Saturday, March 21, 2009
Gerona field trip
For our history field trip we went to Gerona for the day, we really didnt have any specific goal for Gerona but its a city similar to Bilbao except it kind of faced away from the river and was focused more on the city then the actual river. Visiting the city was fun because we got to walk around the city and actually experience it and attempt to navigate through the city which was easy because the river was basically the center point of the city so you always knew where you were. The river was much more used verus Bilbao, there were more footbridges across the river so you experienced it alot more. As part of our trip we got to visit RCR's firm. Its an award winning firm located somewhere near Gerona, but the work they produce is amazing, they are currently renovating their office into a cultural center for the city. It was really interesting to visit a firm while they were working, everything is this building related to the past and was designed beautifully. It was consisted of mostly steel and they choose steel due to the past life of the site. It used to be an steel mill. Even the table were design beautifully, the cantalevered about 12 feet from the wall. I cant even explain the building, I dont want to butcher the master piece. But its an amazing building, it shows you that amazing architecture does nt have to be flashy, only thought out and well articulated.
Bilbino, and Rioja
For our mini field trip we went to Bilbao and Rioja. Both places were really unique and different from themselves. Of the two places Rioja was my favorite, not because we got to visit some incredible vineyards and drink wine at 10am but because we travel in a bus through the country. The views were tremendously beautiful, but I only remember parts of the views cuase I kept on passing out.
Bilbao was an amazing city, there was tremendous architecture like the Guggenheim, which Bilbao is known for and at the same time it had some amazing night life. The river that ran through the city was by far the most interesting thing about the city and the way people used it. Unlike Girona where the city kind of turn the back to the river, Bilbao enmphaises the river and really respects it.
Bilbao was also a relatively easy city to navigate around, there was alot of rememorable art and architecture in the city. Im a visual guy so when theres a lot of art and architecture around I can creat reference points around the city. Unlike Barcelona there really are these wavy crazy streets that can lead you to no where, it was pretty straight forward and organized on an almost grid pattern. For once in a city I knew where we were and other people didnt.
Guggenheim is an amazing building, I have never really been a fan of his work but I was really impressed with his design, but as for the art work being displayed I was not but thats another topic. This building basically put Bilbao on the map and thats partially why I respect the building so much in addition to the way the building functions and is organized with the art partions. One of my biggest issues with museum is that they always try to stick more art work per square feet then you can actually see and the way you look at the work creates this zig zag unorthodox pattern. However the Guggenheim really worked for me, I felt like there was enough art work that was properly positioned throughout the museum.
Rioja was a real treat for myself, I got to see the scenic views and some amazing vineyards. We visited Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava's vineyard. Each one was amazing in themselves but I think when compairing wine and the architecture Zaha Hadid's vineyard took first prize. Now dont get me wrong Gehry and Calatrava's vineyards were amazing but I felt that they were celebrating the architecture and not the wine.
Zaha Hadid's vineyard was this quant building hidden in the corner and the vineyard itself was this rustic old establishment that still does everything by hand which fascinated me the most. Gehry's vineyard was completely modernized and had no connection with the past except for the old buildings and one tiny historic part; which I didnt like too much because the door heights were only like 6 feet tall and me being over 6 feet tall drilled my head on the door which did not feel good. Calatrava's vineyard was a cross breed between the other two. The Zaha vineyard still used the same underground tunnels where the penicillin still grew on the walls, still made the barrels by hand, still used the old barrels as kiln for the fire and still had the traditional technique of making wine which you could taste in the wine. Both the red and white wines were amazing. Even the building Zaha Hadid design adhirred to the theme, it was a modern building that wrapped around the previous wine stand that they used in the old days. It was a truly unique vineyard.
Bilbao was an amazing city, there was tremendous architecture like the Guggenheim, which Bilbao is known for and at the same time it had some amazing night life. The river that ran through the city was by far the most interesting thing about the city and the way people used it. Unlike Girona where the city kind of turn the back to the river, Bilbao enmphaises the river and really respects it.
Bilbao was also a relatively easy city to navigate around, there was alot of rememorable art and architecture in the city. Im a visual guy so when theres a lot of art and architecture around I can creat reference points around the city. Unlike Barcelona there really are these wavy crazy streets that can lead you to no where, it was pretty straight forward and organized on an almost grid pattern. For once in a city I knew where we were and other people didnt.
Guggenheim is an amazing building, I have never really been a fan of his work but I was really impressed with his design, but as for the art work being displayed I was not but thats another topic. This building basically put Bilbao on the map and thats partially why I respect the building so much in addition to the way the building functions and is organized with the art partions. One of my biggest issues with museum is that they always try to stick more art work per square feet then you can actually see and the way you look at the work creates this zig zag unorthodox pattern. However the Guggenheim really worked for me, I felt like there was enough art work that was properly positioned throughout the museum.
