Charlotte Nights and Italian Lights

On Wednesday our group went to the Italian Opera. It was so incredible I don’t even know where to begin! The entire performance was in Italian, and while the lyrics were shown on a screen above the stage, they were all in Italian, so that didn’t help very much. However, we had been given a plot synopsis by our program before the show, so that helped. Also, we went to the opera La Boheme, which inspired the Broadway musical Rent. I’ve seen the movie of Rent and love the soundtrack, so that also made the plot easier to follow, as it was basically the exact same story (just substitute Tuberculosis for AIDS and take out all the drag queen references). 

I think not being able to understand the lyrics helped me to appreciate other aspects of the performance more. The orchestra was phenomenal, and the actors and actresses expressed so much emotion through their facial expressions and body movements. Of course, their voices were fantastic, particularly the woman who played the character Maureen (at least, that’s her name in Rent). 

The music was enchanting, the story gripping, and overall a wonderful experience! We’ve been having Rent songs stuck in our head ever since.

diaryofanunknownprincess:

LOLOLOLOLOL U MAD, TENNESSEE?

(via keepersandcleats)

This morning when Robert, Katherine, and I woke in the hostel, Allison and DeDe had already left for their morning flight. They were planning to get back to the Villa around midday Sunday, whereas Robert and I, having found a 6:00 am flight for 7 euro, had made the somewhat ridiculous decision of staying an extra day and just not sleeping to catch the early flight. 

We began with a trip to the Barcelona Chocolate Museum. Did you know that Barcelona was the first European port to receive the cocoa bean? Our ticket for the museum was a chocolate bar! We saw several chocolate sculptures and saw how the chocolate was made. (minnie mouse made of chocolate, below)

We had made plans with Karen to meet up for lunch, so after seeing the museum we headed to find the restaurant “4 Gatos” which is where Picasso and his contemporaries used to sit and discuss art during his lifetime. It was a cool restaurant, and we had a lovely meal. 

We then headed to the Parc del Citudella, with, of course, some works by Gaudi, but also made famous thanks to recent filming of an episode of America’s Next Top Model there. It thankfully stopped raining for awhile, and we got to see a beautiful rainbow!

We then headed for a walk along the beach. It was so different in the sun! The rain only held off for long enough to snap a few pictures, but while it was sunny we got an idea of what Barcelona must look like the other 340 days of the year (which is apparently the number of non-rainy days they usually have…we had some tough luck)

Sadly Robert and I then had to say goodbye (until January!) to Katherine and Karen, who had to catch a train back their semester-home, Madrid. We tried going to the Picasso museum, but the line was outrageous and we decided to try again later. Instead, we saw a little more of the Barcelona Cathedral and the Sainta Maria Del Mare Cathedral. The second one had a service going on, and we dipped our heads in for a bit to hear it and see the beautiful interior.

After that we went back to the Picasso Museum, the line of which was much shorter by now. We didn’t have long before closing time, so we went through pretty quickly. Although I really only knew Picasso from those weird face pictures, we saw several of his earlier works that were more conventional, as well as seeing how the messed-up face pictures (I can’t remember the precise term) had their origins. 

Next we meandered awhile trying to find a place for dinner, and stumbled upon a local restuarant called Casa Delfin—which turned out to be both of our favorite meal in Spain. We split fried artichokes (which I’d never had before—so good!), an omelet-thing, and some kind of sausage, and each part tasted better than the one before! Since we knew we had a 6 am flight, meaning get to the airport at 4 am, meaning leave Barcelona at 3 am, it just seemed silly to pay for a hostel for a few hours. We had planned to just stay awake until then (Robert decided to inform me he usually goes to bed at like 10:00 pm after we bought the flight) and so we had to do something to keep us awake late. We found a theater that had movies in English with subtitles, so we decided to go see Tree of Life. It was interesting. It was kind of like discovery channel meets “Leave it to Beaver” meets what-the-heck-is-going-on-in-this-movie?? But it was good, I think. 

By then it was about midnight, and although we had heard so much about how the Spanish stay up until all hours of the night, apparently that doesn’t apply for Sunday nights. We went back to hang out in the hostel for a few hours before leaving for the bus stop. The journey back went smoothly, and I slept on the plane and train from Pisa to Florence, so we returned to the Villa in time for class on Monday. A little tired, but it was worth it to have a whole extra day in Barcelona!

