a dreamlike stroll...Gaudi's works

yes, it was like in a dream...the buildings were in an out of this world form, the sky was so blue that it was almost as if it were painted on, and the row of trees lining up either side of the road also have a distintive dreamlike quality, bare from the trunk and expanding into an intricate network of dry branches, like the claws of an ent from the fairy tales, reaching up from the earth below.

on Passeig de Gracia, Eixample's main avenue, filled with brandname stores like Loewe, Camper, Zara, one of Gaudi's important work, the Casa Batllo, tucked in rather conspicuously among others in the group of Modernista buildings in Illa de la Discordia.

this building is situated right next to the Passeig de Gracia Metro station.

it's view at night was even more captivating...

tapas, tapas, and more tapas, gracias!

cerveseria catalana, the place.

tapas, the food.

have never seen so much variety of tapas to choose from (er...probably that's because it's the first time we went to Spain, but in our later journey, we still couldn't find one that can compare to this!), and have never been so mouthwatering while waiting.

our first day in town, and our Spanish friends had so kindly taken us out to pretty much the centre of the most important sites for some of Gaudi's works.

there were cold tapas as well as hot tapas, calamari rings, melted cheese, air cured Iberian ham, tomatoe sauce bread (specialty in Barcelona!)...need to dig out my volcabuary book to list out the names again...

Felipe, Mariona, we need your introduction to the food, again!

Modernisme

no, modernisme IS NOT modernism. it's a movement began in Catalan, particularly the city of Barcelona. Ruta Del Modernisme, or translated as "Route of Modernisme" is indeed true to its name and is flanked on both sides with buildings and architecture which are representative of the movement. On Passeig de Gràciaeven, even the floor tiles, hexagonal in shape, forms a beautiful pattern that puts most cosmopolitan city in shame.

one of the important belief of such movement was that a society could be changed by art.

a very noble ideal....

questions: do people still have ideals in the time we are in?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adlab/420068943/

Hola! Me encata esto.

been planning for this trip for quite a while, and the fact that having some friends to visit in Barcelona further reinforced our decision making Spain our choice for our trip.

The idea was to spend two weeks in Spain, flying out from Hong Kong to Bacelona, making our way through Spain by trains or by flights, and eventually reaching Madrid as our final destination in our trip.

though we have spent some years in Europe in our previous years, we have never travelled to Spain before, despite having done some research on the country from guidebooks like the Lonely Planet, Eyewitness Travel, Spain has remained a country not so familiar, tapas, football, bullfighting, Gaudi, Dali, Piccasso...but what is it really like, the country and its people?

it's about time to find out.

upon arrival, one most striking difference was that I NEED to wear my sunglasses during most of the day becaue of the low winter sun, which reminds me of why my city of birth has denied us of the much needed sunshine!

you can visit our flickr page for more photos on the country: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adlab/