The Never Ending Project

So I was cutting it really close! The last morning before we depart from Barcelona was my last hope of seeing the inside of this Gaudi work, the Sagrada Familia.

I went, alone again, early morning attempting to avoid the line up, but when I got there at 9:30am, the line up was around the corner again. I was not to be turned away this time though cause who knows how long until I'm back in Barcelona again! The line up moved quickly and within 15 minutes I was near the entrance gate. I got up near the ticket booth and realized, CASH ONLY. YIKES!

I quickly went through my wallet and saw I had exactly 13,50 Euro left and looked back on the price of the ticket, 13 Euros! Perfect! However, due to the lack of cash on me, I was not able to afford an audio guide, so I was on my own.

Even though I had no audio guide, there were signs in both Spanish and English to explain the different features of the place.

The exterior was impressive. The detailed sculptures are so memorizing with each having a different emotion and facial expression.

Upon entering the church, you see pillars of columns that rises to the ceiling. Apparently, Gaudi wanted to give the impression of being in a forest with trees of different height. The inside was well lit by natural lighting and windows of both clear and colour stained lined the sides. It was really beautiful inside.

The picture I don't think does any justice to what it actually looks like. Definitely not a sight to be missed.

Casa Batllo

Since we did not go into the Casa Mia, I decided that I must go into one of the buildings Gaudi designed when I am here, so I visited Casa Batllo sans Matt.

While in the line up, I started chatting with a Polish woman. She was telling me about all the places I should visit along the coast where her and her partner had just been. It was nice to have her to chat with in the line up, not expecting anything else when we get in, but she insisted on waiting for me and going through it together.

Well it wasn't long till I had to ditch her because the audio guide was lengthy and since they did not have a Polish audio guide, she just wandered.

The inside of this apartment building was pretty spectacular. Without boring you, apparently Gaudi was always inspired by nature. The designs of the roof was his way of expressing waves of the ocean. One very interesting I learned about him and his work is that he used a lot recycled material from torn down buildings to create his work. Sustainability, very impressive, definitely ahead of his time.

I was very impressed also by his attention to detail. The apartment building had a light shaft that run from the top of the roof to the bottom floor allowing nature light into the entire building. Along the walls of this shaft were blue tiles. Gaudi took into consideration the way light reflects and how the light would be obviously brighter the higher you go. So to ensure to the naked eyes that the tiles were all the same colour regardless how close it was to the top (more light) or the bottom (less light) he had tiles line the shaft with darker blue tiles near the top and slowly fading in colour to the bottom. To the eyes, it does look like they are the same blue tiles!

What also was amazing was his ability to manipulate material such as tiles. His work is very flowing, without much rigidity, so you can tell when tiling around rounded corners, he was able to break tiles up into pieces and tile the rounded corners perfectly. Truly a master.

I was definitely glad I went into this building to see his work. Here are some more highlights of the tour.

Football Anyone?

So since Matt is a huge football player/fan, he decided to treat us to watch the Barcelona Football Club (FC Barcelona) game.

I must say, I was not over excited about this having been bored every time it comes on TV at home. I suppose though, when you're in Barcelona, this is one of those things you have to do. Apparently the team is the best team in the world? Anyway, so we bought tickets for the night's game that starts at 10pm! That's usually when the Canucks game ends!

We wanted to get to the stadium earlier, one to account for the possibility that we might get lost, and second, to snap some pictures without the crowd.

When we got to the stadium stop of the metro, there was already a ton of people and this was 2 hours before the game started! We attempted to find some fast food around the area, and trust me, was very tempted by this McDonald's Walk Thru! That's right! WALK THRU! We should totally have this at home. Just imagine a world where McDonald's could be bought while you're drunk out of your mind walking home, and without having to actually enter the restaurant. Ahh I miss that Chinese take out window on Davie.... mmm black bean pepper on rice!

So we eventually found a hotdog stand by the stadium, but only it was much more expensive than the Costco hotdogs that we love so much.

After two hotdogs each, we entered the stadium. It was, I'll admit, quite amazing. The stadium was huge! Our seats were perfect, centre line second level, great view of the entire field!

The atmosphere was buzzing. The stadium was so big I think it would be hard for security to make sure people were all at the right spots, and of course, throughout the first 10 minutes of the game, I saw a few young couples being asked to move as they were not in the right seats. You would think after being asked once they would go to their own actual seats but no, they continued to find seats that I assume were better than what they spent their money on, but only to be asked 10 minutes later again to be moved. How embarrassing.

