Montserrat

I am writing this as a new entry because my time ran out and I had to go pay the stupid locu man again. Oh well! So Granada was last weekend, Saturday we hung out and rested, Sunday we went to the beach and Monday I had work but then we went out for tapas because Monika's friend had just arrived. Tuesday was the goodbye party for Ariane and Benjamin and partly for Barbara because she was going back to Basel for a little while before returning in September. Wednesday I had work of course, I took one of the members of the association to do his weekly chores. Thursday and Friday were regular days and we managed to visit the Pedralbes another house of Gaudi's. It was really gorgeous. Friday we went dancing and it was horrible. This eurotrash techno vibe is not what I'm looking for when I go dancing. The french seem to love it though. Saturday we went to Montserrat, this gorgeous monastary up in the sawtooth peaked mountains located about an hour away from Barcelona. It was beautiful! Not as peaceful as I thought it would be because there was a ton of tourists and a wedding going on but still, I was very awestruck. We hiked all over the place and saw everything. I think that my legs hate me.

Pedrera (Casa Mila), the front doors and the famous roof!

A night out on the town.... my smile hides my disgust with the general club scene...

MONTSERRAT.

Beautiful, just beautiful.

Granada

According to my calculations it has been forever and a day since I have updated the blogger. I am so sorry. Things have been more then a little crazy with the end of the month, new random roomies and lots of good byes...
About two weeks ago, I visited Granada with my friend Ariane and we had the best time! Although it was incredibly hot (39 degrees celsius) we managed to enjoy ourselves immensely (does that sound a little bit geeky?) We traveled by train wedensday night and arrived on thursday morning. We walked around the city and went to the tourism office while they prepared our rooms. Then we took a quick nap before heading up to the Alhambra. Seriously, one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen. The sun gives the palaces this brilliance and everything, everything, is decorated, carved, painted; just this labor of love that eventually became the most visited place in Spain. Although it was a crazy walk uphill (what is it with these Spaniards and uphill???) I am so glad that we were able to go. We spent some time in the Generalife gardens and then got kicked out (literally, the guard came by and told us to get out, please, they closed 15 minutes ago) and walked around the city some more. Later thar night we stopped by a tea place where they wrote your name in arabic for free after your dinner or drinks or whatever, so we had a pita and strong tea and watched the restaraunt owner accost nearly eveyone who walked by. It was quite amusing. The next day we woke up early ready to explore the rest of the city but especially the old neighborhood Albaicin. We walked and walked and walked. We found some really nice little streets, and a church that was closed and this gorgeous mirador (lookout point/vista) that had a great view of the Alhambra. We also stumbled (again literally because my shoelace tripped me near the entrance) upon the Casa Museo Max Moreau. It was really interesting and the tiny museum had a good collection of the artists work. Afterwards we did the tourist shopping thing and walked to the city center to check out the church and surrounding buildings. We ended the day with churros y chocolate (since they are more common in the area) and they were delicious!

And now, for the pictures....

On the train ride there.

Albaicin, one of the first places we visited on our walk around the city

ALHAMBRA.

The City of Granada

HOLA!!!!

Just A Really Quick Note!!!

Yes, I am alive. Yes, I am having too much fun. Yes I will actually write something tomorrow (my first none busy day in TWO WEEKS!!!)

HUGS, anna :)

Girona!

I really cannot say enough about the history that every corner of this country has! Its incredible.... This past weekend we went to Girona, medieval village about an hour and a half outside of the Barcelona. Central to the city is the Catedral, gorgeous, typically middle ages, and with an incredible collection of art. Girona Cathedral, apparently has the widest Gothic nave in the world and houses the Tapís de la Creació (Tapestry of the Creation), a very rare 11t- century tapestry depicting the creation of the world, the months of the year and Biblical characters. My friend Simone and I had some fun times with the tapestry... Some of the characters are just sooooo funny looking. The Cathdral is really old and it has a little area for about 20 different saints. The outside is beautiful and everything was quite peaceful--- Barbara and I lit a candle so I feel good about that. We left it at the cross with Jesus. That sounds kinda weird. Anyways, the day was nice, we walked around and saw the sights, ate at a really nice touristy cafe and meandered along the riverside. It was pretty gorgeuos but then it started to rain so we decided to catch the train home. Okay. Pictures.

The bridge and the river all lined by colorful apartments and stores. We walked to the city center and the first thing that Monika did was go into a purse store and by two bags! Its so her!

The second is the back entrance to the cathedral. Its a gorgeous example of medieval building.

This is just some statue dude inside the museo. I thought he looked pretty mellow so I took a "dude" picture with him. Simone was all embarrassed...

The entrance to the cathedral. Its pretty detailed and I was impressed at the way the building has held up so well.

