Sunday, March 23, 2008

BCN should stand for BecauseChaosNeverends

Ok...so I'm not sure I can actually put Neverends as one word but I did...so yeah. Whatever. :D

It's been a crazy week. BCN is Barcelona's nickname. I am in love with the city. I am coming to this web blog update thing a bit late...I've already been to Rome. Did some great research for the story which I promise has not been forgotten...just put on pause because well, internet is a commodity and I need more time than I have to get things typed and posted. And I'm a big lazy butthead. But whatever.

Rome was amazing. I trekked all over the city and had a great time spending time outside of Rome in a town called Priverno. I couchsurfed with a kid who was a fantastic host and had a really wonderful time hanging out with his friends. We went to some awesome clubs down by the ocean 'til dawn, drove around Terrecine and played pool, listened to music and overall had a really great time.

I went salsa dancing in Rome! :does the happy dance: That was awesome. I met some great people in the city and ended up having some really fun times dancing, going to dinner and checkin' out all of the amazing artwork. I got to see the Sistine Chapel of course, which is so much more than anyone ever mentions....the suspense is amazing. They route you through the whole place, you see all of this amazing stuff and then the end all Finale is the Chapel that Michaelangelo did. I stayed in there for an hour just looking...and looking...and looking...it was surreal.

I managed to find an art store! that was a really great day actually. I had spent the day hanging out in Priverno basically sleeping and enjoying the mountain air after a solid day of dancing and partying and then went into the city and went on the hunt for an art supply store and went to the Museo Borghese, which is really.....really outstanding. I walked around the gardens, enjoyed the most delicate of breezes..it was great. That was the night I went salsa dancing too I think. so yeah...

That was entertaining in and of itself...let's just say I salsa'd in hiking shoes. "nuff said.

So after Rome-there is more to tell but I will have to leave it there for now..not to mention all the stuff I haven't told about Florence!-I headed to Barcelona.

Let the insanity begin. I started off just fine, had a wonderful couchsurfing host, walked around the city and went to the Picasso Muesum. Really fantastic, it showcased his first work, like the work that he did while he was a student in art school and stuff so that was really amazing for me to see...he was a genius. Classically trained, and it gave such a level of context and structure to his later work that I can really begin to appreciate what lies beneath the initial surface. I like abstraction and cubism, but I think it becomes a lot more valuable when you have the social and mental infrastructure to support it exposed.

Anyway-after the Picasso Museum I went and got some lunch and explored more of the city and then chilled out with my couchsurfers. The next day we went shoe hunting for him and I went to a yoga class. Best feeling ever. It was my recharge for the rest of the trip I think. I am going to to try and go again on Tuesday. :D We'll see...it was all in Spanish but I am basically familiar with the moves...still a really funny and good experience though. The teacher speaks good english so she was able to correct me on a few moves. Good times.

I went and explored Montjuic-which is a really great place. I spent hours and hours at the MNAC which was the best exhibition I have been to in a loooong time. I also went to the Joan Miro Foundation which was a cool experience. his work is a little too abstract for me but I love the use of his colors and shape. The MNAC had such a plethora of genius art work done by Catalan artists that I had, sadly, never heard of until that day....I gorged myself on all of it and then went and found dinner. Which was really nice. I was starving. I guess art makes me hungry? I dunno what that was all about.

So-to cut to the quick here...the insanity began more on Friday and Saturday night. I didn't find a host so I booked at this great hostel. Met some cool people about two minutes after I walked in the door. We all went to dinner and proceeded to hang out until 4 in the morning after buying beer on the streets and partying at some random park until we got cold. It was awesome.

Rolled in to the hostel, got up for breakfast...that was painful hehe...and spent the next day walking around some more. Had to find a new hostel because I had a host that bailed on me...and that was awful. Stayed in a total shithole...pardon the language. So yeah...was unhappy about that. Stupid Easter weekend (happy easter Barcelona! mrgh.)....the next night I went back to the hostel I had stayed at originally and paid to use their emergency cot...which basically translated to me sleeping in their lounge downstairs on a cot with five other people (each with their own respective cots) but yeah...it was insane. I was stressed and tired and yeah...the joys and toils of traveling.

So...the night I stayed at the totally assy hostel I went out with some guys from New Zealand...one of them got us kicked out of the bar because he was retardedly drunk (yup...making up another word)...and finally got back to the hostel around 4 in the morning. Got up, trekked over to the old hostel, got the emergency bed...they made me a coffee and I walked around the city some more. And went out again that night, against my better judgment. Had a good time...but yeah. Spent the next day just chillin' at the hostel...I surfed the web, wrote in my journal, walked down to the city beach...bought a cute if cheesy shot glass....

I will have to put some updates about Poble Espanyol....Great little artist village in Barcelona. Expensive to get in and lots of stuff is overpriced but it's still really cool. I got my mom some stuff. It was great. :D

And then, after chilling at the hostel all day, stayed up with the AWESOME group of people I met (we had members from France, French Canada, America, Germany, Brazil...) It was fantastic! We played silly drinking games...pausing to explain everything in several languages, listened to the great music that they were playing and had a really fantastic evening. Went to sleep at two...still in the lounge because everywhere is still booked...and then decided, on a whim today, to come with some of the kids that I met to their flat in Valencia. I am going to go to the beach, check out the museums and hang out with them for a couple days and then it's back to Barcelona to see what other sorts of trouble I can get myself into.

I go back to Germany on the 28th....yay for children....oh boy. But I have some fun times planned ahead of me and I am looking forward to all the debauchery I can find. hehe.

Alrighty, there will be more later but ya know...it's not like I'm writing a book or anything here.

Ahem.

Laters!

1 comment:

Adrian said...

Hello Riss! You have a great blog. Great design and great content with many texts! Many greetings, Adrian from Germany