Photos by Emily, Feb 13, 2011
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Barcelona Round 2 , posted with vodpod
Barcelona Pictures
Dinner restaurant
Dinner: Catalan-style code with spinach, chickpeas, and eggs
Right – Sangria sizewe ordered at beginning of week, Left – current sangria size
Statue built to honor Christopher Columbus whe he returned home to Spain after discovering America
Outside of Picasso museum
Fountain near our hotel – in the 17th century was the last stop for water for horses on the way out of town
Candles lit at monastery
Black Virgin
Black Virgin
Group of singers from the US – not sure why
Boy choir – 50 boys who live at the monastery and sign for 10 min twice per day
Basilica at Montserrat
Painting on the walls
Cable car
Monastery in on top of the mountain
On the way to Montserrat!
One of many city sqaures
Part of the old city wall
Orange tree in the middle of the street
My Korean Friend!
Top of Casa Mila
Top of Casa Mila with Sagrada Famila in background.
View from top of Casa Mila
Looking down from Casa Mila roof into the center of the building. All apartments designed to get light.
Roof at Casa Mila – those are chimneys.
Door to Casa Mila
Casa Batllo – balconies designed to look like skulls, top to look like back of a dragon
Gaudi’s Casa Batllo – an apartment building
Chocolate display in the market
Breakfast – eggplant omlette with traditional bread rubbed with tomato
Street performer – no idea how this is possible!
Street “performer”
The festival of Santa Eulàlia
Wow – the last two days have been busy and tons of fun. After seeing three parades in the past 24 hours, I figured something must be going on here. It turns out it is the Santa Eulàlia festival – a festival for children. Santa Eulalia is the co-patron saint of Barcelona, and she was a 13 year old girl who died a martyr. Her remains are in the Cathedral of Barcelona and the plaza in front of the Cathedral is where most of the celebrations have taken place.
Kids celebrating the Santa Eulalia festival
Yesterday (Saturday) I started the day at the La Rambla and saw a parade of kids with instruments and costumes – I didn’t know about the festival at this point so I just took a few pictures and went on my way.
I then went to the Sagrada Familia – the most famous site in Barcelona. It is a large Roman Catholic Church that was designed by Antoni Gaudi and is still under construction. It was started in 1882 and Gaudi died in 1926. Its scheduled completion date is 2026 – 100 years after his death. It’s a bizarre looking building and the pictures don’t do it justice. It’s enormous and looks different from different angles. Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account that it was Saturday and the line to enter was at least a 2 hr wait. I’m going to go back during the week when the line will hopefully be shorter.
Sagrada Familia
After that, I went to Park Guell. A park designed by Barcelona’s favorite architect, Antoni Gaudi. I went to the park thinking it would be a relaxing afternoon, but I ended up having to practically hike up a mountain (in non-hiking shoes) to get to the entrance. I was exhausted by the time I finally made it there but it was worth it. It’s a very elaborate park that has great views overlooking Barcelona. It was intended to be a housing development but only two houses were ever built there.
After that, Michelle and I met up and went for dinner in the El Born neighborhood. It’s a funky, trendy, artistic neighborhood and we were excited to get out of the touristy areas of Barcelona. On the way to dinner, a “parade” of about 25 people passed us. I asked a lady what was going on and from what I could understand it was some of the Uraguay population of Barcelona starting the Carnival celebration. It was really random – kind of like a marching band coming out of nowhere and passing you on the street. We found a tapas place we’d heard about but it didn’t open until 7pm. We got there at 7:10 and got the last table. By 7:20, there wasn’t even standing room available.
Today (Sunday), I went to the Cathedral of Barcelona around noon because I wanted to see the dancing of the Sardana. Every Sunday people gather outside the Cathedral and do a circle dance called Sardana. It’s a dance of Catalonia, and it’s a way for people to continue their Catalonian culture. Just a few steps away was a parade similar to the one I saw on Saturday but much bigger. That’s when I knew something was going on. I came back to the hotel and did a little research and found out it was the Santa Eulalia festival. I found a schedule of events and in the afternoon they were doing something called Human Tower Building. Sounded like something not to be missed so I went back to the Cathedral to try to find it. I saw other activities but no human tower building – I was so bummed! Then, right before I went to get on the metro, I saw a crowd of people. . . human tower building! I’ve got video of the tower building as well as the dancing of the Sardana but I can’t figure out how to post it right now. I’ll work on that later.