Oh forgot to mention the hotdog I had inside the stadium with fried onions on top! It was MAGNIFICENT!

The game was surprisingly exciting. It was definitely a passionate crowd. Even though I can't speak Spanish nor understand it, I could tell what the guys were saying! "Just shoot it"!

The game was tied after 80 minutes, and you can really feel the crowd getting frustrated. The visiting team was attempting to waste time the entire game and the crowd was really getting annoyed, and they show it by whistling and jeering! I wondered how it would sound like with 100,000 people booing.. hmmm

If you saw me the last 10 minutes of the game, you'd think I was a big football fan. The game got real exciting with many more shots on goals, spectacular saves by the goalies.

Finally the home team scored, TWICE!

The crowd went crazy!!!

This was definitely a great experience and something different on our trip.

Oh, and yes, the crowd also went crazy on the metro! On the way home, the metro was packed to the point where I had to get off and take a taxi. It was grossly humid, and all the young people were drunk and falling all over the place, spilling the drinks you had in the hands, just not a good place to be if you're sober.

Barcelona Beach

Today was a beach day!

We went exploring around the waterfront of Barcelona! The beach here lasted for miles! People were tanning all over the place!

There were also some volleyball nets set up around the area. Totally missing volleyball at home!

There was also some tournament that was being played at the beach, and it was good beach ball!

We were in search of the gay beach and walked what seemed like forever!

We eventually had to stop for lunch an had some decent Mexican food.

The beaches in Barcelona are really nice. There are some amazing architecture along the waterfront as well.

What stood out was this fish like iron work over what seemed to be a shopping centre.

There were also two tall high rise office towers by the water, well I assumed they were office towers! Must be nice to have that kind of view from your office eh?

After lunch we finally found the beach, and it wasn't just a gay beach, but a nude beach!

Having been to Wreck Beach it did not take me long to get used to the walkers and leg spreaders on the sand.

Today was a total relaxing day at the beach.

Oh and for dinner, paella! It was delicious! Risotto with seafood cocked in some heavy sauce... Who can say no to that?!?!

Busy Barcelona

We arrived in Barcelona after two flights from Mykonos-Milan-Barcelona. The best part of the flight was watching the male flight attendant doing the safety demonstration with eye rolls every other second. He did NOT want to be there. LOL I attempted to capture his enthusiasm, but was sitting too far back.

We landed in Barcelona late at night when the airport was emptied out. We proceeded to catch the train that took us into town. On the Metro map that I had downloaded showed that the train from the airport ended at a metro station in city centre, but boy was I wrong! The train kept going, and since the map did not show me any station names on the train, we stayed on until I got the sense that we were far from city centre as the buildings became more scarce and the lack of city lights also gave me a hint we were no where close!

We finally got off the train at a random stop but luckily, a metro station was nearby and so we were headed to our hotel.

When we got off at the station where the hotel was, we were met with the equivalent of what East Hastings looked like, minus all the people! The place looked sketchy! For the first time on this trip, Maps on my iPhone failed me! We arrived at the red drop pin, but there was definitely no hotel in sight! Grr technology! Oh and I forgot to mention, we were hungry and it was 11:45pm!

Finally after asking around a bit, our hotel was a block away from where the red pin dropped on my map (remind me to take this up with the Genius Bar when I get back!).

What a difference a block makes! Our hotel was nicely finished, and was huge in size!

Even though we were hungry we decided perhaps just staying in would be best and wait for the morning before venturing out.

The next morning, I dragged Matt a few stations away to see the famous La Sagrada Familia. Exiting the metro station, the church immediately towers over you! It was quite the amazing sight! What was even more amazing though was the amount of people in the line up to get in! We did not want to wait, so decided to come back later as a lady informed us that later in the afternoon the crowd dies down.

So instead, we decided to walk around and look for one of Gaudi's masterpieces, the Casa Mia.

Before getting there, we came across the FC Barcelona Shop and went in for a look. At the back of the shop, Matt spotted the ticket sales booth. He decided he was going to treat us to watch the best team in the world play. Now I am in no way a fan of watching football, have actually always founded it to be boring, but went with it anyway. I guess the saying goes "when in Rome (Barcelona)".

The Casa Mia, one of Gaudi's masterpiece, which supposedly has an amazing rooftop, but at a price of 18 Euros? Forget it! We took a few pictures outside of it and visited the gift shop. We were once again on our way.

