New Year, New Destination

If you're planning a trip, here is a great resource to read before you start packing!

http://www.beachvacationpacking.com/

South America!

My next adventure takes place in South America for two months! Follow my journey here: http://lewisfinley.blogspot.com/

Bon jour! Ciao! Hallo!

A quick hello from Europe! So far Lisa and I have ventured through Paris, Lauterbrunnen, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Venice, and now Salzburg braving the snow, the cold, and life on a bus through Europe. We've seen some absolutely beautiful places, heard the Pope speak, went to the top of Europe at 11,500 feet, attended midnight mass in the Santa Croce in Florence and devoured delicious delicacies in each country. We are still looking forward to New Years in Prague and a quick jaunt through Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, and London before we return to the US. Hope you all have had a very Merry Christmas and enjoy the New Year in a couple days!

To be continued....

Bunker Goodbyes

Over the summer my acrylic painting teacher told me that she had never seen the psyche so close to the surface as she did in Barcelona. Given that I was in a class where just about all other six students and teacher analyzed dreams, read tarot cards, or described the energy they felt that day I didn't think that the psyche was something that I in particular, would ever notice.

Nevertheless as I am about to leave this beautiful city I realize how true it is. (The other day my architecture and painting teacher mentioned what a surrealist city Barcelona was, which really got me thinking about it.) What an artistic city. The people, the art, the fashion, the culture, the city. After observing for about four months now I realize that yes, the psyche, people's subconscious emotions, ideas, and thoughts are expressed in so many different ways here and so visible through, again, the people, the art, the fashion, the culture, the city. I have definitely noticed that I also have had an artistic growth spurt just being here.

I was able to observe this the other day when I visited my favorite spot in Barce, the bunker, which I visited only once and for the first time last week. We went with our usual group of about 10 to an old military bunker on top of the city, covered in graffiti murals, mosaic, and frecuented by very surreal, I guess you could say artistic, people. The bunker permits views of the entire city and a clear day you can see for miles. While looking over the city, we were all silent though aware that all of us were thinking the same thing, taking in the city and our amazing time spent here that would soon be coming to a close. What a way to say goodbye to beautiful Barcelona all together and knowing we share something indescribable.

Orugas everywhere!

BCN <3

Missing: Photos of Turkey Gobbled up by Cyberspace

Two days ago I returned from Istanbul, Turkey. This was the most photogenic city I have yet to visit and took over 1,000 photos in Istanbul alone. However yesterday as I was about to post a new blog I had a slight mishap and all 1,000 photos were deleted from my computer and camera...(one of my worst nightmares!). I am working to recover them with the help of photo-recovery software and technically savvy friends...if all succeeds I will hopefully be posting a lovely little blog accompanied by lots of Turkey photos in the near future! If not I will just post a lonely little blog with no fun photos, but I guess I can't complain since the amazing adventure in Turkey makes it worth it. Can't wait to elaborate on the city with the friendliest people, most picturesque sites, and possibly the best food I have tasted while abroad so far (Italy being its competition).

Visitación!

When I got off the high speed train from Sevilla I had a couple visitors waiting for me in Barcelona! We had a wonderful week in the city, always on the go, that included exploring all of the major sites, a fútbol game (we just beat Real Madrid by the way, go Barca!), eating at wonderful restaurants, and taking a day trip to beautiful Montserrat. It was extremely nice to be in their company for a week and I am looking forward to returning home in a little over a month!

Park Güell!

Sitting on the benches in Antoni Gaudi's Park Güell. At the top of the post is a photo with his famous trencadis lizard. Trencadis is a technique used by Gaudi in which he broke bottles, plates, and other ceramics and put them back together in different patterns and designs, similar to mosaic. This technique is seen all over his works.

Great views from the top of the park! If only the day were a bit clearer.

FC Barcelona match at Camp Nou!

Montserrat

Located an hour outside of Barcelona, Montserrat is home to a 15 century monastery and hermitage located a top beautiful mountains and surrounded by gorgeous scenery. We enjoyed visiting the basilica, which houses the black virgin (a statue believed to have been carved by St. Peter found in the caves below the monestary), exploring the monastery, and hiking on top of the mountains with phenomenal views. One of the world's most famous and renowned boy's choir, the Escolania, sings two songs, including Salve Regina, in the basilica every day at one o'clock p.m. Unfortunately we decided to visit on one of their few off days but we decided that this is just another reason to come back and visit!

In the Basilica

About to hike!

One of many very narrow cliff-side paths

Raquel came with us too!

Beautiful views hiking over Montserrat:

Ah here You are Spain! I finally found You!

Spear an orange?

