first things first. had a lovely day hanging out at la pedrera checking out more gaudi-isms and getting into the exhibition of architectural models depicting all his works in the city. fascinating! this followed up by a trip to the beach to coooooooool it right down.
but the highlight of my day was dinner at enric and julia´s with j´s aussie friends moo and bink. we sat outside on the candlelit terrace surrounded by palm and lemon trees and sundry other varieties of wildlife, indulged in lively chatter and enjoyed a gorrrrgeous dinner of sardines and salads. no, we´re not talking the variety that you find swimming in preservatives in a can. these sardines were phhhhat, fleshy and fresh. yummmmm...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
collserol
swung by julia´s pad en route to the mountain range surrounding barcelona. we spent the day hiking around collserol national park. i hadn´t realized until we got there just how much i´d assimilated into my daily experience the hustle, bustle and noisy racket of the city. what a treat to the ears and eyes to uncover a little slice of peace and tranquility. throughout the day we saw few other people on the trails. how perfect! we thanked our lucky stars that julia picked up a map as the waymarkers were conspicuously absent.
toward the end of the day, we found ourselves standing before a squatter´s house on the edge of the park. to ensure we were on the right track, we asked directions of maria, one of the house´s 3 residents. so very welcoming, she invited us in for a visit where we took a load off and restored ourselves over the course of the next hour.
maria told us that the house is officially owned by a major builder who has all but abandoned it as it borders on two areas, therefore building permission would have to be approved through two separate administrations - a near impossibility in espana. thus, the residents have built themselves a little haven off the grid, decking the place out with a functional toilet, solar panel, water well and self-sufficient garden complete with requisite ganja. really quite remarkable.
as much as i admire what they have accomplished, the squalour in which they live quickly turned me off. evidently, this is a problem as they cannot generate enough electricity and water to effectively keep everything in a reasonable state of cleanliness. but more than this, there was no radio, tv or internet access. eeeeeeekkk!! their forms of entertainment consisted of visits from we strangers as well as their guitars. a cursory look around revealed no books. without some purpose to keep my mind occupied, i would get cabin fever pretty quickly and would go stir-crazy, nobility be damned!
maria graciously set us on the right path to sant cugat a mere 20 minutes away. there we found a gorgeous XVth century hermitage in the middle of a hip hop happnin´ village featuring high end shops and beautiful people. the juxtaposition of maria´s squat against this shoppers´heaven was truly striking.
toward the end of the day, we found ourselves standing before a squatter´s house on the edge of the park. to ensure we were on the right track, we asked directions of maria, one of the house´s 3 residents. so very welcoming, she invited us in for a visit where we took a load off and restored ourselves over the course of the next hour.
maria told us that the house is officially owned by a major builder who has all but abandoned it as it borders on two areas, therefore building permission would have to be approved through two separate administrations - a near impossibility in espana. thus, the residents have built themselves a little haven off the grid, decking the place out with a functional toilet, solar panel, water well and self-sufficient garden complete with requisite ganja. really quite remarkable.
as much as i admire what they have accomplished, the squalour in which they live quickly turned me off. evidently, this is a problem as they cannot generate enough electricity and water to effectively keep everything in a reasonable state of cleanliness. but more than this, there was no radio, tv or internet access. eeeeeeekkk!! their forms of entertainment consisted of visits from we strangers as well as their guitars. a cursory look around revealed no books. without some purpose to keep my mind occupied, i would get cabin fever pretty quickly and would go stir-crazy, nobility be damned!
maria graciously set us on the right path to sant cugat a mere 20 minutes away. there we found a gorgeous XVth century hermitage in the middle of a hip hop happnin´ village featuring high end shops and beautiful people. the juxtaposition of maria´s squat against this shoppers´heaven was truly striking.
balcons de barcelona
on a side of a building of the l´eixample district is a ´92 mural known as “balcons de barcelona”. using trompe-l'oeil as a technique, it conjures a group of outstanding personalities in the city´s vaired history. among these are included joan maragall, pompeu fabra, antoni gaudí, joan miró and pablo picasso.