We then took a trip out further north of the city to visit Park Guell. Gaudi took over the unsuccessful commercial residential sight and designed it into a park. The park stood out for its unique design. I have to say, context is everything. Being in Barcelona makes this park unique and special. If you relocate this park to say, Las Vegas, I'd probably think of it as cheesy and lame.

Oh and did I forget the mention, there were a lot of people? At the entrance of this park was the famous lizard statue that everyone takes a picture with. There was no sense of order, just seemed like you get by the lizard, you get the picture. So I went for it. I got through the crowd and Matt had the camera ready, but before he could snap a shot, some lady shoved me aside, and said something in Spanish. Not knowing what was going on, I tried again to pose for a picture. This time, a harder push came with her hand.

I have always thought of what I would do in certain situations such as this, probably not appropriate to post here, but when it actually happened to me, I was in shock. I thought "Is this really happening?!". Looking back I probably would have told her "Touch me again and DIE!"

The rest of the park was truly worth exploring. You walk through some spectacular designs.

At the top of the hill, there is also a great view of the city all the way to the beach.

I have been warned how late dinner started in Spain, but even after adjusting and getting to a restaurant at 8:30pm, the place was still empty. Since it was empty, Matt and I sat down at a table. Before we could get comfortable a woman asked us in Spanish and signing "two?". We replied "Yes" and then were abruptly commanded to move to a table for two as we were sitting at a table for four on an empty patio. I thought, "sweetie how about you fill this place up first before being rude to your only customers!" 30 minutes later, the place was packed. LOL.

Mmmm spicy tripe!

Oh and be careful when ordering sangria here, a pitcher is huge! When there is only two of you, LOOK OUT!

Stay in Paradise

I don't think I have ever seen a picture of Mykonos before coming on this trip, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by the town.

We arrived at out hotel, which was a last minute booking as we canceled out Airbnb place because we all wanted a pool, and was met with a very friendly staff and a welcoming pool. The place was nice and quiet, away from downtown Mykonos. We sat on a hilltop and with a great view of the water from the balcony of our room.

The stay in Mykonos was definitely memorable.

Every morning we had a great breakfast buffet, free of charge, at the hotel where the nice Greek lady would make me my three fried eggs hard over. The pool never had more than 6 people laying around it, and even less people swimming in it! This was perfect for Margaret and I are we both enjoy a cool down from the tanning that we did.

Every night we had amazing food.

Jim was a bit disappointed, as was I, that in Athens we did not have any lamb. So we both took advantage of the lamb dishes over the five days in Mykonos. Every night the dinners were delicious. There is this Greek shot they make you take at the end of your meal, pretty sweet, transparent in colour, anyone know what the name is? Or what it is made of?

Mmmm huge piece of lamb in the middle with pasta

Speaking of deliciousness, WATERMELON JUICE!

Mykonos town was beautiful! Having no idea what to expect, I was impressed with how clean and orderly everything was in the heart of the town. It was quite different to see all houses and building painted white, even the narrow lanes that run everywhere in town were painted white around the stones. Of course I took a lot of pictures! Random walls, random staircases. I think I was just taking pictures of anything that was white, didn't matter if it was an entrance to a public washroom!

There were also these funky looking windmills that sits on a hill overlooking the town and the harbour. These mills are no longer in use, but they do make a great background for photos! Along the base of the hill by the windmill is where "Little Venice" is. Walking along the restaurant lined lane, the waves from the ocean crashes onto the first row of tables! Does this mean I don't have to go to Venice? I hear it really isn't all that nice.

I think the best part of the five days spent in Mykonos was having Jim and Margaret with us. I introduced to them how to play Big 2 (which I won, by a landslide two nights in a row!). I think I had a score less than 20 two nights in a row, and won numerous hands. On the last day, everyone was getting the hang of the game and I was gracious enough to let them have a taste of winning a hand. :)

Another great memory was me and Jim's triumph over Matt and Margaret in an intense best of 5 sets match of ping pong. Having won two in a row, we thought we were going to take this in straight sets, but Margaret surprised us all with some crazy acrobatic moves which evened out the match at two sets all. I think the pressure did get to them at the end, as Jim and I finished them off!