Dancing the Sardana
Human Tower Building
Tonight Michelle and I went back to the Born neighborhood to eat. We tried to go to a cool-looking place but they were only serving pinchos and we are pincho’d out – we are ready for a real meal and not just tapas! We ended up eating outside at a restaurant called “CheeseMe”. Strange name but it was good – she got some kind of stuffed chicken and I got goat cheese cannelloni with pine nuts and applesause.
On the way back to the hotel, we were on the metro and the train stopped at our stop. There was a group of people in front of us on the train speaking Spanish but just looking at the door on the train. I somewhat yelled out “open the door” and then they realized that they needed to pull a lever to open the door on the train ( that way on all the metro trains here). I felt like somewhat of a metro-pro telling a Spanish speaking person what to do!
Tomorrow I’m going to get up early and take the train to Montserrat. It’s a monastery in the mountains about an hour outside of Barcelona. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon so I’m looking forward to getting back, taking it easy and making some progress in the book I brought.
It’s been a great trip so far – Barcelona is definitely shaping up to be one of my favorite cities!
Sagrada Familia
Sagrada Familia
Our hotel
Santa Eulalia festival
Uruguay population celebrating Carnival
Resident only biking program
Uruguay population celebrating Carnival
Santa Eulalia festival
Hotel Lobby
Hotel Courtyard
Landed in Barcelona!
We made it!
I don’t know how that I’ve just now discovered Lunesta. Michelle and I each took one when we got on the plane, ate dinner about an hour later, and then woke up when we were landing in Barcelona – fabulous! It seriously felt like a flight to Chicago, not Spain. I will definitely be repeating that on the way home (or anywhere else for that matter).
We landed about 8:30 am, and it was too early to check into our hotel. We dropped our bags off and then walked down the La Rambla – one of the most famous streets in Barcelona – which just happens to be steps from our hotel.
Street Performers on La Rambla
La Boqueria is off La Ramble and is a huge market that sells everything from candy, fruit, and gourmet chocolate to all kinds of meats and fish. We went in there and ate breakfast at Pinotxo Bar – a tapas place I’d read about in a ton of guide books. It was packed and the cava (champagne) and vino tinto (red wine) were free flowing at 9:30 am – crazy! We shared a tortilla (Spanish omelet), the best chickpeas I’ve ever had in my life, and an empanada. It was all fantastic and was a great way start off our trip.
After that we got on one of the big, red tour buses and went around town to get the lay of the land. Once we got to our hotel room, we excited to see that we’ve got a HUGE patio! Michelle had some things to do for work and I went in search of sangria to enjoy on our patio. I asked for white sangria at the hotel bar and the lady looked at me like I was crazy. She said “I’ve never heard of white sangria, in Spain we only do red.” We certainly don’t want to stand out as tourists – apart from the bus tour, of course – so red it is!
On the Bus
Once she finished checking in for work, we went back out and did a different route on the tour bus and then went in search of dinner. To find somewhere to eat, we wandered around on the side streets off La Rambla. These streets were amazing – they are really narrow, like a maze, and no cars are on them. It almost feels like you are in some type of lively, underground city.
No one eats here before 9pm so all the restaurants were empty at 6:30. We ended up finding a great tapas bar and got a few tapas to tide us over until a respectable dinner time. This tapas bar was one where they served pinchos – different things on a toothpick that are served on bread. The pinchos are out on the bar and you grab what you want; at the end of the meal, the number of toothpicks determines your bill.
We were both extremely proud of ourselves for making it through the first full day with no naps (thank you, Lunesta!) and finally hit the sack around 10:30pm. Today (Saturday), Michelle has to go check on her booth setup and I’m going to go in search of sim card for my phone and try to figure out the metro. It’s supposed to be 60 degrees and sunny today so I’m looking forward to getting outside and seeing some more of the sights.
