Thursday, December 31, 2009

Sketches of Spain...

so we decided to spend our christmas in barcelona and after weeks of waiting...we sat at the bus station and had to wait some more...

upon arriving, we checked into our hostel and grabbed some sangria...and enjoyed the view


same building come morning time...
on our first day (dec. 26th), which is typically one of the busiest shopping days in America and the UK, all the shops were closed down in honor of Christmas...which was quite refreshing, so we just wandered around the city...

we stumbled upon a passage to a cathedral...it was really nice to be in a beautifully sacred place during this time of year...




first Gaudi sighting....

this however was open: the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona. Absolutely huge and amazing...
with lots of work from one of our favorite artists, Antoni Tapies, who is a home tome hero there...
also, a crazy retrospective of the experimental composer/artist John Cage....which will be talked about more in depth on miah's blog soon (toothinajewelrybox.blogspot.com)
tapas and wine for our 3 year anniversary dinner...



Catalunya square...
we decided to walk back to our hostel in the rain...and found the Arc de Triumf...still not sure who coined this building first...paris or barcelona?
super fun window display...of course, the Sagrada Familia....

the weather was warm almost all 5 days we were there...so we hit up the beach...


since prague doesn't get all the american films that we're in to...we found a small independent cinema on a quaint street filled with boutiques, coffee shops, creperies, and bars...we decided this is definitely where we would live if we ever moved there...
for any one who knows Jarmusch's films, this seemd like an homage to the popcorn vendor in Permanent Vacation...
we saw Donde Viven Los Monstruos (i.e. Where The Wild Things Are...yes Leighanna, Shelly also cried at the end)...and this one...
the famous Gaudi Park Guell...

so about a week before the trip, miah had a strange dream about large octopus tentacles coming through our ceiling...then we saw this and kinda freaked out...




view from the highest point in the park...

more exploring around town...
another Gaudi sighting...
a huge open-air market off La Rambla...



Chris Columbus statue at the port...
underneath it...a fitting protest
back to 'our' street one last time...
at the airport...pretending to be in a good mood but we REALLY didn't want to leave.

5 comments:

  1. Looks so amazing. You look like a bunch of babies.

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  2. Looks amazing!!!! Glad you guys are getting to travel and see so much! Are you staying in Prague this year too?

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  3. jill, our contract is up in june...we have some other things brewing ;-)

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  4. Love the Columbus protest. So cool.

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  5. awww... i just figured out how to post a comment on your blog! yay!!! i love all the barcelona photos! the market place would be my favorite place to go! i love all the different colors and textures of food they put in bins! it makes me happy. and all the gaudi buildings! wow, they are so unique and they remind me of melting buildings!!! awww, shelley, you cried! me too! i am so glad i am not alone in that! xoxo

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