Today we woke up to go on the free Barcelona Gaudi tour offered by our hostel. We, in theory, had free breakfast from the hostel, but it was inedible. Seriously-I tasted the milk on my cereal and I’m pretty sure I’ve never tasted milk that foul in my life. The breakfast failure was remedied by the fact that Barcelona had muffins! (A wonderful breakfast food that does not exist in Italy, the world of croissants and more croissants) 

The Gaudi tour was great, and I learned much more about the architect’s life and the buildings we saw that I would ever had on my own. The tour guide said that it is often debated whether Gaudi was a genius or a madman—probably a little of both. I could appreciate the interesting colors and forms much more after seeing so much classic architecture, and although I haven’t decided genius or madman, I can say that I like it! We saw 4 of the Gaudi buildings, and my favorite house was covered in multi-colored mosaics with a roof that was supposed to resemble the back of a dragon.

We also saw the home that inspired George Lucas’s Darth Vadar. See the chimney towards the right?

The best of the designs was the last, by far. Gaudi designed La Sagrada Familia during his lifetime, but the design has still not been fully realized—it holds the record for the longest in-construction unfinished building in Europe. Each side has a different Biblical depiction, with the front being the Nativity Scene, the back is the Crucifixion, and the side being the Glory facade (the most unfinished of the scenes.) We decided the front kind of looks like a drip-castle, as though the entire scene was melting before our eyes. 

I think the back was my favorite—I love how it seems so modern and linear, but still conveys strong emotion and depicts the narrative.

After the tour had finished, we set off for a quick bite and found a place with tapas that we could share. They had FRIED GREEN TOMATOES!!! It was awesome. Post a delicious lunch (I’m getting a little tired of Italian food, can you tell?) we set off for Parc Guell, a park that was designed by—you guessed it—Gaudi! The park had tons of mosaic creations as well as a beautiful outlook over the city of Barcelona. We took some time to take pictures, and then headed back to the hostel.

At the hostel, we met up with Katherine, whose program in Madrid was having a weekend trip to Barcelona! Pretty convenient :) We set off to meet Karen (in Barcelona as well) and to grab dinner together. We also stopped into a bookstore on Las Ramblas and I bought my first-ever novel in foreign language! I copied Robert and bought the first Harry Potter book, hoping that since I already know the storyline I can work on my Spanish skills that have gotten a little rusty with all the Italian language I’m immersed in. I think I’ll start trying to read it once I’m back in the US, so that I don’t get confused between the two languages, though. Even though I had gotten to see both these Duke friends in London on fall break, it was so nice to be able to catch up with them again!

We were planning to get a quick nap in the hostel before again attempting to stay out like the Spaniards do, but “nap” turned into “5 more minutes” turned into “Is it going to rain?” turned into “Yeah, no, we’re going to sleep.”

Dede, Allison, Robert, and I had found a great price on flights to and from Barcelona, so we thought, why not? We had an early flight out of Pisa and arrived in Barcelona around midday. I think I was able to appreciate much of the art and architecture of the beautiful city more after my time in Italy seeing so much classical and Renaissance art. Seeing statues like the one below, for example, seemed to me intriguing due to the way the artist broke traditional conventions, rather than just odd (which I would have called it in August)

We found our hostel and dropped our stuff, then decided to explore the neighborhood a bit. We ate paella and tapas at a restaurant called Princess 23 (which was to become our favorite—we went back later in the weekend) for our first Spanish food experience—delicious! We passed the Barcelona Cathedral and walked along Las Ramblas—one of the main streets of the city. It rained quite a bit, which was a bummer, but we still got to see a lot! There was a local market that had everything from chocolate to fish to dried fruit to baked goods—it was packed. We walked along the beach, which was empty in the cold, but enjoyed getting to see the area.

That night, our hostel had offered a dinner+Flamenco show, and we decided to check it out. Oops, tourist trap. The food was, well, we’d had better, and the dancer, don’t even get me started. She was a very pretty girl, but something about the constantly pained expression on her face or the inability to complete a turn without falling out of it left me quite unimpressed. Oh well! It was still a fun night and something to laugh about later.

We had heard that the Spanish stay out until 6 am or later, and we decided to give it a try. (And by “give it a try” I mean we stayed up until like 2:30—past all of our regular bedtimes at least!) All along Las Ramblas, there are people encouraging you to try their bar/club, and they are very obnoxious, but we listened to one woman who wasn’t too pushy and found a chill bar to hang out in and club with dancing. 

This morning our first stop was at London’s Portobello Road. The street was crowded with people seeking the best antique, unique deals. We saw teapots, silver, art, scarfs, old sporting goods, etc. The street just wound on and on, and everything was so old and interesting! We spent maybe 2 hours here, but I think we could have just kept wandering for the whole day. We bought lunch from a street vendor, and presently left for Baker Street—the home of Sherlock Holmes. The Museum was kind of expensive, but we looked around the gift shop and got the feel of the place. 

Then we set off for London’s Tower Bridge (cooler looking than the London bridge). We also saw Shakespeare’s Globe Theater and the bridge that was in one of the Harry Potter movies.

For dinner we searched for an authentic British pub to get fish & chips. Delicious!

