sunnuntai 23. lokakuuta 2011
sunnuntai 2. lokakuuta 2011
Park Güell
23.7 Barcelona
Woke up and for the first time on my trip I actually felt lonely. It’s because of this stupid hostel which had the worst social atmosphere ever (thanks to the 15-16-year-old Catalanian camp). Everytime i’m here, I feel lonely but when every I’m out, enjoying the city, i’m fine and I love to wander by myself. But I realized that I should take advantage of this time. It’s a really good opportunity to sort my head out.
So I grabbed my stuff, packed all the necessities I might need (iPod, book, camera, sarong, water bottle etc) and headed to see Gaudi’s Park Güell. I was super stoked to see it but couldn't believe my eyes that there was an escalator for all the lazy az tourists to use to get to the top of the park. Oh come on. I decided to walk up the hill, since I HAVE LEGS, and enjoyed the little exercise at the same time.
The view on top of the mountain was stunning. You see the whole city. It was amazing and I stayed there quite a while taking heaps of photos. The city colors where so bright and you could see everything from Sagrada Família to the funny egg shaped building that they also have in London (forgot its name! googled: Gherkin building)
Park Güell was wonderful but the it was a bit confuising since you had a lot of ”intersections” and I always wondered that whether I’d see what the other road had to offer without going back. The lack of signs (this road takes you here and that road takes you there) was bothering me :D
The park was huuuuuge too. It was 17 hectares and thus there was no way you could possibly see the whole park !
Love backpacking by myself and letting people, who are totally handicapped with cameras, take a picture of yourself which is like one of the only three of you from your whole trip !
I’m not even gonna go into my rant about the tourist hell that Park Güell was (talk about the photo op of the mossaic lizard) since everyone probably already knows how I feel about tourists... But yeah, I got sick of the crowd and decided to leave. I also felt like I should put more sun screen on so I went to buy some.
I had originally thought of going to a market but since I was pretty broke anyways I decided to fuck it and go to the beach. And hey, whatta hell, as I was walking to the Barcelonetta beach, I bumped into the only person I knew from Barcelona (if raki+jenni+aino aren’t counted) – JUSTIN ! Justin’s the Canadian ”who the fuck is steve angello” –shirt guy from my fist night in Barca. I asked him whether we were still on to go surf and he told me he had heard about this place ”San Sebastian ” that we should check out. Supposedly ”45 min away from Barca” (oh justin, you were so wrong: more like 6 hours by train to the other side of Spain, I later on found out :D).
So I went to the beach, read my book, bought yet another banana and some water and had 5 cents left of my day budget. Went to the surf shop and looked at the prices... missed my surf board 8( I had a hard time deciding where I’d go tomorrow since my hostel was only booked till tomorrow morning. I was thinking of going to San Sebastian cause I was itching for a surf. Then I saw something out of the ordinary: a woman and a guy carrying surf boards on the broad walk. So i walked up to them and thank god these Spannish people knew English cause I had no idea how I’d have a convo about surfing in Spannish.
”SICK waves, eh?” (Barcelona = no surf and besides the sea was dead flat)
”Hahaha yeah”
”What are you doign here anyways with your surfboards? You can’t surf here, can you?”
”Nah, we are just practising here, paddling.”
”Oh ok. Hey have you guys heard of San Sebastian?”
”Yeah, we are actually from there ! But the weather was shit over there so we came here to just practice our paddling.”
Anyways these people told me aobut San Seb and I decided to head there tomorrow. Tried to message Justin but his phone was still dead. Left him a facebook message telling him I was leaving tomo but if he wanted to catch up, he’d be welcomed to join me. I booked my hostel in San Seb – this time I actually booked only the second cheapest one because I liked the hostel’s comments more (”Great hostel but it’s pretty populated with Aussies”)... :D:D Yeah what ever.
