So, I've been really, really lazy when it comes to posting. It always seemed like waaaay too much to sit down and write about at once. Now that I'm at the airport overnight, I have plenty of time to catch up on it all! It's not like I have anything better to do... :-)
Let's start back from the beginning. Before I only gave my impressions on the cities in general. This time I'll go through everything thoroughly, whether you want me to or not! :-)
***I know this post is going to be ridiculously long, so I'm going to try and arrange it in a way that is easily navigable for those with short attention spans/fleeting interest. :-) You can also just hit the highlights by going to the Photos on the right-hand side of the blog.
Barcelona, Spain
Picasso Museum
One of the things I went to in Barcelona was the Picasso Museum. It doesn't really have any of his famous stuff, but it has a LOT of stuff in general. They show it all chronologically, which makes it really cool to see how he progresses throughout his (really long) life. There's also really good commentary from the museum along the way. I always think of Picasso being a little edgy and racy, but never crude. One of the rooms that lacked commentary completely was this room full of sketches of prostitutes in, well, rather lewd positions: "Two figures and a cat" sounds like a rather harmless title, right? Think again. There were also sketches of men in rather embaressing situations, and the titles of the drawings were just men's names. :-) Oh, Picasso.
Cathedral of Barcelona
Next, I went to the Cathedral of Barcelona. I was kind of annoyed that I had to pay admission, but then I walked in and saw the amazing courtyard and realized why they charged... It was kind of like a really nice park, but completely surrounded by building. They also had a little museum with some really old religious artifacts (which may or may not have been from this cathedral, I don't know). Then I went in the actual cathedral and it was so big! There were pretty much rooms devoted to the saints and Jesus and Mary. And the candles! They were so beautiful! They only sold the kind in the glass-jar-type-things, and they were all red, so they were amazingly beautiful when their little flames shone through. Then I couldn't find the exit, which was kind of embaressing.
La Sagrada Familia
This church has been being built since 1882, and won't be completed for years to come. It is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my entire life. It is so tall, so wide, so ornate. *Shakes head in disbelief.* There are no words. Just go see it.
La Pedrera (Gaudi Apartment Building)
First of all, I did not know that the apartment was on the top floor. So, not wanting to take up unnecessary space in the elevator, I started walking up the stairs. Like 8 floors later (okay, maybe not that many...) I got to the apartment. It was a huuuge apartment. And it was cool to see the period furnishings. The really interesting part, however, was the museum in the weird attic-like space directly below the roof. They had stuff about all of Gaudi's works. And then the roof. Oh my God. Seriously, how did he come up with this stuff? That would not be a relaxing place to go to after a long day of work!
Park Guell
This is another one of Gaudi's designs. It's on the top of a hill (mountain?) in Barcelona and has the famous mosaic benches. The plaza that the benches are on is actually the ceiling of the thing below it. It's basically just a bunch of columns, but the ceiling is also mosaic, with beautiful circular highlights. And the place with the Three Crosses has amazing views of the city.
Las Ramblas
This famous street is basically just one long, skinny park with bars, restaurants, and expensive shops on either side. The coolest thing about it to me, though, are the street performers which take over during the day. Their costumes are amazing, even if their acting skills are not.
Metro
My first experience with the Barcelona metro was not a pleasant one. I didn't know that there was no way to get from one platform to another once you were inside the turnstiles. Arg.
Lisbon, Portugal
Castelo de Sao Jorge
This castle is beautiful. There's really nothing but the outer shell of a castle left, but that is still enough to be impressive. And the view of the city is unparalleled. See photos for further explanation. :-)
Oceanarium
Europe's largest Oceanarium is in Lisbon as a result of some European festival thing that was there a few years ago. An Oceanarium isn't really like an aquarium; it's more for the preservation of marine life. It was amazlingly cool and I saw lots of stuff I don't remember seeing in regular aquariums.
London, England
Buckingham Palace
So, Buckingham Palace isn't open in the winter, and the changing of the guards is done every other day. I really only waved to the queen and then high-tailed it to a more exciting locale.
Queen's Gallery
This gallery isn't really your typical art gallery. It's more an appreciation of all things art, or sparkly and royal. There were a couple beautifully-detailed Michelangelo sketches in the rotating exhibit. It was just a pain to get into, but the overly-cheerful and -happy staff more than made up for it.