Home of our first Spanish meal – perfection!
Pintxo Bar at La Boqueria
La Boqueria – fresh (live) seafood
La Boqueria
La Boqueria – candy stall!
Helsinki: Home of the World’s Nicest People
I LOVE Helsinki! I already know I want to come back and visit the other Scandinavian countries. These have got to be the nicest people on the planet.
We had an uneventful train ride from St. Petersburg to Helsinki . I could really get used to traveling everywhere by train and cutting out the headaches of the airport. As we were waiting on the train we met a group of middle-aged men and their wives from the US. They are in an ice hockey league and had just played in St. Petersburg and were headed to Helsinki to play a game. I think they travel for a few weeks out of the year doing this. They were a lively bunch!
As we crossed from Russia into Finland, we had to stay in our seats for a while so they could check everyone’s passport. Once we were cleared to move about, there was a massive beeline for the dining car. Michelle and I finally found a seat and had a few drinks with the hockey team and their wives.
We took public transit to our hostel and had our fingers crossed that it would be much nicer than the one in St. Petersburg – we got our wish! This hostel was fantastic: just like a hotel but with a shared bath (this time with hot water).
Helsinki’s been a nice change of pace from Russia. There’s not a ton that we feel like have to see here so it’s been great to just amble about. We started at Market Square – a huge outdoor market on the water. They’ve got everything for sale here: flowers, vegetables, souvenirs, local food, etc. We wandered around a bit and then took a ferry over to Suomenlinna. It’s a sea fortress that was built in 1748 to protect Finland from Russian expansion (didn’t go so well though, they surrendered to Russia in 1808).
Once we got back to Market Square we got some great seafood from a vendor for lunch. You’ve got to guard you food like crazy from the tons of seagulls flying around. At first it was funny, but it turned into a huge annoyance really quickly.
Lunch!
The weather is just starting to get warmer here and the Finns are outside in full force. I spent the afternoon walking around town and came upon an open air jazz concert. I grabbed a table and a glass of wine and spent the next few hours outside listening to the concert with what seemed like all of Helsinki.
I can’t say enough nice things about the people here – they are so friendly and willing to help. Seriously, every person we’ve asked for directions has physically taken us to the place we want to go. Thank goodness everyone here is helpful and speaks English because I can’t even imagine attempting to pronounce a Finnish word!
Next stop . . . Amsterdam.
Free open air jazz concert
Senate Square
Outside of our Hostel
Suomenlinna – fortress built for protection against Russian expansionism
Suomenlinna
Some kind of weird fish – I didn’t order those!
Traditional Lunch at Market Square
Market Square
Market Square
Market Square
Kids on the way to school
Market Square
Helsinki Hostel
Crazy line for food and drinks on the train
From St. Petersburg
Hey everyone! We’re having such a great time that I haven’t had much time to write. I’ll update you all on St. Petersburg with this email and then send another on Helsinki. As of today, we are in Amsterdam but are just starting to see the city – I’ll send that one later on in the week.
On Saturday, Michelle and I took the train from Moscow to St. Petersburg. The trip was a nice break from flying- the whole process much easier with no check-in, security, limits to luggage, safety speeches, etc. We waited about 15 min on the platform and then boarded our car. The seats were more roomy than on an airplane and we slept some, read and ate dinner in the dining car. The dining car seemed like a throwback to a 50’s diner. It was about a 5 1/2 hour ride, and then we arrived into the middle of the city in St. Petersburg. Even though it was 10:00 p.m., it was still light outside.
We had limited directions to our hostel (that’s right, hostel – not hotel) and found ourselves walking in circles for a bit (carrying luggage) trying to figure out where to go. It was very frustrating b/c we had no map, nothing written in Russian for us to be able to ask for directions and the street signs (if they existed) were all in Cyrillic which looks like nothing we know. The funny part was that our hostel was literally just around the block from the train station! But eventually through trial and error and a very helpful lady in a bar with a guidebook, we found the brown door that would lead to our room.
