Del Banco - Dias uno

Del banco - Dias uno - Barcelona
Jueves 24 de febrero 2011

Waking up bright and early in the morning, 5am or so, Sara and I got our day started with some Tim Horton’s coffee that she brought me, as well as a 45 minute giggle fest until we realised that we had to leave the house in 30 minutes. We caught the bus from Luynes to Marseille just after six and arrived right at the train station an hour later.

no explanation is available.

We spent the next seven or so hours on and off the trains, hoping that we would make the next train in time because each train seemed to be later and later.

Myself and Sara!!!

Before I get to our final destination, not quite midway of the train rides, we stopped in Montpellier for over an hour so we ventured off to a grocery store and bought a picnic lunch. This made me realise just how wonderful it is travelling with someone; splitting a sandwich and a container of juice. Ah, the joys of not travelling solo. Montpellier is absolutely gorgeous. It kind of felt like a mix of Monaco and Havanna. For one, there were beautifully tall palm trees everywhere as well as old buildings that really make me think of the 20s and gangsters. Regardless of the time setting, I loved what I saw of the city. The 15C really helped too.

Between Montpellier and Sete

Unlike in Germany, we were not constantly passing through towns, so that means no comments on the ever changing architecture. What we did notice was that up until we actually got to Barcelona, there was not much change from the little bit we did see. On the plus side, the scenery was gorgeous! Fields of tall brown grass (prettier than it sounds) or weird stick things that I think are for vineyards. I am quite positive that the tracks were right along the Mediterranean for a high percentage of the time, so seeing that was nice, a little boring, but still nice. The most incredible thing was seeing the mountains. Almost all the time, as we were close to and actually in Spain, we could see mountains. I honestly did not know that Spain had mountains… Anyway, they looked different from the Rockies. For one, they were not as tall and seemed more spread out. Plus, you could really see the distinct line of snowy areas. I’m definitely no mountain expert, but I’m pretty sure the Rockies are really tall and pointy, with not a lot of snow and seem kind of grey. These mountains were very, very blue. It may have something to do with the Mediterranean being so close and the color reflecting… I really hope I am right on that one because it sounds really silly…

Still between Montpelleir and Sete

Finally, we arrived in sunny Barcelona to a sweltering 20C. Canadians eh? The silly, but predictable, thing was that people were still wearing parkas!! No! No! No! I don’t think I would manage there in the summer.

Sete

Unlike in Berlin or Amsterdam, I really did not get an instant impression of ‘this is what this city is’. I just could not pick up on any one trademark thing. It really did not feel overly ‘Spanish’. I might have been wanting mariachi bands to pop up everywhere as soon as I arrived though. Haha

Sete

As I navigated us down Avingud
a del Paral-lel, we went by the Toros Arena, which I mistook for a shaopping center in the midst of renovations. We made it to our hostel, Be Sound Barcelona Hostel. It is actually really nice. Very clean, nice interior and has super helpful staff. In our six person room, we had only found two girls from France, but they haven’t been overly open or friendly to us, which is too bad.

Sete
no idea why I took so many
of this one town...

We had planned on a Spanish cooking class here at the hostel, but apparently it is no longer available. We made use of this extra time to get some exploring in.

check out that color
between france and spain

We walked up and down La Rambla as well as some of the side streets on the western side. La Rambla is the main drag of the city, which caters to pedestrians more than cars. Restaurants, bars, clubs, shops, you name it, line each side of the street as well as the center boulevard, where the side shows of every sort can be found. This is the entertainment street. Starting at the harbour, La Rambla would lead the sailors up into the city when they got off their ships and were looking to be entertained. As you can imagine, it is quite lively, as well as expensive. If you’re looking for something to eat, or to buy, like any tourist place, head a few streets away and you can save a small fortune.

one of the million photos of this strech
of sea...

Sara and I got our supper at a restaurant on the corner of our hostel’s street and La Rambla (for a pretty good price). We each got some tapas and paella or pizza for under ten euro. The tapas they gave us were ok, not quite what I was expecting, but my paella was delicious!!

a slough (spelling?)

Paella is a traditional dish made of rice and a mixture of spices, vegetables and meat. Obviously the combinations are endless, so I’ll just say mine was really tasty and that’s all I care about.

if you think clouds are boring,
take a look at these puppies!!
closer to spain.. see the mountains?

Seeing as we ate quite a bit earlier than everyone else in Spain (the restaurant was more or less empty), we still had tons of time to explore. We headed farther down La Rambla to the Boqueria Market, named after the street it is on. We were hoping to find some clothing, but at the time the only stalls open were the fruit and vegetable stands, the meats ,seafood, spices, bakery, candy, pretty much everything but the clothes. Although it did have lovely hustling and bustling ambiance, which I love.

I SPY SPAIN

Unlike in Germany, apparently it is frowned upon and illegal for people to drink in the streets. We saw some policemen walk up to some guys sitting on a bench with some beer, take them and pour them in some plants and give them a ticket. Just a heads up.

