Casa Batalo

Pretty Stained glass window

The back of the Casa

such pretty tiles

Amazing Mosaics

Inside the House

Chimneys on the roof

The Dragons back

Chimneys

This past week I visited Casa Batalo on Passeig de Gracia.  It is probably one of the coolest houses I have ever been in and i cannot imagine living there.  It is truly a Gaudi masterpiece and one of a kind.  The architecture is amazing and I really think all the attention to detail was incredible.  The rooftop and back deck were probably my favorite part of the house.  I think that Gaudi was a amazing artist and this is one of his best works! The house has so many cools tiles and i thought that it was amazing how the house has almost no straight lines.  Gaudi is an emblem of Catalan culture and the modernsime movement.  Casa Batalo is an excellent example of the Catalan modernisme style.  This really was a catalan cultural experience.

CAVA!

This weekend I had friends from out of town come to visit and I used them as an opportunity to try some new restaurants and eat some Catalan food.  Since the weather was nice we decided to go to Barceloneta.  I have always wanted to go to the Champagneria near Barceloneta so we all went there.  Mistake number one was going there on a saturday afternoon in the middle of the lunch rush, mistake number two was bringing a claustrophobic girl and mistake number three was wearing sandals.  I absolutely loved this place and felt like I was at a totally Barcelona establishment.  The food was amazing, the people were so friendly and the rose Cava is amazing.  I forgot what the exact name of the sandwich i had but it was some type of  Catalan sausage with cheese.  It was amazing tasting and i really like it with the two sauces.  I think the best part about this place is the ambiance.  Everyone is speaking catalan, the food although not typically catalan incorporates typical catalan food like fuet.  My friends really enjoyed going there and my recommendations would be get there early, dont wear sandals (the floor is dirty and people break champagne glasses on the floor) and be prepared to be pushed around.  I would recommend this to someone looking for a good, cheap and relatively fast fun place to eat.  Nothing fancy but just really good food!

Really crowded!

I thought this was a funny sign...you must "taste" the sandwiches to drink the cava

El Born District Field Trip

I thought that this crest on the building and the saint in the window were interesting. 

This is a tile that shows what guild the family was in.

This a traditional workshop house.  It was hard to get a good picture standing so close to the building.

For our second field trip we visited the Born area and observed the guild areas, the workshop houses, the church of Santa Maria del Mar and the Llotja.  I think the most interesting part of our field trip was learning about the workshop houses and their layout.  I thought it was unique how the workshop was in the ground floor of the house.  As we walked around the Born Xavi also pointed out how some houses had extra floors which were later added if a family member got married.  I think something that is interesting is that similar to houses in Paris and other parts of Europe the higher up the house you get the smaller the windows are.  Which is obviously because the family didnt want to spend the money for the help to have such big windows.  I think it is nice that the workshop was on the bottom floor of the house so that everything could be centrally located for the family.   As seen in the picture the workshop houses have balconies on the windows which were obviously added later.

Another thing we saw on the field trip was the Church of Santa Maria del Mar.  The Church unlike the Barcelona Cathedral was built for the working class people of the neighborhood.  It is built in the catalan gothic style with towers instead of spires. In my opinion the most beautiful part of the church is the huge stained glass windows. The large eye window above the door is really beautiful and its amazing how big it is.  Its amazing that the church doesnt look that big from the outside but once you go inside you realize how big it is.   I think the coolest part about the church was the grave stones in the floor.  There was one with a skull and cross bones on it which i thought was interesting.  I thought it was funny that people in our class didnt like that they were walking on top of dead people.

Although the weather wasnt ideal this field trip was still really interesting.  I enjoyed it because i like knowing more about Barcelona so that when people come to visit I can explain things to them

Catalan Politics.

For class Xavi asked us to research different Catalan political parties.  I was assigned CIU which stands for Convergencia i Unio or in english Convergence and Union.  During my research i found that Artur Mas is the head of the party and he is also the current president of the Catalan government.  Its a moderate Catalan nationalist party.  In Parliament they hold more than twice as many seats than any other political party.  As I was doing my research for class I was keeping an eye out for political posters and signs around town.  A few days later I came across this poster in the Metro.
I looked up what Pensem en Positiu meant and in english it translate to Think Positive.  I think that is really interesting that this is a political slogan because in no way does it express a parties political viewpoint.  I think that yes it sends a positive message obvioulsy but i dont really understand what kind of message they are trying to put out.  I am really confused as to what this really has to do with elections or voting.

Field trip through the Raval

Cool sculpture on the side of a building

What the Raval means

People playing guitar

Model of the 1st submarine.  

Barcelona Shipyards

Inside with the Arches.