Yes I've been slacking on my blogging recently, ok for the past month or so, but I've had all intentions of posting! I wrote a bit about our trip to Sevilla a few weeks ago but had been waiting until I cleared some space on my hard drive (I have over 10,000 photos in my iPhoto library, thus I have had a few difficulties loading more) so I could load photos of Sevilla to post on here. Originally I decided to post this blog sans photos with hopes of adding them shortly afterwards but then I thought "no! This blog is filled with so many descriptions of beautiful Sevilla that a bit of color is necessary to do it justice!" So I waited until now; now that I finally have uploaded my photos. Sorry for the delay.

Sevilla....

After my trip to Sevilla I decided that this town might possibly pass as the quintessential idea of Spain. When I thought of Spain before arriving to Barce a few of these images popped into my head:

1. Cobblestone streets snaking through vivid, slightly chipped, earthy-toned walls of a barrio.

2. Wrought iron balconies overflowing with bougainvillea

3. Beautifully landscaped and tiled courtyards throughout the barrios.

4. The sounds of Spanish guitar and flamenco flooding the streets (I have learned that this is a very resented stereotype here but I found quite a few instances of this in Sevilla)

5. Beautiful iglesias (churches) on every corner

6. Gorgeous gardens to stroll through and relax

In Sevilla we encountered all of these and more. As I wound my way through the narrow cobblestone streets of Barrio Santa Cruz (the old Jewish neighborhood, though they do not know if Jews actually lived there) I couldn't help but smile when I noticed a Spanish resident exiting the charming wooden doors of his apartment and was able to catch a glimpse inside of the brilliantly colored tiles and foliage surrounding a courtyard in which the center focal point was a large marble fountain. As I moved on my ears continued to ring with the sound of Spanish guitar though I could not quite pinpoint the source. Perhaps it came from a window just around the corner or a plaza up ahead. This relaxed mood remained present throughout the trip and for once I felt like I was in the Spain I had imagined before.

One of the most notable sites in the city is the Alcazár, or Palace. This was my favorite place that we followed our spunky and witty tour guide through on Friday morning. It reminded me very much of La Alhambra in Granada yet on a slightly smaller scale. If you have seen the movie Under the Kingdom of Heaven then you have seen the Alcazár. However our guide so proudly pointed out a mistake in the movie: all over the Alcazár are Western European symbols such as castles and lions (a symbol for King Charles the V). Although the movie takes place in a palace in Jerusalem, somewhere you would not find these symbols, but the director failed to edit this while filming there. After learning all sorts of interesting facts like this we continued to explore the beautiful gardens and rooms of the palace and observe the mudéjar architecture (yay I'm using new vocabulary from my architecture and painting class) which is a mixture of Arab and Christian architecture. One could spend hours in there and not even realize.

There was no room for boredom the rest of our weekend in Sevilla as we were consistently exploring the town with friends and finding fun things to do wherever we went. On Saturday five of us went on an adventure in one of the large parks when we rented a four-person canopy bicycle. Little did we know that our driver, our friend Chris, was determined to race all other bicycles in the park and take us off-roading just about the entire time. Nonetheless it was quite a memorable experience.

I don't think we ever tire from exploring a new place, and as a result the weekend absolutely flew by, just as the past three months have as well (how is it already December?!) The amiable streets, plazas, shops, gardens, restaurants, boardwalk along the river -- the entire town, were always filled with people no matter the time of day. One of the most enjoyable places to people-watch in this people-filled town was in a plaza near the center. In this plaza people filled the entire square simply sipping on a beer or glass of wine and socializing with everyone else. We found this to be a normal occurrence here.

While in this plaza we met some locals who had traveled the world and seen so many places though chose to return to Sevilla for good. After this experience I can definitely see why.

Just outside of Barrio Santa Cruz

Just after the door opened into an apartment courtyard:

Reflection of una iglesia in store window:

In the gardens of the Alcazar:

Palace walls:

Found a rainbow!

Doesn't everyone decorate their bicycle handlebars this way?

Everyone hanging on for dear life on the canopy bike!

Found him! Has his gun ready while playing a little game with his friends in the gardens

The river through Sevilla

Catalonia is NOT Spain

So I realize I mentioned "the real Spain" in my last post and thought I might elaborate just a bit about how much Catalonia, the north east portion of Spain, really does not consider themselves part of Spain. If it was up to many of the residents, Catalan would be the official language and Catalonia its own country. Catalonian pride is everywhere in the region, the people, the language, the food, the streets, the art, etc. Just the other day I was corrected three times while interviewing locals for a class project and writing down Española for their nationality, "No, hazlo Catalan".... "make that Catalan." I don't go anywhere without seeing some sign for independence whether blatantly graffitied on a wall or etched into the blue plastic seat on the metro. The Catalonians want their independence back and won't lower their noses until the get it.

Though not Catalonia, Basque Country (Where I was while in San Sebastian) shares similar sentiments.