Rioja was a real treat for myself, I got to see the scenic views and some amazing vineyards. We visited Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava's vineyard. Each one was amazing in themselves but I think when compairing wine and the architecture Zaha Hadid's vineyard took first prize. Now dont get me wrong Gehry and Calatrava's vineyards were amazing but I felt that they were celebrating the architecture and not the wine.
Zaha Hadid's vineyard was this quant building hidden in the corner and the vineyard itself was this rustic old establishment that still does everything by hand which fascinated me the most. Gehry's vineyard was completely modernized and had no connection with the past except for the old buildings and one tiny historic part; which I didnt like too much because the door heights were only like 6 feet tall and me being over 6 feet tall drilled my head on the door which did not feel good. Calatrava's vineyard was a cross breed between the other two. The Zaha vineyard still used the same underground tunnels where the penicillin still grew on the walls, still made the barrels by hand, still used the old barrels as kiln for the fire and still had the traditional technique of making wine which you could taste in the wine. Both the red and white wines were amazing. Even the building Zaha Hadid design adhirred to the theme, it was a modern building that wrapped around the previous wine stand that they used in the old days. It was a truly unique vineyard.
My wrong turn........
Alright, getting lost is alot harder now, so unfortunately unless I start to get lost more my blog's theme is going to change to navigation around cities and my adventures in general. But I forgot that I did manage to get lost in Prague but it was only for a split second. Mad Cow, henna, tuna, rican and myself were walking along the river back to our hostel and we all bet metzler that we could get home in 15 minutes, so metzler was walking at a quick pase and the rest of just were walking at a leisurely pase, and for some reason I was leading the group. Metzler decided to walk on this narrow sidewalk that was probable 2 feet wide with people walking both ways on it. I thought Id take the safe root and walk through this coutyard or well I thought it was a courtyard but it wasnt it was just a dead end and since I was leading the other 3 followed. We looked like a real bunch of tourist we walked into this area and two second later we walked right out. It just shows you that a street that looks like it could go through, may indeed not be a road that goes through.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Spring Break, Prague
Prague.......what can I say about it. Nothing but a truly amazing city, I dont think theres one person who cannot have fun in this city even if your not in the city center. I knew this trip was going to be amazing when out of the blue Ryan, Matt and Dean appeared out of no where [these are my friends from Rome], in addition Mary, Anna and Shelia were also staying in the same hostel. In this hostel there were 11 Catholic students. With all our friends in Prague, this trip would be amazing.
One of the best moves we made as a group [Henna, Tuna, Rican, Mad Cow and myself] was to stay in an 8 person room, now this may sounds stupid but if you end up having cool roomates then you wont forget the experience. When we arrived our roommate, who we had no idea was, wasnt in the room so we could meet him. We ended up going to bed before he got home and got up before him but when we got up we all didnt know what to think of him, we thought he was in the military or something because he had neatly folded clothes on the bed in an uniform fashion, he also had tattoos and was a bigger guy, so we didnt know what to think. But he turned out to be a great friend and will be visiting this easter break.
Prague has two amazing features: The architecture and Pubs. During our stay we managed to see the Royal Palace Complex, which houses some amazing churches and complexes, in addition to the ceremonial guard changing, its very similar to the British soliders. We also saw the Fred and Ginger by Frank Gehry, Charles Bridge and alot of other unique architecture which are unknown but are truly unique.
One of the most interesting events that we took place in was the Straupromen brewery tour. Not to mention that this beer is amazing but exploring the brewery was really a pleasure and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Straupromen has a truly unique collection of beer and they ship it nationwide.
Just being around my friends from Rome really made Prague more enjoyable, drinking with the boys and going to a few other places I should not mention, like hot pe pes made this journey amazing. Spring break couldnt of been any better.
One of the best moves we made as a group [Henna, Tuna, Rican, Mad Cow and myself] was to stay in an 8 person room, now this may sounds stupid but if you end up having cool roomates then you wont forget the experience. When we arrived our roommate, who we had no idea was, wasnt in the room so we could meet him. We ended up going to bed before he got home and got up before him but when we got up we all didnt know what to think of him, we thought he was in the military or something because he had neatly folded clothes on the bed in an uniform fashion, he also had tattoos and was a bigger guy, so we didnt know what to think. But he turned out to be a great friend and will be visiting this easter break.
Prague has two amazing features: The architecture and Pubs. During our stay we managed to see the Royal Palace Complex, which houses some amazing churches and complexes, in addition to the ceremonial guard changing, its very similar to the British soliders. We also saw the Fred and Ginger by Frank Gehry, Charles Bridge and alot of other unique architecture which are unknown but are truly unique.
