Europe 2022

MADE IT TO BARCELONA AND FOUND BEN!!! WHOOHOO!!!! So this a good friend of mine from Dal Varsity, Ben! He's awesome and his family is from Spain and they have welcomed me to stay with them. So Ben has been my personal tour guide and we hit the ground running (day one we hit the ground running. Arrived at 11:30 and by the end of the day we walked 26km!) Wow. Barcelona has so much to see. We started with some classic Spanish food that Ben ordered - I will add the names of these later. Absolutely DELISH. Yum. My favourites were the octopus deep fried something and the chicken "balls" - honestly offensive to them to call them that but for now it will have to do. We went into the Picasso museum which I learned quite a bit from! He had very diverse art skills. We then walked all around the city, under the arch, through the park, along the water front. Then we went into a market area that was probably 1km long! So packed with people selling goods at stands and traditional treats and so on. We also pulled off into these squares which had additional stands and people dancing with music. We also walked through the gothic quadrants which was one of my favourite parts of the walk. This is the oldest area of Barcelona with streets 6ft wide and TALL buildings. Some may find this quite claustrophobic! Amazing to see the only wall that has remained over many many years. Finally, we went into a Barcelona market where everything is fresh. Fruit, fish, meat, everything! What a great day :) to cap it off we chilled out and played a game of chess. I lost not surprisingly. So great to see Ben and catch up after a long summer!Read more

Okay, if there's one thing I would tell you to google, it's this one! I think I was dragging my jaw on the ground walking through this mass because of how fascinating, beautiful, and technical the design of this structure is. Pictures do not do justice! So this is Goudi's main piece that he started in 1873 but never finished because he was struck by a tram in 1923 🙄 good thing he left behind many designs and models so as of today, the building is still in construction. Once the building is done, the tallest tower will be 1 meter shorter than the tallest mountain in Barcelona because Goudi believed that a man's creation could never be greater than God. The inside of this building was fascinating. Again, his work revolved around nature so the pillars were all like trees branching out. The stained glass was also truly amazing in the colours used and just beautiful. Also, all the pillars revolve around a factor of 7.5 meters. Whether that is they are each 7.5m away from each other, height, etc. Cool!!!! Finally, when Goudi was planning how to build these structures, he would build them upside down with setting and sandbags to determine areas of greater forces requiring more support.

Alrighty!! Thank you Barcelona :)) now off the Callela which is a hour and a half drive to Ben's aunt and uncle's BEACH HOUSE WOOHOO!!Read more