On our way back to the hostel we always had to pass the Occupy tenters, and this time they were having a real protest. Speakers, songs, chants, banners—you name it. It was pretty interesting at first, but once some people started a chant along the lines of “Students Unite to Fight” we had had enough.

Daylights Savings was happening that night, and I already had to get up at 3:30 am to catch a bus and a train to a very early flight, so figuring what time to actually set the alarm was a little harder than usual. I woke up on time however, and at the bus stop met the first person who had actually heard of Alabama for a good thing—To Kill a Mockingbird! Apparently all British schoolkids read it just like in America.

It being Halloween weekend, the bus was still crowded with costumed folks coming back from late-night parties, and I got off the bus at the right stop, but I went to the bus station (which goes to the airport) instead of finding the train station that goes to the airport (the one I needed)! I was hopelessly lost, meandering the streets of London super late at night (at least I spoke the language!) but luckily Robert’s aunt lives in London, and I was able to talk on the phone to her and she helped guide me to where I needed to be. Phew…it was stressful, but at least I got on my flight ok! With such an early flight, we were back to the Villa by 1 or 2 in the afternoon, and I was glad to have a little time to unpack and chill before classes started back Monday!

After our Starbucks/PB&J time, we headed off to Buckingham Palace to watch the morning changing of the guards! I would hate to see the place during tourist season, because it was certainly crowded when we went. Unlike the Mary Kate and Ashley movie, we were not able to actually approach the guards and tell them funny jokes; instead, we stood behind a large gate, crowded with all the others to see this famed moment. The Changing occurs once a day, and there is a band that plays during it. In fact, it was more of a band face-off, as there were 2 groups that each played as we watched. Instead of merely old songs, they played several tunes from the Top 20, along the The Beatles and Hairspray thrown in!

Buckingham Palace is fairly close to some shopping areas, so next on our list was Harrod’s Department Store. It was massive, and they already had an entire area decorated for Christmas, with large stuffed animals, ornaments, and everything red, green, and glittery.

We grabbed lunch to go and went for a picnic in Hyde Park, walking around and seeing the Peter Pan statue. 

Next we went to the National Gallery and saw several impressive works of art. I realized that I like Impressionist painters, as my favorites among those we saw were Monet and Van Gogh. The Monet painting of a bridge was my favorite.

After the museum, Karen, Emily, Katie, and I had bought tickets to a Broadway show, so we went to go find the theater so we would be there on time. The show was called Blood Brothers, and although it has never come to the US, it has been running in London for 25 years. The storyline is sort of Shakespeare-does-Parent-Trap: think twins separated at birth who don’t know the other one exists, but with a tragic twist, dramatic romance, and the main characters die in the end. The music was phenomenal, and we were in a fairly small theater so our seats were great! The play got out late, and we went back to the hostel to crash.

For our first whole day in London, we began by waking early, eating our homemade PB&J, and heading over to the local Starbucks for coffee and wifi, a routine which became our morning ritual in London. Our first stop of the day was at the Victoria and Albert Museum, or the V&A. While London is famous for many museums, this is the one that most of the local English praise as their favorite. I particularly appreciated it after trips to the Uffizi or ancient basilicas because it is a museum of “stuff” rather than art. Old bowls, Lion King costumes, tapestries, swords, replicas of statues—all in the the V&A. My favorite collections were the jewels, which contained the jewels from the Hope Collection (minus the Hope Diamond in the US) and several copies of Renaissance statues. England went through a period in history where it wanted to have at least a replica of all the work of great artists throughout Europe, so I was excited when I saw plaster replicas of works that I have studied in Italy and could recall the artist and story behind them (something I couldn’t have begun to do 3 months ago!)

After the V&A, we had plans to meet Claire’s parents for high tea. When I first met Claire during freshman year at Duke, I was so excited to know someone with a real-live British accent (she’s from Buckinghamshire), and since we have become good friends. Although she couldn’t come to Europe for the weekend (she’s at Duke this semester), we still had plans to get together with her parents and do tea the real British way. The McIlvenney’s had selected the place: The Orangery at Kensington Palace. This is where William and Kate live when they are in London, which, unfortunately, they were not this week. It was still a large, beautiful room, and tea was fantastic! I think the cucumber sandwiches were my favorite. We all left with a resolution to do tea at the WaDuke more often.

Next stop was Westminster Abbey. Although the price to get in was 16 pounds (pretty step for us college folks), going for any sort of service is free! We went to Evensong, so we got to hear the boys/mens choir perform. The music was beautiful, much added to by the simple fact that we were IN Westminster Abbey! 

We had nothing on our itinerary for the night, so we mostly just wandered around London, taking in the sights, sounds, smells (people roasting peanuts on the side of the road), and enjoying one another’s company.