One of the most interesting events that we took place in was the Straupromen brewery tour. Not to mention that this beer is amazing but exploring the brewery was really a pleasure and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Straupromen has a truly unique collection of beer and they ship it nationwide.
Just being around my friends from Rome really made Prague more enjoyable, drinking with the boys and going to a few other places I should not mention, like hot pe pes made this journey amazing. Spring break couldnt of been any better.
Spring Break, Istanbul
Let me just start out by saying spring break was amazing, Istanbul and Prague are two incredible places you should try to visit if your in Europe. For our first journey Henna, Tuna, Rican, Mad Cow and myself ventured off to Istanbul at 4:30 in the morning. Getting to the Istanbul airport wasnt a problem but actually stepping onto Turkish soil was little difficult. Upon handing my passport to customs, and the custom agent telling me I need a visa, scared the living daylights out of me. Now after going through a gruesome, lengthy process of getting a spanish visa I thought I was going to have to buy another ticket back to Barcelona and spend spring break there but lucky their visa is a little different then Barcelona, you can buy one for 15 euros. Unfortunately, our bad luck strike didnt end, Henna or as some people call her Jenna lost her bag, but she was actually really calm and ok with this.
Once we finally got to our hostel things started to turn around. The hostel personel was very nice and spoke fluent english which helped alot and it wasnt that bad of a hostel. Istanbul had some magnificant architecture, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, etc. but the most interesting and unique place to experience while in Istanbul are the Bizzare Markets.
These markets are incredible, you can buy anything you could ever want from spices, jewerly, handbags, clothing etc. and the best part about these markets is there are no fixed prices so you have to hangle the prices down and if you are really got at hangling you can get some amazing stuff for a great price.
In addition to the markets the culture in general is really unique, I felt alot safer and welcomed in Istanbul then in Barcelona. I didnt feel like I was going to robbed just for walking down the street alone. However because Turkey is a Islamic country its really not social accepted to get piss drunk and stumple home, so unfortuantely we werent able to do this is Istanbul but we did drink. However, Prague is a different story...
Once we finally got to our hostel things started to turn around. The hostel personel was very nice and spoke fluent english which helped alot and it wasnt that bad of a hostel. Istanbul had some magnificant architecture, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, etc. but the most interesting and unique place to experience while in Istanbul are the Bizzare Markets.
These markets are incredible, you can buy anything you could ever want from spices, jewerly, handbags, clothing etc. and the best part about these markets is there are no fixed prices so you have to hangle the prices down and if you are really got at hangling you can get some amazing stuff for a great price.
In addition to the markets the culture in general is really unique, I felt alot safer and welcomed in Istanbul then in Barcelona. I didnt feel like I was going to robbed just for walking down the street alone. However because Turkey is a Islamic country its really not social accepted to get piss drunk and stumple home, so unfortuantely we werent able to do this is Istanbul but we did drink. However, Prague is a different story...
Cortes Ingles is everywhere........
Alright so the one thing Ive observed while traveling around Spain are Cortes Ingles. No matter how small or large a city is there are always these department stores in the town. Now if they are small there is usually only one, thankfully, but if it is large like Barcelona there are thousands, one on every corner. Even in Cordoba has a Cortes Ingles. Not to mention the over population of the stores, but the immense prices of the store make me hate this store, even though they have everything in the store I try to stay as far away as possible from this store. You walk in just for groceries, and you walk out with a bag of food and a 100 euro bill.
Southern Spain 2
Alright now here come the interesting stuff, Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granda were my favorite cities that we visited. Cordoba was specially enjoyable because we came there after Madrid and in Cordoba there is an Arabic Bath, which is amazing and you should try to do one if you never have done one. In these baths there are three pools of water: one hot, one warm and one ice cold, literally. Your suppose to go through these pools with some order but I always thought that experiencing things is the best way to understand them, so I just went through them without any order. This bath was truely amazing, im not a guy who likes baths but this was amazing it truely calms, and relaxes oneself.
Sevilla was my home away from home, it had the home town feeling of the states, it was perfect. I dont know if it was the extremely warm weather, beautiful spanish and american girls there, the architecture or our crazy bartender amigo but I like the think it was a combination of all four.
So let me tell you about this Bartender, I really cant remember his name but he was the man, the bar was directly across the street from our hotel so naturally we were drawn to this bar, and one thing that was really cool about southern Spain in General was that you always got free tapas with your drinks so you could kill two birds with one stone. Anyways even though we really could comunicate with this guy well, he always had us laughing and he loved Christie just ask her about it. If you ever go there you have to get the lion steak its probably the best thing on earth.