Hostel Entrance – unfortunately the inside matched the outside
The hostel was clean and safe – but you may disagree after looking at the pictures. We decided we wouldn’t send the pictures until after we left safely because we knew you all would worry! It seems like youth camp revisited. It was quite the adventure for two hotel snobs. Mr. Tony (Michelle’s dad) said he thought the hostel sounded like my idea and that Michelle should just slap me!
We both brought pillow cases but the pillows are big and square so we just laid our cases across them to act as protection for our heads. I had to sleep with the eye mask I took from the Delta flight to keep the light out – very attractive! The mattress springs are just lovely AND we didn’t have any hot water on the first day. Needless to say, the experience have been very interesting and one we will never forget.
The good thing is the hostel is right in the center of town. When we checked in the lady at the “reception desk” said it was museum night and that all the museums were open. I asked if the Hermitage was open too – that’s the most famous museum. She said yes so we left the hotel at 11pm to check it out only to find out it was closed. Oh well – the city was absolutely beautiful at night and so different than Moscow. It is definitely a “night” town because the streets are so busy with cars and people into the morning hours.
On Sunday morning we ventured out to take the Metro by ourselves for the first time so we could purchase our tickets for Finland. It may seem easy but there are no words in English – only Cyrillic so we tried to go with numbers and colors. We managed to make it happen with only one mix-up and actually found our way very well. We happened to talk to these two girls who spoke limited English – they were going to the same stop we were, so we followed them. They were returning from a month long trip back from Finland!
We walked a million miles all around the city. We saw Peter and Paul’s fortress, the Summer Gardens, the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood, the outside of the Russian Museum, the Kazan Cathedral, Alexandrovskiy Gardens, St. Issac’s Cathedral and much more in between.
Monday morning, before we left for Helsinki, we had planned to go to the Hermitage again. We got there only to find out it was closed again. Apparently it is closed on Mondays. It was disappointing to go to St. Petersburg and not see the Hermitage but I guess that gives us a reason to return.
Hope you are all doing great!
Hermitage Museum – founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great
Our shoebox of a room
It wouldn’t be trip to Russia without a picture in the ubiquitous Russian hats!
Street Performer
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood – built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and was dedicated in his memory
Summer Garden
Peter and Paul Fortress
Peter and Paul Fortress
Entrance to Hostel – yes, the inside was just as bad!
“Greeting” message on the stairs up to our hostel
Moscow Update
St. Basil’s Cathedral
Hi Everyone!
Moscow is great and we’ve had some busy days. One strange thing here is that every car can be a taxi. If you want a ride you just wave to every car that passes. If someone stops, then you negotiate your fare. Kind of like paid hitch hiking.
Thursday morning I went to the tradeshow with Michelle, and after lunch we met our unofficial tour guides. One of Michelle’s colleagues knows a guy in Moscow and he arranged for son of his friend to take us around. We were debating on if we should go with them on Thursday or Friday, but when we got back from lunch the guy had dropped his son and a friend of his off at the booth so Thursday it was!
Having them show us around was fabulous! They were both 20, spoke excellent English, and knew tons about Russian history. We were hoping they didn’t ask us that much about American history – I’m sure they could have stumped us! Their names were Kirill and Stas – Kirill was in the linguistic school and Stas was an excellent photographer. He took tons of photos and is going to send them to us.
First we took the metro to Novodevichy monastery/cemetery. The metro is unbelievable – the stations are works of art and look like museums. It’s strange to the that one of the prettiest places in Moscow is underground. The metro can also hold entire city of Moscow in case there is an attack on the city.
Metro – Absolutely Beautiful!
Novodevichy monastery is for women only and was pretty – our tour guides, Kirill and Stas had never been there before. I really wanted to go to the cemetery – Jonathan, my boss, raved about it. When we got there they were closing so we walked away. Before we got too far, the security guard came up and said for 100 rubles each he would let us in. We had to go into a corner to pay him – apparently that’s pretty common.
