2nd European Exploration

Gerona





Rome

Bilbao
The Frank Gehry Masterpiece
Bilbao Guggenheim Musium

A Well Deserved Spring Break

Yes indeed it is that time again and unlike other spring breakers out in the world flocking to warmer climates like Tijuana, i chose instead to surprise my visiting girlfriend to go to Paris, France. After seeing the sights and smells of Barcelona we hoped a plane to beautiful Paris were we spent 4 days just bumming around the city eating crapes, drinking cafe ole and just emerging ourselves in the French culture. After being there for one day the second part of my surprise to my girlfriend kicked in. After spending most of the morning trying to contact my surprise we finally meet Erin Tumey and her boyfriend Cory at the Louvre were Sara as expected was really shocked and excited to see her best friend from the Rome Architecture people. So we bummed around the four of us around the city seeing everything we could until Friday, when we had to leave. This is when the problems start. so we get lost on the unforgiving metro system to get to the bus depot to the airport too late. A local taxi driver saw that we were in distress and came to the rescue he told us he could get us to the airport in 40 mins 20 quicker than the bus and so we hoped in. thats when the excitement began... after getting on the highway this 55 year old French man who didn't speak English puts on black eyed peas and cranks the music he then tells us (Sara translated) to watch out for the police, and then he steps on it. now usually when you tell a taxi to go fast they might do 10 over the speed limit , well not this guy, in a speed limit of 100 km he decides to do 210 km. To put it in perspective it was like being in a race car game where the cares are almost in standstill and you just whip in and out between them. after getting to the airport in one piece and 130 euro fee we walk up to the counter to have them turn us around because we were too late so needless to say after getting new tickets and a 10 hour wait we finally made it back to good ol Barca.

On Saturday Sara and i went to Casa Batllo and Sagrada Familia and let me say actually touring them and doing the whole touron thing (Tourist + Moron = Touron) taking pictures and listening to explanations on headsets. These buildings are CRAZY and i love how well thought out things are all the way to how a washroom was designed for better ventilation and natural lighting. All and All this vacation was one of a lifetime and i had a great time. But im also glad to be back in Barca you know it has a tendency to grow on you...


Ahh Paris.


Me and the big guy hangin out...
Sara and I

Gaudi of course...
And let us not forget Sagrada Familia.

2nd Project

Finally over and needless to say our first experience at doing group work on urban planning actually went pretty well. But SOOOOO glad its over. So many problems came about ranging from the group work and the communication issues, narrow timing, and when you also throw a Spanish midterm into the equation, you begin to want to wonder if you've died and gone on the expressway to hell.

The Project – so looking at our site begin by starting to fill in the blocks of our proposed section of Plaza Glories. We were split up into four groups of three where we were to use the emotive knowledge learned in the previous project while also applying the raw analysis collected from the site to create proposed footprints for the new blocks surrounding the plaza. The project which has taken the city 10 years to develop we were suppose to do in two week. RIGHT !!! So our approach after digesting the city was to create a desperately needed art center for the city with the introduction of modern museums the introduction of a green space, and even proposed graffiti walls all the while keeping with our original idea of keeping human scale.
In this diagram we divided the district into what was important art style areas of the site. Purple - Eixample (architecture), Pink - theaters (musical arts), Red - industrial (graffiti art), Orange - Poblenou (media/new age arts), Green - green space corridor.

And the final product...

First Project

Object: we were to analyze 3 plazas that we were give and betray the feeling we felt in the space in a more artsy formate. This was a fun project and im glad i was able to express this in less traditional methods.

10 Day Exploration

Ok so after an intense 10 days of discovering southern Spain and some extra days sprinkled in there for recovery time and liver rejuvenation ive finally gotten around to updating this thing that i thought no one read. So this ten day excursion starts in Madrid for 3 days then a day in Toledo one in Cordoba, two days in Granada, and finally three days in Seville.


Oh man im getting too old for this..... ahh ill sleep when im dead

Oh and be sure to check out my pics. There is a link on the right side of this page! Enjoy, ill be posting new pictures and adding to the ones i already have periodically..

