Friday's Grand Adventure

So I awoke Friday morning and resembled the living dead. I had showered the night before, but somehow my hair decided to take on some fro-like shape. Although it resisted, I beat it down to a manageable coif and ate some left-over pasta with my roomies as we planned the day's adventure.

We were definitely going up the Mountain of the Jews, a mountain on the edge of the city that Jews used to hide-out in to avoid persecution. A really cool fort/castle had been built for military reasons not related to Antisemitism, complete with a moat. The moat has since been refashioned into extensive, geometric gardens. To get to the top of the mountain you can walk, drive, or take a cable car. Of course we wanted to take a cable car.

We also really wanted to see Mies van der Rohe's Pavilion, especially since its Lindsey's all time favorite piece of architecture and world-famous....

After deciding a gameplan we set out on our "Great Adventure!" We had to take a metro car partway up the mountain. Then we bought our tickets to the cable car and loaded up.

Lindsey's telling me to get in the cable car before it leaves me

A view of the city from the car! love it here!

We were all taking pictures and trying to squeeze to one side. Sometimes the car would sway and it was slightly unsettling, but the views were amazing! At the top of the mountain we arrived at the castle and it was awesome. We learned that Montjuïc castle is a fortress built in the 17–18th centuries to control the city as a replacement for the Ciutadella. Today, the fortress is a museum and Montjuic is home to several sporting and cultural venues, as well as Barcelona's biggest park and gardens. From the castle you could see the whole city laid out. We even were able to figure out where our apartment was.

The Castle entrance

We walked around the fort taking fun group photos. I saw a couple taking pictures and heard them speaking English. I asked if they wanted me to take a picture of them. After doing some fun pictures, I learned they were from Seattle vacationing. I then got them to take some photos of all of us in front of the city panorama. They were presented with a half dozen cameras and they laughed at my ingenuity to get them to take our photo by helping them first.

After exhausting our exploration of the castle we started to head down the mountain in search of Mies van der Rohe's Pavilion. As we walked we had great views of Calatrava's Telecommunication Tower, the Olympic Village, and the Museu National d' Art Catalunya (MNAC).

Calatrava's Telecommunication Tower suspended over the Olympic Village


The Olympic Torch from the 1992 Summer Olympics


Inside the Main Olympic Stadium


Glimpsing the Back of the MNAC


Approaching the MNAC with Stacey


A view from the steps of the MNAC once we got the front. There was a really good guitarist playing and people just hanging out on the steps.


Funny picture I took once we walked down some of the first stairs.


Skipping on the edge of the fountain. If I fell in I'd be in trouble because its no swimming :)

Finally we reached the bottom of the mountain and our final destination : the Pavilion! I like the design, but I'm not obsessed like some of my classmates. Approaching the building was interesting because its this iconic structure and the grass is dead from the winter and a dog and its owner were playing in front of it. We paid a guy sitting in a chair at the front steps 2 euro to enter. We explored the building and looked at the furniture. Someone would probably have leaped out of nowhere to round-house kick you in the face if you tried to sit on the furniture. I loved the reflections in the courtyard pool and I captured some beautiful images.

The Pavilion is in the background across the grassy mall.


The Pavilion, as well as some of my classmates. It's built up like its sitting on a pedestal.


The private pool in the back.


My favorite picture of the day :) i love the reflections


I wanted a reflection pic too!

After all the walking we did, we were tired and hungry. We hopped on the metro back to Plaza de Universitat and stopped for a delicious snack at Dunkin' Coffee. Yes- in Spain its called Dunkin' Coffee, not Dunkin' Donuts. Still delicious. The stores in the metro (they have restaurants, bars and shops underground within their metro) were running a promotion that if you spent 2 euro or more....you got a cool, reversible hat for free. The salesman handed me some and I was sooo confused, until I saw the promo poster outside of the store.

Stacey and I rocking the cool hats.

We went back to the apartment and while some of the ladies went shopping, I caught up on some studio work. All of us met back up later in the evening for a night out at the bars. When the bars closed around 3 am we were exhausted and happy to get some sleep.

Stacey (aka J.Lo) and I at Temple Bar