Barcelona-The City of Gaudi

It seems like a long time since I’ve written. I have truly enjoyed Barcelona as I had a feeling I would. Unfortunately my Spanish lessons were curtailed by the fact that in Barcelona they speak Catalan so only to confuse me more and believe me it’s quite different. In fact the true Catalans believe themselves to be very separate from the Spanish. At many of the museums they have the headings written first in Catalan and then in Spanish………sometimes English if you’re lucky.

I just loaded my photos from Barcelona on my computer and had a good look. Barcelona is definitely “The City of Gaudi” There are amazing buildings and churches designed by Gaudi and some fantastic designs at that. My photos only captured a small amount of Gaudi as I didn’t go into all the buildings but did have a good look from the outside. Some of the things I saw and/or visited were the La Sagrada Familia church, La Pedrera, Casa Batillo and Park Guell. You will see a number of photos from the park as I went two different times; once when there were a lot of people and then one morning I ran there and it was so peaceful and quiet.

I also went to the Picasso museum and that was wonderful. What a brilliant artist and interesting person he was. I visited monument a Colom, museu naconal d’art De Catalunya

While in Barcelona, I was lucky enough to have a friend to stay with who is American and has been living in Barcelona for about 12 years so knows the city very well. Lucky me! In trade, I was able to cook meals for us and satisfy my culinary desire to cook. One day I walked down the La Rambla-a famous street in Barcelona filled with street performers, flower and live bird stalls and much more. I visited the Mercat de la Boqueria which was fantastic! It was filled with every vegetable, fruit imaginable and more. Then the choices of meat, fish was incredible and some I couldn’t tell you what it even was. There was even a hog’s head which I decided to pass on that for our evening meal. I must have spent more then an hour and had to control myself since I had to carry all I bought onto the metro and buses.

The weekend that I was there, Greg and I headed to the coast to a place called Cadaques which is about 20 kilometers from the border of France.I fell in love with the white washed buildings, the crystal clear blue water, the small winding rock laid streets filled with boutiques, restaurants and art galleries. We hiked and I ran some of the trail out to the lighthouse and you’ll see by the photos how magical Cadaques is. It is known for the wind and boy was it while we were there. The evening we were there we attended a photo exhibition done by a local photographer of the local women of Cadaques in black and white and it was wonderful! Most of the women were in their 50’s and 60’s and she captured the beauty and playfulness of every one of them. The opening itself was very interesting and I wish I had remembered to bring my camera but it was great people watching!

The next day we took a bus to Figures where Salvador Dali grew up. There we went to the Teatre-museu Dali and that was fantastic! What a talented and strange man that was. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

The remainder of my time there was spent wandering around, exploring the city, and getting caught in the rain…and I mean serious downpour. Yes, I had my umbrella but this didn’t stop my shoes and socks from getting totally drenched. This was the day before I was leaving and in Europe dryers aren’t very common so I had my wet clothes draped all over the house radiators in hopes they’d dry by the morning.

So, my time in Spain was wonderful and it felt bitter sweet leaving this morning but to be going to Paris is not a bad thing! The walkabout continues!

photos at: www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/Barcelona

I'm currently in Paris and leaving next Tuesday but will get my blog and photos posted before I leave...next is Italy and not sure about internet connection while I'm there.

The Last Supper

This was the joke I had with the group of Anglos and Spaniards that I spent the week with in Salamanca on the last night of the program. Being that when you travel, sometimes meals take the back burner. It’s not like I starve but I tend to eat simply and sometimes only two meals a day. So, I have to say, in spite of the long hours it had it’s benefits (not to mention my own room, bathtub and wake up calls) and one of which was three meals a day and pretty good food in spite of being a buffet; it always had lots of fresh fruit and a great salad bar at lunch and dinner so I was a happy girl! And as some of you may know, I LIVE for my salads and since I’ve been away my servings of fruits and vegetables have been diminished somewhat. When your traveling for extended periods of time this feels like luxury.

So there I was enjoying my salad and fish (of course wine) thinking about the week. It was really a great experience. Even though my time wasn’t my own and I had to talk and listen all day long at great concentrations, it was really fun. I truly enjoyed meeting new people, having some great connections and learning so much about the Spanish way of life. I truly feel like I made some new friends. We had some funny activities as well, like skits and poems and presentations in the evenings. I even did a yoga presentation and had one man, Lynn, from Wales volunteer to let me lead him through the demo….what a good sport! The last night we had a fiesta with Sangria and lots of dancing and some sad goodbyes at the end of the night.

Once again the partying interfered with my sleep. I had to get up at 4:00am to catch a train to Lisbon, Portugal. At about 12:30 I was almost convinced to just stay up and go out with everyone but I figured a few hours of sleep would probably be a good idea!

I had the train ride from hell. My train left from Salamanca at 5am and it was 7 hours on the worst train I’ve ever experienced. We were squeezed into a compartment like sardines and it was loud, cold and dirty. This was the first time I had experienced a bad train so I was surprised. I survived and arrived to Lisbon at about 12:00 noon and made my way to the hostel. What was really nice is everything seemed a bit easier in Portugal. They actually listed English as well as Portuguese so I could actually figure out what the hell I was supposed to do next and a lot of people spoke English.