Sevilla

The final leg of our trip. Exhausted and really needing sleep by now, we arrive in the train station of Seville. Which apparently we didn't get the memo that the entire city would be under construction at once and with the occasional rains the city was a mess of mud and poop from the horses. But never mind that, this city was amazing. Home of the Alcazar and many Flamenco dancers (which is the traditional dance of Spain) and the style of architecture that i have always envisioned Spain's buildings would look like. The Alcazar could be considered the most beautiful palace ive seen, unlike the Alhambra in Granada, the Alcazar still holds all of its charm and beauty as it did when it was inhabited. (I also addressed it as my palace ) so i hope all of the students on our trip enjoyed my palace!!! anyway besides the Alcazar's endless beautiful gardens, there was so many interesting places in Sevilla another beautiful Cathedral, lots of construction and a really interesting lecture given to us by a professor at the local university, and oh yeah really Bad Ass Clubs.

Granada

This has become my new favorite place on earth. Its soo beautiful here nestled against the mountains this really cool town has everything to do from clubbing (which we do alot) to hiking, and amazing scenery views. After arriving in the city at 5 at night Cristi our crit rushed us to the top of this hill to watch the sun set over the Alhambra. After crashing because of lack of sleep on this trip, the next day we go to explore this palace on top of the world. This ancient palace was nearly lost in the 1800's by looter and disrepair. It was then restored in the 1900's back to its original glory. Every where you look there were beautiful gardens, amazing tile work or views of the city below. After having a packed lunch and a bottle of wine, ( while sitting on the edge of the Alhambra and starring off into the amazing views of the city) we headed back into the town for a bit of exploring and then the fantastic night life with our new favorite bartender Juan the glass juggling master at a local bar/ lounge. Then even later that night like around 4 it was off to the clubs till who knows how late... By now my liver really needs a break.

Cordoba

Yet another beautiful city we explored and with that came amazing architecture and incredible food. So as always a little history about Cordoba and the reason we came to explore this enchanted land. This town is home of the "Great Mosque of Cordoba" which is one of the biggest buildings ive ever seen. spanning some 2 square blocks in size and housing a vast array of columns, this building was converted into a Christan church and in the middle has an interesting contrast in the design with a giant cathedral in
the middle of this building. Odd and im not a big fan of the Christian addition but the building itself is amazing... notice in my first picture the very Christian style construction on the left and the Islamic style on the right. This detail is very impressive that they tried to blend the two architectures together.

Also in this city was the Arabic Baths. Can you say wow, its like stepping back in time to when they would actually use these bath houses. Only being lit by candles this bath house has an array of pools ranging from warm, hot, and cold water. When experiencing this one must go in that order from warm to hot to cold because first it really relaxes you and then the cold water purifies your skin. after this bath was a tantalizing massage, hot tea and of course hookah. then after that was bed. but then the next day we had lunch at this tapas restaurant where once again Felipe the charmer he is got us the most unbelievable food and wine to the point that we had to turn food away (a rarity on this trip because of all the walking were always hungry and when you walk 5 miles at least a day youll eat alot) and then the owner of the restaurant was like well ill stop sending you food and gave us a bottle of wine. What an awesome restaurant! after this we had a few hours of more exploring and then it was on a bus heading towards Granada and the next part of my journey.

Toledo

So Toledo great ol being drunk in Toledo~ well let me give you a little history about this city, it’s a medieval city on a hill that’s home of the fable of Don Quixote, a legend that most of us know as the soldier who fought against some wind mills. Anyway enough history this city was gorgeous with sword shops and armor stores everywhere it was like stepping back in time, minus the fact that when we went, it was like walking around in the North Pole. It was crazy cold but after having about 191 café con leeches’ I felt a little better, still drunk but better! Next we went to the local cathedral which was beautiful minus the fact they had just painted the entire inside of the church white which to me kind of took away from the whole experience but anyway this church was the burial place of all of the arch bishops for Spain. It was cool to see how their uniforms have changed through the years in the local museum about the history of the Spanish Catholic Church. After touring the city we went and saw this really cool escalator system that brought us out of the old town and into the newer part and on our way to the train and our next destination of Cordoba…