do some sightseeing. Here are some pictures from Saturday, when we went to the Museo del Prado, el Parque del Retiro, and Plaza Mayor (among other things).
In front of El Prado. We weren't technically supposed to take pictures inside the museum, but I snuck a few . . .
. . . this one included. It's Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Sons." I was particularly interested in seeing this one because a friend from school (hi, Mer!) has a print of the picture and we learned about Goya in Spanish 4 in high school. It was smaller than I expected, but still really cool.
After El Prado, we went to El Parque del Buen Retiro. It was really, really beautiful, complete with a large pond and a "Palacio de Cristal" (a glass palace).
Palacio de Cristal
Later we went to Plaza Mayor. It was quieter than I expected it to be, but that's probably because we went in the afternoon on a chilly Saturday. I think it's supposed to come to life at night. It's pretty touristy, though, so there wasn't too much to see except souvenir shops and some restaurants.
Plaza Mayor
Plaza Mayor
It was kind of gross out on Sunday (rainy and too cold to walk very far without losing all sensation in my feet). The tour of Palacio Real, the main thing we did that day, was mercifully indoors. It's an enormous, old, decadent palace that housed several generations of Spanish kings. Like at El Prado, we were forbidden from taking pictures inside the building, but I snuck a few anyway.
In this huge courtyard thing.
Beautiful ceiling (almost all the rooms had painted ceilings).
The throne room. The image quality is kind of crappy, but whatever. It's the THRONE ROOM.
There is a room called the Stradivarius Room. I didn't realize it would be full of actual Stradivari until we got inside and I saw glass cases with beautiful violins and cellos inside.
(Like always, there are more pictures here.)
All in all, the trip to Madrid was a good one. The experience of eating in Madrid, however, emphasized just how hard it is to be a vegetarian in Spain. In 2 days, I ate 3 tortilla española (basically, an omelette with potatoes and onions inside) sandwiches as main meals. I'm really glad I decided to live in an apartment in Barcelona.
This weekend I'll be in Barcelona, probably going back to Parc Güell and walking around the city some more. There's still a lot I haven't explored, but which I really want to see.
We took a bus from Barcelona at midnight on Friday and got to Madrid around 7:30am on Saturday. We went straight to our hostel, checked in, and then went out to do some sightseeing. Here are some pictures from Saturday, when we went to the Museo del Prado, el Parque del Retiro, and Plaza Mayor (among other things).
In front of El Prado. We weren't technically supposed to take pictures inside the museum, but I snuck a few . . .
. . . this one included. It's Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Sons." I was particularly interested in seeing this one because a friend from school (hi, Mer!) has a print of the picture and we learned about Goya in Spanish 4 in high school. It was smaller than I expected, but still really cool.
After El Prado, we went to El Parque del Buen Retiro. It was really, really beautiful, complete with a large pond and a "Palacio de Cristal" (a glass palace).
Palacio de Cristal
Later we went to Plaza Mayor. It was quieter than I expected it to be, but that's probably because we went in the afternoon on a chilly Saturday. I think it's supposed to come to life at night. It's pretty touristy, though, so there wasn't too much to see except souvenir shops and some restaurants.
Plaza Mayor
Plaza Mayor
It was kind of gross out on Sunday (rainy and too cold to walk very far without losing all sensation in my feet). The tour of Palacio Real, the main thing we did that day, was mercifully indoors. It's an enormous, old, decadent palace that housed several generations of Spanish kings. Like at El Prado, we were forbidden from taking pictures inside the building, but I snuck a few anyway.
In this huge courtyard thing.
Beautiful ceiling (almost all the rooms had painted ceilings).
The throne room. The image quality is kind of crappy, but whatever. It's the THRONE ROOM.
There is a room called the Stradivarius Room. I didn't realize it would be full of actual Stradivari until we got inside and I saw glass cases with beautiful violins and cellos inside.
(Like always, there are more pictures here.)
All in all, the trip to Madrid was a good one. The experience of eating in Madrid, however, emphasized just how hard it is to be a vegetarian in Spain. In 2 days, I ate 3 tortilla española (basically, an omelette with potatoes and onions inside) sandwiches as main meals. I'm really glad I decided to live in an apartment in Barcelona.
This weekend I'll be in Barcelona, probably going back to Parc Güell and walking around the city some more. There's still a lot I haven't explored, but which I really want to see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)