intuition...

well, I stopped for another few months before picking up the writing on this particular topic, simply what happened still troubled me deep in the night...

when travelling along the edge of the only route leading to the summit, I could feel the air was becoming drier, and temperature was definitely dropping. Luckily for us, we have brought enough winter clothing, but it still didn't stop us shivering once in a while after breathing in the cool, dry air.

When viewed from far, the temple was dwarfed by the massive broadcasting structure located nearby, but upon arriving at the front of the construction, one's attention was immediately drawn to the meticulously detailed front walls.

Standing on the porch, facing south, I could already see in the distance that darkness was slowly dropping its veil on the land below. As we were told by our friend that we could gain access to the top of the temple to catch the view of the city of Barcelona, we hurried in, and finding our way to the tower which led to the roof.

As expected, the interior of the temple was finely decorated. Dimly lit, and thus highlighting the stained glass decoration located along the masonry walls. Perhaps due to its location, or perhaps it's almost the end of the day, the place was sparsely populated. A few candles were flickering momentarily amongst low murmuring sounds in a language I could not comprehend.

To the left of the hall was an opening which gave way to another narrow corridor, which at its end, was the entrance to a lift which travelled to the roof.

I was still deep in thought on my previous deja vu experience, and suddenly, the name of the place flashed through my mind - Tibidabo...what an interesting name, I wondered what it meant...

there's a strange sensation within me which I couldn't quite place...but I could suddenly feel my heart was beating increasingly faster, a sign that my adrenalin was pumping...

...but why?

a case of deja vu...

have not updated this blog for quite a while, reason was because I didn't know how to begin with this particular entry...





let's talk about the idea of "déjà vu" first. you can read up everything you want to know on deja vu at the wikipedia, in my experience, however, it's about when I had that sudden feeling that the place looked familiar even though I have never visited the place the whole of my life. I remember such sensation only happened a few times in the entirety of my life so far, but my experience in Barcelona was one that would never be forgotten.

After visiting the former Olympic site in Montjuic, our friend drove us in his car away from the leisurely South towards the mountaineous North. As the car climbed through the winding path leading up to the hills, what came into view was rows of houses fitting sporadically along either side of the valley. A strange and somewhat chilling sensation shot through me, and I thought to myself, "this place looks familiar, somewhere I've been to...", just as I was trying to study the details of these houses, there was a picture flashed across my mind, a narrow path for coaches (horses), houses along side the steep valley, dimly lit by either gas light and candle flame...isn't this the same dreamscape that I came to many years before?

unknowingly, I was breathing heavier, and there were glimpses of fragmented images that were appearing at the back of my mind, whether they were out of my imagination or actual experience that I had before, I could hardly distinguish the two. Suddenly, the car stopped, our friend turned around and said, " this is almost midway to the top, let's stop for a while and have a look at the plain of Barcelona."

the view was definitely breathtaking, but what caught my eyes also were a church like construction at the top of the hill.

"That's where we are going," my friend pointed at the church.

a church at the top of the hill? i felt uneasy without knowing why...

homage to the Gods...

after having a satisfying lunch by the waterfront, our friends drove us up the south side of the city, and making our way up the hill of Montjuic, home to a number of famous museums, galleries (incl. the Fundacio Joan Miro), as well as the site for the 1992 Olympic Stadium.

also tucked in this majestic setting was the telecommunication tower designed by Sapnish Architect Santiago Calatrava. his skills in making the most ordinary objects into something out of this world was one of the characteristics of his works, and this particular one, was a monument, to all visitors to the place in the future of time, that would keep one in awe.

lunch by the Mediterrean Sea

as told by our spanish friends, people in Barcelona are expected to have lunch at a later time till...dinner time. so in order to get a table, it's a good idea to get yourself into the restaurant before the crowd started to gather, mostly after two in the afternoon.

paella is still by far one of the best dishes we had, and we had the chance to try out the seafood soup as well, which tasted exceedingly fresh.

though some people might have a preconception that the locals tend to attend matters in a laid back, relaxed manners, during our brief stay at this restaurant, all the waiters were extremely attentive, and were fast in bringing out the dishes. while it's obvious that the quicker a table of guests finished their meals, the more business they could make each day, but you can tell thru their expressions, laughters, interaction with the customers, and well welcoming gestures, that they are truly enjoying their jobs.

isn't it what a job ought to be about?

will try to dig out the name of this restaurant some later time...

at the Mediterranean Sea

being a coastal city, Barcelona has to its south, an extended stretch of beach. the time when we visited though is still very cold in the late winter, one can imagine the scene during the height of summer when the crowds flock to the beach.

at the edge of the mediterranean sea, if your eyesight is good enough, it might be possible just to catch the outline of the African continent, the coastline of Algeria.

Temple of La Sagrada Familia

Gaudi's final piece of work before he was tragically killed in an traffic accident. the church, or should we say the temple, was perhaps one of its kind in the entire world, while we have different churches around the world with varying design, they can still be somehow classified to a certain period or style of expression. but the Sagrada Familia was something entirely different and simply made ones jaws dropped to the ground!!!

we are curious on why the name "temple" instead the more common "church" is used throughout in Spain despite the fact that this is supposed to be a Roman Catholic Basilica.

three facades that it is supposed to have, Gaudi's completed Nativity facade is hugely different from the Passion facade. while both are remarkable piece of architecture, the question of whether the temple ought to be completed or to be left as originally incompleted to preserve the pureness of Gaudi's works remain to be highly controversial.

the Passion facade, completed by Gaudi, when observed closely, reveals immensely delicate work of art, but when viewed from a distance, can not help but think that it's the face of an unnamable being that only appears in the darkest of one's dreams.

the duality of the image in front was troubling...why was a place for the worship of God modelled in such way?

the vortex...

according to our spanish friend, the building they are living in is a pre-war (Spanish Civil War)building and it still maintains some very nice character. We think the place was absolutely marvellous!

this photo was the last photo taken on our first day in Spain. just loved the decorative balustrade so much! at the top of the staircase is a glazed skylight, when during daytime let in abundant of light to light up the stairwell.

spain is a very interesting country, while we have seen and learned a lot during our travel, the experience we had and the feeling we had towards it were so much different from other countries, hard to explain at this point, but hopefully can explain in more detail in subsequent blog entries...

it's like one's inner consciousness has been drawn towards, and connected to an invisible vortex...

a map? who needs a map?

when we were walking inside the Gothic Quarter, despite having a map bought from the tourist information, we managed to quickly disorient myself. if it wasn't for our Spanish friends to show us around, we could have lost inside the maze of streets.

strangely, once we put away our maps, and start to look at the buildings and its immediate surroundings, it becomes much easier to identify the streets and location as the area was well defined by various landmarks, open squares, nodes, intersection of streets. Relying on our primal sense rather than overflowing information makes more sense.

these days, aren't we presented with a little bit too much information for comfort? where's our instinct gone?

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/