Monday, July 28, 2008
art and more art
wayyyy hot a day, so i planned on spending time hanging with some a.c.
figuring i might as well absorb a little culture by osmosis, i headed over to puig i cadafalch´s caixaforum factory, now reformed into a gallery. there was an exhibit on display focusing on the medici´s artistic and cultural reign in tuscany from the 14th to 17th centuries. really fascinating.
on my way home, detoured to hit gaudi´s casa vicens. while originally built by ceramics magnate manuel vicens in 1888, gaudi was commissioned to transform it, a mission he evidently took to heart. while the interior maintained many of the original ceramic mosaics, the typical gaudi touches prevail both inside and out. if i didn´t know any better, i would´ve thought i was peering at a gingerbread house!
figuring i might as well absorb a little culture by osmosis, i headed over to puig i cadafalch´s caixaforum factory, now reformed into a gallery. there was an exhibit on display focusing on the medici´s artistic and cultural reign in tuscany from the 14th to 17th centuries. really fascinating.
on my way home, detoured to hit gaudi´s casa vicens. while originally built by ceramics magnate manuel vicens in 1888, gaudi was commissioned to transform it, a mission he evidently took to heart. while the interior maintained many of the original ceramic mosaics, the typical gaudi touches prevail both inside and out. if i didn´t know any better, i would´ve thought i was peering at a gingerbread house!
beach party
joined julia and a gaggle of her pals on the beach at dusk for a little hang time. while the beach was just as crowded in the evening as during the day, it was a completely different crowd. we met near the chix bar in view of the beach volleyball courts with the boys´ bar right next door proudly flying the rainbow flag high. the bars were cranking out some decent house tunes and people were dancing on the beach. samosa and beer vendors darted in between beach blankets and all of this madness with the sun setting over a vast expanse of crystal blue ocean. terrific!
also met one of julia´s friends, a sydney-sider who handed me the best quote: australia is the country with the greatest natural killing potential per square metre!t quote: australia
also met one of julia´s friends, a sydney-sider who handed me the best quote: australia is the country with the greatest natural killing potential per square metre!t quote: australia
Sunday, July 27, 2008
lunch at julia´s
visited the gorgeous hospital de sant pau again, another creation from the master domènech i montaner built between 1913 and 1930. as one of the principal examples of modernism, it occupies 9 city blocks in the heart of l´Eixample and hides many a surprise for repeat visits.
headed over to julia and enrique´s for lunch. hadn´t seen julia in nearly a year and it felt as though it was only yesterday when we´d parted ways. their digs could serve as the set for a pedro almodovar movie, so completely have they got the spanish feel down pat! they prepared a brilliant tuna lunch with the piece de resistance for dessert: santiago pie! impossible not to recognize it as it bears the trademark santiago emblem of a dagger. i was so excited, i could barely speak! we chased it down with some lovely dessert champagne and lively chatter.
somehow (go figure!) the conversation turned to hockey and it soon came out that enrique´s two sons had played hockey as kids and enrique was a big fan as well! he even pulled out his ref´s jersey and whistle as well as his sons´jerseys, hockey sticks and a puck. it was only by the grace of god that a spontaneous game of shinny didn´t erupt in the kitchen. however, we did pull out the cameras and snapped some priceless shots. great to break bread and bask in the delightful company of good friends.
headed over to julia and enrique´s for lunch. hadn´t seen julia in nearly a year and it felt as though it was only yesterday when we´d parted ways. their digs could serve as the set for a pedro almodovar movie, so completely have they got the spanish feel down pat! they prepared a brilliant tuna lunch with the piece de resistance for dessert: santiago pie! impossible not to recognize it as it bears the trademark santiago emblem of a dagger. i was so excited, i could barely speak! we chased it down with some lovely dessert champagne and lively chatter.
somehow (go figure!) the conversation turned to hockey and it soon came out that enrique´s two sons had played hockey as kids and enrique was a big fan as well! he even pulled out his ref´s jersey and whistle as well as his sons´jerseys, hockey sticks and a puck. it was only by the grace of god that a spontaneous game of shinny didn´t erupt in the kitchen. however, we did pull out the cameras and snapped some priceless shots. great to break bread and bask in the delightful company of good friends.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
hip hop at el teatre grec
set my sights on montjuic´s teatre grec last night as i´d heard there was going to be a hip hop dance competition. sadly, the tickets were sold out but i was able to catch most of the hip hop happnin´s from the ticket office where i camped out for a bit until they kicked me out. turns out it wasn´t hip hop dance after all, rather hip hop rhyming! their freestyling sounded dead-on but my spanish hasn´t improved to the point where i can catch that level of lingo at those breakneck speeds.
l´eixemple
as i write in my blog, i am being serenaded by my neighbour in her vocal scale practice. so very urban barcelona!
strolled around without any specific agenda today. wound my way around the l´eixemple district that just has to be the world-wide crown jewel of modernism. look here! and there! oh, and there too! i found everything from street lamps by pere falques to domènech i montaner and puig i cadafalch´s benches, balconies, façades and chimneys. of course, as usual all roads lead to gaudi and this ´hood was no different.
at the time when plans were being drawn for many of its buildings, catalunya was enjoying an economic boom driven by the industrial revolution of the XIXth century. consequently, tradesmen were a busy bunch. together, scuptures, mosaics, wrought iron, plaster, wood, glass and paintings converged to turn l´eixemple into a fantasia brimming with art even as its residents and workers still go about their daily business. brilliant!
