anna

Sorry I haven’t kept this up to date with our travels, it has been hard to get a stable internet connection for some time. However, now I’m living in France, I can upload all the photos from the past few weeks…

On the 13th of December we left Barcelona for Madrid. We didn’t really know what to expect of Spain’s largest city, but were pleasantly surprised by how beautiful it was.

We stayed quite close to Puerta Del Sol. Also relatively close to Atocha Station.. (we fell in love with the turtles who live in the sanctuary there!!)

On our first day we walked around town and through the Parque Del Retiro, where we hired row boats on the lake and spent at least half an hour breaking the ice on the surface of ponds. Being Australian, the idea of a pond freezing over is rather novel to us, you see?

One night we went to a quaint little cinema to see a couple of Buster Keaton films. This cinema plays films in their original language, (often films are dubbed over here)… One was in English, the other in French, but Keaton’s talent for physical comedy is universally recognisable, so it really didn’t matter what language they were in.

We visited quite a few galleries while we were in Madrid, namely the Thyssen-Bornemiszma Museum, Museo Nacional Cenrto de Arte Reina Sofia and the Museo del Prado. All of which had some brilliant works of art.

Though what really took our breath away was the collection of Picasso’s work at the Reina Sofia. Not only did they have the mind blowing ‘Geurnica’, but also a wide array of developmental sketches and paintings which demonstrated Picasso’s technical skills as well as his creative genius.

Also on display were a few of Salvador Dali’s paintings. I think his work is beautiful. Every time I stepped in front of a painting of his I found myself completely captivated by both composition and subject matter. I’m taking a Surrealism Art Theory class in France this semester, so hopefully I’ll have the chance to analyse Dali a little closer.

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Travel Madrid, Spain, Travel

Towards the end of our stay in Barcelona, we visited Gaudi’s Park Güell, which is a fair hike from the city center. It was originally designed by Gaudi to be a private residential park in which people could buy blocks of land. The project fell through, and only 2 houses were bought - one by Gaudi himself. Nowadays the park is a public area which attracts large numbers of tourists. The layout and architecture are undeniably beautiful, however we couldn’t help being slightly dissapointed by it. Maybe it was the amount of people there, or maybe it was because we had such high expectations, but both Pia and I prefered the inner city buildings Gaudi designed.

The park was definitely interesting to go see though; the two houses, situated at the gate of the park, were almost fantastical in appearance, strongly resembling oversized gingerbread houses. Also, the countless winding paths through dense pockets of forest were quiet and serene, and provided a refreshing contrast of calm compared to the hustle and bustle of La Rambla.

That night, we went out clubbing for the first time in Barcelona, to some cheesy European techno club off Catalunya Place; it was an interesting experience to say the least. One good thing about Europe is the ratio of alcohol to mixer they serve you at the bar (50:50 at this place). Needless to say getting up for the train to Madrid the next morning wasn’t exactly easy. To our credit we did make it, even if the train started moving as we pulled our bags into the coach.

Bye bye Barcelona - I definitely want to visit again in summer!

While going through the Spanish countryside on the way to Madrid we saw snow for the first time in Europe, now that we’ve had a taste we’re crossing our fingers for a white Christmas!

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Sightseeing, Travel Spain, Travel