For this field trip we visited the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona.  We visited the old hospital, the Maritime museum which was the old shipyards and also the square around the MACBA museum.  This field trip was really interesting and I enjoyed seeing a part of Barcelona I had not really explored before.  Although we were not able to go into the Maritime museum it was still really cool to see part of the old structure and to learn more about Barcelona as a port city.  I wish that the museum had not been under renovations and we could have visited the whole thing.  Guess its just motivation to go back.  I really thought it was interesting that a lot of the historical buildings in Barcelona have been converted into cultural centers or libraries.  Such an excellent way to preserve the space but also make sure it is being used.  Barcelona does an excellent job of turning the old into the new.

I think that the Raval is a really unique neighborhood of Barcelona because it does have the old historical buildings but it also has a modernity about it.  I also think its interesting that a lot of immigrants live in this neighborhood.  I dont remember if we were told this on the field trip but was there a reason for this? My favorite part of this field trip would be the Barcelona Library that we visited which near it had a really pretty courtyard.  There were two guys playing the guitar in the courtyard and this really interesting spire sculpture in the middle of it.  I think it was interesting to compare this field trip to the first one in the gothic neighborhood.  I think its interesting to compare the styles of architecture in the two different time period and how Barcelona has adapted to using the original buildings.  In both areas the buildings have been incorporated into the city but the gothic area has really embraced the more historical aspect of this and turned it into a more touristy area.  The raval is also very up and coming for Barcelona which may play a role in the fact that it is less touristy (which I like more).  This field trip was interesting however I had already been on a similar one for another class so it was somewhat repetitive, although i enjoyed learning about the area more.

El Mercado

The other day I visited the Boqueria market in depth for the first time.  I has walked through the market before but I never really took the time to notice all the interesting and unique things in the market.  I love all of the stand that sell different thing but at the same time seem extremely similar...i guess you have to be a native to know what the real difference is between one butcher and the next.  The Boqueria market is really a trip for the senses.  The vibrant colors or the fruits, the horrible stench of fish and the people yelling at each other in Spanish...it truly is a Catalan experience.

I really enjoyed visiting the market however I wasn't brave enough to buy anything.  I am a huge food lover but for some reason I couldn't get up the courage to buy some strange food at the market.  one thing that kept catching my eye was this white spongy looking thing that all the butchers had.  People seemed to be buying piles of it and I couldn't figure out what it was.  A few days later i found out its tripe...stomach. Eww gross! Now i have a desire to eat it after its been cooked just because i love to try new and exotic foods. I really loved that at some of the seafood stands some of the shrimp and the fish were still alive...thats freshness for you!! Visiting the market made me want to go to all the markets in Barcelona and compare them to each other...maybe my next blog post will be about this.  Or maybe it'll be about my experience eating tripe.  

I didnt take many pictures just one...i was too distracted by all the cool foods and pretty colors to take my camera out. 

I really liked these Giant lollypops in the market!

1st field trip

This past week our class visited the Museu d'Història de la Ciutat de Barcelona.  It was a really interesting and fun museum.  I especially enjoyed walking around the Barri Gotic. I loved the mixture of old and new and how the city has just grown on top of roman ruins.  The museum was extremely interesting and i thought exploring the ancient roman ruins under the museum was really cool.  I think it is so cool that Barcelona has such a historic past that a lot of people don't know about.  I think that museum had a lot of interesting historical information that most tourists would never know or learn when the visit the city.  I am definitely going to take my parents back there when they come to visit! 


During the tour we saw the old roman columns which i thought were cool but i wish you could get a closer look of them...it was hard to get a detailed view of them from so far down.  It was shocking how big they are.  I think its interesting that they are just like stuck in some little alcove in what looks like someone's front entry to their house. The romans were really an incredible civilization and the fact that they could build things like this is crazy.  


While at the museum we saw lots of roman artifacts that were sort of similar to objects we use today.  I think the coolest one though was the tic tac toe board....the fact that such a simple game that everyone knows has such an ancient history is crazy.  We also saw mosaics, wall paintings, graves and a pool (i think thats what it was), excavated remains of ancient structures, and washing and dying areas.  I think the coolest artifact that was downstairs and still partially intact was the wine storage vessels.  WOW thats a lot of wine!! Although they weren't the best roman ruins I have seen it was still really cool see these things under the city that you honestly would never know were there.  I just wish they could dig up the rest of the city to see what was underneath it.  

Outside the Cathedral...i thought that the thing thing that looks like a star was beautiful!

Mixing of old and new?

I like the gargoyles and the light on the palm tree

funny sheep thingy

What is that circular thing on the corner of the building

Roman columns

Pretty lights on the museum when we were leaving

I think the gothic windows are really cool looking when they are lit up at night...are they gothics?

I really enjoyed this field trip and i think the greatest thing that i gained from it was a better appreciation and understand of the history of the city.  I never knew that Barcelona was a roman city until this class and i'm really happy that i learned about this and was able to see the museum.