I went all the way to Barcelona just to write my name in the sand! More of Park Guell. And a totally cool building that was way up in the hills.
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More Barcelona Photos! First up, Park Guell, where Gaudi designed an outdoor market, park, and his home. The market never took off and became a school but the park is great on a sunny day. Then there's the Barcelona Beach which looks a lot like Carlsbad only cleaner. And Homer, Lorie, and Brad on the bus.
The last 48 hours have gone by so fast! I spent Sunday cleaning and packing the condo to get it buyer ready. This morning I still have to tidy up the office to have everything ready for today's photo session. Homer took one of the keyboards to his house and now my downstairs looks huge! I did make time to go see "Goblet of Fire" and I liked it but that review will have to wait another day. I still have to download the rest of the Barcelona pictures sometime this week. December is almost here and event season has started! The big kickoff is this Friday for the Firkin at KS Carlsbad, followed by a scrapbook day, LJ gets her TV, and then Disney! Next weekend is more of the same with a LA holiday party and then in the way that my life goes, I fly to Pago Pago on the 11th for work.
We spent Thanksgiving Day finally relaxing…sort of. Instead of walking for miles to see the sights, we took the hop-on-hop-off bus around the outskirts of Barcelona. The first stop was to Park Guell where Gaudi had built his home in a large park setting full of steep stairs and walking trails. We immediately started up the stairs to reach the top of the park. So much for relaxing. After wandering around for an hour or so it was back to the bus to go to the mountain tram. The tram was offline for the season so we wandered around another hill taking in the views of the coast of Barcelona. This is where the rich people live. Next stop was at the monastery which closed at 2:00 pm for tours and it was 1:57. Oh well, we found some trusty stairs and walked some more before taking a quick look inside the cathedral. We’d now been in Barcelona for 5 days and still hadn’t officially gone to the beach so we hopped onto another bus and did the official beach walk. Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete ...
I have officially hit art overload. At the Catalonia museum, there were so many images of an anorexic Jesus at the cross and the torture of Saints, that I could see why the Spanish Inquisition formed. In early centuries people were just obsessed with pain and suffering and body mutilation. Yesterday started out easy enough. We went to the Roman ruins and wandered around underground. When we resurfaced, we ended up in a Barcelona photography exhibit that went on for an hour before we popped out of there. The focus was how war was caught on film. More bloodshed! Then we went to the Picasso museum and that was just the last straw of brain stimulation. Too much art! And lots of words on the walls to explain the art. We ended up at the chocolate museum where we could deal with that type of art. Even at the chocolate museum, there was Jesus suffering away. I had to do it. This is all made of chocolate. The port view provides a nice break in the day.
Barcelona continues to be sunny and if not quite warm, at least it's not freezing. Yesterday we walked what seemed for miles around an old fort and the Olympic Park area. Then we spent what seemed like hours inside the Catalonia National Museum. It was the 1000 years of art from this region, which was really fascinating and unique until I hit hour 3 and then my brain just said No. I tried an Iberian beer - Estrella Damm. It wasn't that good so I switched to Spanish wine which was a huge improvement.
Barcelona is a city of art. There are sculptures everywhere. Some are of famous people, some are animals, and some are whimsical. The lobster has been my favorite so far. Our hotel is unbelievably great and in a perfect location on La Rambla. All we have to do is walk out the lobby door and we're in the center of action. Above is Homer next to some famous guy. Brad and Lorie, Harborside.
I arrived in Barcelona and decided that I under packed warm clothes. 60f sounds all well in good from my living room in Carlsbad but the reality of 50f, clouds, and a wind just shows how little So Cal clothes hold up in Europe in the winter. I didn’t sleep on the flight. Too many people were working and the airplane was lit up. I’ve now been awake 22 hours and I’m at the airport waiting for everyone else to arrive. I fly UA and they are on AA so I’ve got two hours to entertain myself. Logically, I am having a beer. It’s a Belgium beer, nice and light for almost 11:00 am. The Spanish beers were just to heavy to deal with on a tired mind. I did 2 out of 3 papers for school last night and took the test. I just could not concentrate to do the other paper so now I know how I’ll be spending tonight. Well I have time to hang out and I just bought an hour of wireless, so I’ll probably have to have a second beer! OH, I never made it to see Harry Potter before I left so I hope it’s playing in Ba...