Woke up and for the first time on my trip I actually felt lonely. It’s because of this stupid hostel which had the worst social atmosphere ever (thanks to the 15-16-year-old Catalanian camp). Everytime i’m here, I feel lonely but when every I’m out, enjoying the city, i’m fine and I love to wander by myself. But I realized that I should take advantage of this time. It’s a really good opportunity to sort my head out.
So I grabbed my stuff, packed all the necessities I might need (iPod, book, camera, sarong, water bottle etc) and headed to see Gaudi’s Park Güell. I was super stoked to see it but couldn't believe my eyes that there was an escalator for all the lazy az tourists to use to get to the top of the park. Oh come on. I decided to walk up the hill, since I HAVE LEGS, and enjoyed the little exercise at the same time.
The view on top of the mountain was stunning. You see the whole city. It was amazing and I stayed there quite a while taking heaps of photos. The city colors where so bright and you could see everything from Sagrada Família to the funny egg shaped building that they also have in London (forgot its name! googled: Gherkin building)
Park Güell was wonderful but the it was a bit confuising since you had a lot of ”intersections” and I always wondered that whether I’d see what the other road had to offer without going back. The lack of signs (this road takes you here and that road takes you there) was bothering me :D
The park was huuuuuge too. It was 17 hectares and thus there was no way you could possibly see the whole park !
Love backpacking by myself and letting people, who are totally handicapped with cameras, take a picture of yourself which is like one of the only three of you from your whole trip !
I’m not even gonna go into my rant about the tourist hell that Park Güell was (talk about the photo op of the mossaic lizard) since everyone probably already knows how I feel about tourists... But yeah, I got sick of the crowd and decided to leave. I also felt like I should put more sun screen on so I went to buy some.
I had originally thought of going to a market but since I was pretty broke anyways I decided to fuck it and go to the beach. And hey, whatta hell, as I was walking to the Barcelonetta beach, I bumped into the only person I knew from Barcelona (if raki+jenni+aino aren’t counted) – JUSTIN ! Justin’s the Canadian ”who the fuck is steve angello” –shirt guy from my fist night in Barca. I asked him whether we were still on to go surf and he told me he had heard about this place ”San Sebastian ” that we should check out. Supposedly ”45 min away from Barca” (oh justin, you were so wrong: more like 6 hours by train to the other side of Spain, I later on found out :D).
So I went to the beach, read my book, bought yet another banana and some water and had 5 cents left of my day budget. Went to the surf shop and looked at the prices... missed my surf board 8( I had a hard time deciding where I’d go tomorrow since my hostel was only booked till tomorrow morning. I was thinking of going to San Sebastian cause I was itching for a surf. Then I saw something out of the ordinary: a woman and a guy carrying surf boards on the broad walk. So i walked up to them and thank god these Spannish people knew English cause I had no idea how I’d have a convo about surfing in Spannish.
”SICK waves, eh?” (Barcelona = no surf and besides the sea was dead flat)
”Hahaha yeah”
”What are you doign here anyways with your surfboards? You can’t surf here, can you?”
”Nah, we are just practising here, paddling.”
”Oh ok. Hey have you guys heard of San Sebastian?”
”Yeah, we are actually from there ! But the weather was shit over there so we came here to just practice our paddling.”
Anyways these people told me aobut San Seb and I decided to head there tomorrow. Tried to message Justin but his phone was still dead. Left him a facebook message telling him I was leaving tomo but if he wanted to catch up, he’d be welcomed to join me. I booked my hostel in San Seb – this time I actually booked only the second cheapest one because I liked the hostel’s comments more (”Great hostel but it’s pretty populated with Aussies”)... :D:D Yeah what ever.
lauantai 1. lokakuuta 2011
Barcelona sightseeing
22.7 barcelona
Had breakkie at the balcony and skyped with Tom. I packed my stuff up and check out but left my bags at the reception to wonder around the city. Grabbed a map and decided to go see all the Gaudi stuff!