The hostel I stayed in was really nice and the people very friendly and helpful. I thoroughly enjoyed my 3 ½ days in Lisbon and got to see a number of sights like the town of Belem which is on the water and had a bridge that reminded me of the Golden Gate bridge. I visited a couple of castles, an old montassary and some great neighborhoods. Also a town called Sentra which was very magical filled with castles and amazing parks and more history then I had time to digest.

Currently I am sitting at the Salamanca train station in the café waiting for my next train to Madrid for a day to visit a friend and then head to Barcelona. I arrived at midnight on the “train from hell” (which wasn’t AS bad this time) and couldn’t catch another train to Madrid until 5:45am. So, here I sit writing about my experiences and wondering if I can curl up on the table and sleep for a few hours. The TV is blaring and chairs uncomfortable so I’m thinking not. Oh well, there’s always 2 ½ hours to snooze on the fast train to Madrid.
View my photos from Salamanca and Vaughan Town at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/SalamancaAndVaughanTown
Also view my Lisbon photos at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/LisbonPortugal
Another note: I posted the Madrid photos on my last blog entry so go there...Madrid
Thanks for letting me share!

Madrid

I've decided that some big cities just don't do it for me at all. Don't get me wrong, there are some amazing buildings and and things to do like the Prado which you really need about two days to see it in it's entirety. I spent two hours! I know but when you only have 1 1/2 days you try to see it all that's about it.

My main reason for coming to Madrid was to meet up with this volunteer group called "Vaughantown" which is a group geared towards Spaniards learning English.
http://www.vaughantown.com/english/newsletter1.pdf
I included the website for information if anyone is interested in reading more.
It seems like a great program for becoming more comfortable with speaking another language. You first need to have a fairly good base of English and once here, it's mostly about speaking and listens with Anglo like myself and others from Australia, England, Wales. I'm actually the only American. Our job is to basically converse with them, it's not about correcting grammar, etc. You get to talk about life, interests, their country, your country and just about anything. We in turn get to stay in a very nice hotel and get feed very well plus wine at lunch and dinners. The people are really nice and so far it has been a great experience....plus I love having my own room after staying in hostels with 3 smelly men. Yep, that's right my experience in Seville didn't stop at staying in mixed dorms....did I not see that in the description?? So needless to say, I'm appreciating the solitude, in my room at least. Salamanca is a wonderful city as well but I'll write more about that at the end of the week.

I finally experienced the "night life" in Spain. After meeting the other volunteers from the program, a few of us decided to go out to a club. Knowing that we had to get up early, I was thinking it probably wasn't a good idea BUT what the heck....you have to experience everything at least once right?
It was wild! I've never seen so many people out at one time and the club was packed but the music was great. Needless to say, I arrived back to my hostel about 4:30am! Okay, so 3 hours of sleep. I slept a bit on the bus but then had to be "on" chatting with Spaniard and believe me it's work when you have to focus so much. I'm truly enjoying meeting them and getting to know them.

Okay, that's all for now. I'm off for more...
No photos of Madrid right now, I have a very weak signal at the cafe and limited time so I'll post soon.
Adios!
here is the link to my Madrid photos www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/Madrid

Hammam.........ahhhhhhhh!

A delicious sensory experience. What is it? It’s an ancient Arabic bath which consists of warm, hot and cold baths along with a wonderful stream room. It is decorated in the Arabic style by its geometrical mosaics, archways, latticework and columns.

As well as soaking in the baths, were you alternate from warm to hot to cold(oh so refreshing…no really it is and really good for you)you can choose to do a traditional “hammam” massage which is an exfoliation of the body and truly an amazing experience.

I was taken it to the main room where the large warm bath is and laid apon a octagonal shaped warm slap of marble. The therapist poured warm water over my body then I could feel something being put onto my back and legs but couldn’t for the life of me tell what it was but it felt wonderful….like light meringue being softly ladled onto my body. I was then scrubbed with some sort of glove that felt like it was gently but firmly taking the top layers of skin, dirt and road wariness away. Then warm water delightfully poured over me again and I was told to turn over and got to experience the front of my body as well…..nice to have two sides of the body! This time I peeked when the substance was ladled over me and it was a thick layer of foam from the soap she used.

Once done there I had the pleasure of receiving a relaxing massage while enjoying the smell of rose oil aromatherapy-my only complaint was that it wasn’t long enough-only 15 minutes. I then got to soak in the pools for at least an hour and a half. While soaking alternating form the different pools and sipping sweet Moroccan tea, I was able to appreciate the architecture, the candles and the sunlight coming in through the star shaped skylights. Also, they had relaxing music playing to harmonize with the sound of tickling water of the fountains.

I hope you now have an idea of my hammam bath experience. Oh and by the way, this was while I was in Cordoba. As you can guess that was the highlight and Cordoba is also a nice, picturesque city as well with an huge ancient mosque/cathedral that took about 300 year to complete. I also visited an old casa in the Arabic style as well as a couple of art museums.

I decided that 2 days was plenty in Cordoba so I’m moving on to Madrid tomorrow.
View my photos of Cordoba at www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/Cordoba
Also, I put my photos from Granada on the web and you can see those at:
www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/Granada