Granda was also beautiful it had a much more rustic and old town feeling, and the view were incredible. After climbing the enourmous thousand mile hill you had some amazing scenic view of the moutains and sunset. Joe and myself enjoyed this city the most probably, we adapted this notion to go to a bar everyday after sketching, in attempt to finish parts of our sketchbook. This was a great idea untill you got like 5 beers deep and the drawings got a little more difficult to finish but they turned out fine.
All in all southern Spain was an amazing and truely reward trip, Ive experienced some truely amazing things, things that I wouldnt be able to experience else where. Things you need to experience for yourself. Some of the best things about southern Spain was the free tapas, the women and of course the amazing weather in the Feburary when its snowing back in DC and freezing in Barcelona.
Sevilla was my home away from home, it had the home town feeling of the states, it was perfect. I dont know if it was the extremely warm weather, beautiful spanish and american girls there, the architecture or our crazy bartender amigo but I like the think it was a combination of all four.
So let me tell you about this Bartender, I really cant remember his name but he was the man, the bar was directly across the street from our hotel so naturally we were drawn to this bar, and one thing that was really cool about southern Spain in General was that you always got free tapas with your drinks so you could kill two birds with one stone. Anyways even though we really could comunicate with this guy well, he always had us laughing and he loved Christie just ask her about it. If you ever go there you have to get the lion steak its probably the best thing on earth.
Granda was also beautiful it had a much more rustic and old town feeling, and the view were incredible. After climbing the enourmous thousand mile hill you had some amazing scenic view of the moutains and sunset. Joe and myself enjoyed this city the most probably, we adapted this notion to go to a bar everyday after sketching, in attempt to finish parts of our sketchbook. This was a great idea untill you got like 5 beers deep and the drawings got a little more difficult to finish but they turned out fine.
All in all southern Spain was an amazing and truely reward trip, Ive experienced some truely amazing things, things that I wouldnt be able to experience else where. Things you need to experience for yourself. Some of the best things about southern Spain was the free tapas, the women and of course the amazing weather in the Feburary when its snowing back in DC and freezing in Barcelona.
Southern Spain
Yeah I know its been a while since my last blog but what can you do its getting alot harder to get lost in Barcelona and the citys we visit. Anyways you would think that with going to southern Spain, I would get lost in a heart beat but I didnt. I shocked myself, I thought for sure I was going to get lost within the first hour but I didnt.
Our southern Spain trip included Madrid, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granda, Merida. All the cities were beatiful in themselves but I liked some more then others. I really like Sevilla, Cordoba and Granda and I was nt so interested in Madrid and Merida.
Madrid was too large for my liking, it was similar to Barcelona except that Madrid had the caios of New York which is very overwhelming at times. Every place I went to in Madrid was filled with people. Another reason why I think I didnt enjoy Madrid as much was the fact that my ATM card got blocked by my stupid bank for no reason. However I did have some fun in Madrid the night life there is pretty incredible. Theres a club that 7 stories tall, which is awesome and every floor has a different theme and during the summer they open the retractable roof to the stars. The only downside about this club is theres a high cover and to get a drink you have to play at one booth and then take it to bar and if you try to pay in cash they wont take it, only reason I know this is because I tried it myself and its sucks to get rejected.
Merida was cool in itself, there was alot to see in the city but thats exactly what we did, we tried to crame alot of sight seeing into one day and Im all about seeing all the sights but coming to an end of our trip I just didnt have any energy to see all the sights.
But Im going to write on another page cause I think this one is getting too long....
Our southern Spain trip included Madrid, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granda, Merida. All the cities were beatiful in themselves but I liked some more then others. I really like Sevilla, Cordoba and Granda and I was nt so interested in Madrid and Merida.
Madrid was too large for my liking, it was similar to Barcelona except that Madrid had the caios of New York which is very overwhelming at times. Every place I went to in Madrid was filled with people. Another reason why I think I didnt enjoy Madrid as much was the fact that my ATM card got blocked by my stupid bank for no reason. However I did have some fun in Madrid the night life there is pretty incredible. Theres a club that 7 stories tall, which is awesome and every floor has a different theme and during the summer they open the retractable roof to the stars. The only downside about this club is theres a high cover and to get a drink you have to play at one booth and then take it to bar and if you try to pay in cash they wont take it, only reason I know this is because I tried it myself and its sucks to get rejected.
Merida was cool in itself, there was alot to see in the city but thats exactly what we did, we tried to crame alot of sight seeing into one day and Im all about seeing all the sights but coming to an end of our trip I just didnt have any energy to see all the sights.
But Im going to write on another page cause I think this one is getting too long....
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