Visca Catalunia!

The flag in the Arc de Triomf is that of Catalonia. If you notice, it has the lone star (yes, kind of like Texas) which here means that they want to fight for independence. If you see the flag without the star then it means more pride than anything else. As you can see also, people draped themselves in the flags and got really into the festivities. At one point, the band playing sang a song in spanish. After they finished the song, they apologized for speaking in spanish (of course this was all in catalan so Jofre had to translate for me) and justified it by saying that it was written by someone from Cuba especially for the region of Catalonia.

Beach Volleyball in the heart of Barca...

The beach volleyball stadium with a view of Placa Espanya and the city behind it. The girls playing in this tournament were in incredibly good shape and were beastly at volleyball.

Sagrada Familia: More Gaudi!

Pictured above is the Sagrada Familia church designed by none other than Gaudi. I feel bad though because this picture doesn't even capture the magnificence. This is probably the most famous facade of the church (at least so far) and you can see the cranes and scaffolding that are being used to continue construction.

Palau de Musica Catalana

Above is Elissa and myself at the Palau de Musica Catalana. Behind us you can see the amazing design, sculpture and architecture of this magnificent concert hall.

Park Guell: Mes que un park

In the picture above are Gaudi's two ginger bread house type structures with a view of the city behind them. Just two of the many magnificent designs at Park Guell.

cabeza cordero...hmmmm, yummy?

So I should have probably but a "BEWARE OF LOOKING AT THIS RIDICULOUS PICTURE" warning on this post but I figure you should really take a good hard look at these sheep heads. I took this picture at this amazing market that we visited on wednesday (more on this below).

On monday, we went to visit Montjuic, a mountain-like region of Barca that contains the former castle of the royalty of Catalonia as well as the olympic stadium and some incredible views of the city. At the base of the mountain is Placa Espanya which houses some of Barcelona's most powerful businesses. Since Barcelona was hosting the women's international volleyball championships, a stadium had been set up right near placa espanya which I went to watch some games at on Friday.

On Wednesday, we visited the Mercat de la Boqueria, an open air food market in the heart of Barcelona just off the major passageway of Las Ramblas. We walked through the different stands asking the owners questions about their products (such as how does one cook a sheep head?) which ranged from the above sheep heads to entire eels to fresh squeezed mango, coconut and kiwi juices and everything in between. Thomas and I wandered throughout the market learning about the types of fruit that are native to the region and how one shopkeeper named Wilson thinks that working in this particular market is a dream come true because he gets to interact and see tons of beautiful women and still get home to see his kids in the afternoons.
I tasted the strawberry/coconut juice, kiwi juice, and mango/coconut juice. All three were absolutely fantastic. I am definitely going to go grocery shopping there very soon as the produce, fish, and meats are some of the freshest that you can find around here.

Elissa also arrived on Wednesday evening and we headed over to the beautiful and Gaudi-designed Palau de Musica Catalana for a fantastic evening of spanish guitar with Xavier Coll. He played four different types of spanish guitar, taking us on a historical journey of classical spanish guitar. We both agreed afterward though that our favorite was the modernista period which is still developing and continuing today. On Thursday morning, we headed over to the Sagrada Familia to revel in its magnificence. We spent a few hours there before I had to leave for class but Elissa stayed on for a long long time, not leaving until around 3pm! (Mind you we had gotten there around 10am). It is definitely a place that you can spend hours on end just looking at the intricate detail. The church is far from finished and is undergoing construction while people look at it. The inside is pretty unfinished in my opinion but is still magnificent. The most incredible part of the church by far though is the outside. With varying facades representing different scenes from the bible or nature, it is impossible to truly take it all in. (pictures to come soon).
After I got out of class, I met Elissa at Gaudi's Park Guell (he has truly blessed Barcelona with some architectural masterpieces). We wandered around and enjoyed the park and watched the sun set over the city before heading back into town for a meal of tapas at Canas y Tapas.

Friday here was Catalonia National Pride Day. Since it is a holiday, we didn't have class which gave me the opportunity to explore the city a little and hit up the beach volleyball championships that Barca was hosting. Ted and I headed over to Placa Espanya around 1pm to check out the games and stayed for a few hours before grabbing some lunch and then returning to see the US team play. In the evening, our spanish friend, Jofre, took us out to tapas and then to the concert festival in honor of Catalonia Day. This concert was an absolutely incredible experience. Set up right next to the Arc de Triomf, the plaza was packed. People were incredible drunk and there were mini-botellons (public drinking parties) all over the area. Being a complete ignoramus about why Catalonia wants its independence from Spain so badly, I asked Jofre to explain it to me. He told me that Catalonia and even more specifically Barcelona pays a huge amount of taxes to the government and gets very little in return. However, as much as people like to talk about independence from Spain, it is unlikely that at least in the coming years anything is going to happen (think civil war). During the concert (which was so much fun and at the end of each song we would join in the chants of VISCA CATALUNIA! meaning long live Catalonia in Catalan, a language which I am still struggling to pick up), people got up on each others shoulders, sometimes four people high! It was a ridiculous sight to see. At one point though, a tower of people held up a Palestinian flag which was pretty surprising to see considering we were at a rally for Catalonia, not Palestine. I asked Jofre about why they had done that and he explained to me that the very leftist radicals believe that Spain is occupying Catalonia and feel solidarity with the Palestinian people living in Israel. I'm still kind of confused about this but found the whole experience incredibly enlightening and interesting. After leaving the concert, we headed back to my residencia and hung out with some spaniards before leaving to go to a local bar called l'ovella negra (the black sheep) and then afterwards getting lost trying to walk to a beach-front club called Opium. All in all after returning around 5:30am it was definitely a fun filled day.

Yesterday, I went to play pickup soccer at the field nearby my residencia. Unfortunately, there really wasn't any pickup soccer going on because the field was in use for the local league. Fortunately though there were a bunch of people (and when I say people, I mean kids between the ages of 12-18) kicking around on the turf behind the main field. After watching the main game for 20-30 minutes I asked if I could join in with them. I met these two kids, Mark and Javier, and we played for the next 2 hours. Mark and Javier were extremely skilled considering they were only about 13 or 14 years old. After I returned to my room and passed out before having dinner around 9pm. After dinner we headed back to Montjuic to see the fountain dancing to music (very similar to the bellagio) and then went to l'ovella negra. Since I hadn't yet been to the club razzmatazz, we decided that we might as well go since we live so close. It was absolutely insane. There were 5 rooms of dancing, 2 of which had live bands playing in them. I didn't get back until roughly 6 or 7am if that is any indication of how ridiculous of a place it is and how much time you can spend there!

Today, Henry and I went down to the beach and tossed a disc and played in the ocean for part of the afternoon. Quite a relaxing day after the busy week that I had! Well, I think that pretty much covers it for now.

Until next time....