Friday, October 27, 2006

Nothing really new

So I started taking spanish classes four days a week, which is great. Other than that nothing is really new except, well everything I've done in the past week....We went to Park Guell by Gaudi on the weekend and it was pretty cool. I actually haven't done a lot of Gaudi yet so I was pretty impressed. There were a million tourists, which is interesting because it's the end of October and supposed to be deserted compared to the summer. Just a warning to anyone that wants to come to Spain in July or August. Then the next night we went to an Xaiver Rudd concert. It was hilarious because the entire audiance was Aussies or Brits. I'll get some new photos to add pronto! Till then, Hasta luego.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Back to the Coast


We headed back to the Mediterranean to get some sun and a head start on the long drive back to BCN. Cheif navigator, Leisia got us safely to our hostel in Marseille and when we woke up the next morning we decided to make the most of our sunny day and went sea kayaking.
It was pretty beautiful as you can tell. Since the architects were pretty anxious to see some more buildings we also went to the original Unite d'Habitation by Corbusier before we started our drive through the night back to BCN.

Now we're just getting settled into our routine here. I mostly drink wine and D is trying to catch up on some school after the week in France. D's mom, Angela, is also here so we are eating well!

Adios!

Le Corbusier - Firminy, France


Probably the best thing we did in the Lyon area was visit the town of Firminy where there is the highest concentration of Corbusier buildings in the world. We first visited the Unite d'habitation which is an appartment complex. Then we saw the stadium and community centre.

They have only recently finished the church, which was truley incredible. When Corbo died only the foundation of the church had been poured. After much discussion whether or not to finish the church it was restarted and completed only a few days before we got there.



It was a veryinteresting little town where everyone is a huge Corbo fan. We didn't have anything organised when we got there, but people were so excited to talk about it that we even met the currator of the community centre and spoke to him at lenght about the buildings. The architects were in heaven and I thought the buildings were pretty neat too. They look like a bit of a concrete jungle but once I got right up to them I saw how much thought went into the design.

Millau


Here is the bridge that made all the architects really happy en route to Lyon. It's in Millau and it's the highest auto bridge in the world. Looks pretty sexy, eh?

The Pyranees

So, it's been a while since our last entry, but we have been busy travelling throughout France. We rented a car with 10 other students and headed for the Pyranees. Getting out of BCN was something similar to National Lampoon's Eurpean Vacation. After a few minutes trying to get out of the parking lot it was questionable as the whether or not we would even make it to France. The other interesting thing about renting cars in Spain is that you don't have to return it with a full tank, which means that not only were we driving in circles, our E light was on within minutes of getting the car!! We were quite relieved to find a gas station and the autoroute and made it to the Pyranees just south of Andorra in good time once we got out of BCN. Of course in McWicz style, we headed out to bag a peak the next morning. We went to a place up from a village called Lles which I absolutely fell in love with and summitted a near 3000 m peak on the Espana/Andorra boarder. Here's a few pics of the place we went hiking. That pillar in our summit shot is the boarder marker.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Hola, We are both in Barcelona now and I've basically slept the entire time since I arrived 24 hours ago. I guess that's the great thing about staying for a while...you can recover before you have to start sightseeing!

I woke up in the early afternoon and we went to the beach for a cool dip in the sea. It was a chilly day for the locals and the architecture students who've been here for a month now, but for me it was a balmy 25! I've already bought a pair of shoes too. Now, it's off to the market and then out for sangaria. I think I'll like it here!
Adios, Andi