Barcelona -- Catalunya & Cool Buildings

Look, a map of Spain! This should put things in perspective.

Rose and I went into the city this day, Friday April 6, and had plans to walk north up Passeig de Gracia (which in English means Gracia Avenue). It's one of the vertical streets right in the  middle of this map.
There is also a street, Avinguda Diagonal, the long street that cuts Barcelona in half, and it messed me up when we were walking around trying to find La Sagrada Familia.

We started out at Placa de Catalunya, which is a large, square, central station where many buses, trains and subways stop.

It started raining a little bit while we were there, and I thought I was in Ireland for a minute!

Then we made our way a few blocks up to Casa Batllo.

It was built by Antoni Gaudi between 1904 and 1906 and once housed the Batllo family. The walls were all very smooth and curvy, and many of the walls had beautifully colored mosaic patterns on them.

Casa Batllo consists of a ground floor, a main floor, a courtyard, four more floors, a loft and a roof terrace. It was absolutely beautiful!

This is the flat roof, which Rose and I thought would be a great place to have roof parties. It had a great view of the city.

The wavy roof barrier that is behind me is said to be the backside of a dragon. The mosaic tiles are the dragon's scales.

Blue was definitely the color of the house. It reminded me of the tiles in my bathroom, even though Gaudi was going for a sea themed house.

We then passed Casa Mila, which was also built by Antoni Gaudi. We didn't go inside because the line snaked around for two blocks!

We then found La Sagrada Familia, which is where I will start my next post!

Barcelona -- Cerdanyola & CosmoCaixa

Rose and I went to Barcelona this weekend! We stayed at Eurostars Hotel Parc del Valles, which was a great change from staying in a hostel. We got our own big beds, our own bathroom, and a television! We don't have a television in Shanowen Hall, so it was nice to have this small luxury. Unfortunately, the only English speaking channel was the music video channel, so whenever we were in the room we got to listen to music and watch strange music videos! 

I recently discovered Lana Del Rey, and her music video played one morning. She's not Irish, or even Spanish, but she is beautiful and her music is great. Have a listen!

Our hotel wasn't even in Barcelona. It was in a suburb, Cerdanyola del Valles, which was about a half hour train ride into the city center. You can see it on a map here:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=eurostars+parc+valles,+barcelona,+spain&hl=en&ll=41.435777,2.171516&spn=0.148513,0.338173&fb=1&hq=eurostars+parc+valles,+barcelona,+spain&hnear=eurostars+parc+valles,+barcelona,+spain&cid=0,0,14990382223876408158&t=h&z=12

Our flight was another early one. We had a cab pick us up at 5 so we could make our 6:40am plane. It took two hours to fly to Barcelona, and then we took a bus to Placa de Catalunya. We then took a train to Cerdanyola del Valles, and then another bus to our hotel! Public transportation was the death of us that day.

We had all day to do whatever we wanted, so I flipped through our handy guide book and led us here!

I'm not really sure what that translates to, but it was an interactive museum!

There were neat things like pendulums...

I haven't seen a pendulum in so long, and it reminded me of Edgar Allen Poe's short story The Pit and the Pendulum. We read it in middle school, and all I remember from it is that there is a man strapped with ropes to a table in this deserted pit. He wakes up and finds a pendulum with a sharp scythe-like blade swinging back and forth above him. It gradually gets lower and lower, closer to his chest, and it will eventually kill him, if it were not for the rats he befriends, that chew the ropes and set him free.

It was a pretty graphic story, and a lot like the Saw movies. Needless to say, it scarred my middle school years, as well as those few minutes we were watching the pendulum in the museum.

We also saw a huge Newton's Cradle toy.

And a neat picture of Salvador Dali...

that was made up of houseflies!

There was also an enclosed rainforest in the museum, complete with huge fish, tall trees and exotic birds.

There were some huge skeletons of creatures that lived long ago.

See the resemblance?

There was also a section about diseases and epidemics. Obviously this was my least favorite section.

Kilkenny

Ryan and I hopped on the train back to Dublin Sunday morning and rested the whole day. On Monday, we took an early train to Kilkenny! We spent the rest of the day exploring this small town.

We stayed at MacGabhainns Backpacker Hostel. Lucky for us, there were only a few other couples staying at the hostel so we got our own room!

The reason we went to Kilkenny was because Ryan's ancestors came from this area. His ancestor from the direct bloodline, Piers Butler, ruled Kilkenny Castle and the area.

We went to St. Canice's Cathedral, thinking it was just an old cathedral with nothing special in it.....

When we found the tomb of Piers Butler!

He was the 8th Earl of Ormond and the 1st Earl of Ossory, and was also known as Red Piers!

Piers Butler is here with his wife, Margaret Fitzgerald. He died in 1539.

We also saw a black and white cat, who we thought was the reincarnation of Piers, but who we named Daisy anyway.

Next to it was the tomb of James Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde, who died in 1854.

I don't have a picture of him, but there was a tomb against the cathedral wall that belonged to James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond. His parents were Piers and Margaret.

OH UPDATE. I found a picture of him. Thanks Wikipedia!

"Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1533. This image is disputed; while it is traditionally held to be a likeness of Thomas Boleyn, historian David Starkey believes it may actually be that of his cousin, James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond."

We then climbed up the round tower!

You can see St Mary's Cathedral straight ahead.

And then made our way across town to Kilkenny Castle.

We visited St Mary's Cathedral, which was one of the tallest buildings in Kilkenny, but was just marked as a small spot on the map.

Belfast, Part Three, and Adventurous Friends

The secret trip was to Giant's Causeway!
This is my favorite place in all of Ireland, so if you ever visit Northern Ireland in particular, Giant's Causeway is a must see.

After a long trek, we finally made it to the causeway. Enjoy some pictures!

Our next destination was the Carrick-A-Rede Rope bridge.

Carrick-A-Rede means 'rock in the road' and connects from the mainland to the small island of Carrick. On a clear day, you can see Scotland!

Look at him skip across the bridge!  We got a daredevil over here.

When we got back to Belfast around 6, we spent the night walking around the city. It was Saturday night, so we saw a lot of people dressed up and ready to go out. Ryan and I were both tired and we went to bed early, ready to wake up for an early train the next morning.

I really loved Belfast, and Rose and I are thinking of going back there to visit the Titanic Museum. I felt safe in Belfast, despite the horror stories of the Troubles. It was a very nice, friendly city.