Westminster Abbey
It was dark by the time I got out of the Queen's Gallery and I decided to go check out Westminster Abbey to see if it was worth coming back to the next day. As I was walking there, I turned a corner and this beautiful, white church pops out from behind the dark building. It was definitely a good choice to go at night. It looked so beautiful, especially with Big Ben (and the London Eye) shining just to the left. However, this is where the fate of my eternal soul gets a little shaky. It costs like eight pounds to get into Westminster Abbey. That's over $15. As I was leaving, I realized I was only about 15 minutes late to evening services. So, I kinda fibbed about just going to services and they let me in for free. However, the guy inside said that they had already gotten past the point where they let people in late, so I had to sit not with all the other people. I just sat down in the place they told me to and looked around for a little bit. I didn't like actually see all the stuff you get to see if you pay, and I didn't take any pictures, but I still felt bad. To rid myself of this guilt, I just bought some over-priced postcards in the gift shop. By the way, how am I the one who's going to Hell in this story if the church has a gift shop??
Shakespeare's Globe
It was pretty cool to see a building unlike anything I've ever seen. However, I don't think I fully appreciated the whole Shakespeare-aspect of it.
Tate Modern
I now blame the Tate Modern for my all-consuming love of modern art that has developed in the last two weeks. Really, this is such a phenomenal art museum; I can't stress this enough. I could've gone back the day after and spent another three hours looking at all the same stuff I looked at the day before. Amazing.
Tower of London/Tower Bridge
So, I didn't actually make it in time to see the inside of the Tower of London (crown jewels and all). However, I did get a chance to see the outside of it. And the Tower Bridge that's right next to it. Both were beautiful, but the bridge definitely outshined the tower at night.
British Museum
I have to go back to London, even if it's just to see the British Museum. The admission to this museum is free. However, it is so big that I didn't read more than 5 sentences in the entire museum, didn't go in all the rooms, didn't stop walking in the majority of the ones I was in, and it still took me an hour and 15 minutes to walk through. This is the most extensive collection of ...everything... that I've ever seen. It would take me a month of weekends to get even close to fully appreciating all the exhibits. And I somehow managed to miss the Rosetta Stone. But, don't worry, I got to see Cleopatra, so it's all good. :-)
Natural History Museum
No, I didn't get enough the day before at the British Museum. The Natural History Museum was very cool, but also a lot like the one in DC. And there were just as many misbehaving children. Blech.
Harrod's
I actually managed to find time to go to Harrod's, dispite the fact that no one ever told me what it was, just that I had to go. I mean, I knew it was a store, but I didn't know it would be like that. It's like one giant department store. GIANT department store. Each room has a different theme. Some have crystal chandeliers with gold wallpaper, while others have 10-foot-tall gold Egyptian sculptures and other artifacts. And there are six floors of it. Of course, it was like three days before Christmas when I was there, so it was packed. This lady on the escalator in front of me decided to stop at the bottom and not walk out into the hallway, so I had to like scoot around her with my shoulder bag and everything so the thirty people behind me on the escalator didn't end up on top of us. Then they all started lining up behind me and pushing, so I kept bumping into her again. When she got to the top of the escalator she whips around and asks, "Would you like to go in front of me???" I didn't process the question because I simply didn't understand why she wasn't getting on the escalator, so I just said, "Excuse me?" and she repeated her question, but a little louder and with a little more emphasis. I just said, "No, thank you," and she got on the escalator. But I should have made some sort of comment about her conduct at the bottom of the escalator, and could next time she not stop there so that thirty people on a moving metal sidewalk suspended 50 feet above the very hard ground floor don't have to worry about where they are going to land. Other than her, though, the English people were very pleasant. Especially when I had to ask them to repeat things a lot. British people in American movies do not have your typical English accent. Most of them speak a lot quicker and with much thicker accents.
The next day I hopped a bus to Belgium to meet up with my friend Shannon, who was in my Russian classes at U of M. This was on the 22nd. We've hit quite a few cities since then, but those stories will have to wait for another time, as I only have 4 minutes left of internet time.
Merry Belated Christmas, everyone! And if I don't talk to you before the 1st, Happy New Year!