A couple of honourable mentions during this leg of the trip. I saw pelicans! They were just sitting around at the waterfront. I was on my way to the washroom when I spotted all the tourists gathered around this one corner, when I approached I was in awe! They were HUGE! One Chinese lady attempted to get real close for a picture! I couldn't do it, just did not know what these birds can do with those crazy red/pink eyes and the large beak!

Honourable mention number 2, I wonder what these shots taste like!

We spent the last day thinking a day trip out to the Island of Delos would be a great idea, having been told it was a short 15 minute ferry ride away. What the guy actually meant was that its about 45 minutes through some rough water in a small ferry that probably fits around 50 people! Secret to you all, as strong as I might seem, I hate, absolutely hate the feeling of a rocking boat. I was pretty sure my three fried eggs were going to be dripping off the side of the boat during the ride over to the island!

The Island of Delos, also the place where Apollo was supposedly born, is quite spectacular.

Basically the island used to be inhabited by about 30,000 citizens but today, it is a museum, an archeological sight. Even when we were there, workers were busy uncovering more of this old town. This place is definitely worth a visit, some beautifully preserved mosaic art on temple floors, and you can go into most of the old homes/chambers and explore on your own! Another neat place to visit while on Delos is the theatre that sits on top of the hill.

I have to say that when Jim and Margaret left, it felt really weird! A part of me wanted to head back to BC with them! Thanks to the two of you for making your way out to Greece!

This is definitely a place I'd come back to, minus the ferry over from Athens!

Get ready for me Barcelona!

The Ferry to Mykonos

Our trip to Mykonos started on a ferry ride that we all thought might be somewhat familiar to the ride between Vancouver to Vancouver Island, but boy were we in for a surprise.

After waking up in the dark (first time on this trip), the four of us walked from the hotel to the ferry terminal. The terminal was buzzing with other travelers as we lined up to get onboard. I suppose the first difference I noticed was that there was a lack of vehicles going on, if any at all, to this ferry unlike at home.

We presented our tickets onboard and were in queue to go up a couple of floors. Everyone was on the escalator and as I followed Margaret, Matt and Jim up the escalator, I was redirected to use the stairs running parallel to it! What was that all about?! Margaret thinks it is because I look more fit so could handle the stairs. hmmm I have my own theory. Can’t give the guy a break?! I had an enormous bag on my back!

Second surprise of the ferry ride is the difference in the quality of comfort for all different classes of ticket holders! At home, we all get seats and some personal space with both indoor and outdoor options. On this ferry, we sat outside on deck, with a dirty table and some roughed up hard chairs!

Oh and I forgot to mention we had to endure five hours of second hand smoking! This by far was probably the worst! This would not happen at home! GRRR to all you smokers out there!

Five hours later, we arrived in the Mykonos port. Now I recall Mr Neumann in grade 9 math class saying to everyone “When you assume, you make an ASS out of U and ME”. Boy did we ever! We assumed that there would be an abundance of cab to take us from the port to the hotel! Wait, rewind, we assumed that we had to take a cab from the port to the hotel. So there were the four of us, with our luggage, and our smoke soaked clothes waiting for a cab in a line of maybe 20 others.

Thanks for Margaret’s sharp eyes, she spotted our hotel’s shuttle car, and we jumped on. We were under the blazing sun for a good 10-15 minutes!

Ok the complaining is over. Who can complain while on the island of Mykonos?!

The hotel we got was quiet, had an amazing pool, friendly staff, some other homos, and great wireless!

We all got settled in, and headed into town.

And so our five days in paradise begins

Stepping Back in Time in Athens

Our trip to Athens was by plane which was a relieve as by train from Vienna to Athens would have been about a journey of 16 hours. However, the negative of airplane travel is having to be at the airport, the security, the expensive food, and in our case, the expensive croissants.

We arrived at the airport early and since our flight was going to be only for 3 hours, we figured we should probably have some food. We went to a cafe like restaurant in the terminal and sat down. Within minutes, the lady dropped off a basket of croissants. Thinking like North Americans, we thought the bread comes with the meal. 

We then went ahead and ordered a soup and sparkling water for me, and Matt had a yogurt and an apple juice. Guess how much the bill was..... 30 Euros!! We were so confused! As it turns out, the croissants were NOT free, and they were a ridiculous 2,50 Euro EACH! Lesson learned, when in Europe, be careful about eating the bread that comes before the meal!

Anyway, we should not have even eaten anything! As it turns out, a lunch was included on the short flight! Sausages, beans, and mashed potatoes with a bun and drink. How come this still exist in Europe and how are the airlines here making this work?! Whatever it is, we gotta bring this back in North America! The service on the Aegean Flight was perfection. 