FINALLY IN BARCELONA
and we found a HUGE traffic circle.

same traffic circle, other side..

Although Barcelona is the richest area of Spain, it was hit incredibly hard by the financial crisis and the crime rate has skyrocketed. Lucky us, the area around La Rambla, being so full of tourists, is naturally the place with the most pickpockets and other kind of crimes and naughty going ons. I don’t know why I always end up in these dodgy places. BUT our hostel was very safe. No worries!!

Barcelona,
what is this thing that you have made
grace my photo?

After wandering for who knows how long, we grabbed some snacks and went back to the hostel. Sara was super jet lagged so we watched True Grit on her laptop and called it a night.

about to demolish the prawn
then the PAELLA!!

Definitely a good first say in Barcelona!

FROM THE BANK - Day 14,15&16

FROM THE BANK - Days 14,15&16
       Friday December 31st 2010 (NEW YEARS EVE!!) – Sunday January 2nd 2011

                    Frankfurt - Strasbourg - Home

Cathedrale de Notre-Dame
(Strasbourg)

From Frankfurt, I carried on via train to Strasbourg. Strasbourg is a city just a tad smaller than Saskatoon, but knowing Europe, probably has at least double the population.

Strasbourg! with
Lisa, Kevin, Kate and Line

It was truly lucky that I ran into my friend, Kévin, in the train station. Excellent timing that his bus arrived at the same time as my train. I know Kévin because he came to Saskatoon two years ago for a full year on the Rotary Exchange. He had some of his fellow Rotary friends with him that had also gone to Canada (Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg).

you can tell this is where France meets
Germany

The five of us were lucky to make it to the apartment because the trolley workers were on strike and every time we came to a full stop we crossed out fingers that we would start going again. Thankfully we made it, and were able to prepare ourselves for New Year’s Eve. We were a very international group: Kévin (France), Line (Denmark), Kate (Belgium), Lisa (Germany) and of course, myself from Canada. And we all spoke English.

a realllly old house or restaurant..

We met up with two of Kévin’s other friends and went out for supper at a delicious Indian restaurant. This is when something absolutely ridiculous (well, for me, probably not for anyone else though) happened.

I spy Kevin!
in a gorgeous city!!

So, we’re just waiting in the restaurant, and I hear one of the girls, Lisa, talking about her teacher from Saskatoon. The thing that caught my attention was that she referred to her teacher as Kim. Not Mr. Kim, just Kim. I knew she went to Marion Graham Collegiate while she was there, but there was no way that it could be possible. She saw me giving her a quizzing look and so I asked: ‘Were you in Outdoor School?’. What are the chances of meeting a fellow ODS-er in Europe? Good enough I guess! Turns out Lisa was in the semester before mine, the one I was originally going to be in, so we knew a lot of the same people and did the same things and what not. Like I said, it was ridiculous.

wonderful

it was huge!!

After supper, which was really late by the way, we headed out to check out New Year’s in Strasbourg. I tell you, the French are crazy. When it comes to New Year’s at least.

this house may have been
older..

For hours before and after midnight, people were lighting off fireworks in the streets. Aiming them at people, at houses, down the street, anywhere. And with the narrow European streets and the echo factor, they were incredibly loud. Walking around was entertaining enough, not to mention the guys who were wearing (I think..) only flags of France and having a firework battle in an alley.

Oh it was great.

wonderous

The next day we spent more or less the whole day and evening wandering the streets of Strasbourg and exploring a bit. Not much was open so there really was not much to do, but we still had a very, very good time.

Did I mention that Strasbourg is absolutely beautiful? You’ll see in the photos, but they really get into decorating the streets.

On the Sunday, my last day, I spent the WHOLE day on the train from Strasbourg to Marseille. When I say whole day, I mean WHOLE DAY. The trains were packed. Like literally overflowing. I did not have a seat for the first couple hours and just hung out in the hall until a very nice man said I could have his seat in the booth. Add that with the fact that the French trains are seriously lacking in speed, as well as seats, it was quite the day that I was glad to be over, but sad to be done my adventure.

HUGE tree

FROM THE BANK - Day 13

FROM THE BANK - Day 13 - Frankfurt
Thursday December 30th 2010

brisk

Today Marcel and I had planned on meeting up again but he also still had some university things to get done as well. We did not end up getting together until later in the day, which was okay because it game me time to get some of my more touristy things done.

the other side.

I started off with a nice brisk walk across the Main (river) to the Städel Gallery. I don’t actually know who Städel was, probably an artist; anyway, there was not any work by him in the gallery. Maybe he was just a founder, I really don’t know.

Stadel Gallery

The main floor of the museum was full of art. I don’t have many facts to throw out here because the guide they gave me was only in German, and no, they did not have any English audio-guides.

Tall City

I noticed that the majority of the art from 1000 to about the 1700s mainly depicted nude people, and people of some religious importance. I could tell because a lot of them had the golden halos over their heads. I felt that the large amount of religious works showed how important and influential the church was at the time.