The cemetery was amazing – each headstone was elaborate. Mom, one even had a math equation on it (see attached picture!) Famous Soviet leaders, artists, scientists, and others are buried here and each headstone told the story of who the person was.
After that, we walked and walked and walked and walked. It was great to see all of the side streets and learn about everything on the way to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. I never saw a single house in Moscow. It’s the most expensive city in the world (why am I here??) Everyone lives in flats (apartments) and then they have a dasha which is a house in the country that you build yourself (typically).
It was interesting to get Kirill and Stas’s point of view on the change from the Soviet Union to current day Russia. They were both young when it happened but said their parents never speak badly of the way things were and that they felt education was much better then.
Along the way I spotted a Coca-Cola Light (diet coke) at a stand (hadn’t seen one yet). I pointed to it, and asked Kirill, how do I say that. He said “Coca Cola Light.” Everyone got a good laugh and now I know I can order at least one thing in Russian!
We finally stopped and had dinner at a great Italian restaurant that was near Kirill’s school They were both so excited that we bought them two beers! We were in much need of a break after hours of walking. We then went to Cathedral of Christ the Savior and then to the Red Square. The architect who built St. Basil’s cathedral was asked if he could do it again and he said yes. The government didn’t want him to replicate it so they gouged out his eyes – interesting fact.
This morning Michelle worked and I sat at Starbucks and read. It rained most of the afternoon. Tonight we went to the opera – interesting experience. The driver dropped us off at a busy intersection, and I kept trying to find someone who spoke English so we would know where to go. We crossed the same street several times following different directions but finally found it. We don’t have a clue what it was about and dozed off in a few parts but were glad we went.
Tomorrow we are going shopping and then headed to St. Petersburg in the afternoon. We still don’t have a train ticket to Helsinki (the Delta lady somehow didn’t book my ticket) but are hoping to get one there. After tonight, it’s no more comfy beds and our own bathroom. We are staying in hostels and will be wearing shower shoes – I’m sure we will meet some interesting characters!
Below are some more photos of Moscow!
St. Basil’s Cathedral
Metro Ceiling
Metro
Novodevichy Monastery
Here lies Boris Yeltsin
Famous Actor
For you, mom!
Russian Garages
Our tour guides, Stas and Kirill
Moscow Library
Red Square
St. Basil’s Cathedral
I arrived!
Hi All!
I made it to Moscow safely!
The trip started out a little rough. I had an issue when I got to the airport in Atlanta and tried to get my boarding pass. For Russia you have to have a visa and my visa says I have to be out of the country by May 19th. My Delta flight is out of Amsterdam on May 23 – I’m taking a train out of Russia on May 18th to Helsinki. I was going to get my train ticket when I got to Russia but apparently I had to have proof I was leaving by train before they would give me my boarding pass. After about an hour at the ticket counter, the Delta lady finally booked my train ticket for me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to go.
I exchanged $300 to rubles at the airport so I would have some local money when I landed. The guy at the exchange counter said he only had 100 bills and nothing larger. I said that was fine – when I got a stack full of money, I realized I just got $300 in essentially $3 bills. Each $1 is 30 rubles – my wallet is really fat!
The flight was about 11 hrs and there were probably 20 kids under the age of 3 on the flight. It was noisy! When we landed in Moscow, they had people come on board the plan to check for people with the swine flu. The “inspectors” were in yellow vests and were wearing masks. They had therrmal cameras and scanned everyone to get their temperature. Michelle just had this on her flight over so I was expecting it but it was still strange.
Michelle arranged for a car to pick me up so getting from the airport to the hotel was a breeze. The traffic was unreal – it put Atlanta traffic to shame. On the way to the hotel, we passed an Ikea, a Gap, a Sephora, and a ton of car dealerships – looked like home!
I’m at the hotel now and just got up from a 3 hour nap. Michelle’s back from work and we are going to dinner with some of her co-workers. I think we are going to Cafe Pushkin – it’s supposed to be the best restaurant in Russia and is in the Red Square. It’s the one restaurant that I wanted to go to so I’m excited it’s our first stop!
I’ll email more later and will send pictures too.
Love,
Emily
sallysuesees.com 