All things Dali and Castellars

I don't know if this color will show up all that well, but let's try it out shall we? Okay, so finalmente we shall see the weekend Figueres daytrip and the Dali Museum. Yay! So I made the girls wake up and meet around 8 because we were going to try to get to Cadaques, this little fisherman's pueblo about 45 minutes away from Figueres.... Therefore we needed the full day to make time for the trips... well, we ended up not having the correct timetable and we missed the bus. Booooooo..... (Hey Nate, How Disappointing!) So the girls were pissed but really, how could I have known???? Lol :) We still managed to have a good time and explore...

The back entrance was cooler then the front so we. Creepy statues are always the best way to be greeted. We took pictures before the time got to the girls and they got grouchy... tee hee.

The Dali is actually entombed at the museo! Ummmm, okay.......... At first I thought it was a random plaque or adornment or something but then I realized what it actually was and I was intrigued. Do you think that he's laughing at all of the tourists?

The feet are part of the coolist ceiling mural that I have ever seen. My favorite thing about Dali is his ability to use these incredibly vibrant colors and awkward perspectives.

The staircase was nifty.... but I think that the girls were not in the mood for pictures. The heart thing is actually art that Dali made out if jewels. Its gold and rubies and mechanized so the little ruby encrusted heart in the center actually beats. Pretty and strange....

Soooooo, that's the other entrance to the building of the museum. Its got eggs on it. I like eggs. Also, we wandered around the little town following the cool signs that they put up for tourists and we spied one that said Dali's Childhood home and pointed in some direction. We followed it and were struck with hilarity when we came upon a little plaque slapped onto the front of a building that said, "This is where Dali was born." Well, there was other information put you get the gist. We laughed till we cried. It was so funny.

This past weekend was Festa Major and we went to see Castellars, which are human towers. You've seen them fall on Maximum Exposure and other such ridiculous 'Max' shows that the FOX network seems to love so much. I was amazed! And terrified....

Tah - Dah!!!!!

Okay, okay, so apparently I lied.... No three days in a row for me. Instead its a week later and I still have a ton of stuff to show and tell. Sometimes I just do not know where the time goes... So let's see, ummmm I'll show you my place, co-workers and offices.

Since I only have like a minute left I'll finish up quick. The first picture is of the office that I go to when I am with the social worker and I'm working on the study about the whole organization. I'm actually almost finished!!!! Yay, alot of boring hard work went into what is actually quite a small study! But I'm happy to say that my work will be presented in conjunction with grant proposals to the Generalitat... pretty cool. The second two are the association headquarters. Its bright and cheery and wheelchair accessible. You can see Carme the admin assistant and Maria the boss. Last week the ladies gave me a gift to remember my time in Barcelona! It was a book on Gaudi's influence on the city with lots of pictures. That's everyone there, Carme, Maria, Me, Anna and Eli..... Eli is the journalist who does the bimonthly review mag. They are all super sweet and they don't make fun of my horrible grammer and vocabulary so what more could I have asked for in coworkers? Ciao!

Random Tiempo...

I have a few minutes so I'll just tell you about the Tuesday that Monica and I decided to explore the area around the Sagrada Familia and nearly walked ourselves to death! She and I decided to do a little sight seeing (for my sake really, but she was happy to do it with someone who would be ridiculous and take the pictures she never did...) So, we go to the Sagrada...its weird. I think that it really isn't that spectacular; really more of a spectacular mess if you ask me. There are some incredibly interesting carvings and statues but I wasn't awed. Whatever, it was nice. Next we walked a little further down and saw that Hospital San Pau. Gorgeous! I can't believe that a building (well many buildings to be exact) that ornate is still a working hospital. All the different parts are interconnected underground. It would be a nice place to work... fer shure (lol). Then, because we are geniuses, we decided to walk to the Parc Guell, the park with all of Gaudi's art and stuff.... It didn't look that far on the map. NOTE TO ALL: Whenever you find yourself saying that it doesn't look too far on the map then really it is. Really, really, really far. We found that out the hard way and walked about an hour (straight uphill the entire time), through some random neighborhood and up an overgrown alleyway path that probably hasn't been used since the early 1800's until we at last stumbled upon the Parc Guell. It was exhausting! But worth it. The park itself is beautiful and the day was a little overcast so I got some really cool pictures. So there is my little story and here are a few pictures, cause hey, that's what I do. :)

La Familia Sagrada....

Hospital San Pau....

Parc Guell....and me in the caves looking crazy from exhaustion and thirst....

There's a bunch of stuff at the Parc Guell... a mosaic bench that you can see a panoramic view of the city from, which is held up by these really crazy pillars underneath... There are random pieces of art, including the lizard everywhere.... We'll see if I can send the picture in for a Geico ad.... lol... no, really. Not really. Maybe.

So, there it is.... Just a day in the life. I will attempt to go online for the third day in a row (a new record) and tell you all about the Dali museum and Figueres... Maybe even show you all where I work, I know, I've been saying that forever!!!!!