I saw:
Sagrada Família - which probably will never be ready. I did a walking tour later on this day, and our tour guide told us something about not having to pay any taxes if the church is in renovation and not completed or some stuff like that.
I chose not to go inside because of the MASSIVE queue (and the mass of tourists was also doing my head in).
I didn't mind though. Seeing Sagrada Família from the outside was impressive enough with its Gothic style and immense details.
I'm pretty sure Gaudi was a fan of tripping....
Like I mean, who puts FRUITS on their church...
Something ridiculous I saw on my trip to the supermarket to buy some lunch (bananas, of course). This is actually from the supermarket.... Whatta hell :D
Casa Milá
I would've liked to enter the building but I was too cheap to pay for the entrance fee (11 euros are you joking?! I have to eat too you know.. and pay for my hostel + train tickets) + again, massive queue.
I did how ever go to the lobby and it was soo pretty and colorful!
Another building by Gaudi, Casa Battló
I wonder where Gaudi got his inspiration from.
Even the coke machine was designed with a Mosaic layout
Plaza Cataluña, if I remember correctly
After my own little walk around the city I headed to the Columbus Monument, where this free walking tour's meeting point was. Our tour guide was this nice Aussie chick who had interesting facts about the city. The monument is located at the lower end of La Rambla, where Christopher Columbus supposedly returned after his first American voyage. They wanted to build the monument of Christopher Columbus facing west with his arm stretched, pointing towards America. But since they were in a hurry to get the statue done, they failed at life, and C.C is actually pointing towards East.
Our tour guide also told us that Barcelona's most famous and expensive street, La Rambla was actually built on a sewage. "And nothing has changed - La Rambla is still full of shit". AGREE. So that's why we skipped that torturous street.
Our guide also told us something pretty interesting: There is this one plaza was famous for its drug scene. So instead of calling the plaza by its actual name (which I can't remember),the locals call it "Trippy Plaza"...
...The government wanted to solve the problem though and built a kids' play park in the middle of the plaza, because apparently junkie's have a moral dilemma about doing the their drugs next to kids. So, the plan worked. The amount of drug abuse decreased and therefore the gov is applying this method to other problem areas as well.
This is actually a sketch Picasso made on a napkin at a bar - and here it is, on the side of a building!
Palau Güell by Gaudi
After the tour I went to my hostel to get my bags and took a train to my new, cheaper hostel, which was a 10 minute train out of Barcelona's center.
The closest shops were supposedly 10 minutes away, according to the receptionist. ”Can’t be” I though to myself. Although our hostel ws located in the middle of nowhere on top of a hill, there where other hills around with a lot of houses, so I figured the peple here must eat too.Hungry and unwilling to pay another 3 euros for a train ride to get to a shop in the center, I left with my iPod and decided to find my way to a supermarket I predicted to exist somewhere. Luckily I saw some people, since there wasn’t really anyonje around, and asked direction to a supermarket with my poor Spannish. After 25 minutes of trecking up a hill I finally found it ! It was on top of the mountain and I could see the whole valley (?) from up there. I did my shopping, bought a bottle of wine and decided to treck up the next evening with my camera in order to take some photos.
When I was returnign to my hostel I saw a freaking wild boar ! I might’ve screamed 8D Came back, told in victory about my discovery (even the receptionist didn’t know a supermarket existed in a ’walking’ distance) and TRIED to eat the most disguisting pizza of my whol life. Didn’t happen. Was a bit hungry but luckily I had bought chocolate cookies....
It was a bit weird because my hostel had this stupid camp thing, I assume. So basically, 15-16-year-old kids runnign around, banging doors and screaming for no reason. Annoying az. PLUS everyone was Spannish and they were talking in either Spanish or catalan, so our hostel didn’t really have such a social atmosphere. Luckily there were three people from the States so I hung out with the a bit :)
Had breakkie at the balcony and skyped with Tom. I packed my stuff up and check out but left my bags at the reception to wonder around the city. Grabbed a map and decided to go see all the Gaudi stuff!