Commerzbank Tower
in top 5 tallest buildings
in Europe
(for now...)

It was not until I got into the later 1500s that people got more clothes on as well as more into battle. I found this interesting, especially because I could not remember any major wars or such like events of the 1500s from my history class.

Kaiserdom (for St. Bartholomus)

My favourite time period was from the later 1500s t other late 1800s. This was when there started to be a lot more landscape paintings. I managed to fins a couple reoccurring artist that I rather liked, and of course, I have now forgotten their names. Although the large wall sized paintings are impressive in the grandeur, I found the smaller paintings to be more of my liking (mainly the small landscapes by those select artists). One artist would put so much detail into the whole scene. Now, I can not talk much, or at all, about technique, but there was always so much going on. So much life. You could look ‘”deep” into the depths of the painting, and wonder what is going on in the house, or over the hill. I absolutely loved the imaginative quality and experience for the viewer that came with his work. I really wish I could remember his name.

love that color

Portikus Gallery

I did not care much for any of the modern art. All of the extremely mixed media is well, creative, but sometimes I just, ok, honestly, I just did not like a lot of it. For some of the pieces, I had to wonder how much effort the artist really put into their creation. I felt like the ‘master’ of ‘masterpiece’ was missing. Then again, I’m not art expert, maybe I’m missing some great thing.

Daniel Richter
The Gaggle
2007

Here is a photo of a postcard I bought with my favourite artwork from the gallery. (I wrote the following comments on the back of it when I warmed up in a café)

This last piece of the current exhibition had the most impact on me.

You see a group of men, who look like police officers, maybe riot control.

Their faces slightly resemble clown faces, which may be mocking the Law, or ‘The Man’, but some also look like skeletons, a haunting sign of death and what these men may be capable of.

Also note, they are wearing protective gear, some of which looks like hockey equipment. If you are up to date with North American culture, homage to Jason?

A dog is also present, in my opinion, it supports the fact that these are dangerous cops.

You can’t tell, but the piece measures 2.8m x 4.5m, making it a rather large piece. These dimensions are indeed needed seeing as it is all done with spray paint. This really got to me: police officers all done up in spray paint.

Again, I feel like the artist is mocking the fuzz; recreating them out of something they work night and day against.

The Dog Show

from
The Dog Show

Just up the street, along the river as the Portikus Gallery. The building itself was quite interesting: it kind of looked like a grain elevator mixed with a boat. Plus, it was built on a tiny island and was accessible from the middle of the bridge.

Portikus

Gallery

With a free entry, and a rather expensive gift/book shop to make up for it, the gallery had two exhibitions. One was a bunch of pieces (of all sizes) of cloth that had been treated, weather, effected by anything in any way imaginable: cut, stained, twisted, shredded, glued, dyed, marked up by pencil and pen, stretched, sewn together, bleached, crumpled, and weathered in various ways by the sun, rain and wind. For some reason I do not remember any of them being burned or singed. This was a mixed media that catered more to my tastes. Maybe because I saw it more as a gallery of experiments than of art.

gnomes.



entering Altstadt



definitely altstadt

Around a wall barrier in the corner I found a collection of drawings, doodles, paintings, you name it, etc. all of dogs and aptly named The Dog Show. The main theme was dogs doing human things in a human setting, usually in human clothing or oddly resembling humans, then again, these may have been humans that resembled dogs… I really like these works and found them oddly amusing.

more or less the same photo as below, minus the Romerdom and the lampost

Romerberg Platz:
Romerdom (St. Bartholomus church) is in the sandwich,  the Platz, and Nikolaikirche
 (covered by the lampost)

Balcony on the Romer

Alte Oper
(opera house, the old one)

Continuing across the bridge, I wandered the Altstadt (old town). There I saw the Alte Nikolaikirche (Old Nicholas Church) and St. Bartholomus Cathedral. I came across a rather famous square; Paulsplatz, full of cafes and what not. If you haven’t heard of Paulsplatz, maybe you’ve heard of Romerbergplatz? The Romer or Rathaus (town hall) is there with it’s famous balcony. If you’re into football, the major winning teams of Germany usually go out onto the balcony and wave to the crowd of footy fans. For example, in 2003 when Germany won the FIFA WWC cup.

deliciousness:
tuna, shrimps, egg and wegetables
galore in my salad!!!

I then headed back to the shopping area for an hour or so of browsing and a lunch break, then went back to the hostel. Eventually I hopped on the S Bahn and made it to Marcel’s where we made a very delicious (and improvised) supper of something we apparently like to call Marcel Mix.

A woman rocking out hard on the drums

Later in the evening, and invitation had been extended to me to Marcel’s sister’s birthday celebrations. Not many people there spoke English, but the people that did were very friendly and very interested in my travels. It was an excellent finale to my day in Frankfurt (and Germany!)

Marcel & Marcel Mix

Messeturm

Marcel & I
oh we were tired



Neon right by my hostel..



a good area of town...