We arrived in Athens, and as we were picking up our luggage (another downside to flying), a guy from Edmonton caught sight of the Canadian flag sticker on my bag. He came over and started chatting. Ever chatted with one of those people who are either nervous or just very strange where their mouth just runs and never stops even though you don't know them? Yah, well he was one of them. He went on and on about how he's Greek and here for indefinite amount of time. He asked where we were staying in Athens and we informed him that we were only in town for a couple days before heading out to Mykonos. This is where he said to me "Mykonos is the gay capital of Greece". I was surprised by this and didn't know what to say but he then quickly changed subject and asked where we had been. When we mentioned St. Petersburg, he asked me "oo how were the women there?" I was seriously confused by this! 

Anyway, this leg of our trip was something we were looking forward to. We have a couple of special guests making an appearance here, and to them we thank for making the trip half way around the world to join us! Jim and Margaret Carruthers, Matt's parents have joined us here. They got in the night before from a few days stay in Rome. When we got to the street where we rented an apartment near the Acropolis, we made the mistake of taking down the postal code as a house address. This led to me yelling "JIm! Margaret" down the narrow lane for about three blocks. 

Matt was not a fan of me yelling, but hey, we were desperate. I just thought if Jim and Margaret were here, they'd hear me. As I was feeling silly for thinking this would work, Jim steps out of the apartment and stood on the steps. I think I might have embarrassed him. 

I quickly turned towards Matt who was three blocks away with our bags, and yelled "They're here!!!"

After getting settled in and getting caught up for a bit, we all went out for a Greek dinner. The food was great but Margaret left her camera there, the next day when we went back, we could not find it! 

The next morning, we all got up and started a day of sightseeing in Athens. 

The one good thing about the place we booked was the proximity to the Acropolis. 

The four of us hiked up to the top and the view was amazing. The Parthenon lived up to my expectations. It was quite impressive. Just to be standing there starring at this temple that was built thousands of years ago, the feeling was strange. Never thought I would ever be standing in front of this temple my whole life and there it was. From the top of the Acropolis, the city looked amazing. The densely built city stretched for miles and miles. What I did find interesting were the random hills that rises in the city.

We timed the visit quite nicely, as by noon hour, the hottest time, we were in the Acropolis Museum which was at the base of the Acropolis. 

The museum was great as on the top floor there was a video to explain the history of the Acropolis, the start, through its many changes, to today. What they also did was explain and displayed the statues that once was a part of the Panthenon. The birth of Athena and the fight between Poseidon and Athena over the city of Athens. I have always found Greek Mythology interesting, where the gods and goddess of the Greeks are like their monarchs. The infighting, the history was all very fascinating.

After the visit to the museum, we stepped back out into the hot afternoon sun and wandered through an ancient theatre.

Then Margaret and I wandered off shopping down a tourist lane while Matt and Jim sat back and waited. We thought it would be funny for us to buy a couple of ice cream cones and went back to rub it in their faces, but somehow, they knew. Just when Margaret and I were giggling away, picking out the flavour we wanted, along came Matt and Jim, catching us red handed! So much for our plan!

Our next stop brought us to the Olympic Stadium in Athens where the 1896 Games were held. The stadium was quite incredible! This was the place of the first modern day Olympic Games, and this was the place where I beat Matt in a race, witnessed by Jim and Margaret! Very satisfying I must say.

Not sure why Margaret is on the podium claiming her 5th place finish... :)

Athens, as we quickly learned could have been a one day stop. Not only was it hot, it was a bit of a mess! Also, it didn't help that I was re-aquainted with my childhood friends, cockroaches, at the apartment we rented. Matt does not know this, yet, but I saw the cockroach in our washroom, but I was so scared I dropped a hand towel over it. He then went into the washroom later and picked up the towel to find the cockroach in there.. oops! LOL! This will also help me see if he is reading my blog.

Our night ended with a friendly game of Polish Poker. Before my head hit the pillow, I was out 2 Euros.

The next day we decided to all relocate ourselves to the city Pireaus so the following morning's 7:30am ferry to Mykonos would be easier for us to catch. Some time during the day, Margaret reminded us all that she for some reason had an additional 6 Euros in her pocket......

Our next stop, the Greek Island of Mykonos where I intend on winning back my money!