After 4 intense work days and 3 hotel nights I'm back home for a day. I have Friday to write 2 papers again, take a test, and format the rest of the school topics. There's a ton of job work to do and Harry Potter starts! I have an 8:30 am flight to Spain on Saturday so Friday will be the longest day ever. At least good blogging starts again in Barcelona!
This has been a work intense week with a couple of fun moments. I'm hosting a business visit with a guy from the Ukraine, who now works for a Russian company. Since his home was -40 F. when he left, he is really enjoying our warm November weather. It's kind of fun seeing the So Cal lifestyle through his eyes. At this time of year, there really is no better place to be. After work today I took him to Rodeo Drive so he could take pictures and see the Hollywood style. Then there was a challenge issued that could not be ignored....His misguided belief that all US beer was water! We ended up at Alcatraz Brewing Company where a Double Bock changed his mind. Yes, we have good beer here too.
The beauty of not being a cook, is that when you pack up your kitchen, there's not much work to do. Even though the condo isn't getting listed until the end of the month, I'm packing up as much as possible. The scrapbook stuff has taken twice as many boxes as the kitchen stuff. I've tossed out 3 big bags of just junk and useless items and it never seems to be enough. This week I move back into the hotel life so nothing more will get done on the house until Friday. Then on Saturday, I'm off to Spain. This month is just racing by!
The process of selling and moving continues on. The formal loan approval came through today and with it, the giant packet of legal documents to sign and return. I went to one bank to close an account and put the money into another bank which holds the future house account. Mrs. Kaz gave me a big stack of boxes which are already quickly getting full and I haven't even made a dent in all of my stuff! And for some reason, tonights school topics of compensatory and punitive damages just aren't inspiring me to write up my thoughts. Luckily, that can wait until the morning. I think I'll study food safety and prepare for Friday's test and wait for Survivor to start. My brain can't take much more complexity today.
Today has been something else. On a sad note of terrorism, Amman, Jordan had three simultaneous explosions hit downtown hotels. Many people have died and many more are injured. What makes today different for me is that one of hotels, the Hyatt, was where I stayed back in October. Now, I can visualize the location and the employees of a Middle East terrorist attack and it is a different view than I would have had four months ago. Will this keep me from returning to Jordan? No. I am looking forward to my next trip and reconnecting with friends. I have work to do there and I like the country. As I tell people, I could get hit by a stray bullet in San Diego or LA at any given time. The other thing that happened is the 1-800-got-junk? truck arrived today and took junk off my hands. The upstairs office has become a big room again and downstairs, what is now unofficially LJ's television sits on the floor. The selling and moving process is in motion and I think it will only pick up in spe...
There's been a whole 24 hours without neighbor drama! Around here, that's always a good thing. I met with the loan officer today and it took all of 15 minutes for him to qualify me for a loan. The process is a lot easier these days. I only needed 2 paycheck stubs, recent bank statements, and W-2 forms for the last two years. On my first home loan I needed a full three months documentation of my life. I now have 10 days to clean the house for Max to check it out. I guess it's time to call 800-got-junk!
Today's the official announcement - I'm selling my condo and buying a home! This has been 18 months in the making but the final straw was when I came home from the Middle East and saw the beautiful fence had been broken. Having 7 people and a dog next door didn't help either. The new neighbors's fixed the fence and then proceeded to spill oil in the driveway. That got cleaned up but then I came home to a big mess of wood, pencils, and pens in my frontyard. I tossed that out and this morning there was an empty cigarette carton stuck in the branched of the little tree by my door. Now that's just plain insulting and disrepectful. I was so annoyed that I spent the last 30 minutes being visible. I swept up the tree leaves, cleaned out the garage cobwebs, made several trash runs just to be seen. I'm home and don't mess with my yard. I'd already been in touch with Max, our family realtor and started the process a few weeks ago. I meet with the loan guy tomorro...
I'm back from St. Louis and I get to live the next 13 days without being on an airplane. Last night I had a strange dream where I was flying United and the upgrades were all coming through to first class. Hopefully that's a sign of things to come but then again, it was just a dream! Today it's back to the Saturday routine of study and do homework. Luckily the current batch of movies have all gotten less than stellar reviews so I don't have any "must see" events today.