I saw:
Sagrada Família - which probably will never be ready. I did a walking tour later on this day, and our tour guide told us something about not having to pay any taxes if the church is in renovation and not completed or some stuff like that.
I chose not to go inside because of the MASSIVE queue (and the mass of tourists was also doing my head in).
I didn't mind though. Seeing Sagrada Família from the outside was impressive enough with its Gothic style and immense details.
I'm pretty sure Gaudi was a fan of tripping....
Like I mean, who puts FRUITS on their church...
Something ridiculous I saw on my trip to the supermarket to buy some lunch (bananas, of course). This is actually from the supermarket.... Whatta hell :D
Casa Milá
I would've liked to enter the building but I was too cheap to pay for the entrance fee (11 euros are you joking?! I have to eat too you know.. and pay for my hostel + train tickets) + again, massive queue.
I did how ever go to the lobby and it was soo pretty and colorful!
Another building by Gaudi, Casa Battló
I wonder where Gaudi got his inspiration from.
Even the coke machine was designed with a Mosaic layout
Plaza Cataluña, if I remember correctly
After my own little walk around the city I headed to the Columbus Monument, where this free walking tour's meeting point was. Our tour guide was this nice Aussie chick who had interesting facts about the city. The monument is located at the lower end of La Rambla, where Christopher Columbus supposedly returned after his first American voyage. They wanted to build the monument of Christopher Columbus facing west with his arm stretched, pointing towards America. But since they were in a hurry to get the statue done, they failed at life, and C.C is actually pointing towards East.
Our tour guide also told us that Barcelona's most famous and expensive street, La Rambla was actually built on a sewage. "And nothing has changed - La Rambla is still full of shit". AGREE. So that's why we skipped that torturous street.
Our guide also told us something pretty interesting: There is this one plaza was famous for its drug scene. So instead of calling the plaza by its actual name (which I can't remember),the locals call it "Trippy Plaza"...
...The government wanted to solve the problem though and built a kids' play park in the middle of the plaza, because apparently junkie's have a moral dilemma about doing the their drugs next to kids. So, the plan worked. The amount of drug abuse decreased and therefore the gov is applying this method to other problem areas as well.
This is actually a sketch Picasso made on a napkin at a bar - and here it is, on the side of a building!
Palau Güell by Gaudi
After the tour I went to my hostel to get my bags and took a train to my new, cheaper hostel, which was a 10 minute train out of Barcelona's center.
The closest shops were supposedly 10 minutes away, according to the receptionist. ”Can’t be” I though to myself. Although our hostel ws located in the middle of nowhere on top of a hill, there where other hills around with a lot of houses, so I figured the peple here must eat too.Hungry and unwilling to pay another 3 euros for a train ride to get to a shop in the center, I left with my iPod and decided to find my way to a supermarket I predicted to exist somewhere. Luckily I saw some people, since there wasn’t really anyonje around, and asked direction to a supermarket with my poor Spannish. After 25 minutes of trecking up a hill I finally found it ! It was on top of the mountain and I could see the whole valley (?) from up there. I did my shopping, bought a bottle of wine and decided to treck up the next evening with my camera in order to take some photos.
When I was returnign to my hostel I saw a freaking wild boar ! I might’ve screamed 8D Came back, told in victory about my discovery (even the receptionist didn’t know a supermarket existed in a ’walking’ distance) and TRIED to eat the most disguisting pizza of my whol life. Didn’t happen. Was a bit hungry but luckily I had bought chocolate cookies....
It was a bit weird because my hostel had this stupid camp thing, I assume. So basically, 15-16-year-old kids runnign around, banging doors and screaming for no reason. Annoying az. PLUS everyone was Spannish and they were talking in either Spanish or catalan, so our hostel didn’t really have such a social atmosphere. Luckily there were three people from the States so I hung out with the a bit :)
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