gave the barcie version of the arc de triomf a good once-over. it was built in 1888 using the red brickwork that was popular in the moorish revival style of that era. at the pinnacle of the archway is sculpted barcie´s coat of arms while funky gargoyles stand guard over elaborate colourful mosaics. lining the avenue leading up to the archway are columns of fantastically elaborate art nouveau street lamps. gorgeous.
to mix it up a little, i headed into barcie´s gothic area and ambled about. some of the roman artifacts date back to the 2nd century a.d. ! if only the walls and alleys could talk...the stories they would tell. you could almost imagine yourself in the same ´hood, the clock turned back several centuries with a voice reverberating through the streets ¨bring out your dead¨!!
strolled around without any specific agenda today. wound my way around the l´eixemple district that just has to be the world-wide crown jewel of modernism. look here! and there! oh, and there too! i found everything from street lamps by pere falques to domènech i montaner and puig i cadafalch´s benches, balconies, façades and chimneys. of course, as usual all roads lead to gaudi and this ´hood was no different.
at the time when plans were being drawn for many of its buildings, catalunya was enjoying an economic boom driven by the industrial revolution of the XIXth century. consequently, tradesmen were a busy bunch. together, scuptures, mosaics, wrought iron, plaster, wood, glass and paintings converged to turn l´eixemple into a fantasia brimming with art even as its residents and workers still go about their daily business. brilliant!
gave the barcie version of the arc de triomf a good once-over. it was built in 1888 using the red brickwork that was popular in the moorish revival style of that era. at the pinnacle of the archway is sculpted barcie´s coat of arms while funky gargoyles stand guard over elaborate colourful mosaics. lining the avenue leading up to the archway are columns of fantastically elaborate art nouveau street lamps. gorgeous.
to mix it up a little, i headed into barcie´s gothic area and ambled about. some of the roman artifacts date back to the 2nd century a.d. ! if only the walls and alleys could talk...the stories they would tell. you could almost imagine yourself in the same ´hood, the clock turned back several centuries with a voice reverberating through the streets ¨bring out your dead¨!!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
crosstown extravaganza
my mission today was to walk diagonally from the very south eastern point of the city to its very north western point. since i got a bit of a taste of expanded horizons yesterday, i decided to continue on the same theme, stopping here and there to contemplate a few architects other my beloved gaudi.
saint pau hospital was a project of the architect lluis domenech i montaner that was completed in the year 1901 and consists of a whopping 27 pavillions. what a legacy, simply gorgeous. also stopped to pay my respects to salvador valeri i pupurull´s comalat house completed in 1911 and whose facade is all modernism and art nouveau. right across the street from puig i cadafalch´s palau de baró de quadras and not far from his delightful nordic-looking casa punxes completed in 1905.
but fear not, i came full circle to worship at the altar of the high priest gaudi upon reaching my destination. there, the güell pavillions stretched out before me in all their modernist gaudi-ness. breathtaking!
saint pau hospital was a project of the architect lluis domenech i montaner that was completed in the year 1901 and consists of a whopping 27 pavillions. what a legacy, simply gorgeous. also stopped to pay my respects to salvador valeri i pupurull´s comalat house completed in 1911 and whose facade is all modernism and art nouveau. right across the street from puig i cadafalch´s palau de baró de quadras and not far from his delightful nordic-looking casa punxes completed in 1905.
but fear not, i came full circle to worship at the altar of the high priest gaudi upon reaching my destination. there, the güell pavillions stretched out before me in all their modernist gaudi-ness. breathtaking!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
montjuic
if only for a blink of an eye, time to shift my obsessive adulation from one artist/medium to another: miro. headed over to the montjuic district, locale of many attractions but the main one in my mind being the miro foundation housing a handsome collection of his works. had a good long browse simply musing his paintings, tapestries and sculpture in various wings organized to visually depict his artistic evolution. fascinating.
montjuic is a smallish mountain which was selected to host the 1929 world´s fair. architectural remnants from this era include the national palace and its ornate fountains, the olympic stadium and numerous gardens everywhere. the olympic stadium was intended to host an anti-fascist alternative olympics in 1936 in protest against the 1936 berlin olympics but the spanish civil war forced a reprioritization that saw those plans forever shelved.
montjuic is a smallish mountain which was selected to host the 1929 world´s fair. architectural remnants from this era include the national palace and its ornate fountains, the olympic stadium and numerous gardens everywhere. the olympic stadium was intended to host an anti-fascist alternative olympics in 1936 in protest against the 1936 berlin olympics but the spanish civil war forced a reprioritization that saw those plans forever shelved.
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